China's voyages a Castle/Pirates related topic

[JPinoy]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they didn't commit genocide.

Speaking of which, I doubt the Chinese came to the Americas unless everyone in the expedition crew was reviewed by doctors before setting off for the voyage. Otherwise the Native-Americans in both north and south continents would've been wiped out by Asian-born plagues.
I mean the Black Death killed off about what... 1/4 to 1/3 of the European population??? What chances do the Native-Americans, Aztecs, Mayans, Incas and etc. have against diseases like that?

[TwoTonic Knight]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they didn't commit genocide.

That's because everyone paid the extortion.

[JPinoy]

(because)..... if you see several thousand armored soldiers marching off the 500 ft long 9-masted "super junks" docked along the bay and look at your kingdom's outclassed and dwarfed caravels, xebecs, bugis, and other ships/boats you'd better pay up.

Even a country today with their patrol boats and cutters will play nice to the visitors whose Nimitz class carrier shows up in their harbors.

[TwoTonic Knight]

(because)..... if you see several thousand armored soldiers marching off the 500 ft long 9-masted "super junks" docked along the bay and look at your kingdom's outclassed and dwarfed caravels, xebecs, bugis, and other ships/boats you'd better pay up.

Even a country today with their patrol boats and cutters will play nice to the visitors whose Nimitz class carrier shows up in their harbors.

That's why I called it extortion.

[ottoatm]

Oops, totally missed this thread!

If you mean swashbuckling as in going around conquering people.... thats not what China's sea voyages were for.

Nope, I didn't mean going around and conquering - I meant they were not inspired with a spirit of exploration, trade, and good ol' fashioned greed - for example, the famous example of Christopher who attmpted to make a very long and crazy voyage around the flat world to find a way to India for spice trading; Magellan did go around the entire planet for exploration and what-not, the Dutch landed on Taiwan to set up trading for all sorts of spices and goods.

>phew< (taking a breath)

I guess the point is that I think western civilizations were somewhat racing to uncover riches and make discoveries all around the world - which is what makes them different from the Chinese, who were far less concerned with exploration, and far-flung sailing trips, especially during it's times of instability and invasion.

Of course, there is a possibility of it, and anything could have happened, so I would never rule it out either.

[Azaghal]

My personal thoughts after reading the book are that the author makes a very convincing case for his hypothosis. In fact, from what I gather the only thing that prevented China from aquiring a world-spanning empire is that in the power struggle after the sitting emperor (forgot his name ) died, the beauracrats won and stopped the voyages, which they saw as a threat to their own power.

I would love to see any parts of this made into LEGO - I may do some myself - , although the ships seem to have been so mind-numbingly huge that it's like comparing the Red Beard Runner to the Battle Dragon.