NationStates Jolt Archive

In your view, how closely did early Ming China near realization of a great maritime colonial empire?

Through what general sequence of alternate history, so to speak, might such a theoretical China progress with regard to expansion and administration of colonial possessions?

In what manner might Ming contact with Europe by way of the Treasure Fleet (or similar) play out?

General Background:

The Ming Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644. It was the last ethnic Han dynasty in China, supplanting the Mongol Yuan Dynasty before falling to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty (Chinese: 明朝; pinyin: míng cháo) was also called The Great Ming Empire (大明帝国). Though the Ming capital, Beijing, fell in 1644, remnants of the Ming throne and power (now collectively called the Southern Ming) survived until 1662.

This dynasty began as a time of renewed cultural blossoming, with Chinese merchants exploring all of the Indian Ocean and Chinese art (especially the porcelain industry) reaching unprecedented heights. Under Ming rule, a vast navy and army was built, with four-masted ships displacing 1,500 tons and a standing army of one million troops. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were produced in North China, and many books were printed using movable type. Early Ming China was the most advanced nation on Earth at the time.

Muslim eunuch Zheng He was in 1405 appointed to command the greatest expeditionary armada heretofore assembled by any nation, embarking with the grandioise aims of flaunting the "might and glory of the Dragon Throne" and enacting tribute from the "barbarians beyond the seas." To this effect he commanded a staggeringly vast armada dwarfing the combined fleet of Europe:

The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,000 men and 317 ships, composed of:
"Treasure ships", used by the commander of the fleet and his deputies (nine-masted, about 120 meters (400 ft) long and 50 m (160 ft) wide). A striking animation comparing said junks with contemporary European vessels may be viewed here (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sultan/media/expl_01q.html).
"Horse ships", carrying tribute goods and repair material for the fleet (eight-masted, about 103 m (339 ft) long and 42 m (138 ft) wide)
"Supply ships", containing food-staple for the crew (seven-masted, about 78 m (257 ft) long and 35 m (115 ft) wide).
"Troop transports", six-masted, about 67 m (220 ft) long and 25 m (83 ft) wide).
"Fuchuan warships", five-masted, about 50 m (165 ft) long).
"Patrol boats", eight-oared, about 37 m (120 feet) long).
"Water tankers", with 1 month supply of fresh water.

Over the course of around 7 distinct voyages and 28 years, the "Three-Jewel Admiral" bestowed the divine benediction of the Ming upon some 37 countries as far removed as Egypt and Zanj (that is, East Africa south to the Mozambique Channel). Many authorities acknowledge significant evidence for further excursions to North Australia; indeed, several historians (namely, Gavin Menzies) have posited rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and subsequent landfall in the Americas - such accounts, while intriguing, have failed to gained widespread acceptance amongst scholars of the matter.

However, with the advent of external stressors (e.g., Mongol raids and widespread piracy), the incessant struggle between court eunuchs, allied commercial or religious lobbies, and Confucian scholar-officials was tipped in favor of the latter. Such elements, impelled in part by deep-set antipathy towards commercial enterprise, attempted, in the course of binding their nation to the screened path of isolationism, to purge all reference to China's expansionary past from the official record. By the end of the fifteenth century, imperial subjects were prohibited from engaging in the construction of oceangoing ships, and, for that matter, otherwise quitting the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

And what of alleged contact with the surmisedly European "Franca", described as "having deep eye sockets, long nose, red hair and beard," long feet, and "usually tall" stature?

Well, good luck with your project. Though apparently Rome, under Marcus Aurelius, had an envoy to the chinese court. Also the romans scared china. Along with everyone else.

There are so many "possibilities" when you envision the ancient world it'll make your head spin. Remember that Rome prior to the Dark Ages had a situation that could've spawned an even earlier Industrial Revolution, so Ironclads could've been on the scene by the time any Chinese armada could arise.

If, as is purported, the "Franca" statement was related within the original imperial transcripts of Zheng He's voyages, contact with European merchants or even disembarkment in Europe proper - a distinct, if poorly substantiated, possibility - is implied.

There are speculations that some of Zheng He's ships may have travelled beyond the Cape of Good Hope. In particular, the Venetian monk and cartographer Fra Mauro describes in his 1457 Fra Mauro map the travels of a huge "junk from India" [Asia] 2,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean in 1420.

Zheng He himself wrote of his travels:

"We have traversed more than 100,000 li (50,000 kilometers) of immense waterspaces and have beheld in the ocean huge waves like mountains rising in the sky, and we have set eyes on barbarian regions far away hidden in a blue transparency of light vapors, while our sails, loftily unfurled like clouds day and night, continued their course (as rapidly) as a star, traversing those savage waves as if we were treading a public thoroughfare…" (Tablet erected by Zheng He, Changle, Fujian, 1432. Louise Levathes)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

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