For a brief time in world history, China dominated maritime exploration. Even though quite unintentionally, a previous century’s invention of the magnetic compass played a pivotal and facilitating role and provided Chinese sailors a two-hundred-year head start over their European counterparts. However, it was not until blending those navigational advancements of the day, together with nautical technologies of shipbuilding architecture and propulsion found China readily thrust to the forefront. Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty desired to leverage those technologies to construct an immense armada attesting to the court’s military prowess. Supported by a backdrop of politically favorable winds and a generous endowment, the Emperor commissioned the undertaking of explorations to an experienced Admiral named Zheng He.
Having grown up an imposing man, despite earlier castration at the hands of Chinese soldiers in his youth and the fate to live life as a eunuch, Zheng He became a testament to both triumph and the unfathomable repulsiveness of human history. Nevertheless, a fortuitous placement in the household of future Ming ruler Yongle ultimately provided a formal
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Upon reflection, historians now acknowledge his expedition to Africa of particular distinction. Historians and scholars commonly agree that continuing around the Cape of Good Hope would have presumably led to discovering a direct trade route to Europe seventy-five years earlier than Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Notwithstanding Zheng He’s preeminence over this era, inadvertent discoveries occasionally eclipsed intentional design nonetheless, drawing parallels to other famous explorers no different than Christopher Columbus’ unplanned discovery of America. On balance, world history indicates Zheng He’s achievements as nothing less than