Zheng He's command ship


Cannon ship


Food ship


Horses ship


Water ship





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very nice

i would liked they had arrived in Europe

it would have been a very interesting alternative world

The ming fleet was the most advanced at the time no doubt.

"The 1405 expedition consisted of 27,800 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).

"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.

Two other expeditions took place, in 1412 and 1421, with fleets of comparable size.
"



"A treasure ship was several times larger than Christopher Columbus's Santa Marķa.

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


The emperor thought it'd be neat to burn this fleet, yea for stupidity.


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#1 way to ascertain that you've lost an argument: Resorting to personal attacks.

Is this similiar to the fleet that supposedly discovered America in 1421?

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Those sails seem rather fragile, in which material were they made ?


Don't try this at home lads
"The enemy dies relaxed," observed a Lockheed Martin manager.

strenghtened with bamboo ribs which permitted to split the sail

stronger than watever you euro ancetors had.

stronger than watever you euro ancetors had.
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now, that was uncalled for. No one criticed China.


Don't try this at home lads
"The enemy dies relaxed," observed a Lockheed Martin manager.

Bamboo is a very strong material and it is also very flexible. It is especially good for shipping construction, traditional Chinese sails were made out of bamboo I believe and its still used alot in modern day construction and ship building in China.


Chinese people work their butt off and say nothing. Indians talk their butt off about the work they'll be doing however what they say rarely corresponds with what they actually do.

now, that was uncalled for. No one criticed China.
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No im just stating the fact. The bamboo was way stronger than watever you europeans had.

i would liked they had arrived in Europe

it would have been a very interesting alternative world


Yes it would be interesting. I believe if China did discover Europe, trade would be initated by the Chinese and not by Europeans who came to China. The world would be very different if that did happen and China would probably never have gone to war with Europeans inside China.

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"The Chinese people are very boring. Very little gets done at one of their meetings. Indians are more professional. Yet the main difference between them and Indians is that Indians think they are the greatest but do nothing about it. The Chinese, on the other hand, want to go out and prove to the world they are that."

It's hard to argue that between 1000~1500 AD no nation in the world could match that of China.

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The Chinese were the ones that introduced the magnetic compass; however, the Chinese, like everyone else at that time, were limited to using "fixed objects" in navigating. Sure, they knew the direction of "true" north; but, they were limited in finding their position when they were out in the open sea beyond the sight of land.

I believe it was the Portuguese who were the first to come up with the concept of fixing their positions by the use of the concepts of "latitude" and "longitude" as reference points. This enabled the Portuguese to navigate the open seas without a land based fixed point of reference.

The Portuguese jealously guarded this technique; however, once this technique became learned and adopted by other European rivals, their position as the world's number one explorers and traders was lost.

Milkman

About the furthest Zheng He's expeditions went was the east coast of Africa(Arabs were the main trading seafarers for the Chinese), still an impressive achievement by anyone's standards, although in course, his expeditions were more for diplomatic reasons than economic. The high times of Chinese maritime dominance was during the Song and early Ming dynasties, which she more or less unarguably had the most advanced shipbuilding and design capability in the world. However literally within years of Zheng He's voyages, the Ming dynasty all together weakened and shut down China's maritime dominance, never to really return again. For the grand technology of the Song and Ming dynasties, they never really fully grasped the potential of trade at sea, although one has to remember that China had probably the most advanced self-sufficient society at that time, they could more or less choose to close it down and continue on. I've only started to study Chinese history on my own, but I find it amazing for the most part.

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