National geographic

TRADITIONAL BOATS ON THE QINHUAI
RIVER IN THE PORT CITY OF NANJING,
CHINA, FROM WHERE ZHENG HE BEGAN
HIS SEVEN GREAT VOYAGES BETWEEN
1405 AND 1431.
SHAHID KHAN/ALAMY/ACI
Kublai commanded a force numbering thousands
of ships, which he deployed to attack Japan,
Vietnam, and Java. And while these naval
offensives failed to gain territory, China did win
control over the sea-lanes from Japan to Southeast
Asia. The Mongols gave a new preeminence
to merchants, and maritime trade flourished as
never before.
On land, however, they failed to establish a
settled form of government and win the allegiance
of the peoples they had conquered. In
1368, after decades of internal rebellion throughout
China, the Mongol dynasty fell and was replacedby
the Ming (meaning “bright”) dynasty. Its firstemperor,
Hongwu, was as determined as the Mongol
and Song emperors before him to maintain China
as a naval power. However, the new emperor
limited overseas contact to naval ambassadors
who were charged with securing tribute
from an increasingly long list of China’s
vassal states, among them, Brunei, Cambodia,
Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines, thusensuring
that lucrative profits did not fall into
private hands. Hongwu also decreed that no
AT THE HELM
Sponsor to Zheng He,
the Ming emperor
Yongle—pictured
in a 20th-century
illustration (below)—
moved his capital to
Beijing and built the
Forbidden City, seat of
imperial power.
AKG/ALBUM
oceangoing vessels could have more than three
masts, a dictate punishable by death.
Yongle was the third Ming emperor, and he took
thisrestrictive maritime policy even further, banningprivate
trade while pushing hard for Chinese
control of the southern seas and the Indian Ocean.
The beginning of his reign saw the conquest of
Vietnam and the foundation of Malacca as a new
sultanate controlling the entry point to the Indian
Ocean,asupremely strategic location for China to
control. In order to dominate the trade routes
that united China with Southeast Asia and the
IndianOcean, the emperor decided to assemble
an impressive fleet, whose huge treasure ships
couldhaveas many masts as necessary. The man
he chose as its commander was Zheng He.
EpicVoyages
Although he is often described as an explorer,Zheng
He did not set out primarily on voyages
of discovery. During the Song dynasty,
the Chinese had already reached as far as
India, the Persian Gulf, and Africa. Rather,
his voyages were designed as a
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 49