Free Ebook BookWhen China Ruled the Seas The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433

Free Ebook When China Ruled the Seas The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433

Free Ebook When China Ruled the Seas The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433

You can download in the form of an ebook: pdf, kindle ebook, ms word here and more softfile type. Free Ebook When China Ruled the Seas The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433, this is a great books that I think are not only fun to read but also very educational.
Book Details :
Published on: 1997-01-09
Released on:
Original language: English

A hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began making their way to the New World, fleets of giant Chinese junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire's finest porcelains, lacquerware, and silk ventured to the edge of the world's "four corners." It was a time of exploration and conquest, but it ended in a retrenchment so complete that less than a century later, it was a crime to go to sea in a multimasted ship. In When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Levathes takes a fascinating and unprecedented look at this dynamic period in China's enigmatic history, focusing on China's rise as a naval power that literally could have ruled the world and at its precipitious plunge into isolation when a new emperor ascended the Dragon Throne. During the brief period from 1405 to 1433, seven epic expeditions brought China's "treasure ships" across the China Seas and the Indian Ocean, from Taiwan to the spice islands of Indonesia and the Malabar coast of India, on to the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and down the African coast, China's "El Dorado," and perhaps even to Australia, three hundred years before Captain Cook was credited with its discovery. With over 300 ships--some measuring as much as 400 feet long and 160 feet wide, with upwards of nine masts and twelve sails, and combined crews sometimes numbering over 28,000 men--the emperor Zhu Di's fantastic fleet was a virtual floating city, a naval expression of his Forbidden City in Beijing. The largest wooden boats ever built, these extraordinary ships were the most technically superior vessels in the world with innovations such as balanced rudders and bulwarked compartments that predated European ships by centuries. For thirty years foreign goods, medicines, geographic knowledge, and cultural insights flowed into China at an extraordinary rate, and China extended its sphere of political power and influence throughout the Indian Ocean. Half the world was in China's grasp, and the rest could easily have been, had the emperor so wished. But instead, China turned inward, as suceeding emperors forbade overseas travel and stopped all building and repair of oceangoing junks. Disobedient merchants and seamen were killed, and within a hundred years the greatest navy the world had ever known willed itself into extinction. The period of China's greatest outward expansion was followed by the period of its greatest isolation. Drawing on eye-witness accounts, official Ming histories, and African, Arab, and Indian sources, many translated for the first time, Levathes brings readers inside China's most illustrious scientific and technological era. She sheds new light on the historical and cultural context in which this great civilization thrived, as well as the perception of other cultures toward this little understood empire at the time. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, When China Ruled the Seas is the fullest picture yet of the early Ming Dynasty--the last flowering of Chinese culture before the Manchu invasions. ANCIENT SILK ROAD TRAVELLERS -138-116. Zhang Qian (Chang Ch'ien) Secondary source: Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Qian) Shiji. The Historical Records written between 145-86 BC has Zang Qian's biography in ch ... Hypothse de la circumnavigation chinoise Wikipdia L'hypothse de la circumnavigation chinoise est une thse pseudo-historique expose en 2002 par l'auteur britannique Gavin Menzies. Ancien commandant de sous-marin ... Malacca (tat) Wikipdia Malacca : Drapeau: Carte de l'tat: Administration; Pays Malaisie: Statut: tat: Capitale: Bandar Melaka: Gouverneur: Tun Datuk Seri Utama Mohd. Khalil b. Zheng He's Ships Ming Treasure Junks Zheng He's treasure fleet included ships of unprecedented size. How big were they and how did the Ming Dynasty's builders create the Treasure Fleet? Zheng He Wikipedia Die Berichte ber Zheng Hes Tod sind widersprchlich. Nach einigen Angaben soll er noch auf der Heimreise im Jahr 1433 gestorben sein nach anderen 1435 nach der ... Zheng He Ming China's Great Admiral - Biography Biography of Zheng He the famous Muslim eunuch admiral of Ming China's treasure fleet who lead one of the greatest armadas in human history on seven ... Globalizacion y cultura: Homogeneidad diversidad ... Este ensayo se basa en la contribucin del autor al taller "Promoviendo el libre comercio" organizado por el Instituto Liberal de la Fundacin Friedrich ... Zheng He - Wikipedia Family. Zheng He was the second son of a family from Kunyang Yunnan. He was originally born with the name Ma He. His family were Hui people. He had four sisters and ... Yongle Emperor - Wikipedia Youth. The Yongle Emperor was born Zhu Di ( ) on 2 May 1360 the fourth son of the new leader of the central Red Turbans Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang would ...
Read BookSecond and Foreign Language Education Encyclopedia of Language and EducationVolume 4