Should We Celebrate Zheng He?

If you traveled around the world over 4 times within 28 years wouldn’t you like to be remembered as “The great explorer”? When Zheng he was a a child he witnessed his father being killed right in front of him forcing him to go into the Ming dynasty basically taken prisoner. Soon enough he rose up through their military and became trusted the set out on his first voyage. Zheng He covered so much distance and the size of his crew/fleet, as well as bringing peace and gifts. That he deserves to be remembered.

First, the places he reached weren’t even talked about, his voyages weren’t familiar. Nanjing to Calicut that was 11,600miles (Doc A). Nanji to East Africa more than 18,000miles (Doc A). If you add up all of his travels he covered over 100,000miles. So if you think about Christopher Columbus doesn’t even compare to Zheng He. If we talked about him today it would teach us how he was so effective to have reached the distances he reached.

Second, the size of his ship and men. Zheng He’s fleet was said to have 255 ships (Doc B)and 27,000 crew (Doc B) he had one of the largest group of wooden ships ever estimated in history. Again if we look at Christopher he was so small but we celebrate him when his voyages were less by 3. For Zheng to have done this it must’ve been incredibly difficult, to manage that many people and do it it for that ong it would take some serious determination.

Lastly, he brung peace and gifts. Gifts were given and received. It means peace because people were kindly giving gifts to Zheng He. “The empower has delighted in their loyalty and sincerity and has ordered Zheng He and the others to take command of several of imperial officers and soldiers… to go to their countries and confer presents on them by displaying our power while treating distant peoples with kindness.”(Doc E) You can see that they meant to bring peace with them as they traveled there were only 3 instances within 28 years that there was force involved this proves they had good relationships with whom they traded with.bring new gifts for his country and great trade.

In conclusion we should celebrate Zheng He because his voyages were of great distance, size and a peaceful heart. If this happened modern day the world would be truly impressed.

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