China Had the World's Greatest Navy. Then It Quit.

In 1405, China sent the most powerful fleet of its age across the Indian Ocean: hundreds of ships and nearly 28,000 men, 87 years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. By 1433, it was over. Why? This episode tells the story from China's side: a new emperor who needed the world to say yes, a giraffe hailed as a sacred qilin, a stone slab found under a drain in Sri Lanka, and the five reasons the fleets stopped. And the twist: China never stopped trading. A century later, the world's silver was sailing to China. 0:00 A fleet 87 years before Columbus 0:40 A manhunt, and the wrong question 1:48 Chapter 1: Meet Ming China 3:48 Chapter 2: The emperor and the admiral 6:12 Chapter 3: The voyages 9:38 Chapter 4: The decision 13:06 Chapter 5: The twist 15:08 Putting it all together Sources and further reading Ming Shi (History of Ming), juan 304, biography of Zheng He: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/明史/卷304 Inscriptions of Zheng He, 1431 (trans. via Su Ming-Yang): https://open.oregonstate.education/mi... Yiu Siu, "The Cessation of Zheng He's Voyages and the Beginning of Private Sailings", Journal of Chinese History (2023) Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty (2007) Dennis O. Flynn & Arturo Giráldez, "Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571", Journal of World History (1995) Robert Finlay, review of "1421", Journal of World History (2004) Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Tribute Giraffe with Attendant": https://philamuseum.org/collection/ob... Image credits Galle Trilingual Inscription: photo by Kanatonian (cropped and colour-corrected by Pataliputra), CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons All other paintings, maps and prints are public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Palace Museum, British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Honolulu Museum of Art and others). Stock video: Pexels. The 40-second giraffe story:    • Why Did a Giraffe Thrill a Chinese Emperor?   This video uses AI-generated voiceover. #ZhengHe #MingDynasty #History