In the early 1400s China sent out the largest fleets the world had ever seen — treasure ships many times the size of Columbus's, sailing to Africa and back. Then, within a generation, the emperors called the ships home, banned ocean voyages, and turned the greatest naval power on earth into a walled garden.
Nanjing ★ Beijing Seven treasure voyages to Malindi, East Africa Greatest extent — stylized map 1368 Founded 1402 Yongle 1433 Final voyage 1644 Ming falls Rise · zenith · fall The rise The founder was Zhu Yuanzhang — the Hongwu Emperor — a peasant orphan turned rebel monk turned the man who drove the Mongols out in 1368. He built a centralized autocracy of legendary paranoia and competence: the examinations restored, the army rebuilt, the capital at Nanjing, and officials who learned that the emperor's displeasure was a terminal condition.
