Why didn't China try to explore or colonize the Americas?
score:12
They didn't try because it wasn't politically relevant to them (i.e. The Emperor wasn't interested). Chinese dynasties preferred a tributary network instead of European or Pan-Arabic style colonisation.
This reasoning worked well enough considering the key motivation for Europeans traders to sail beyond Europe was to bypass Arabic tariffs on the Silk Road and connect with Sinae (China) directly. From the Emperor's standpoint, foreign traders came to them.
The Chinese tributary system didn't collapse until the 19th century Opium Wars pushed European foreign policies on China.
Tianxia ("All is equal under heaven") is an intriguing political concept and explains much of China's diplomatic philosophy to this day; and at the risk of drifting into History's twin, Futurology, is proving appealing to certain emerging nations that are more comfortable with Chinese soft power instead of American hard power.
Upvote:4
It's a much more complicated process than saying "Let's do it.", to provision a sea voyage of (at that time) likely 12+ months, return trip.
Accurate maps didn't exist at the requisite scale, and pilots "chart's" were patentable; so a European pilot (or three) would have been advised.
More post
- 📝 What is Poosball, an early 1900s women's team sport?
- 📝 State changing its name within the United States
- 📝 Tombstone-covered floor in Churches
- 📝 What were Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for prior to World War II?
- 📝 What was Rousseau's point in "The Social Contract"?
- 📝 Why did some people need to pay a bond in the 1700s in order to get married?
- 📝 Are there primary sources that record the pre-conquest decoration/mosaic of the Hagia Sophia?
- 📝 How long did it take a typical capital warship to ramp up to flank speed?
- 📝 Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
- 📝 What's the most ancient known example of a woman challenging feminine gender roles?
- 📝 Was simply addressing the English monarch wrongly ever a punishable crime?
- 📝 Did Edward the Confessor choose Harold Godwinson as his successor?
- 📝 How many Romans would use an average-sized balneum every day?
- 📝 Why did Odoacer choose to be king Instead of emperor?
- 📝 What is the single longest Presidential Campaign run in the United States?
- 📝 Were there any westerners who entered the soviet bloc to escape capitalism?
- 📝 New Latin American navies raiding Spanish interests
- 📝 Has there been an occasion where ranged weapons were available but not used?
- 📝 Is there a basis for this tale of Eisenhower blessing & Patton's curse?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 How prevalent were recreational drugs in the ancient world?
- 📝 What is the historical accuracy of birth of lord Sri Krishna
- 📝 What are the historical inaccuracies in Repin's "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks"?
- 📝 When did the tilt of the tower of Pisa become seen as a feature instead of a defect?
- 📝 Where was this flag flown?
- 📝 Why did the Allied attack at Gallipoli fail during WWI?
- 📝 Furniture van in 1848 France
- 📝 Did America ignore British patents during Industrialization
- 📝 Why were eighteenth century financial inventions only patentable under French law for 21 months?
- 📝 What is the main difference between an Emperor, a King, a Char, a Sultan, a Dictator, a Dynast and a Tyrant?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why didn't China try to explore or colonize the Americas?
- 📝 Why didn't the Moroccans try to explore and conquer the New World?
- 📝 Why did China shut itself out of the world in the 15th century?
- 📝 Why didn't the Nors*m*n colonize North America?
- 📝 Why could China keep most of the lands it conquered after 17th century but European powers could not?
- 📝 Why did the Republic of China retract its simplified Chinese characters?
- 📝 If the Ch’in dynasty was so short-lived, why was China named for it?
- 📝 Why does the Great Wall of China follow such a bendy route?
- 📝 Why didn't China assist in the Vietnam War like they did in Korea?
- 📝 Why does Japan celebrate the Gregorian New Year but China still celebrates Chinese New Year?
- 📝 Why is the Qing Dynasty in China considered Feudalistic?
- 📝 Why did everyone try getting to the Pole via the Ross Sea, not the Weddell Sea?
- 📝 Why is China a member of the UN Security Council?
- 📝 Before entering WW II, why was the US so against Japanese aggression in China but did nothing about Germany in Europe?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 Were there any Chinese expeditions to explore the world? If not, why not?
- 📝 In the 18th c., did/would China accept gold from Europe as trade payment? Why / why not?
- 📝 Why aren't the Americas named after Christopher Columbus
- 📝 Why didn't Zheng He colonize the countries he explored like what the Europeans did to the New World?
- 📝 Why did the Byzantines not try to recover Syria during the war between Ali and Muawiya?
- 📝 What was the reason why Americas didn't take to buckwheat as a crop?
- 📝 When and why China started to make a difference in the superpower arena?
- 📝 Why would Japanese people be in China during the 1920s?
- 📝 Why don't the Americas use ISO paper sizes?
- 📝 Why were the populous coastal areas of China not linguistically united?
- 📝 Why did China begin persecuting Falun Gong after tolerating the movement for nearly a decade?
- 📝 Why was the Tea Horse Route through Tibet less prevalent than the Silk Road route through Tarim Basin, for contact between China and India?
- 📝 Why haven't bankers gained as much power in China as the Medici got in Europe during their height?
- 📝 Why was the US table tennis team sent to communist China even after a difference in ideology?
- 📝 Why did Russia, Cuba, NK, China support the Peruvian government during the internal conflict?