Answer:
From 1405 to 1433, the admiral Zheng He made seven long voyages to Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and East Africa. He expanded trade and learned much about the outside world—and with massive ships measuring four hundred feet in length and carrying a crew and soldiers in the thousands. He compelled fifty states and cities to pay tribute to his fleet. After the Yongle emperor’s death, however, Ming rulers, distracted by the land-based threat of nomads to the north, lost interest in exploration and naval expansion, even going so far as to destroy China’s oceangoing fleet. This was a global turning point: had the Ming continued to exploit their power at sea, China might have begun a wave of worldwide exploration and colonization.
