Zheng He: The Fleet Erased from the Record So Europe Could Own the Sea

In 1405, a Ming fleet left the Longjiang shipyards in Nanjing. Zheng He commanded hundreds of vessels, nearly 28,000 people, and a working system that included sailors, soldiers, doctors, ritual officials, interpreters, and record keepers. The fleet sailed through Champa, Java, Malacca, Sri Lanka, India, Hormuz, Aden, and the East African coast. This was not a small trading party looking for a new harbour. It was a floating centre of power, carrying the emperor’s orders and demanding that distant ports recognize the order set by Beijing.

After seven voyages, the ships stopped sailing. Important records were removed from the imperial archive. A Ming official was later recorded as having taken or burned the files when the court asked about the voyages. By the sixteenth century, the government was restricting the construction of large ocean-going ships. At the same time, Portugal entered the Indian Ocean and European empires took ports once pressured by the Ming fleet.