China and Japan "Look Out": Zheng He's Voyages and the Arrival of the Portuguese (History HL)

In 1405 the Ming dynasty launched the largest wooden ships the world had ever seen.

This section explains why China built them, who sailed them, and what the voyages achieved. This is the essential background for any essay on China's changing relationship with the outside world.

Why China built a fleet

The Ming dynasty (founded 1368) had just reunified China after decades of Mongol rule. The third Ming emperor, Yongle, wanted to show the world — and his own subjects — that Ming China was powerful, wealthy and legitimate. He ordered a huge shipbuilding programme at the Nanjing dockyards to build a fleet capable of reaching as far as East Africa.

Why this matters for Paper 3: Yongle's motive was prestige and tribute, not colonisation or permanent trade routes. This is the key contrast you must draw with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages later in this topic, who sailed to conquer, convert and extract wealth.

Zheng He's seven voyages sailed through South-East Asia, to India, the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa. He did not seek to conquer territory. Instead he distributed gifts, collected tribute (exotic animals, spices, gems), and used force only against pirates or rulers who refused Ming authority — such as at Palembang in Sumatra, where a pirate leader was captured and executed in 1407.

Increased overseas trade: The voyages boosted Chinese overseas trade indirectly: they opened diplomatic channels, mapped sea routes, and encouraged Chinese merchants to follow in the fleet's wake into South-East Asian ports such as Malacca.

Common essay trap: Do not describe Zheng He as "China's Columbus." His goal was tribute and prestige within an existing world order, not discovery of new lands or colonial settlement — examiners reward students who spot this distinction.

While China's official voyages had already ended by 1433, Japan's contact with Europe was only beginning.

In 1543, a storm blew a Portuguese ship off course onto the Japanese island of Tanegashima. This was the first recorded contact between Japan and Europe.

Why some daimyo welcomed the missionaries: Several daimyo in Kyushu allowed — even encouraged — Christian missionaries because good relations with missionaries meant good relations with Portuguese merchant ships. Trade and religion were bound together, so converting (or tolerating conversion) could bring economic and military advantage in the form of guns and profitable trade.

By the late 1500s, Christianity had spread to an estimated several hundred thousand converts in Japan. This rapid growth — and its link to a foreign trading power — later worried Japan's rulers, setting up the tension that leads into isolationism (covered in the next micro).

At the same time China and Japan were being approached from the sea, Europeans were building a new maritime trade network stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Three events mark its beginning, and each is individually examinable.

The capture of Malacca (1511): The Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque captured the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511. Malacca controlled the narrow strait linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea.

Significance for East and South-East Asia: Da Gama's route, Magellan's crossing and the fall of Malacca together mean that, by the 1520s, European ships can reach Chinese and Japanese waters directly and repeatedly. This is the precondition for everything in the rest of this topic: without these three breakthroughs, the Portuguese ship could never have drifted to Tanegashima in 1543.

Keep the two motives separate: China's Zheng He voyages sought tribute and prestige within an existing Asian trade world. The Portuguese and Spanish voyages sought control of trade routes and profit, backed by naval force and fortified bases. Every Paper 3 essay on this topic rewards students who compare these motives explicitly.