Reposting... Author: * Secundus Maximus - 9 Posts on this thread out of 10 Posts sitewide.
Date: May 24, 2004 - 06:02

Here's one to consdier, perhaps.

In Our Time Line (OTL), the Chinese under the Ming Dynasty made seven voyages of exploration, from 1405 to 1433. These were not feeble voyages of exploration involving tiny sailing ships and crews of miserable detritus and criminals (a la Coloumbus). The first voyage involved 317 ocean going vessels and a total of 27,000 crew and passengers. All the voyages were large and numerous in crew, passenegers and goods. In fact, Ming China in those few years became the most powerful naval power the world had ever seen

The ships included nine-masted, solid teakwood, four hundred foot long ocean-going junks. By contrast, the Santa Maria was a mere 85 feet long when it discovered the New World almost 90 years AFTER the first Treasure Fleet voyage.

These were voyages of diplomacy, trade, tribute and exploration, and the Ming Chinese, under the command of the eunuch Admiral Zheng He, got as far as Africa. Many decades later, Vasco Da Gama met natives who scoffed at the trinkets the Portugese offered, laughed at the tiny ships of the Portugese, and told tales of "white ghosts" dressed in silk and sailing massive ships who offered wonderful things.

In OTL, the voyages of the Treasure fleet came to an abrupt end in 1433, due to a massive reversal in Ming policy. China became isolationist, the thousands of ocean going ships the Chinese had built were scrapped. The massive shipyards that built them were destroyed. Charts and portolans, even the journals and logs of the voyages, were in many cases burned. China looke dinward, never to look outward again until contemporary times.

Here's the point of divergence. The reversal never occurs. The second Ming emperor lives longer and his successor carries on his voyages.

Imagine what the consequences of that divergence might be?

Chinese colonization of the New World decades before Europe even discovers America. The Portugese running into Chinese colonies in Africa as soon as they begin their own explorations.

Three hundred Chinese vessels sailing into Portsmouth in 1445, during the reign of Henry THE SIXTH! (perhaps that puts this into some historic perspctive).

I think this is a POD worthy of some thought exploration.