Why did China NOT take the lead in global exploration that began in the 15th century? What consequences did this decision by China have on the exploration by European nations of the Americas and Africa?

Question

Answer:

Answer 1

An ideal answer will:
1. Discuss the political opposition of China's influential highly educated, professional bureaucrats, the mandarins, to continuing China's early efforts at oceanic exploration in the 15th century.
2. Discuss the enormous financial and environmental costs involved in sustaining Chinese overseas exploration as a cause for China discontinuing global exploration.
3. Discuss the labor and human resource costs involved in ship-building and the shortage of sailors after China's initial forays into global oceanic exploration.
4. Discuss the vulnerabilities to invasion from the northwest regions that China's early oceanic voyages produced.
5. Discuss the long-term political implications of Emperor Zhu Gaozhi in 1424 issuing an edict prohibiting the construction and oceanic voyages of all Chinese "treasure ships."
6. Discuss how Chinese isolation from the rest of the non-Asian world meant that a potential highly competitive imperial competitor of Portugal, Spain, England, and France for political and economic influence in the Americas and Africa had been removed for approximately 200 years.
7. Write a concise and effective conclusion.