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grue@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I’d never heard about this “Zheng He in America” thing before, so I just did a little reading about it. One thing I read said he supposedly sailed around around Africa and to the east coast of America, which is even more implausible.

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KevonLooney@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They did sail to Africa. They picked up giraffes and shit and brought them back to China. They intervened in local conflicts like “both of you lose! China wins! Give tribute.”

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- grue@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Sure, I’m not saying I doubted that part. The part that apparently doesn’t have real evidence and thus seems implausible is the notion that they continued all the way around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Atlantic.
  
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- kbin_space_program@kbin.run ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  They didnt have to sail to Africa per say.
  By the time of those trips, there had been a reliable trade network for more than 1500 years stretching from Africa up through the Middle East into India.
  
  I don't doubt that it'd be possible to harbour hop those boats down to Africa, but they only needed to go as far as India/Persia to connect.
  
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  - KevonLooney@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    They did sail to Africa. It’s well documented in primary and secondary sources. They made a map with Africa on it:
    
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Kun_map
    
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    kbin_space_program@kbin.run ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yes, but there is still doubt:
    
    It has also been suggested by J.J.L. Duyvendak and Paul Pelliot that the map may have been partly based on Arab nautical charts.[10]
    
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