Why Zheng He Should Be Celebrated Persuasive Essay

In China, during the early 15th century the country was controlled by the Ming dynasty. The emperor of the Ming dynasty at the time was Emperor Yongle. Yongle sought to expand Chinese trade routes and express Chinese greatness. So Emperor Yongle assigned Zheng He, who was a trusted royal staff of the emperor, on seven voyages across the Indian Ocean intending to increase Chinese trading power. Despite all of these voyages, Zheng He never discovered any new land or new route because he sailed on already established trade routes to reach his destinations. Nonetheless, one of the reasons why Zheng He should be celebrated for his achievements is because he led an extremely large crew on hundreds of ships. On the other hand, one reason he should not be celebrated is that with all the resources he was given, Zheng He did not discover any new land.

However, going back to my first point, one of the reasons why Zheng He should be celebrated is because he led an extremely large crew on hundreds of ships. For instance, an Italian explorer funded by Spain, Christopher Columbus, only had three ships and led less than a  hundred men. Also, it should be mentioned that Columbus sailed nearly a century after Zheng He’s first voyage. Another example of a European explorer that was greatly outnumbered by Zheng He was Ferdinand Magellan. Ferdinand Magellan, like Columbus, was funded by Spain but in the 16th century. Magellan had a “circumnavigation” which means he sailed around the world, although he died in the Philippines. Despite these great accomplishments, Zheng He’s crew had significantly more power and numbers than Magellan’s, even though it was a century prior. All of this shows that one of the reasons why Zheng He should be celebrated is because he led a crew that was extraordinarily large and on many ships.

However, on the other hand, one of the reasons that Zheng He should not be celebrated is because he never discovered any new lands and just sailed on established routes. For example, even though Zheng He outnumbered several European explorers in crew numbers decades, if not centuries before, European explorers such as Columbus and Magellan accomplished the achievement of finding new land whereas Zheng He did not. Christopher Columbus discovered the Caribbean islands. Magellan discovered the strait of Magellan in South America and also the Philippines. So to summarize, one of the reasons why Zheng He should not be celebrated is because Zheng He did not discover any new lands and just used already established routes to sail on. 

All in all, the reason why Zheng He should be celebrated is that he led fleets upon fleets of ships with thousands of men on the ships throughout the Indian Ocean. However, keep in mind that one of the reasons why Zheng He is not celebrated is because he never discovered any new lands and just sailed on routes that were established before him.