Originally posted by barto
I just learned about this in my history class at MSU. I didn't really pay attension, but supposadly the Chineese had a HUGE navy and one person sailed to the "New World" and came back with the news. So the Chinese emporer said he didn' t want people going and trying to settle in other places and ordered all records destroyed from this time. Then the ships captain was to be done away with or something. THat is pretty much all I know.
Leave it to the History major:
His name was Zeng He (a Muslim eunuch living in China, employed by the Ming court), he was in charge of the Ming navy. Under his direction, chinese ships sailed along the alucians to what is now Alaska and Canada's west coast. they also sailed as far west as the Persian gulf and the east coast of Africa.
THe navy wasn't for the purpose of exploration or military control of the seas, but rather the emperor Zhu Di, (aka the Yongle emperor) wanted to show off how rich and snazzy he was. The expeditions ended when he died in 1424, thus ending a brief but impressive chapter in Chinese history.
BTW, those ships the chinese built back then were about six times the size of Columbus' ships.