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Columbus had to shop around before he found a monarch willing to bankroll his voyage. Portugal, Genoa, Venice, and England all turned him down before Spain acce
by oofabz 13y ago
Columbus had to shop around before he found a monarch willing to bankroll his voyage. Portugal, Genoa, Venice, and England all turned him down before Spain accepted.
Also, Spain took him on because there was intense competition between the European powers, and they didn't want Columbus working for anyone else.
On the other hand, all of China was ruled by the Ming dynasty. When the new Emperor turned down the eastern expedition, Zheng He had no one else to turn to. The Emperor had no competitors so he had no incentive to find new lands first.
Competition leads to innovation. Monopolies lead to stagnation.
(This interpretation of events is from "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond.)
- vorg 13y ago> The Emperor had no competitors so he had no incentive to find new lands first. Competition leads to innovation. Monopolies lead to stagnation. From memory... The Ming around 1420-ish closed down the sea voyages to divert all military resources to defending the northern desert approaches to China. Because China had been ruled by the Mongols from 1250 to 1350, the dangers were fresh in the minds of the Chinese leadership when the tribes started raiding again, and building the Great Wall and Forbidden City for defense were more important than exploring and defending against the Great Southern Ocean.
- oblio 13y agoNow only if the same emperor would have used that gunpowder invented by the Chinese to develop develop weapons better than bows to beat those Northern invaders. Oh wait, it was those pesky competitive Europeans that developed those weapons. You inadvertently made his point :)
- RyanMcGreal 13y ago> Spain took him on because there was intense competition between the European powers, and they didn't want Columbus working for anyone else. Spain was Facebook and Columbus was Instagram...