Zheng He's treasure fleets

Admiral Zheng He led seven voyages with large fleets to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia and East Africa. China ended the program, and the ships' size and numbers remain debated.

Ship sizes in old accounts are disputed.

Context

Zheng He was a Muslim eunuch of Yunnan origin who served the Yongle Emperor of Ming China. Between 1405 and 1433 he commanded seven expeditions, the last under the Xuande Emperor. Fleets are described as having dozens of large ships and tens of thousands of men.

The voyages visited ports in Southeast Asia, India, the Persian Gulf, Arabia and the east African coast. They carried silk and porcelain, collected tribute and diplomatic missions, and brought back exotic goods, including a giraffe from Africa. They aimed largely at displaying Ming power and establishing tributary relations rather than conquest or colonization.

Court officials opposed the costs, and after the last voyage the government stopped the program. Many records were later lost or destroyed. Chinese texts claim treasure ships over 400 feet long, but modern scholars question these figures as far too large for timber ships, and estimates of true dimensions are debated. Fleet numbers also vary between accounts.

The voyages predate da Gama's by nearly a century, and they show that large-scale Indian Ocean navigation was not a European monopoly.