3.2 China Limits European Contacts

3.2 China Limits European Contacts

·  Under the Ming Dynasty China had become the dominant power in in Asia

·  The Chinese demanded conquered peoples to pay them a Tribute(A Tax that losers pay winners)

·  Hongwu was a peasant’s son who commanded the rebel army that threw the Mongols out of China.

·  Hongwu was the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.(1368)

·  A dynasty is a succession of rulers from one family.

·  Hongwu started out being a wise ruler and used respected traditions and institutions to bring stability to China.

·  Later in his rule Hongwu became a ruthless tyrant. Paranoid and suspicious of real and imagined plots to end his rule, he killed thousands of government officials.

·  Yonglo, the son of Emperor Hongwu took over in 1398.

·  Yonglo was curious about the outside world. In 1505 he launched the first of seven voyages of discovery.

·  He wanted to impress the world with the greatness of Ming China.

·  The Admiral of these voyages was a Muslim Chinese man named Zheng He.

·  These Voyages ranged from South East Asia to the Eastern part of Africa.

·  These voyages consisted of between 40 and 300 ships, and had more than 27000 crew members employed in the expeditions.

·  Some of these ships were treasure ships that were up to 400 feet long.

·  China wished to remain isolated from the rest of the world in order to keep the influence of other cultures from infecting its people and destroying their traditions.

·  In spite of this, trade with China flourished up and down the Chinese coast.

·  Europeans paid for highly sought after goods in silver that was mined in South America.

·  Christian missionaries came with the Europeans who brought with them European science and technology such as clocks.

·  For a while Jesuit missionaries even gained special favor in the Ming court for their intelligence and their ability to speak fluent Chinese.

·  Many Chinese people objected to this Christian influence.

·  After 200 years of Ming rule, the Manchus from the North east of Manchuria took control.

·  They became known and the Qing Dynasty, who would rule for 260 years.

·  During this time, the Chinese established rules for trade. Some of these rules included:

o  Trade could only be conducted in certain ports that would collect a tribute from those seeking goods.

o  Kowtowing to the emperor and giving him gifts.

o  They knelt and touched their heads to the ground 9 times

·  The Dutch East India Trading company adhered to these trade restrictions, and the Chinese allowed trade with them.

·  The British did not like these trade restrictions. Lorg George McCartney refused to Kowtow to Qian Long, who refused the British request.

·  The Emperor of China even wrote a letter to England explaining that China was self-sufficient and did not need England for anything.

·  The governments of Europe would continue to try to change trade restrictions up into the 1800s when the empire began to crack.