When China Ruled The Seas Analysis

The book When China Ruled the Seas, despite horrific points involving main characters, is more a tale of diversification then of domination. The massive navel fleet of the Chinese army was meant to be more of a show for the world that Emperor Zuh Di was more then willing to put on as a celebration to his accent to the dragon thrown. This nonlethal way of thinking is something that today even people do not thoroughly grasp, a massive army is meant to purely intimidate not celebrate successes of a nation. By todays standards the opposite comes true quite often, the larger the army the worse off the nation really is. For instance North Korea is one of the poorest developed, using developed lightly, nations in the world. The people are constantly in a battle for survival, some resorting to digging up bodies of loved ones and eating them jus to stay alive. However, the North Korean army is vast and strong just as Zuh Di’s fleet. This is not to say that Zuh Di did not have the intent to spread the Chinese influence, this was most certainly what he was striving for but his intent was not to destroy other nations just enrich his own nation as well as others.
These were magnificent goods, such as silk, which other nations found more then useful thus opening up trade routes between more nations then before. Even more impressive is the way the Zuh Di reopened the trade routes with Africa especially. The Malaccan Straight, which is the main water trade route from China to Africa, had been over run with pirates until Zuh Di’s intervention. As well as opening the floor for more diplomatic trading between nations, such as the tension between Siam and Malacca being diminished by the Chinese presence. This was accomplished because of Zuh Di’s want for all the nations of the world to acknowledge that China was truly the Middle Kingdom of the