Chapter 13

The fifteenth century was beholden to a great number of amazing feats by humans. One thing that many people associate with the 15^th century is the discovery, or rediscovery of America. However, in other parts of the world other things were going on in places like China and Europe. One such thing was the Chinese captain Zhen He who pretty much established Chinese naval presence. However the huge navy of China was soon recalled never to muster up the strength it once had. In North America agricultural villages avoided becoming huge empires like those in Europe and Asia. For some reason they seemed to prefer the life of farming. It is an admirable choice seeing as how most empires end in violent struggles. An important presence that started to take hold again in Asia and Europe were the pastoral Mongols. Unlike the Americans, the Mongols went from a simple lifestyle to a huge empire. Under the Mongols, the pastoral peoples finally had a chance to rule the land in which they were settling instead of other, large empires who only had cities and looked to conquering other peoples. In fact, the Mongol Empire was to become the largest land based empire in history taking up space from Pacific Asia to Eastern Europe during it’s time under Chinggis Khan. However in the 14^th and 15^th century a new Mongol Empire began to take hold under Timur. His ferocity matched that of the former more famous leader however his campaign was short lived because of his death. Besides the nomadic and agricultural peoples who lived during the time around the 15^th century there were also the empires that already existed in Europe and Asia. In China, the reign of the Ming Dynasty was taking place. For centuries China had trouble coping with things like Mongol rule and the plague that killed huge amounts of people. However, during the Ming Dynasty China started to recover and recuperate. They brought back the civil service exam system and put together the largest sea expedition the world had ever seen at that point. The sea firepower of the Chinese vastly outnumbered and outperformed anything the Europeans could put out. Along with a huge navy came the vast possibilities of exploration and trade to places that were considered unreachable before. The Ming Dynasty was arguably the most prosperous and best-governed society in the world at the time and perhaps one of the best led of all time. However, all of this came to an end with the end of the Ming Dynasty because the next rulers saw the maritime expeditions as a waste of time and effort. In Europe, civilizations were just beginning to recover from the plague. Having also been devastated by Mongol rule and the plague, however the plague was much more devastating in Europe than it was in Asia so there was a lot more work to be done. Along with Columbus, there were also other explorers for Europe including Vasco da Gama who sailed around the tip of Africa and to southern India. Overall, the vast recovery all over Europe and Asia made for a better world.