DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION: PRE-HISTORY



DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION:

CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA

Directions

The following question is based on the accompanying documents. (The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise). The question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents. Write an essay that:

• Has relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.

• Uses all or all but one of the documents.

• Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible and does not simply summarize the documents individually.

• Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ points of view.

Prompt

Compare Portuguese and Ming Chinese motivations and perceptions, which influenced their expeditions in the Indian Ocean. Assess how Portugal came to dominate the Indian Ocean while China did not.

Based on the following documents, discuss naval expeditions to the Indian Ocean. What types of additional documentation would help determine why Portugal succeeded.

Historical Background

After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty and the expulsion of the Mongols from China, early Ming policy reflected a determination to further Chinese foreign interests. The Ming Dynasty expanded Chinese frontiers into Vietnam and Korea. This expansion was especially true of the Ming Emperor Yung-lo. He sent trade and diplomatic missions to neighboring countries and authorized naval expeditions. From 1405 until 1433, a year after his death, the Chinese sent out seven great treasure fleets under the command of a Chinese Muslim eunuch named Zheng-He. In 1433, just as the Portuguese were beginning their Atlantic expansion, the Ming Court ordered an end to any further voyages. In 1498, Portugal finally reached the Indian Ocean. For the next one hundred years, Portugal, a nation of less than one million inhabitants, dominated an area larger than Europe.

VOCABULARY: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA

MIDDLE KINGDOM; RULER OF ALL THAT IS UNDER HEAVEN

CONFUCIANIST VIEWS ON FAMILY AND TRAVEL

CONFUCIANIST VIEWS ON AGRICULTURE, TRADE, WEALTH

MING DYNASTY, RESTORATION

1. YONG-LE EMPEROR; YONGLE ENCYCLOPEDIA

2. COURT SCHOLAR OFFICIALS vs. COURT EUNUCHS

3. ZHENG-HE, TREASURE FLEETS, STAR RAFTS

4. CHINESE IDEA OF TRIBUTE, TRIBUTARY STATES vs. TRADE

5. CHINESE VIEWS OF NORTHERN NOMADS; XENOPHOBIA

6. CH’I-LIN (UNICORN, GIRAFFE)

7. PORTUGAL

8. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR; ROYAL SUPPORT

9. PORTUGUESE TECHNOLOGIES: SHIPS, SAILS, GUNS

10. VASCO DA GAMA

11. CATHOLIC NOTION OF THE CRUSADE

12. ROLE OF MISSIONARIES IN ASIA

13. GOD, GLORY, GOLD = STATUS, SOCIAL ADVANCEDMENT

14. INFLUENCES OF MARCO POLO AND PRESTOR JOHN

15. BREAKING MONOPOLIES OF OTTOMAN TURKS, ITALIAN CITIES

16. TRADING ENTREPOTS, FACTORIES, FORTS

17. 1516: PORTUGUESE REACH GUANGZHOU (CANTON)

18. CHINESE, PORTUGUESE INFLUENCE ON INDIAN OCEAN PEOPLES

Document 1

Document 2

Document 3

Document 4

Document 5

Document 6

Document 7

Document 8

Document 9

Document 10

FOOTNOTES: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA

1. Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley, California, 1998), v.

2. Gomes Eannes de Azurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, trans. and ed. by Charles Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, two volumes (London: Hakluyt Society, 1896), I: 27-30.

3. Boyd C. Shafer, Herbert Heaton, and Burton Stein, eds., Europe and the World in the Age of Exploration, vol. 1, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire by Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977), 227.

4. Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405 – 1433 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 179-180.

5. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press, 1981), 23-24.

6. Levathes 1994, 180-181.

7. Shafer, Heaton and Stein 1977, 102, 301-337 passim.

8. Brook 1998, 122.

9. Kwan-wai So, Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the Sixteenth Century (East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1975), 44-45.

10. Carlo M. Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1965), 107.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: CHINA AND PORTUGAL IN ASIA

1. Anderson, Mary. Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1990.

2. Andrea, Alfred J. and James Overfield. The Human Record: Sources of Global History, two volumes. Vol. 2: Since 1500, 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Co., 1994).

3. Boxer, Charles R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.

4. Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley, California, 1998).

5. Cipolla, Carlo M. Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700. New York: Pantheon Books, 1965.

6. de Azurara, Gomes Eannes. The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Translated and edited by Charles Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, two volumes. London: Hakluyt Society, 1896.

7. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Chinese Civilization and Society: A Sourcebook. New York: The Free Press, 1981.

8. Levathes, Louise. When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405 – 1433. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.

9. Shafer, Boyd C., Herbert Heaton, and Burton Stein, eds. Europe and the World in the Age of Exploration. Vol. 1, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire by Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977).

10. So, Kwan-wai. Japanese Piracy in Ming China during the Sixteenth Century. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1975.

11. Van Slyke, Lyman P. Yangtze: Nature, History, and the River. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1988.

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PORTUGUESE ROYAL INSTITUTIONS AND POLICIES

TO FACILIATE TRADE

|Feitoria |Fortified trading posts and factories with royal patents |

|Licenses |To carry on commerce under royal patent |

|Land Grants |To settle area and establish plantations to grow cash crops |

|Trade Monopolies |Given to certain feitoria in a region |

|Cartazes |Permits for Asian merchants to trade in Portuguese areas |

|Viceroy |King’s Asian representative; no practical limits on power |

|Secretario da India |Bureaucracy to run Indian possessions |

|Mesa de relacao |Supreme court for Indian Ocean |

|Casa dos cantos |Treasury to manage funds in Indian Ocean |

|Alfandega |Customs and toll collector in the Indian Ocean |

|Municipal Council |Civilian municipal governments in important settlements |

|Casa da India |Trade monopoly within Europe for Asian products |

|Insurance |Maritime insurance against loses in trade with Asia |

|Navigation classes |Classes required for all Portuguese pilots |

|Translations |Foreign treatises on science, navigation, and travel logs |

Zhang Xie, customs official, from his survey of countries and trade in South East Asia, 1617

“It was said that people along the coast fear the tortoise dragon [crocodile]. It

stands four hands high, has four feet, with a scaly body and long protruding

teeth. It bites people whenever it encounters them, and no one can escape death.

In the mountains they fear the black tiger [leopard]. It is slightly smaller than a

tiger, rather like human form. It slinks into market places in broad daylight and

if discovered is caught and killed. Today these could, along with the Portuguese,

be called the ‘three terrors of Malacca.’”

Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, Catholic Missionary, in his 1585 History of China

“The Chinese have found by experience that to [leave] their . . . kingdom to

conquer others is the spoil and loss of much people, and expenses of great

treasures, besides the [work] and care which continually they have to sustain

that which is got, with fear to be lost again; so that in the meantime whilst they

were occupied in strange conquests [Zheng-He’s expeditions], their enemies [the

Mongols and Turks] and other [bordering] kings . . . did trouble and invade

them, doing great damage and harm . . . [so] they found it [necessary] for their

quietness and profit . . . to leave all [that] they had got and gained out of their

kingdom, but [e]specially such countries as were far off.”

Comments by Liu Daxia, Ming Minister of War, 1477

“The expeditions of San Bao (Zheng-He) to the West Ocean wasted tens of

myriads of money and grain and moreover the people who met their deaths [on

the expeditions] may be counted in the myriads. Although he returned with

wonderful precious things, what benefits was it to the state?”

The Debate on Salt and Iron, 81 BCE, often quoted during the Ming Dynasty

“We have heard that the way to rule lies in preventing frivolity while

encouraging morality, in suppressing the pursuit of profit while opening the

way for benevolence and duty. When profit is not emphasized, civilization f

flourishes and the customs of the people improve. Recently a system of salt and

iron monopolies, a liquor excise tax, and an equable marketing system have

been established . . . These represent financial competition with the people

which undermines their native honesty and promote selfishness. . . . Few

people take up the fundamental pursuits [farming] while many flock to the

secondary [trade and industry].”

King Manuel of Portugal, his instructions to Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, 1505

“It seems to us nothing would serve us better than to have a fortress at the mouth

of the Red Sea or near to it – rather inside it than outside might afford better

control – because from there we could see to it that no spices might pass to the

land of the sultan of Egypt, and all those in India would lose the false notion

that they could trade any more, save through us . . .”

Gomes Eannes de Azurara, Portuguese explorer and sailor, from his The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, fifteenth century CE

“And you should know well that the noble spirit of this Prince, . . . [Henry]

always kept ships well armed against the Infidel (Muslims), both for war and

because he had to know the land that lay beyond the isles of the Canaries . . .

The second reason was that if . . . some population of Christians, or some

havens [could be found] into which it would be possible to sail . . . many kinds

of merchandise might be brought to this realm, which would find a ready

market . . . which traffic would bring great profit to our countrymen. The

third reason was that the power of the [Muslims] was greater than was

commonly supposed . . . and [Prince Henry] exerted himself . . . to make it

known determinately how far the power of the infidels extended . . . He sought

to know if there were . . . any Christian princes . . . that would aid him against

those enemies of the faith. The fifth reason was his great desire to make increase

in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that could be

saved . . . But over and above these five reasons, . . . this is the inclination of

the heavenly wheels.”

From the Rajavali, the Chronicles of the Kings of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), 1498

“And now it came to pass that a ship from Portugal arrived at Colombo, and

information was brought to the king that . . . they have guns with a noise like

thunder and a ball from one of them, after traversing a league, will break a

castle of marble.”

The Way and the Power, a favorite passage of the founder of the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, 1368-1398

“Let the state be small and the people few:

So that the people . . .

fearing death, will be reluctant to move great distances,

and, even if they have boats and carts, will not use them.

So that the people . . .

will find their food sweet and their clothes beautiful,

will be content with where they live and happy in their customs.

Though adjoining states be within sight of one another

and cocks crowing and dogs barking in one be heard in

the next,

Yet the people of one state will grow old and die

without having had any dealings with those of another.”

Answer to a Memorial by Censor Wang I-chi, from the Ming Shi lu (Veritable Records of the Ming Dynasty) written shortly after the emperor’s death, 1524

“Whenever barbarians come to present tribute, the inhabitants along the coast

communicate and even entice them resulting in trouble. . . . Now it is proper to

strictly enact regulations to the following effect:

1. Upon the coming of the barbarian tributary ships, those people who . . .

meet them and trade with them before . . . the examination of the ships, shall be punished;

2. Those people who trade [and] borrow from them . . . shall be punished;

3. Those people who have privately purchased contraband goods on behalf of the barbarians shall be punished;

4. Those people who have . . . buil[t] seagoing vessels for sale to barbarians shall be punished. . . . For those who are obdurate and irreclaimable, their families shall also be exiled.”

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