"China's emergence as a powerful maritime entity is, in fact, a re-emergence. Decades before the explorations of Columbus, 15th century Admiral Zheng He commanded the largest wooden ships in history on far-ranging voyages for the greater glory of Ming emperors.
Historians have exaggerated Chinese neglect of the sea. The Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) had Hangzhou, a seaport on the Yangtze River, as its capital. Large shipyards supported a significant naval force, which the Mongols inherited when their Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) overthrew the Song. The Mongols launched (albeit unsuccessfully) the largest amphibious operations of the Middle Ages—against Japan, Vietnam, and Java. In the 1300s, the Chinese made cutting-edge innovations in shipbuilding and naval armaments, and invented the magnetic compass.
The Ming Dynasty had a strong naval element from start to finish. It first established itself by defeating its rivals in southern China largely through the use of naval power. Larger than all but a few sea battles in history, the decisive battle of Lake Poyang in 1363 involved hundreds of warships on both sides.
The peak of Ming maritime accomplishment came with the seven voyages of eunuch admiral Zheng He (1405–33). Supported by Emperor Yongle, Zheng commanded expeditions of hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men on history's largest wooden ships, some perhaps more than 440 feet long and displacing 20,000 tons. These voyages nurtured trade, (re)opened relations with tributary kingdoms, demonstrated hard and soft power, and brought the Ming flag through the Strait of Malacca across the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf and East Africa. But Zheng's costly voyages brought few tangible benefits to the empire, the imperial bureaucracy opposed them as risky and wasteful, and he made just one voyage after Emperor Yongle's death…"
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Amicalement
Armand
begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame.
