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A Chinese Muslim with ancestral connections to the Persian Gulf, Zheng was a fitting emissary to the increasingly Muslim- dominated Indian Ocean Basin. He was the commander of the Ming expeditions that were launched on a scale that reflected imperial China's resources and importance.
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Henry the Navigator was the third son of the king of Portugal. Because he devoted the rest of his life to promoting exploration of the South Atlantic, he is known as Henry the Navigator. Henry had very mixed movies for exploration. Despite being called "the Navigator" , he never really centured far from home.
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The African Coast was known as the Gold Coast, which became the headquarters of Portugal's West African trade. The final thrust down the African coast was spurred by the expectation of finding a passage around Africa to the rich trade of the Indian Ocean. In 1488, Dias was the first Portugese explorer to round the southern tip of Africa and enter the Indian Ocean.
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Christopher was the leader of the Spanish overseas mission. He was very persistent over the fact that he wanted to go on an expedition that the king and the queen funded him. He was a Genoese mariner. Although he was told so, Columbus refused to accept that he had found unknown continents and peoples, insisting that he had succeeded in his goal of finding a shorter route to the Indian Ocean than the one the Portugese had found.
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In 1497-1498, a Portugese expedition by da Gama sailed around Africa and reached India. Portugal spared no expense in ensuring that the fleet would make it to India and back. The captains and crew- Portugal's most talented and experienced- received extra pay and other rewards for their service. This expedition opened up profitable trade to the Indian Ocean.
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WIth limited education and some military experience, Pizarro had cometo theAmericasin 1502 at the age of 25. He had participated in theconquest of Hispaniola and in Balboa's expedition across the Isthmus of Panama. By 1520, Pizarro was a wealthy land owner. He was then sent out on a expedition to conquer the Incas in 1531 by the king of Spain. With supreme boldness and brutality, Pizarro's small band of armed men seized the Incan emperor, Atahualpa and then later, the people and land.
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In 1511, a young Magellan sailed from Europe around the southern tip of Africa. He then sailed eastward across the Indian Ocean as a member of the first Portugese expedition to explore the East Indies. By the middle of 1521 Magellan's expedition had achieved its goal by sailing across the Pacific Ocean. However, he had lost the majority of his crew, his boats, and, in the end, his life.
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Following two failed expeditions to Mexico, the governor of Cuba appointed an ambitious and ruthless nobleman, Cortes, to undertake a new effort. In 1519, he left Cuba with 600 fighting men. Cortes brought to the American mainland the military tactics, political skills, and institutions that had been developed earlier in the reconquest of Muslim Iberia and the settlement ofthe Greater Antilles.
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The Aztec emperor at the time when Cortes was in the Americas. When Cortes was being forceful to try and get to the center of the Aztec empire, Moctezuma II hesitated to use force and attempted diplomacy instead. Aftera lot of coersion, Moctezuma decided to welcome the Spaniards. Unfortunately, he laterfound himself as a prisoner under Cortes, and eventually he and his people were killed.
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The Inca Empire was a great empire with highly productive agriculture, exquisite stone cities, complex trading networks and rich gold and silver mines. Huayana Capac led a successful military campaign and was overall a fairly good leader. When he died, it set off a civil war between his two sons because both of them wanted the throne. In the end, the candidate for the northern army beat the candidate of the royal court of Cuzco. The military and the political leadership were decimated.
