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Zheng He's first voyage was to the East Indies. China, at the time was the largest supplier of goods so they didn't really need anything. So eh took voyages all around the area to distribute gifts like silk and silver to show chinese surperiority.
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Prince Henry was trying to find wealth and spread christianty on the coast of africa. He founded a navigation school of experts in map making and sailors to plan his voyage.
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Ming China started to wonder why they were wasting valuable recouces to get respect when they could use the goods to fend off barbarians to the north. So after Zheng He's 7th and final voyage, they withdrew into isolationism.
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Christopher Columbus was a Spain explorer that was going to see if he could rach the east Indies going west. He didn't find the East Indies because he was mistaken on the size of the world. He ran into an island on the carribien. Portugal soon heard about this and thought columbus had reached the east Indies.
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The treaty of torttillas was made by Pope Alexander VI. It was basically a line that split the earth in half and said that Portugal can have this side and spain can have this side. This settled the uneasyness between Spain and Portugal.
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Vasco Da Gama set out on a voyage around the southern tip of africa and reached the West coast of India. He was amazed on how many spices, rare silks and gems that filled the area. They filled their ships with all of these goods and headed back creating a perfect trade route for Portugal.
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Tokugawa Ieyasu became the sole ruler, or shogun. Then he moved Japans capital to a small fishing village called Edo (which would later become the city of Tokyo). To keep people from rebelling he required that they spend every other year in Edo as sort of hostages. He would not let them in or out. This was called the "Alternate Attendance Policy".
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Manchus (people of that reigon) invaded Ming China and established the Quing Dynasty. They would rule for more than 260 years and expand Chinas borders including Taiwan, Chinese Central Asia, and Tibet. Many chinese resisted but the Manchus slowly earned respect.
