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Zheng He's expiditions were known for there size. They consisted of crews of 27,000 people, and up to 300 ships. One ship he had (called the treasure ship) as more than 400 feet long. Unlike most of the other explorers we learned about, Zheng He didn't go on expiditions for exploration, but to gain prestige from other countries.
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Rrince Henry was a strong supporter of the European exploration, because he wanted to spred Christianity around the world. He fonded a navigation school on the coast of Prtugal where Portugese involved in the explortion perfected there trade. Sea captains, scientists, instrument makers, shipbuilders and mapmakers all gethered there.
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The leaders of China believed themselves to be the "Middle Kingdom," meaning that they had everything that they needed in there own country, so trading with others was unnessasry. There was much demand for their goods in other countries, but the Chinese didn't want anything from them so they went into isolation. The idea of trade offended there Confucian beliefs, and traditional Chinese economic policies favored agriculture over manufacturing/trafe
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Christopher Columbus convinced the Spanish to finance him as found a new sea route to Asia. He sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean instead of around the continent of Africa. He landed on an island that he though was the East indies, but was in fact an island in te Carribean and later, the island of Hispaniola. His navigation error is what led to the Europeans settling in the America's, although Columbus never knew he found a new land.
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The Tready of Tordesillas assured that both Spain and Portugal would honor the Line of Demarcation. This was an imaginary line, suggested by Pope Alexander the 6th, that split all "unclaimed" land between Spain and Portugal. Everything to the west of the line belonged to Spain, and everything to the east belonged to Portugal.
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Vasco de Gama was the first European to reach India. He was a portugese explorer and he sailed to India by going around the continent of Africa. He then reached a port on the southwest shore of India called Calicut.
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After Toyotomi Hideyoshi died, his daimyo ally, Tokagawa Ieyasu completed the unification of Japan, and won the Battle of Sekigahara, which rewarded him the loyalty of daimyo all over Japan. After three years, he became the shogun of Japan. He moved the capital to a cuity called Edo, and made the daimyo spend every other year there. When he allowed the daimyo to go back to there land, he made them leave there families behing as a way to keep them from rebelling.
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The manchus were from Manchuria which was northeast of the Great Wall of China. When they invaded China, the Ming Dynasty collapsed and they established the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for more then 260 years and expanded China's borders.
