I'm reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. He writes about the European conquest of the rest of the world, beginning around the time of Columbus and accelerating over the next few centuries. He asks what is the difference between the Europeans and other cultures.
Harari relates the story of the Chinese fleet led by Zheng He in the 15th Century. Compared to Columbus' fleet of 120 sailors in three ships, Zheng He commanded 30,000 people in 300 ships. The picture above represents the relative size of the Chinese (huge) to European (tiny) ships. After Zheng He's expedition, the Chinese decided they could use their resources better and dismantled the fleet.
That's something pretty incredible I'd never heard of before.
Harari's answer to the difference between Euro and other explorers: the Europeans' willingness to claim all they find for their king and country.
In other words: Mine! Mine! Mine!
Sad.
!originalworks
This book is blowing my mind. I started to read it after I finished 5 of 14 Universal History books written by Isaac Asimov (4 months ago I didn't know Asimov wrote History books). So, the Yuval Noah Harari's book was complemented by my recent fragmented history knowledge and it changed my way to understand the whole world. Thanks for the contribution.
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Hi @gerzeus. I'm on to the next book now: Homo Deus. Hariri's style grates on me a bit, but the ideas he's put down are interesting and now and then I come across something like those massive Chinese ships above that is pretty mind-blowing!
Asimov was so learned and such a prolific writer. I've read most of his fiction and his Understanding Physics books, but not the history - in fact, I'm not sure I knew about the history books either. He wouldn't have been the first science/sci-fi author to write history, though. I remember A Short History of the World by H. G. Wells.
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