China’s Ming Dynasty fleet commanded by eunuch admiral Zheng He (鄭和) has been listed by an expert as one of the five most powerful navies in history.
Japanese-US defense affairs specialist Kyle Mizokami said in an article posted on the National Interest journal’s Web site on Sunday that Zheng’s 15th century fleet, along with that of Greece in 480 BC, the UK and Northern Ireland from 1815 to 1918, Japan in 1941 and the US in 1945, were the five most powerful navies in history.
He said that Zheng He’s fleet undertook seven voyages in and around the Indian Ocean with what was then the most powerful navy in the world.
“The ruling Ming Dynasty had an outward-looking agenda, to secure trade routes for the import of luxuries and raw materials into a growing China,” he said.
“Chinese naval technology then was probably the most advanced in the world, with shipbuilding technology — such as three and four-masted sailing ships — sometimes 1,000 years ahead of Europe,” Mizokami wrote.
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