In the 1400s, China used to own the biggest seafaring fleet in the world — it was called the “Treasure Fleet”, with some ships as big as 127-metre long. In comparison, La Santa María was only 49-metre long. There was another key difference — while the Chinese fleet was government-owned, the small Santa María was a private explorer’s flagship; his name was Christopher Columbus.
China appeared all set to circumnavigate the globe but instead, the Ming Dynasty retracted into itself and burnt down the Treasure Fleet, apparently in a bid to control foreign trade or for other internal reasons. On the
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