Yongle Emperor Born: Builder of the Forbidden City
He sent more ships to sea than any ruler before him and then burned all of them. The Yongle Emperor of China dispatched Zheng He on seven massive naval expeditions between 1405 and 1433 — voyages that reached East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. He died in 1424. His successors, facing Confucian criticism of the expeditions as extravagant and unnecessary, eventually burned the fleet and the records. China withdrew from maritime exploration and never returned to it under imperial rule.
May 2, 1360
666 years ago
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