A comparison between Zheng He’s and Vasco de Gama’s voyages
One of the main differences we come by between these both passages is the intentions each
group had. Vasco de Gamma and the European were after three main things, gold, spices and
converted Christians. On the other hand, the Chinese were not interested in anything the lands
produced except for materials for the Great Wall of China. Another key main difference for the
two voyages was the size of each of their fleets. Zheng He's fleet was massive in comparison to
that of de Gamma's consisting of around 27,000 people in more than 300 ships whereas de
Gamma's was a tiny 170 sailors dispersed in 4 ships. On the technology side, the Chinese had
first developed the magnetic compass and ships were massive in comparison to those of the
Portuguese. However, the Europeans had the prince Henry, the Navigator, who greatly impacted
the improvement in technology by improving the magnetic compass; he algo founded a research
center of navigation at Sages. By now we start to understand that China was a bigger power due
to the immense differences in goals, size, and technology. However, the Chinese government
dictated that Zheng He's voyage were a failure, whereas the European government declared de
Gamma's voyages to be successful for their civilization's improvement.