What were the purposes of Zheng He’s voyages?
The purposes seemed to be to keep international peace. Zheng He speaks of tribute gifts, which are part of the Chinese’s way of keeping international relations peaceful. Apparently, leaders of foreign nations would send the Chinese Emperor gifts and when he received them, he would return the favor. Actually, if you click on the hyperlinked words, bearing precious objects and presents. it says “One of the main purposes of Zheng He’s voyages was to reinforce existing and create new tributary relationships.” These voyages also show who can not be trusted, as a few times Zheng He runs into people who attempt to attack his fleet. How did he get a giraffe on a ship?
What was a tribute?
It was a series of gifts send back and forth between the Chinese Emperor and rulers of other countries. Most of the gifts were things were local items; most of them were rare things as well. The tribute helped to set up an alliance between the country and China.
Where is the account of the voyage written down?
The account is written on a stone.
From what sorts of records do we find accounts of East Africa from other perspectives?
One of the places were there are other accounts of East Africa are in trading/exploring logs (Fei Xin/ Barbosa). There is also an account from Ibn Battuta who travels for pleasure or if he is told to, his account is in story form. Oral history is also used to give an account of East Africa.
If you follow all the links, you will discover that two of them mention the city of Mecca. Which two, and is it just a coincidence?
I don’t see any mention of the City of Mecca………
What information about political authority can you glean from each of the four different perspectives on East Africa (15th-century Chinese, 14th-century North African, 16th-century Portuguese and Swahili oral traditions)?
15th Century Chinese was very interesting with the idea of tributes. For international affairs the idea seems to be about buying love. If you give the emperor of China nice presents, he might give you some back and he probably won’t attempt to wipe you out.
It was also interesting to see that Yongle took the throne away from his nephew and therefore had to work hard to make his people accept him.
In Fei Xin’s account, tributes are also mentioned. “The ruler, having received the imperial presents, was filled with gratitude, and sent articles of tribute.” This leads me to believe that tributes were a fairly common occurrence. This seems very similar to 15th century Chinese ideals.
In an interesting turn, in the account by Duarte Barbosa he mentions “It has not got a king; it is governed by its elders, they being honoured and respectable persons.” This is the first time in this exercise we see a group of tribal leaders instead of religious and/or noble leaders.
In the East African Oral History account a Sultan marries one of the tribal elders daughters and then kicks the old man out of his home. The man willing leaves, but hands down his power to the grandson, not his son in law.
What can you infer from Fei Xin, Duarte Barbosa, Ibn Battuta and the Swahili oral histories about what goods were traded to and from the East Coast of Africa?
The East Coast of Africa was very wealthy, they had lots of gold and silver. They also had spices and live stock. They traded for coloured satins, sandal-wood, rice, china-ware, coloured taffetas.
They had things that the travellers wanted. Because of this the travellers and their countries tried to form and keep some sort of alliance with the East Coast.
