Episode 3 Out to Sea (I)
February 14, 2025
In our last episode, we discussed how Medieval Europeans tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep due to a lack of spices. Fortunately, throughout history, when there were problems, there were always heroes coming to the rescue.
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To Europe at that time, the heroes were the sea voyagers who decided to cross the vast ocean to find another route to Asia, the source of spices.
The idea of getting around Turkish control was quite natural and straightforward under the circumstances and did not develop overnight
Yet, strangely enough, even though Europeans had been suffering from pepper shortage since the 11th century, they waited untill the 15th century to start looking for ways out in the sea, Why?
The answer was simple and could be summarized in one sentence: their navigation technology was too weak.
Nowadays, when we talk about the civilizations around the world, we often refer to Western civilization as the maritime civilization, as if Westerners had always been skilled in anything related to the ocean
But this is not entirely accurate. It is true that the modern West has built its fortune from the ocean and they are still leading in the field of navigation. To this day, one of the military powers that America relies on for global dominance is the numerous aircraft carriers it possesses.
But if you think the West has always been leading in mankind’s conquest of the ocaen, that’s not correct. At least in the 1400s, before the 15th century, Europeans were poor at navigation. They had only been dabbling in the Mediterranean Sea, which is like a bathtub compared to the other oceans. Even when they managed to venture a bit further, they were nowhere near comparable to the two great empires in the East.
First, they were not as strong as the Arab empire. You don’t need any historical records and can think with your toe to know that if Europeans could have overpowered Arab fleets, they would not have stayed confined to Europe. They would have rushed out of the Mediterranean Sea and raced all the way to Asia to enjoy pepper.
Another empire that had far more advanced navigation technology was the Ming dynasty of China. Starting in 1405, Zheng He, a eunuch from the Ming Dynasty,
boldly led his fleet on seven voyages across the pacific and the Indian ocean, reaching as far as the east coast of Africa. These expeditions, known as “Zheng He’s voyages to the West” were highly regarded by Westerners.
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In 1420 when the Ming Dynasty was at its peak, it had a total of 3,800 ships, including 1,350 warships, 400 large-sized ships, 250 super-sized ships (known as “treasure ship”) and a large number of patrol and law enforcement ships, as well as messaging ships.
The renowned Zheng He’s fleet consisted of up to 200 ships of various types. It was just one of the many naval fleets that the Ming Empire possessed
But even Zheng he’s fleet was beyond the wildest dreams of Europeans, let alone them owning one.
Therefore, objectively speaking, the Chinese in the 15th century was far ahead of Europeans in ocean exploration. Unfortunately, limited by their own concepts and ideology, the Chinese voluntarily retreated from the ocean and returned to focusing on land.
The popular viewpoint nowadays is that the Ming stopped sea activities and disbanded the fleets because it was too costly. This viewpoint is debatable and in my other book, a Tale of Chinese history, I have had a detailed discussion of this topic.
It was indeed true though that Ming Dynasty considered itself too superior and mighty compared to the islanders in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean , not only did it refrain from robbing them, but in some cases, it even offered help and support
We can see the humor in history here: the Europeans were proud of their maritime civilization, yet they were less skilled in navigation compared to the Arabs and Chinese at that time. Meanwhile, the Chinese, with their agrarian civilization, always self-proclaimed to be excellent farmers, good at growing everything from turnip, vegetables to barley, but they were not as skilled at farming as the contemporary Indians. We’ll talk about that later.
Though the Arab and Chinese empires had once led Europe in ocean exploration, we all know that starting in the 2nd half of the 15th century, Europe made gigantic progress in navigation technology, caught up with then exceeded the two self-contended empires, accrued massive wealth during the ensuing geographical discovery and ultimately dominated the world.
In the west, there is a specific term for this process: the Age of Discovery. Let’s now look at several Europeans who were the hard workers and heroes driving this process forward.
If you have been to Macao, China, you may know there is a street in Macao named Avenida do Infante D. Henrique, which commemorates one person, more specifically, a real prince: Prince Dom Henrique of Portugal. Born in 1394, he was the third son in his family. With the succession rule in Europe at the time generally dictating that the eldest son would inherit the throne, it was nearly impossible for him to become king. He probably didn’t mind though, as he had a part-time role as the master of the ‘Order of Christ’. If you want to find out what the Order of Christ was, you can read history books on the Crusades.
All you need to know here is that, because of this part time job, Prince Henrique was very rich and the money belonged to him – not the Portuguese royal family. In other words, he was not just born rich, he was also a self-made, first-generation wealthy individual.
It wouldn’t be surprising if he had been a playboy living an extravagant life, partying and playing all the time, or fighting over power and money. But Prince Henrique wasn’t interested in any of these.
Throughout his entire life, he seemed to have only one interest: sea voyages.
We just discussed that Medieval Europeans didn’t have good navigation technology – not only were their shipbuilding techniques and logistics support lacking, but the living conditions on the ship were also substandard.
Sea voyages were not romantic at all; the ships were tiny, with horrible sanitary condition.
According to historical records, the fatality rate for sailors was as high as 50%. Before setting sails, we can picture two friends holding hands and crying to each other. A 50% of fatality rate meant one of them likely would not return home. They probably were promising each other that if one person died, the other would look after his family upon returning.
Under such circumstances, people who could live a somewhat normal life would not be interested in sea voyages, let alone the nobilities. Most sailors were ex-cons, thieves, and homeless or jobless people. Please pay attention here, as this was quite important to the future development of certain events. As for what that was, I’ll keep it a secret for now and explain later.