China's staggering rise to power does not spring from nothing, but from a past that is five millennia old. When the Europeans, led by Christopher Columbus, set off across the seas to conquer the planet, this ancient state-civilization then possessed an astonishing level of wealth and technicality.
Between 1405 and 1433, Admiral Zheng He's seven great expeditions bear witness to unprecedented naval power. The fleet of the first voyage gathered no less than 255 ships carrying 27,000 men. This floating city brought together soldiers and sailors, but also doctors, astrologers, cartographers or bureaucrats. The set also included 62 “treasure boats” next to which
Portuguese caravels would have looked like children’s boats.
However, it was the Europeans who discovered America and set foot there, while the Chinese, having reached Africa, left never to return. Zheng He's travels will be suspended and his fleet disbanded. China will not become a naval power again until the 21st century. century.
Throughout its history, the Middle Kingdom will thus alternate phases of withdrawal and expansion. We are far, in any case, from the commonplace of an “immovable empire” which would have waged only defensive wars. If the Han population expanded and swallowed neighboring peoples, it was banally through conquest and colonization. Nothing new under the sun.