Because even though the Chinese discovered Taiwan and the Philippines before the Europeans did and had all the advantages of proximity, Europe colonized those places first too. So China failed to discover America because there was little value in doing so.

Q: How do you think the Age of Exploration might have been different if China had not stopped its transoceanic voyages? A: The voyages of Zheng He were very successful and increased China’s influence. If China had kept exploring, it might have been the one to “discover” the New World.

If they landed on the West coast of America, they would be trading with the natives for Abalones and possibly bringing back an American bison to titillate the court. The Ming Empire would probably collapse faster due to financing the fleet. Then China would have discovered the Americas before they stopped exploring.

The end of China’s Age of Exploration came as a result of Emperor Yongle’s death in 1424 AD.

In addition to political motivation, the new emperor had financial motivation. The treasure fleet voyages cost Ming China enormous amounts of money; since they were not trade excursions, the government recovered little of the cost. For all of these reasons, Ming China stopped sending out the magnificent Treasure Fleet.

Medieval Europe was unknown to most of China and the far east. Those who ventured in person to Europe realized quickly that China was far advanced technologically. They believed that Europe didn’t have anything to teach them. Medieval Europe was unknown to most of China and the far east.

China and the West were in contact more than 1,500 years before European explorer Marco Polo arrived in China, new findings suggest. However, Chinese historians recorded much earlier visits by people thought by some to have been emissaries from the Roman Empire during the Second and Third Centuries AD.

Originally Answered: Why did Chinese kingdoms, having huge armies and the best weapons, never invade Europe? They could have tried but they were too busy with one another. The “Three Kingdoms ” had to deal with a lot of rebels and each other and they already had huge areas of land that they needed to control.

Consequently, Europeans had to pay for Chinese products with gold or silver. The opium trade, which created a steady demand among Chinese addicts for opium imported by the West, solved this chronic trade imbalance.

Silver was the main focus of China’s economy, and paper money was replaced with silver, where people could now also pay taxes with silver. Silver was key to the success of China during a period of the Ming Dynasty. Trade decreased and China’s economy collapsed because silver was the main focus of it.

Because of this trade imbalance, Britain increasingly had to use silver to pay for its expanding purchases of Chinese goods. In the late 1700s, Britain tried to alter this balance by replacing cotton with opium, also grown in India.

The inflow of a large quantity of silver into China since the mid-Ming dynasty indeed expanded the capacity of the Chinese economic system, boosted production and trade, and revitalized the already dormant social economy.

China had a high demand for silver due to its shift from paper money to coins in the early period of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming attempted to produce copper coins as a new form of currency, but production was inconsistent. Hence silver became of high value because it was a valid currency that could be processed abroad.

How did Japanese silver make its way to China? Chinese merchants sent annual missions to the mining region to trade for silver. Japanese merchants brought it to Chinese ports, where the Chinese government bought it. Japanese merchants took it to the trading port of Manila, where it was traded for Chinese goods.

The Silver trade had both positive and negative impacts on the areas involved; the large quantities of Silver all over the world caused inflation in many places, including Spain and other parts of Europe, while other areas, such as china, became rich.

Eventually, this trade had profound effects on West African society: It reoriented trade routes toward the coast rather than across the Sahara, which led to the decline of interior states. It also led to an increasing traffic in humans to work, among other places, in the silver mines of the Americas.

In Asia, silver also promoted economic growth, slowly replacing paper currency and further enveloping Asia into the world economy. However, silver created a wider gap between the rich and the poor, especially in the Americas, where it was harvested, and the working conditions in mines were harsh.

During the Exchange, many economics were affected and changed. One major effect was the introduction of cash crops to the new world to boost Europe’s economy. Another major effect was New World and Japanese silver created a world trade network and silver-based currency.

What was the impact of New World silver on the European economy? Profitable product of mining which prompted thousands of fatalities among indigenous workers and disastrous inflation in Europe called “the Price Revolution.”

Why were imperialist nations interested in China? Two reasons that Europeans wanted to increase trade with China are that the British wanted to set up western style diplomatic relations, and also find places to build more markets for the manufactured goods.