Armada

It seems to be common knowledge in most historical circles now that the Chinese began a campaign, in the late 1300s, to build a large fleet and to attempt to exert its hegemony over the nations of south east Asia. A sub-objective of that initiative was to create a world map. There were so many ships in that enormous fleet that National Geographic Magazine called the great armada, “a massive shadow on the ocean that moved like a floating city that stretched across miles and miles of ocean.” (January 9, 2014). National Geographic also states that the Chinese emperor ordered the fleet to take to the ocean and “to sail to the ends of the earth.”