Question

Carefully analyze "1492: The Prequel" by Nicolas D. Kristof in the Reilly textbook pp. 514-527. What is Kristof's purpose for writing this article? What are Kristof's key question(s)?     What is Kristof's main conclusions, or main arguments?

Answer 1

1492: The prequel is based on voyages of a chinese eunuch commander called Zheng He. He sailed , from 1405 to 1433, with a huge armada, the likes of which no body saw again till the time of first world war.Zheng He's fleet included 28,000 sailors on 300 ships, the longest of which were 400 feet. In constrast, Columbus' crew was way too smaller, with 90 sailors on 3 ships, the longest of which was 85 feet.

Though the article seems to deal with a great voyage in history, the Kristof's actual purpose of writing the essay seems to be analyzing the impact of Zheng He's voyages on other parts of the world and tracking the legacies of Zheng He.The article also deals with the issue as to why the Indians and Chinese, two major world powers in 14th and 15th centuries missed on the opportunity to trade overseas after the time of Zheng He's voyages. According to the author, Asia's retreat into relative isolation after the expeditions of Zheng He amounted to a catastrophic missed opportunity, one that laid the groundwork for the rise of Europe and, eventually, America.Kristof has tried to answer the question as to why the Asians did not benefit from foreign trade while Europe made great progress by exploration and trade of foreign goods like spices.The article also speculates the effects of Chinese colonizing America before the English.

Kristof's key questions in the article are:

1) What are the legacies left after the voyage of Zheng He?

2) Why did the West triumph over the East?

3) Why did the Asians miss out on the opportunity of gaining immense profits from foreign trade and withdraw into relative isolation after the 15th century? In the author's words 'The disappearance of a great Chinese fleet from a great Indian port symbolized one of history's biggest lost opportunities -- Asia's failure to dominate the second half of this millennium. So how did this happen?'.

4)How different would history have been had Zheng He continued on to America?

Kristof's main conclusions from the article are:

1) Had the Chinese continued their exploration and foreign trade, it would have had a profound effect on Europe's (and in turn America's) fortunes. In author's words 'Westerners often attribute their economic advantage today to the intelligence, democratic habits or hard work of their forebears, but a more important reason may well have been the folly of 15th-century Chinese rulers'.

2) The author answers the question as to why the voyages of Zheng He 50 years before Columbus, did not lead to a change in world history the ways Columbus' did. The author concludes that in the end, an explorer makes history but does not necessarily change it, for his impact depends less on the trail he blazes than on the willingness of others to follow. The daring of a great expedition ultimately is hostage to the national will of those who remain behind.

3) The author finds following reason for the triumph of West over East:

a) Asians are not greedy enough. They consider making profits as "the concerns of a little man", therefore they look down at profit making businesses.

b) Asia's culture of complacency. China and India shared a tendency to look inward, a devotion to past ideals and methods, a respect for authority and a suspicion of new ideas.

c) As a half reason, he concludes that China was a single nation while Europe was many. Therefore, the mistakes of Confucian scholars led to great loss for the entire nation of China. In Europe, on the other hand, even as one country would be making mistakes, the other countries might be progressing.

4) He concludes that had Zheng He's voyages continued, it would have had a profound effect on the world. In author's words 'All this might seem fanciful, and yet in Zheng He's time the prospect of a New World settled by the Spanish or English would have seemed infinitely more remote than a New World made by the Chinese'.

5) The author speculates that: ' How different would history have been had Zheng He continued on to America? The mind rebels; the ramifications are almost too overwhelming to contemplate. So consider just one: this magazine (New York Times) would have been published in Chinese.'