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| Africa North |
| Chinese frigate arrives off Libyan coast, first time for a warship in the Med, ever |
| 2011-04-06 |
| This is a big deal, historically. China, in all of its 5000 years of history, has NEVER had a warship in the Mediterranean. Obviously the Chinese people are going ape about this. They're immensely proud at throwing their weight around, even a little bit. The Med is Europe's area. The 1840s Opium War happened yesterday, as far as many Chinese are concerned. The frigate was on anti-piracy patrol off Somalia (which is as far as Zheng He got) when the Libya crisis happened. Went through the Suez Canal, another first as far as I know. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #3 Ok, so it must be a Chinese tanker taking on oil at the "rebel" terminal today. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2011-04-06 21:45 |
| #2 It's been one of my 'what ifs' of history that is intriguing. Had the Chinese not gone closed shop and instead embraced the explorations of Zheng He and had contacted the Europeans first and established functional trade links, what would have been the motivation of the Europeans to make the effort to Go East [or the Columbus model of Go West to Go East]. This would have been a far different world than the one we know. However the Chinese acted to culture* and here we are today. * That is anti-mercantile and xenophobic [we have nothing to learn from the outsiders]. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-04-06 17:42 |
| #1 Zheng He is worth reading about. He died in 1433, a few years after traveling to East Africa with his fleet & returning with African animals for the imperial zoo. Shortly after his death the Chinese emperor forbade oceangoing shipping, and the records of Zheng's last two voyages were destroyed. By 1499 the Europeans were establishing trading links past Somalia to India, and by 1854 European naval power was imposing upon the Chinese (in their view). A big deal indeed. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-04-06 13:50 |