Why Didn't the Chinese Colonize America?

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For the vast majority of history, the Chinese civilization was vastly wealthier and more populous than Europe - yet somehow, it was the Europeans that got away with colonizing the Americas, right under the nose of the Chinese. So, why didn't the Chinese Empire colonize the Americas?

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Further Reading:

[JazzJackrabbit]

Short answer: The Chinese Emperor thought that China didn't need anything from the Barbarians, and isolated the country from the rest of the world, sealing their fate during the age of colonization.

[kimjongmill]

As a sailor, a factor that I believe is underestimated is the trade winds. While Europe had the steady trade winds blowing them towards America, China would have to row against them or navigate the unpredictable and treacherous north Pacific.

All for a land that may or may not be there.

[chrisjackson]

Mad respect for the Winnie the Pooh joke.

[Excalibur]

Would have been VERY interesting to see an America that had not only a stable Viking colony but also Chinese and even Japanese making it over on the west coast. Columbus's voyage wouldn't be to find the west indies but to confirm the existence of this rich untapped continent on the other side of the world.

Would be interesting to see how America's manifest Destiny reacted to Chinese colony on the west coast.

[NoBudjetFilms]

I think it is pretty obvious why the Europeans colonized the Americas and the Chinese didn't. It was a combination of factors, one major one is as you displayed China was the wealthiest civilization the world had ever known at that point. People came to them for goods, the Chinese had no reason to go to other for goods: they already had the best stuff. (Though of course the Chinese liked European glass products, among other things). Also a major deciding factor is geography and oceanic currents. The Pacific is huge, much larger than the Atlantic, and the voyages across the Atlantic in the early 16th century were pushing the very limits of sailing technology at that time. The Chinese were no doubt good shipbuilders and sailors, but I don't believe substantially better to make this journey easier. And even if they had what would they get out of it? The first peoples Chinese Christopher Columbus analog would have encountered would have mostly been the North American Pacific coast peoples who were mostly hunters, gatherers, and fishing people. Didn't really have any resources that the Chinese couldn't get at home. If you wanted to make money in the new world in the early days you needed to sail down towards Mexico and South America where the larger, more developed civilizations were. That is where the money was at and where the Spanish and Portuguese were super successful in the early days of colonization. It took the rest of Europe a hundred+ years to make their colonies further north to become super profitable, and that was greatly aided by the import of slaves to help develop the area.

Ultimately the Europeans were perfectly situated to colonize and conquer the new world. They always were. The only thing they needed was the motivation to sail across the Atlantic and find it, and once Constantinople fell to the Muslims, thereby cutting them off from the Silk Road and the treasures from China, they had the motivation they needed to make that attempt. That and also Columbus' terrible calculations about the circumference of the Earth. And of course due to the old world's superior animal bio-diversity and the millennia of closely living with livestock, whichever civilization found the New World first was going to introduce plagues and devastate the native peoples and humans are going to human and take advantage of the situation for personal benefit.

[pineapplesareyummy]

But China would never have colonised the Americas even if it was first to discover it. China already sailed all the way to Mozambique in the early 15th century. China never settled colonists there. They just traded along the entire Indian Ocean coast. In alternative history, it'd be much better for the Americas had China reached them first. China would just open up trade, and they'd keep their sovereignty instead of being completely annihilated, plundered and colonised.

[historytalks]

It could be said that China was recovering at the beginning of the Age of Discovery and more concerned about reasserting their dominance on other regions. In addition to this their economic status was mostly self sufficient and with a limited population controlling their own lands and maintaining food over exploring others. Their main differences were ideology on how they interacted with others and colonization was not one of their methods due to limited reason and limited people to do so.

[willfakaroni]

Fun fact: archeological evidence shows that Chinese and Japanese shipwrecks ended up on the west coast of North America in pre-Columbian times, which some native tribes scavenged for iron.

[kylewalker]

It’s also important to note that voyages across the Pacific were not very common in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries because of how taxing a journey it was. It was done a few times in the name of exploration for different European nations, but after initial voyages charted out the Pacific, most sailors stuck with the easier and safer route (albeit longer) around Africa and India.

[AImpatientMan]

China: *invents printing press*
China: *invents gunpowder*
China: *invents ships*
China: *invents compass*
China: doesn't colonize the world
Britian: ??? Fine I'll do it myself

[BalorShield]

The Polynesians are usually ignored when it comes to the discussion of superior seafaring skills. the fact they were able to navigate and travel from south east Asia to micronesia, Samoa, new Zealand, Hawaii and many smaller islands through out the pacific ocean. Being able to navigate through a vast ocean and finding the Hawaiian islands, and many of the small islands. I mean if Japan is only now discovering new islands (doubling well over the amount they thought they had) in its territory. Polynesians were extremely lucky or way more advanced seafarers than we credit them to be. I read somewhere South American tribes had some contact with Easter Island natives.

[marcello]

Imagine if the Japanese didn't isolate themselves and a Meiji-like era happened 150 years earlier.

[SolracCAP]

Now I want to see an alternate history about Chinese colonization of Americas

[김주원-sv]

One thing we have to know is isolation policy was still ongoing even during the emperor yongle's reign. While government was sending fleets to other parts of the world civilians were still ban to go outside the china

[Ruosteinenknight]

Many forget how perilous these journeys were. Columbus's attempt over the Atlantic saw his crew almost dying of starvation and thirst. And they didn't even reach the continent. Reaching American continent from mainland China would be about over TWICE of that journey and would require pretty immense resources to pull off, not to mention foresight.

[travellingcroat]

As D. S. Landes wrote in the paper "What room for accident in history", the pirate attacks on Chinese ships also played an important role on the emperor's decision to forbid sending ships abroad since the 1430s. In the beginning of the 15th century, China was pretty strong when it comes to expeditions and conquering certain lands, or at least making them pay tribute to China. One of the most famous explorers was Zheng He, who led Chinese forces all the way to Africa on their ships called junks. He brought a giraffe back to China. Afterwards, when the pirates started looting Chinese ships, the decision about isolation came to force.

Anyway, interesting article, makes you think about the alternative history "what if"

[Ninjaluga]

Rest of the world: making huge advances to technology

China: no thanks ill stay where i am

Rest of the world: shows up with extremely advanced technology

China: *No thanks ill stay here*

[thecrazymoon]

Another SideQuest video! What a wonderful appearance!

[doriginalkillua]

This video: China is indifferent to trade.

Silk and Maritime Silk Roads: Are we a joke to you?

[ljphoenix]

To the voice behind Sidequest, keep doing what you do!! Top notch voice-acting. It's a great part of the channel!