The Ming dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644 and created one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history. After the dynasty's founder, the Hung-wu emperor, the Ming dynasty's most competent ruler was the Yung-lo emperor known as "The Consolidator," who ruled from 1403 to 1424. One of Yung-lo's major undertakings was to incorporate the states of South and Southeast Asia into China's tribute system. This tribute system was based on the overlord-vassal relationship between the ruler of China and the rulers of other countries expressed by the traditional "culturalism" that saw China as the largest and oldest state in the world. As such China was viewed as the "parent state" of all other kingdoms and the source of civilisation in general. The Son of Heaven (the emperor) affected a paternal interest in the orderly government of the tributary states by confirming the succession of new rulers, sometimes offering military protection against attack, and usually conferring the boon of trade with China.

This was not the system of aggressive imperialism that was common in Europe, but rather an expression of culturalism: foreign rulers who wished contact with the Middle Kingdom (China) had to accept its terms and acknowledge the universal supremacy of the Son of Heaven. Trade with China was incredibly valuable and the tribute formalities of the performance of the kowtow (the "three kneelings and nine prostrations"), the exchange of envoys, tribute, and conduct of diplomatic relations; were the price to be paid. Yung-lo's planned expansion of China's tribute system was marked by seven great maritime expeditions that begun in 1405 and continued until 1433. These expeditions were led for the most part by a Muslim eunuch named Cheng Ho, who was well suited to deal with the Islamic rulers of South Asia. The first fleet sailed in 1405-1407 with sixty-two vessels carrying 28,000 men, and reached India, as did the second and third. The forth voyage in 1413-1415 reached Aden and the head of Asian circumnavigation at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. A fifth voyage also went as far as Aden. The seventh voyage started out with 27,500 men and reached Hormuz again in 1431-1433. Chinese vessels visited far down the east coast of Africa and seven Chinese reached Mecca.

The development of Chinese shipbuilding and techniques of navigation on the Asian sea routes made Cheng Ho's voyages possible. His seagoing junks were very large with four decks and up to a dozen watertight compartments. They navigated by using the compass and detailed sailing directions that brought them to the coasts of China's customary tributaries, such as Siam and Vietnam. In addition to these some fifty new places were visited and their rulers enrolled as tributaries. Missions from Hormuz and the African coast came to China four times, from Bengal eleven times. Rulers in Sumatra and Ceylon were brought back into the system by force. For the leaders of these expeditions adventure, fame, and profit were all gained. Commercially these expeditions provided a line of communication with the existing overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asian ports. Politically, the tribute system was expanded from land-based trading partners to sea-trading partners. Thus incorporating much of the known world into the Chinese concept of the universal rule of the Son of Heaven.

After the beginning of 1433 China's beginnings as a naval power were suddenly stopped, never to resume again. One reason for this was their great cost, at a time when the Ming were paying for their campaigns against the Mongols and financing the building of Peking, the expeditions were criticized as expensive adventures. The court eunuchs that promoted the expeditions came under considerable opposition from their rivals, the scholar-officials -- so much so that Cheng Ho's accomplishments were practically suppressed from the historical record. Cheng Ho was an organizer, a commander, a diplomat, and an able courtier, but he was not a trader. No chartered companies, like the Virginia Company or the Hudson Bay Company, emerged to found colonies or establish overseas trade. Unlike its European counterparts, the Chinese state remained uninterested in the commercial and colonial possibilities overseas. This was partially due to the Ming government's major source of revenue coming from land tax and not from trade tax. Thus Ming China failed to become a maritime power. Through this default, the Eastern seas and eventually China's own coast would be dominated by a secession of non-Chinese seafaring peoples -- the Japanese, the Portuguese and Spanish, the Dutch, and finally the British and the Americans.