Trace the Indian Ocean network c. 800-1500 CE — the Swahili Coast city-states (Mogadishu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Zanzibar, Sofala), ibn Battuta's 1352-3 visits, the Calicut spice-trade entrepôt, and Zheng He's 1405-1433 Treasure Fleet voyages
Exercise Difficulty 3 ~7 min hist.g7.f.ex_26

Short Answer

Prompt

Compare Zheng He's 1405 Treasure Fleet flagship to Columbus's 1492 Santa María: by length + by personnel + by historical significance. What follows for our 'Whose Golden Age?' framing?

How it's presented
mode text
Answer criteria
type short answer with rubric
rubric
scale-comparison + policy-context + Whose-Golden-Age = mastery
key concepts
  1. Zheng He flagship ~135m × ~55m × 7 masts vs Santa María ~17m × ~5.4m × 3 masts (≈8x longer)
  2. Zheng He fleet 250+ ships + 27,000+ personnel vs Columbus 3 ships + ~90 personnel
  3. Ming policy halt 1433 created space Portuguese filled 1498
  4. Whose Golden Age — Ming maritime golden age 1405-1433
Hints
  1. Cross-curricular with G7-Fall math proportional-reasoning.
  2. If China had continued post-1433, global trade-power balance c. 1500 would look very different.
Misconceptions to watch
  • Missing the post-1433 policy halt + Portuguese filling the space
Used in lessons