Sino-Aztec Empire

During the early 1400's, the Ming Chinese had a massive fleet of 'treasure ships' engaged in exploration, colonization, and diplomacy in the Indies, East Africa, India, and maybe even Australia. They were led, for the most part, by Zheng He, the so-called 'eunuch admiral'. In the 1430's, these expeditions were cut short, and China returned to an introverted world-view.
What if these expeditions had continued? Would the Chinese have run up against the Portugese in the Atlantic after they rounded the tip of Africa? Would the Catholic Church have viewed them as a scourge just as great as the Ottomans?
And more to the point of my AH, could they have discovered and colonized the Americas?
I think it is likely, if they first visited the then still-friendly Japanese, then sailed north, by the Aleutians, down the Pacific Coast, then to Mexico.
From my reading of the Chinese of that time, they were much more likely to make 'weaker', newly-discovered civilizations client states rather than crushing them outright.
Could a revitalized Aztec Empire, as a client state of Ming China, have held off the Spanish invasion, and remained a viable state?
 
There is a posted timeline in the Archives that predates your WI by probably two years. Take a look at it. Your suggestion is a synopsis of the entire posting in a paragraph. I believe the title is Aztec Superpower. I posted it.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/Discussion/messages/4/269.html

As a teaser:

Anahuac 1803:

Word has just reached the Imperial Court in Tenochtitlan of Napoleon's sale of the New Spain Territory to the United States of America and they're a bit worried. Anahuac holds a loose dominion over the lands of Western America, exception for English colony of Gloriana which is a distant backwater. Aztec hold is strong along the coast, thanks to the chain of monasteries and forts, but disappears further inland and the farther north one travels. Hopefully the Rio Grande River and the Great White Peaks Range (the Rockie Mountains) will remain the recognized border.

British advisors from the Court of Saint James are busy throughout the Empire laying roads, building canals and helping modernize Anahuac. Aztec soldiers have been fighting along side their British allies against Napoleon, as well as threatening the few remaining Spanish possessions in the New World. Aztec merchants are successfully opening the Chinese market to foreign trade. Anahuac is Britain's largest trading partner, and next year will be the first time that the Heir to the Plumed Serpent Throne will be set overseas for schooling, though no decision on Oxford or Cambridge has been made.

The Emperor by the Mandate of Heaven has proposed next year to ask Parliament to grant full citizenary rights to Catholics. Next month he plans to travel north to dedicate a new Buddhist pyramid temple.
 
A retired British submariner wrote a book about the Chinese exploration fleet last year--it was called something like 1468: How the Chinese Discovered the New World (I'm not sure of the exact title).

He says that the Chinese were here and provides some possible proof such as: a Chinese junk buried in a pasture near Sacremento (last I heard they were digging it up--I haven't heard any more about it though).

He also claims that early Spanish explorers (I can't remember exactly who) documented the Chinese presence there as well. I didn't actually read the book; I saw the author interviewed on CSpan I think.
 

Diamond

Banned
Actually, I believe Confederatefly's entire post is a direct quote of a thread that I began (separate from yours, David) under a different name, when I first discovered AH.com in late 2001.

Either way, its nice to see that uncredited re-posting is alive and well! :)
 

Diamond

Banned
My thread appeared on Monday, May 20, 2002. I thought the original post on this thread looked familiar... guess I recognized my own writing. :)
 
I was looking through the archives found it and wanted to revive it and when I went to post it I forgot about the Quote sorry!
 
How would a war turn out if the Chinese, Portugese, and Spainish, each capture part of the empire of the Aztecs and other Central American Empires? How would a war turn out between these 3 powers?
 
Top