<p>Zheng He's Treasure Fleet finally arrives on the African coast, and the Yongle Emperor celebrates the apex of his reign with the grand opening of Beijing and the Forbidden City. But dark clouds continue to build, but in the emperor's aged, troubled mind, and literally on the horizon... a storm is coming...</p><br><p><strong>Time Period Covered:</strong></p><p>1416-1424 CE</p><br><p><strong>Major Historical Figures:</strong></p><p>The Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) [r. 1402-1424]</p><p>The Noble Consort Zhaoxian, née Wang [d. ca. 1420]</p><p>Grand Admiral Zheng He [1371-1435]</p><br><p>Mirza Sharukh, Sultan of the Timurid Dynasty [r. 1405-1447]</p><br><p><strong>Major Works Cited:</strong></p><p>Chan, Hok-lam. “The Yung-lo reign” in <em>The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Pt. I.</em><span class="ql-cursor"></span></p><p>Dreyer, Edward L. <em>Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433.</em></p><p>Levathes, Louise. <em>When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433.</em></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

<p>Having laid waste to the once glorious city of Baghdad, Hulegu Ilkhan now sets his sights east of the Euphrates, to the fertile lands of Syria and Egypt beyond. But what's to follow will set of a momentous clash in Galilee, at a spring called Ain Jalut, that will shake the very fundaments of history...</p><br><p><strong>Time Period Covered:</strong></p><p>1258-1260 CE</p><br><p><strong>Major Historical Figures:</strong></p><p><strong>Mongol Empire:</strong></p><p>Mongke Khaghan</p><p>Khubilai Ilkhan</p><p>Ariq Boke</p><br><p><strong>Ilkhanate:</strong></p><p>Hulegu Ilkhan</p><p>General Baiju</p><p>General Kitbuqa </p><br><p><strong>Ayyubid Dynasty:</strong></p><p>al-Muzzam Turanshah</p><p>al-Malik al-Nasir Yusuf</p><p>al-Aziz</p><p>al-Zayn al-Hafizi</p><br><p><strong>Mamluks:</strong></p><p>Saif ad-Din Qutuz</p><p>Baybars al Bunduqdari, "The Great Lord Panther"</p><br><p><strong>European Christendom:</strong></p><p>King Louis IX of France</p><p>Bohemond V of Antioch</p><p>Bohemond VI of Antioch</p><p>King Hethum I of Cilicia</p><br><p><strong>Major Sources Cited:</strong></p><p>Amitai, Reuven. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk Ilkhanate War, 1260-1281.</p><p>Amitai, Reuven. “An Exchange of Letters in Arabic Between Abakha Ilkhan and Sultan Baybars (A.H. 667/A.D. 1268-69)” in Central Asiatic Journal, Vol. 38, No. 1.</p><p>Gillespie, Alexander. Causes of War, Volume II: 1000 CE to 1400 CE.</p><p>Grousset, René. Empire of the Steppes: A history of Central Asia.</p><p>Subani, Hamad. The Secret History of Iran.</p><p>Richard, Jean. The Crusades, C.1071-1291.</p><p>Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades, Volume 3, The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades.</p><p>Tschanz, David W. “History’s Hinge: ‘Ain Jalut” in Saudi Aramco World.</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

The treasure Fleet goes on missions 2-4, resulting in increasingly strange, valuable, and even divine gifts being presented to Great Ming.Time Period Covered:1407-1415 CEMajor Historical FiguresMing:Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) [r. 1402-1424]Admir...

A live retelling (wart & all) of Genghis Khan's invasion of Khwarazmia ca. 1221, and the doomed flight of all who stood against his wrath... followed by a Q&A. From the 2021 Intelligent Speech Conference!

There once was a fleet that put to seaAll in name of the Imperial MingWith phoenix sterns, & dragon prowsOh go, my baochuan, go!Soon may the Treasure Fleet moorTo bring ceramics & silk galoreOne day, when the trading is doneThey’ll tak...

Zheng He & Co. have left the station and are sailing out! They leave the safety of the Yangtze River and set their compasses southbound and down, first to Fujian, then to Vietnam, Java, Sri Lanka, and finally all the way to India, all in the name o...

What does the aftermath of a massacre entail, on the world stage?CIA Memo 6/10/89 - Begins: 2:25US Beijing Embassy Cable 7/11/89 - Begins: 6:05

In this darkest of timelines, flickers of remembrance are more precious than ever...

The Yongle Emperor decides it's time for Great Ming to bust out its swim trunks and its flippy-floppies... because he's going to make the biggest, bestest oceanic fleet of awesomesauce that the world has ever seen! And put in command is his t...

We're back with Part 2 of my conversation with Caroline Vahrenkamp of The Wonders of the World Podcast, this tie all about the little city that Yongle built mostly to show his dead dad up - Beijing, and at its heart, the city-within-the-city, the ...

Part 1 of my interview with Caroline Vahrenkamp of "The Wonders of the World Podcast" all about Beijing and it's meteoric rise as (the once and future) capital of China in the early Ming Dynasty!

The Yongle Emperor decides to build a new capital. It goes well!He also decides to invade both Mongolia and Vietnam. It goes not so well.Time Period:1402-1424 CEMajor Historical Figures:Ming:The Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) [r. 1402-1424]General ...

A great conversation with Alex & Peter of "History's Most" about the worst civil war many have *still* never heard of - the Taiping Rebellion!Check out their great show at:https://historysmost.libsyn.com/

The Yongle Emperor has taken command... and we're in for a really, really, really great time....Time Period Covered: 1402-1424 CE

The civil war between the Jianwen Emperor and his uncle, the Prince of Yan, rages on across the realm. Both sides will feel the terror and pain of the fearsome realities combat... but in the end, only one will be left standing.Time Period Covered:1...

In the wake of the Hongwu Emperor's death, his grandson - Zhu Yunwen - will assume command. He's been brought up and trained in the highest of Confucian ethics and morals, and will seek to curb the excesses of his dear grandfather's... m...

The Hongwu Emperor enters the twilight of his life. But before he's ready to ride off into that long sunset, he's going to take a hell of a lot more people with him...Time Period:1387-1398 CEMajor Historical FIgures:The Hongwu Emperor...

(NOTE: This is Pt. 1 or 2. The Full Episode & all other bonus content is available via Patreon.com/thehistoryofchina)Mongke has ascended as the Great Khan of the Mongols and set loose his younger brother, Hulegu Ilkhan to bring the Islamic world...

To both the north and south, the armies of Great Ming continue to achieve order from chaos and stability across the realm, in the imperial palace at Nanjing, the Hongwu Emperor sits the Dragon Throne - as mercurial and temperamental as its very namesak...

Following the destruction of the Khwarazmian Empire in 1221, the Mongol Empire's appetite for conquest to the west is whetted. It will take a few Great Khans to kick it off, but with the accession of Möngke to the throne in 1251, the way will be l...

The founder of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor... has got a bit of a trust problem. It starts with him getting upset that his officials are "cutting corners" when it comes to official counts of tribute payments & the s...

You might not be able to go on a real holiday - but today we take a little audio trip to the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang... famed across the millennia for its beautiful bay, canals, and the famous West Lake.This is no ordinary tourist get-away, thoug...

The Hongwu Emperor officially accedes to the throne as the founding ruler of Great Ming, to as much pomp and circumstance as his ministers can possibly pack in to the ceremony. After the parties are all done and the sacrifices all made, however, the re...

"The list of their disasters was much lengthened [...] and whenever they tried to force a way into the borders of the empire, they were beaten back. They were once more confined to the great desert, whence they originally sprang.”“Although I am...

You are invited to a very exclusive party. Everyone who's anyone will be there, dressed to the nines. You're sure to have the time of your life, and won't even know where the time's gone...Story by: Edgar Allen Poe