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Article: Enter the tiger and the dragon: India and China move into the Arabian Sea to protect their energy lifelines to the Middle East.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- April 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
DECADES BEFORE CHRISTOPHER Columbus ventured into the unknown of the great western ocean to discover America, a Chinese admiral named Zheng He set sail from Nanjing, then the Chinese capital, with an armada of more than 300 ships carrying nearly 28,000 soldiers and seamen into the Arabian Sea, the Gulf and on down the eastern coast of Africa.
His fleet was the largest to have sailed the oceans up to that point in history. It was made up of giant nine-masted junks, supply ships, water carriers and warships. The largest of the junks was more than 400 feet long and 150 feet wide, more than double the size of the Spanish and Portuguese ...