Some Ming Dynasty China PoDs

[Mig114]

Are there any PoDs during the Ming Dynasty that could change China for the better? As well as help it expand to new lands? I need this for something, so info would be appreciated.

[Captain Jack]

Could you maybe be a little more specific about what you're looking for? Better in what way? At some point China expanding more is going to be detrimental as its going to increase the burden on what was OTL(as I understand it and I am by no means an expert) a struggling system by the end.

Aside from that the first one that comes to mind is to have the government increase taxes as historically people living in China at that time paid extremely low taxes. Also the government received a relatively small amount of income from its overseas trade. Basically my thinking is along that more money for the government would help with foreign expansion and could be achieved without seriously harming the general population.

[Mig114]

Better in an economic sense.

[willbell]

You definitely could find some PODs to improve the isolationist attitude of China. I don't know enough to tell you which.

[Faeelin]

You might find this interesting: http://alternatehistory.net/discussi...highlight=Ming.

[freethinker]

Perhaps if the mongols dont manage to capture the emperor in 1449 the Ming Dynasty can continue to monopolize trade in the Indian Ocean and set up colonies in India, Philippines, Singapore, Arabia, East Africa and possibly Indonesia. This could end up strangling Europe if done forcibly enough, I have been thinking recently about a Vasco De Gama being dragged back to Portugal by a fleet of Chinese Treasure ships as a message to Christendom to stay away

[WhatIsAUserName]

Originally Posted by Mig114

Are there any PoDs during the Ming Dynasty that could change China for the better? As well as help it expand to new lands? I need this for something, so info would be appreciated.

When you say new lands, do you mean new in the sense of "China incorporates its neighbors into its territory for the first time" new, or do you mean "China discovers and takes over lands that it's never encountered before" new? For the latter, ideas of Ming Australia or North America have been repeated often, so I won't go into them here.

Some things that could happen: if China doesn't go through the strain of repulsing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea, there's a lot less economic stress. Also, the rise of Nurhaci and the Manchus can be avoided with a few Ming victories.

Originally Posted by freethinker

Perhaps if the mongols dont manage to capture the emperor in 1449 the Ming Dynasty can continue to monopolize trade in the Indian Ocean and set up colonies in India, Philippines, Singapore, Arabia, East Africa and possibly Indonesia. This could end up strangling Europe if done forcibly enough, I have been thinking recently about a Vasco De Gama being dragged back to Portugal by a fleet of Chinese Treasure ships as a message to Christendom to stay away

The former wasn't the cause of the latter. Also, it's wrong to say that the Ming monopolized trade. While there was a substantial element to it, it's wrong to say that the Ming had a monopoly over the Indian Ocean trade, which had plenty of other players to it.

[FDW]

There's the Imjin War to consider, as the outcome here led to the Ming's final decline.