Demographics of a Chinese America

If Zheng He had discovered America and the Chinese had eventually colonized at least a part of it, what would the settlement patterns have been? What would have been the demographic trends?
 
China had no reason to create a settler colony somewhere not near China. If the emperor wanted more land he would just send people to clear more land in his empire.

If for some reason there must be a colony in the Americas it would probably start out as a port for the repair of ships. In which case Buenos Aires seems well suited for supporting circumnavigations.
 
C Montgomery Burns;4268396[B said:
]If Zheng He had discovered America and the Chinese had eventually colonized at least a part of it[/B], what would the settlement patterns have been? What would have been the demographic trends?

Alien. Space. Bats. :rolleyes: China is large enough that they don't have a dearth of goods to trade with - it was the Europeans who lacked something to trade with the Chinese, hence Opium (but that's much later)
 
China had no reason to create a settler colony somewhere not near China. If the emperor wanted more land he would just send people to clear more land in his empire.

If for some reason there must be a colony in the Americas it would probably start out as a port for the repair of ships. In which case Buenos Aires seems well suited for supporting circumnavigations.

Buenos Aires is on the other side of the ocean. :confused:
 
Because China has no vessels suited for deep-oceanic voyages (Zheng He's trips, if you notice, tend not to stray from the coast), and because it had no need to colonize.

Agree it had no need to colonize, but disagree their fleet was unseaworthy. Zheng He's fleets sailed across open seas quite a few times.

getfile.php

Buenos Aires is on the other side of the ocean. :confused:

Yes, other side of the Indian Ocean. If they sail pass the Cape of Good Hope they could head further west to South America.
 
Well, the demographics of this speculative colony would be largely determined by interior conditions in the Chinese provinces. The Chinese diaspora OTL was driven by the collapse and deterioration of the Qing bureaucracy and infrastructure, which hit Guangdong province really hard, spurring Cantonese immigration (they were traditionally seafarers anyway, but the deteriorating local economy forced large numbers of young, Cantonese men overseas).

While I agree that a Chinese colony in the Americas is highly implausible, I just thought I'd throw that out there to answer the OP's question.
 
Agree it had no need to colonize, but disagree their fleet was unseaworthy. Zheng He's fleets sailed across open seas quite a few times.




Yes, other side of the Indian Ocean. If they sail pass the Cape of Good Hope they could head further west to South America.


Dude that is the Indian Ocean, far shallower and calmer then the WIDE OPEN Pacific. It's like comparing lake champlaign to the Atlantic Ocean...
 

Hendryk

Banned
Having once attempted to write a "Chinese America" TL and given up over plausibility issues, I agree that it's not a very plausible scenario, but not an altogether impossible one.

Well, the demographics of this speculative colony would be largely determined by interior conditions in the Chinese provinces. The Chinese diaspora OTL was driven by the collapse and deterioration of the Qing bureaucracy and infrastructure, which hit Guangdong province really hard, spurring Cantonese immigration (they were traditionally seafarers anyway, but the deteriorating local economy forced large numbers of young, Cantonese men overseas).
One interesting element is that the Chinese population grew very rapidly in the middle part of the Ming dynasty, from 53 million in 1490 to 100 million in 1550. This kind of demographic boom would create the right conditions for large-scale emigration. Plus, once New World crops such as maize and sweet potato are introduced in China, expect the population to grow some more, as it did in OTL when these crops arrived from the Americas via the Spanish Philippines.

Dude that is the Indian Ocean, far shallower and calmer then the WIDE OPEN Pacific. It's like comparing lake champlaign to the Atlantic Ocean...
Note that it's possible to sail from China to the Pacific Northwest without going very far into the open ocean: it's just a matter of following the coastline, then the Kurile and Aleutian archipelagos, and voilà, you're in Alaska. Though I think the more likely way would be to ride the North Pacific current, which IMHO would not require particularly sturdy vessels. After all, Polynesia was colonized by people who rode tiny sailboats.
 
One interesting element is that the Chinese population grew very rapidly in the middle part of the Ming dynasty, from 53 million in 1490 to 100 million in 1550. This kind of demographic boom would create the right conditions for large-scale emigration. Plus, once New World crops such as maize and sweet potato are introduced in China, expect the population to grow some more, as it did in OTL when these crops arrived from the Americas via the Spanish Philippines.

Once again, I completely forget to factor in the impact of the Columbian Exchange. Thanks for reminding me!
 
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