Mare Indium Sinensis

Suppose the Chinese emperors of the 15th Century hadn't decided to retreat into isolation, and neglect the opportunities offered by the voyages of Admiral Zheng He? Suppose instead they had spread trading colonies all around the rim of the Indian Ocean, and all the way across the Pacific as far as the western coasts of the Americas, by 1500 AD? Suppose, further, that Chinese technology gave the Amerindian tribes or the empires of Central and South America a better chance against the Spanish/Potugese et. al. (just because the Chinese wanted to protect their own trade monopoly in the Americas, and weren't prepared to share the market with the new arrivals?) It could be that for their own reasons, the Chinese gave the various local clans a bit of help in repelling the European explorers and settlers.
 
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