What would the consequences be of the Chinese discovering the Americas before the Europeans had? In the 1400s a Confucian Emperor came to power and stopped the Chinese maritime exploration. By 1500 it was a capital offence to build a ship with more than two masts. But what if he hadn't come to power or if he hadn't decided on this and China had ended up exploring the Americas in, say, the early to mid 1500s. How would their arrival there eventually clash with Europeans, who would also be exploring around the same time.