As the last feudal dynasty established by the Han people, the Ming Dynasty at that time was undoubtedly the most powerful in the world. Whether it is military, economic, political, ideological, cultural, China during the Ming Dynasty was certainly the most powerful country in the world at that time.
The Ming Dynasty was founded in 1368, while the Americas were discovered only in 1492. At that time, Africa was not much better, and compared with China, it was a world of difference. As for the European countries, although they began to explore the New World at the end of the 15th century, their ships were simply different from those of fishing boats and warships compared with the fleet used by Zheng He in the Western Ocean.
So, let's say that during the Ming Dynasty, China ranked first in the world in those aspects.
1, the territory first
The first thing to say, of course, is territorial. At its peak, the Ming Dynasty had 9.97 million square kilometers of land, and although it later shrank, it hovered around 9 million square kilometers.
At that time, the European countries had not yet, or had just begun to open up new shipping routes, and there were not many colonies, so they were definitely inferior to the Ming Dynasty in terms of territory. Even the Ottoman Empire, which spanned the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa, had a territory of five or six million at its largest, which was incomparable with the Ming Dynasty.
2, the population first
There is no doubt that there are many Chinese, and even during the Ming Dynasty, China's population was the largest. Although the population of the Ming Dynasty has been controversial throughout history, according to the History of the Ming Dynasty, in 1391, the population of the Ming Dynasty was 56.77 million.
Although it shows that there were many years of war and turmoil at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the number of people who have been examined is also 50 million. There are many historians who are wondering how many people were in the Ming Dynasty when the population was the largest, some said 130 million, some said 150 million, and Ge Jianxiong even said 197 million. But in any case, when the population of the Ming Dynasty was at its peak, there were also seventy or eighty million.
At that time, the world's population was also about 400 million, so the population of the Ming Dynasty was definitely the first at that time.
3, the number of troops first
With the largest population in the world, it naturally has a strong and numerous army. When Zhu Yuanzhang unified China, the Ming Dynasty had about a million troops, and this million people were all veterans of the battlefield who had been fighting with the Yuan Dynasty, Chen Youyi, Zhang Shicheng and other separatist forces for more than ten years, and if they were all sent to Europe, even if the whole of Europe was united, they would not be opponents.
After Zhu Di took the throne, the number of troops was expanded, reaching about 1.5 million. Although the number of troops continued to decrease, there were also 700,000 or 800,000 people. At that time, the Ming Dynasty could easily launch a large-scale war of more than 100,000 people.
What about Europe? At that time, if they could put together a war of tens of thousands of people, they would already be considered to have exhausted the strength of the whole country.
4, the spy agency is the largest
In 1382, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Jinyi Guard. In 1420, Zhu Di established the East Factory. In 1477, Emperor Myeonghyonjong established the West Factory.
It is worth mentioning that the East Factory is also the world's earliest national secret service intelligence agency.
At that time, the number of these three institutions combined exceeded 100,000. In the world at that time, other countries, let alone intelligence personnel with 100,000 people, did not have more than 100,000 troops in many countries. Therefore, in terms of the size of the spy agency and the number of personnel, the Ming Dynasty is definitely the first.
5, the total tonnage of the ship is the first
The Ming Dynasty was the period when new shipping routes were opened up in European countries. Like the three ships used by Columbus in 1492 when he discovered the New World, the displacement was only about one hundred tons, and the three ships only loaded a total of 90 people.
And zheng he went to the west in 1405? The largest of these ships, 151 meters long and 61 meters wide, has no problem accommodating thousands of people. If it is calculated according to the displacement, this is about 2,000 tons, and even some historians believe that it can reach 5,000 tons.
In addition to such a large ship, Zheng He's fleet also had more than two hundred ships with an average length of seventy or eighty meters. Even in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the strength of the Ming Dynasty was far inferior to that of Zhu Yuanzhang's time, but Zheng Chenggong was still able to recover the treasure island of Taiwan.
6, the number of silver first
Although China during the feudal period was heavy agriculture and suppressed commerce, the economic level of China at that time was still higher than that of European countries.
At that time, most of the commodity trading needed to use silver, because the economy was developed, and the amount of silver in the Ming Dynasty was naturally very large. Coupled with the opening of new shipping routes in the 16th century, Spain and Portugal received a lot of gold and silver from the Americas, most of which was used to buy tea, porcelain, silk and other items from China, thus causing a large amount of gold and silver to flow into China, forming a trade surplus.
Through international trade, about one-third of the silver in China during the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly the first.
7, the first ore production
Whether it is the cold weapon period or the hot weapon period, the ore production is very important. During the Ming Dynasty, the iron production was more than 9,000 tons, and the metallurgical industry was extremely developed, and this iron production was not to say that it was in the Wanli period, even in the next two hundred years, no country could break this record.
