Maritime China Meets Maritime Europe: Zheng Chenggong versus the Dutch East India Company

In 1662, the first war between Europe and China ended with defeat for the Europeans. The Dutch East India Company, after a nine month siege, surrendered one of its largest and most valuable colonies – the island of Taiwan – to the Ming loyalist warlord Zheng Chenggong. This war, virtually unknown in the west, is of historical interest because it can help answer some key questions in the field of global history. Most people’s acquaintance with traditional China’s maritime history begins and ends with the “Chinese Columbus”: Zheng He, the great admiral who led seven huge expeditions from China to the Middle East and Africa in the 1400s. After the abrogation of these voyages in 1433, China, many people suppose, lapsed into isolation and had little maritime contact, leaving the seas open to the newly dynamic societies of maritime Europe. As one China expert wrote in the New York Times, “Asia's retreat into relative isolation after the expeditions of Zheng He amounted to a catastrophic missed opportunity, one that laid the groundwork for the rise of Europe and, eventually, America.”[i] This notion of traditional China as closed and isolated after Zheng He is widespread and pervasive. It is also false. The rise of the maritime lord Zheng Chenggong, whose father was a pirate, and his defeat of the Dutch East India Company, are used in this paper to illustrate the contours of maritime China in the 17^th century, the variegated activities of Chinese traders throughout maritime Asia. The paper is based on Dutch, German, and Classical Chinese published and manuscript sources.

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[i]       Nicholas Kristof, “1492: The Prequel,” New York Times Magazine, 6 June 1999.

See more of: "Crossing the Beach” in Southeast and East Asia: Redefining Sovereignty, Social Mobility, Vassalage, and Resistance, 1513–1777
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