Featured period
Zheng He
1433 - Nanjing
In the southern provinces of the Ming Empire, the admiral who commanded the greatest fleet in history reflects on why the emperor ordered the ships burned.
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1430s
1430s opens onto 1 life, 1 place story, and 1 named historical windows.
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Renaissance
Renaissance courts and workshops
1400 to 1600
Art, learning, and authority concentrated in courts, studios, and city-states.
14 lives visible here
13 place stories active in the same years
Enter this periodTime travel
Where you are
Zhongnanhai study, Beijing · 1430 CE to 1439 CE
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1430s
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1 place story is visible in this time window.
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2 prototype events
East Asia
Zheng He and the Ming treasure voyages
1405-1433 · Nanjing
Nanjing gathers decades of maritime reach back into one capital that must decide what oceanic scale means.
Zheng He gives the sequence a human center through which distance, service, and imperial expectation can all be felt.
France and Low Countries
Joan of Arc executed at Rouen
May 1431 · Rouen, France
Rouen turns sanctity, war, and judgment into one public death meant to cancel a troublesome voice.
Joan keeps the event from abstraction because everything turns on what one imprisoned body will or will not recant.
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- 1433medieval
Zheng He
1433 - Nanjing
Place story available
In the southern provinces of the Ming Empire, the admiral who commanded the greatest fleet in history reflects on why the emperor ordered the ships burned.