Flowers, Sea, and Sky and Medieval Voyagers, Lifestyle and Homeschool Blog, New Digital Art and Photography
Flowers, Sea, and Sky
There aren't too many flowers this time of year in Vancouver. Some. But it is a tad to dark and cold for most buds to bloom. So what is a petal pusher like me to do. Fortunately most markets have some amazing cut flowers on offer. In some cases, the flowers are kept outside but under cover and so you can also get the shots in natural lights. This rose however was inside but with a little editing the fluorescent can be banished to early drafts.
So not too many flowers to be discovered on our walkabouts, but the seaside skies often make up for it. The late-winter weather is temperamental, with bouts of heavy rains sprinkled with sunshine. Look up and you will see nature paint a very temporary, but outrageously beautiful sky. The water and city-scape offer geometrical form and structure to the impressionist masterpeice..
Okay enough chat about the weather. Let's get to our studies. We are now setting sail into the past with the voyagers Zheng he, Vasca de Gama, and, Christopher Columbus.
Our provincially derived History program leaves a lot to be desired. It is very dry and as such I am very grateful for Crash Course in History. Give yourself ten minutes to enjoy the video before reading our summary.
Medieval Voyagers
From our studies ...
Today we are going to compare and contrast the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Zheng He, as told by John Green and Crash Course History.
Zheng He was an Islamic admiral from China. He was also a Eunuch. He came from obscurity to become one of the best mariners/admirals China and the world would ever see.
Between 1405 and 1433, he would lead seven voyages into the Indian Ocean. He commanded an armada of over 300 grand treasure ships and 27 000 men. These missions were not ones of exploration, but rather gathered tribute from lesser nations to be brought back to the emperor in China. China was a naval super power in the 15th century and through Zheng He and the Chinese Armada. They wanted to dominate the Indian Ocean trade.
When the Yongle Emperor died, China switched its focus from its navy to defending itself on land from the nomads from the Steppes. Resources were than funnelled towards buliding the Great Wall of China.
Vasco de Gama was a Portuguese mariner in the 15th century. At the time, Portugal was a resource pour country whose economy depended on sea trade. Vasco de Gama was patronized by Prince Henry the Navigator and tasked with finding an alternate route to India to access spice. In 1498 and after sailing around Africa, he landed in Calicut.
The Portuguese would capture a number of coastal cities and create a sea port trading empire. They didn't have enough ships to run the trade, so they instead ran a naval extortion racket and forced other trading vessels to pay for a permit to trade, the "car-tithe". Without the car-tithe, merchant vessels could not trade in any of the Portuguese-held seaports. The Portuguese were often viewed as little more than pirates in the Indian Ocean, but they did inspire Spain to look for their own route. Columbus would set sail with three ships in search of an alternate route to India and instead discovered the Americas for non-Scandinavian Europeans.
Zheng He was a naval commander and Columbus, at least initially, was an explorer. Columbus was searching for a western trade route to India and instead discovered the Americas for Spain. He originally landed on an island he called San Salvador in 1492. He made four voyages in total. Ferdinand and Isabelle funded the mission. With time, Columbus' exploration of the New World would bring tremendous wealth to Spain, but disaster to the original peoples of the new Americas.
These three men set sail for the same reason, the pursuit of wealth and power. Vasco de Gama and Columbus, however, also sought new converts to Christianity and subjects for their monarchial patrons. Columbus perhaps was the greatest explorer among them.
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Beautiful rose photo graph, & coo clouds
Why is there not enough flowers over there by this time this year?
Dry season and they can’t grow or what?
It is a little too cold and the days are short.
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The weather is so much nicer when it's overcast like this, it's so much nicer to walk around.