Why didn't China "discover" the new world? There are many differences and similarities between the Chinese and the Europeans. Some of their differences were social and economical. The Chinese did not see any reason to discover different countries.
English: OSCE countries map
Chinese Brush for Writing Calligraphy
Flickr Chinese Dragon Year StatueEven though the Chinese were far more advanced than the Europeans, they did not "discover" the new world. They were not just more advanced with things to do with ships and sea, but also with things on land. The Chinese land was a lot bigger than the small European countries. Chinese armies were bigger than those of the Europeans. They had a bigger population which gave them the advantage of having more people to work on farms, build buildings that were needed dig in mines for money which made their country wealthier, to make tools, clothing and weapons. However, just because the Chinese had more and better things than the Europeans does not mean that they should have discovered the new world. The European countries may have been a lot smaller than China, but therefore they had the advantage of keeping more things under control. This made the Europeans more organized, which is very important, especially in the armies. The Armies in Europe were of course also smaller, but because of this they were able to concentrate more on organization, obeying orders, making armour and working together.
The Chinese already had many things in their country. Whatever thy needed they would trade with other countries. They traded items with the Asians, Africans and the even the Europeans. They did not see why they should go find new countries, because they thought they had everything, and that other countries could not give them anything new, because they were not as advanced as they were. They also thought why...