Dan Snow

speaker

15,041 appearances 104 recordings 11 series first heard Dec 2024 last heard 2d ago

Dan Snow’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 101 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 24.

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Dan Snow's History Hit · The Rise and Fall of the Ming Dynasty · 21 Sep 2026 podcast

Its cities expanded, trade thrived, workshops hummed with the production of things like porcelain and silk. voice-verified

The Ming have this reputation for building, obviously here in in Beijing, but really a across China, right? voice-verified

I mean th th his energy is replicated in other cities. voice-verified

Yeah, that's obviously important given recent history. voice-verified

What about, dare we ask, if any normal people benefited from this? voice-verified

I mean, as well as the grandiose building projects, irrigation, canal building. voice-verified

Would normal people in the countryside have noticed a difference in his reign? voice-verified

The Yong Liu Emperor's ambition for the Ming stretched far beyond China's borders. voice-verified

From fourteen oh five onwards he dispatched the great treasure fleets of Admiral Zhung Hu, vast diplomatic missions carrying Chinese goods and imperial gifts across Southeast Asia, India and Arabia, reaching as far as the coast of East Africa. voice-verified

This was decades before the grand voyages of Vasco Dalgama or Francis Drake. voice-verified

It's one of my favourite periods of maritime history, so I couldn't possibly do an episode on the Ming without mentioning it. voice-verified

This is Professor Craig Clinus from the University of Oxford. voice-verified

I've just been reading David Abelarthia's History of the Sea, and it we should say it's not quite like Christopher Columbus is heading out to the middle of nowhere on a wing in a prayer. voice-verified

There were quite established networks of trade and diplomacy, stretching right in the Indian Ocean, the South world of the South China Sea was more coherent, more connected than the Atlantic voice-verified

Right, Craig, you got that. voice-verified

That was gonna be my next question. voice-verified

So tell me, why do we remember these and regard them as some of the most extraordinary maritime exhibitions of all time? voice-verified

Tell me about the scale, the size of the ships, apart from anything else, and the number of them. voice-verified

There's seven of them. voice-verified

They extend initially in Southeast Asia in fourteen oh four, oh eight, oh nine. voice-verified

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