Chinese voyages were entirely different from the conventional voyages of the Europeans, later in the same century. The Chinese expedition fleet was heavily militarized, and carried vast amounts of treasures, which served to project Chinese power and wealth to the known world. Many kings were willing to declare themselves as tributaries to the Ming Empire.
These great expeditions were an attempt by the Ming emperors to discover and conquer the world. While exploring new lands, the fleets encountered several unknown civilizations, and opened beneficial trading opportunities.
The inhabitants of all the new lands, explored and colonized by Chinese seafarers, were expected to pay taxes to the mighty Ming Empire. This raked in a lot of additional wealth for the Chinese.
The voyages were basically diplomatic, and commercial in nature. They were conducted to bring the maritime trade into the tributary system, and to force foreign countries into compliance within the tributary system.
