My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 406: Europe's messy history
So, in addition to materials that can be mass-produced such as silk and sandpaper, are there other materials suitable for making electrical wires in Ming Dynasty?
Li Han was thinking about it, and suddenly, he had an idea. In the early days, in addition to silk sandpaper, there was another most important material used to insulate the outer covering of wires. It was also the most widely used material before rubber was used in wire manufacturing.

--asbestos!
Before rubber was used on a large scale, asbestos was an excellent insulating material. Not only was it an insulator, it was also waterproof and fireproof, making it perfect for making electrical wires.

Not only that, asbestos is a mineral that has large-scale reserves in nature and is easy to mine.

More importantly, asbestos has been used since the Zhou Dynasty. Well, in ancient times, it should be called fire-proof cloth.

So what we need to do is to find the process of making asbestos into insulating wrapped wire.

Li Han thought about it and thought that it had only been over a hundred years, so it shouldn't be difficult to find.

The biggest problem is that the Ming Dynasty needs to train a sufficient team of electrical engineers and strengthen the promotion of knowledge on electrical safety so that people can understand what current, voltage and resistance are, so that the electricity can be generated but people are electrocuted to death all year round, which is also a big problem.

I will look for related information after reading the letter. He shook the letter and continued reading.

Li Han thought it was shocking enough that Li Min had tinkered with the steam generator, but what he didn't expect was that the shock was yet to come.

Xu Da and his companions met a group of strange people in Temasek, and the leader of this group was called Don Ferdinando Macaros, from the Kingdom of Castile?

Isn’t this person Spanish?

Don is a typical Spanish noble surname, but Don can also be used as a name. Ferdinand, wow, he’s a member of the royal family!

As for Macaros, he had never seen this surname before. Perhaps because he was not very familiar with European aristocratic families, he really couldn't figure out which noble family in Spain had the surname Macaros.

But the surname Ferdinand is very famous, it is the royal surname of the Kingdom of Aragon!
So this Don Ferdinando Macaros is the product of the marriage between the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon?

As for the Kingdom of Castile, isn’t it the name of one of the kingdoms before the unification of Spain?

In 711 AD, the Arab Empire invaded the Iberian Peninsula from Egypt through the Strait of Gibraltar, and from the following year, the Catholics on the Iberian Peninsula began a campaign to recover lost territory that lasted more than 800 years.

The Kingdom of Castile was a kingdom that was born in the Castile region in the early 11th century during the Reconquista.

Judging from the historical node of the 1383th year of Hongwu, the main forces in the Iberian Peninsula in , in addition to the Kingdom of Castile, were the Kingdom of Aragon and the last few Arab strongholds in the Iberian Peninsula, such as the city of Granada.

It was not until more than ninety years later, in 1479, that the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon merged through marriage, and in 1492 they occupied the city of Granada, the last Arab stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, thus completing the unification and establishing the prototype of the country of Spain.

What Li Han didn’t expect was that it was only 1383, so how did the Spaniards get to Temasek, and go there by boat?

This is totally inconsistent with the history I learned, and it was obviously the Portuguese who first started the great voyage...

In 1383, Portugal was probably still at war with the Kingdom of Castile.

Wait, Li Han suddenly slapped his head. That guy named Macaros, he wanted to take the sea route from Spain to Temasek, so he should pass by the Cape of Good Hope. Could he be the first person to discover the Cape of Good Hope?
According to historical records, the first European to pass the Cape of Good Hope was a Portuguese named Dias. At that time, Dias called it the Cape of Storms because of the strong storms there. After Dias returned to Lisbon in December 1488, he told King John II about his experience of the "Cape of Storms". King John II believed that by going around this cape, there would be hope of reaching the long-desired India, so he renamed the "Cape of Storms" to the "Cape of Good Hope".

Could it be that the historical records are wrong?

Or maybe the history of Makaros passing through the Cape of Good Hope was not recorded at all.

Because before Portugal officially started the great voyages of discovery, there were indeed sporadic fleets trying to find a sea route from Europe to the East, but these people did not leave their names in history.

However, there is another possibility, that is, the cramming-style industrial development of the Ming Dynasty has profoundly changed the world history line of that period!

You should know that in the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Lan Yu to the north to attack the Yuan court in 1388, and finally annihilated the last forces of the Yuan court in one fell swoop at Buyuer Lake. The last emperor of the Yuan court, Toghon Temur, was killed by the leader of the Oirat, Yesüder, during his escape.

However, after his own intervention, the history of the Ming Dynasty's annihilation of the Yuan Dynasty was brought forward to 1382, a full six years earlier, and Yesugeier was also destroyed in the process.

The possible consequence of this for Europe is that the Ming Dynasty conquered the desert, and all the Mongolian tribes originally in the desert, including the Oirat tribe, all moved westward and entered European territory.

In the original history, Yesüder of the Oirat tribe became the new Khan of the desert tribes after killing Toghon Temur. He had been entangled in the desert and the Ming Dynasty and did not move westward into Europe.

Perhaps this is what stimulated Europe to start the great voyages of discovery first?

A little butterfly that changed history flapped its wings, so did Europe also start the great voyages of discovery ahead of time?
This was the only explanation Li Han could think of.

However, this great voyage cannot be overtaken by Europe. The Ming Dynasty must seize the waterway first and land in America first!
On this point, Lao Zhu and I thought the same thing.

So if Lao Zhu wants to understand the specific situation in Europe, will historical changes have an impact on the situation in Europe?

Li Han thought about it carefully and felt that even if there was an impact, it was only a short year and it would not change the current situation and relations between European countries in a major way. Therefore, the current situation between European countries should not change much from the history he was familiar with.

So what was the situation in Europe in 1383? At this time, England and France were still fighting a century-long battle, Joan of Arc had not yet been born, and England had already annexed Scotland.

The Holy Roman Empire, which was neither holy nor Roman, was still a loose alliance of small principalities. The national consciousness of the German majority had not yet awakened. The Habsburg family had emerged from the trough and was heading towards its peak, but it had not yet controlled the Holy Roman Empire through marriage.

The Apennine Peninsula was still full of city-states, Florence was still just a port city-state, the Medici family had not yet risen, and the Renaissance was still in its infancy.

At this time, Europe had entered the end of the Middle Ages, and countries had established complex diplomatic systems and alliances through marriage.

Although the power of the Holy See is still strong, the Inquisition can still do whatever it wants. After sacrificing Bruno and others, the Inquisition is about to enter its own glory with the rise of the witch hunt movement.

The Inquisition was a good thing. It was the brake pad for Europe's development and the speed bump for scientific progress. Li Han felt that the role of the Inquisition should be vigorously promoted.

(End of this chapter)