Title pretty much sums things up
In: 6
The Chinese had the best navy in the world around 1500. However, they focused their budget on land armies because of the ever-present threat from the Mongols, so they let their navy dwindle. They had no reason to be exploring because of the Mongol threat, and the distance from China to California is about twice as long as from Europe to USA. Still, if China had the political need, they could have done it with their navy. But, for China, they decided to put their resources elsewhere. Japan was isolated for most of its history, and had no imperial desires until the 20th century.
Meanwhile in Europe, there were trade winds that could take ships east and west, depending on one’s latitude. Also, Europe was mostly in really bad shape politically and economically around 1500 so there was a need to find resources elsewhere.
TLDR; Europe is much closer to the new world than Asia, about half the distance. There were also trade winds that made the trip possibly.
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