Cloze document for the Gunpowder Empires and the Ming Voyages notes We're examining the Early Modern Age right now, focusing on the Muslim "gunpowder empires" of the 1) the 2) and the 3) mega-states. As these large states were consolidating their power in south and southwest Asia, the Chinese 4) dynasty was coming to grips with its own opportunity to expand its influence well-beyond its borders into the thriving 5) Ocean market zone. While this moment in Old World history would seem to indicate a future global market dominated by Muslim and Chinese power blocs, this situation would experience dramatic changes after the Western Europeans finally take to the seas in an effort to re-connect with the markets of the Far East. (If you will recall, this pan-Eurasian commerce, which flowed along the 6) moving back and forth, East-West for over 1500 miles, came to an abrupt end when the 7) swept through most of the trading nations in the middle 1300's, killing roughly one half of the population and severely eroding the power of the 8)