The Chinese banning ocean voyages in 1430.
Without this decision, at the very least most of the great explorers would have likely been Chinese, and quite realistically without this decision we'd all be having this discussion in Chinese, as they could easily have grown to become the first globe-spanning empire instead of the English.
Here's one article on the topic.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a7612276.html
Quote:
Few people in the West realise how economically and technologically advanced China was by the 1400s. The Treasure Fleet was vast -- some vessels were up to 120 metres long. (Christopher Columbus's Santa Maria was only 19 metres.) A Chinese ship might have several decks inside it, up to nine masts, twelve sails, and contain luxurious staterooms and balconies, with a crew of up to 1,500, according to one description. On one journey, 317 of these ships set sail at once.
Under the command of the eunuch admiral Zheng He, the Chinese were routinely sailing to Africa and back decades before Columbus was even born. Yet they did not go on to conquer the world. Instead, the Chinese decided to destroy their boats and stop sailing West.
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The Chinese fleets of that era were just mind-boggling in comparison to anything else on the seas. In fact the Chinese were so far ahead everyone else at that point, that somewhat paradoxically, it likely contributed to the idea that they COULD do this, that there was nothing out there that was worth the risks to central power.