That landlubbers lack for example, 'if I was able to state with confidence Reminds the reader of, his own naval expertise which gives him a mystical understanding Third, Menzies relies upon, and constantly That links American Indians to the Chinese wrecks of Chinese ships and medievalĬhinese anchors found in California. Second, he adduces allegedly tangible evidence of pre-Columbian contact betweenĪsia and the Americas, such as: flora and fauna (maize, sweet potatoes, AsiaticĬhickens, coconuts) that must have been transported by humans 'DNA evidence' Parts of North and South America and some Atlantic islands, were used by EuropeanĮxplorers (including Columbus) when they started their own voyages decades later. So he relies upon three types of evidence.įirst, Menzies claims that Chinese maps from as early as 1428, allegedly showing Xenophobic Confucian officials who advised the later Ming emperors destroyedĪll records of these sea voyages. Menzies has no 'smoking gun' that proves his theory- because the Of this theory, he offers no proof, only a great deal of circumstantial evidence Gavin Menzies, a former British Royal Navy officer, argues in the bestsellerġ421: The Year China Discovered America, that squadrons from Zheng He'sįleets, between 14, did indeed get to the Americas first-as wellĪs to Greenland, Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand. History is: why didn't these Chinese flotillas beat the Portuguese and Spanish Indeed, one of the favorite themes of the history subgenre known as alternative The legendary admiral Zheng He, that sailed as far as East Africa and the Red Naval expeditions, commissioned by the Ming Emperor Zhu Di and commanded by Every college world history textbook discusses the early 15th c.

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