In his bestselling book , " 1421 : The Year China Discovered America , " British amateur historian Gavin Menzies plow the history of the Europeans ' discovery of America on its ear with a startling idea : Chinese sailors beatChristopher Columbusto the Americas by more than 70 years . The book has generated controversy within the halls of scholarship . Anthropologists , archaeologists , historiographer and linguist alike have debunked much of the grounds that Menzies used to tolerate his belief , which has come to be called the1421 theory .

But where did Menzies come up with the theme that it was Asians , not Europeans , who first arrived in America from other countries ? It ’s been long held by scholar that it was mass from Asia who first set foot in North America , but not in the way that Menzies describes . Sometime 10,000 year ago or more , hoi polloi of Asian creation are think to have traverse over the Bering demesne bridge from Siberia to what is now Alaska . From there , they are believe to have spread out over the trend of millennia , diverging genetically and populate North and South America .

But Menzies ' 1421 theory supposes much more direct influence from China . Rather than civilisation develop separately in the Americas and Asia , under the 1421 theory , China was directly involved in governance and trade with the peoples of the Americas with whom they share their ancestry .

Christopher Columbus Ships at Sea Artwork

So what grounds does he have to support this whimsy ? It ’s Menzie ’s belief that one only has to refer to certainmapsto see the illumination .

A full 30 years before Gavin Menzies published his Koran , Baptist missionary Dr. Hendon M. Harris perused the curiosities in a store in Taiwan . It was there he made an awesome discovery : a single-valued function that look to be ancient , write in classical Chinese and draw what to Harris was clearly North America . It was a map ofFu Sang , the fabled land of Chinese fabrication .

Fu Sang is to the Formosan whatAtlantisis to the West – a mythical acres that most do n’t believe exist , but for which enough tantalizing ( yet obscure ) evidence exists to maintain popularity for the estimate . The map the missionary discovered – which has come to be sleep with as theHarris map– show that Fu Sang was located just where North America is . Even more astonishingly , some of the feature film shown on the function of Fu Sang look a plenty like geographical anomaly unequaled to North America , such as the Grand Canyon .

As if the Harris single-valued function were n’t suggestive enough , other maps have also surfaced . It ’s a specific map that Menzies point to as definitive proof that the Chinese had already explore the humanity long before the Europeans ever localise sheet in the age of exploration . This map , known as the1418 map– so called for the particular date it was supposedly published – clearly shows all of the world ’s oceans , as well as all seven Continent , right in shape and position . Even more startling is the mathematical function ’s accurate depiction of features of North America , admit the Potomac River in the Northeast of the present - day United States .

Menzies believes that not only had the Chinese already explored the world before Columbus and other European explorers , but that it was with Chinese mapping that the Europeans were able to compass the globe . Armed with the mapping as his flagship evidence , Menzies show out plenty of other artifacts that point to Chinese pre - Columbian occupation in the Americas . Read the next page to find out what supports his theory.­

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Physical Evidence for the 1421 Theory

During the Ming Dynasty , a great adm­iral namedZhang He(as well as other famous admirals ) sailed out of China to explore the globe . Under the behest of Emperor Zhu Di , He and the Chinese Fleet ( made up of 28,000 man ) made their way from Asia to the Middle East and Africa , eventually reach as far as Indonesia . But did the fleet continue west all the way to the Americas ?

Perhaps the more logical possibility is that the fleet revert to China and then again set sail , this metre eastward , across the Pacific to the west coast of North America . Either way , Menzies says that grounds of their arrival is scattered throughout the custom , customs duty and art of American Indian federation of tribes . And he ’s not alone . " 1421 " has created a stir among its readership , engender piles of additional entry of evidence of a Chinese presence within the Americas before the Europeans put foot on the continents . To Menzies and his supportive readers , one need merely take care at the rich ethnic tapestry of the peoples of the Americas to find what they believe is the evidence of Formosan influence there .

Before the comer of Europeans , neither North nor South America had a Equus caballus roaming upon it . This is the idea hold by historian – the buck is not endemic to the Americas , and it was n’t until the Europeans bring in the gymnastic horse that the coinage find its way to the new world . But this is contradicted by some pre - Columbian aboriginal art found at Cofins Cave in Brazil and at Trujillo , Peru that limn Equus caballus , and in one pillowcase , what is conceive to be Taiwanese cavalry on hogback . The Chinese were go through horsemen for century , if not millennia , prior to the European historic period of exploration , and it ’s logical that were they to make an expedition to the Americas , they would have bestow their worthful horse with them .

Indigenous legend and folklore is also pregnant with what Menzies believe are stories about encounters between aboriginal kin and Chinese explorers . The leaders of the Inca tribe – a vast , powerful mountain tribe in the Andes Mountains of South America – are think by Menzies to have been governed by Chinese admirals . The leaderMontezuma , ruler of the Aztec empire in Mexico , is believed by Menzies to have err the conquistador Cortez for his granddad , come back again from his home in the East . The Cherokee Indians of the southeastern United States own traditional knowledge that tells of their accepting and war with jaw Chinese traveler by sea .

But what of strong-arm grounds ? If the Chinese had landed in the Americas – let alone swap with and rule the multitude they found there , would n’t direct evidence of their presence stay ? Menzies and the proponents of the 1421 theory say it does live . In the Pacific Northwest of the present - day United States , investigations at eight different sites have uncovered Formosan coins . A garment from the Nez Perce kinship group of present - twenty-four hours Idaho that ’s dated at over 300 years previous has woven decoration into it that are believed to be Taiwanese beads . And in the Florida Keys and off the sea-coast of Big Sur , Calif. , artifacts of pre - Columbian Chinese slut have been unearthed from a river bottom and the sea floor .

But despite all of this evidence ( and even more ) , historians are n’t rushing to rewrite the history books . discover out why some consider Menzies ' 1421 theory to be questionable .

The 1421 Theory: Junk History?

From its introduction in 2003 , Gavin Menzies ' 1421 theory has come under assault . The writing that seeks to confute Menzies is at least as long as his book . One question perhaps looms largest when approaching the 1421 possibility : If the Chinese had a comportment in the Americas prior to Christopher Columbus , then why is n’t their cross left indelibly on the face of American civilization ?

The Norse , who voyage as far W as Newfoundland in their travels across the Atlantic , impart remnants of their visits to North America . Their folklore include accounts of the Vikings ' clash with Native Americans . The crumbling stay of the stone outposts they build during their stay can still be seen . This was 1,000 years ago , and 500 years before Columbus ' ocean trip . Yet the Vikings brief settlement in North America is still plain . If the Chinese had such a thoroughgoing impact on societies in the Americas just 70 class before Columbus ' arrival , then why is n’t evidence of their comportment everywhere ?

What ’s more , there ’s a trenchant deficiency of cross - cultural pollenation between the new universe and China . When the Europeans arrived in the Americas , they fetch with them thing that have never before been see in the continents , like steel and horses . But more significantly , they took back exotic treasures from the new world . Maize and Lycopersicon esculentum , along with immense amounts of plunder amber , find its way to Europe upon the ships of returning explorers . Where ’s the Incan amber or the corn of the Aztecs in China ?

The 1418 Map of America

Perhaps the grounds that ’s been most attacked is the 1408 function itself . Dr. Geoff Wade , a historiographer with the National University of Singapore , has pen extensively in an endeavor to debunk Gavin Menzies and the 1421 hypothesis , even going so far as filing a ill in the United Kingdom against the publishers of Menzies ' book for marketing it as a history .

Wade points out several flaws with the 1408 function which intimate it ’s a false , chief among them is that the function shows the world based on the idea that it ’s a sphere . This notion was unknown in Ming Dynasty China . He also indicate out that China is poorly represented on the single-valued function , and enquire why , if the map ’s creators were Chinese , their nation would be sop up clumsily .

It ’s Wade ’s belief that the 1408 mapping was make within the 21st C , maybe even to support Menzie ’s 1421 hypothesis . Wade believe that the map is based on old maps created by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th one C . He points out that California is shown as an island and China is located at the center of the mathematical function , both examples of Jesuit mapmaking . He also allege that some of the text has clearly been render into Chinese from old Jesuit maps .

If the mapping is fake , then the entire 1421 theory lessen apart . But is n’t there any easier way of life to determine if the Chinese ever sailed to the Americas ? Why not just ask ? Here ’s where the story takes a turn that may keep the 1421 theory ’s condition as debatable for years to come . After the invading Manchu rulers guide over China following the Ming Dynasty ( establishing theQing Dynasty ) , the foreigners took great pains to wipe out any reminders of the previous rule . This included destruct all accounts of the outstanding fleet ’s extensive voyages . As these document burn , any grounds , self-contradictory or supportive , of a Chinese bearing in the Americas was lose forever and a day .

For more selective information on function , as well as links to Menzies ' and Wades ' preaching , visit the next pages .

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