These pages: 1421: The Year China Discovered America | Category: | index pages:
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There might be dispute over treating this as history; historical novel is preferred by at least one hostile website (which has its own problems).
As far as I can tell, Menzies believes hes writing history. He just does it badly, stressing his least trustworthy evidence and conclusions and giving short shrift to alternatives. He is a former navy captain, and I believe he is used to committing to a decision on available evidence without waiting for absolute proof. This might explain his tendency to treat working hypotheses as conclusions, thereby proving much with little evidence. Its efficient but unconvincing.
But the story is intriguing, and the heart of his evidence a substantial number of charts in European hands, showing detailed knowledge of areas no Europeans had yet explored seems pretty solid. He continues to work with historians and archaeologists to improve the evidence; Menzies web site contains more, and more recent, details than the bookalong with a sequel and an exploration of the Atlantis myth, which might explain why hes not taken seriously by many historians.
My notes below on evidence are incomplete and ignore a fair amount of doubt about the interpretations, but discussion of the evidence is in flux in any case.
1421
The Year China Discovered America Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Gavin Menzies | |||
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Introduction | Note (Hals): end note | ||
A layman, no matter how distinguished in other fields, looks at a map or a chart and sees only a series of outlines that may or may not be the misshapen representations of familiar lands. An experienced navigator looking at the same map can deduce far more: where the cartographer who had first charted it had sailed, in what direction, how fast or slow, how near to or far from the land he had been, the state of his knowledge of latitude and longitude, even whether it was night or day. Given sufficient knowledge of the lands and oceans depicted on the chart, a navigator can also explain why what the chart shows as islands could be mountain peaks, why what was then an extensive body of land might now be shoals, reefs and islands, and hence why some lands might have been depicted with curiously distended forms. | Topic: | ||
Columbus, da Gama, Magellan and Cook were later to make the same discoveries but they all knew they were following in the footsteps of others, for they were carrying copies of the Chinese maps with them when they set off on their own journeys into the unknown. | |||
I Imperial China |
1 The Emperors Grand Plan |
Note (Hals): end note | |
Chinese foreign policy was quite different from that of the Europeans who followed them to the Indian Ocean many years later. The Chinese preferred to pursue their aims by trade, influence and bribery rather than by open conflict and direct colonization. Zhu Dis policy was to despatch huge armadas every few years throughout the known world, bearing gifts and trade goods; the massive treasure ships carrying a huge array of guns and a travelling army of soldiers were also a potent reminder of his imperial might: China alone had the necessary firepower to protect friendly countries from invasion and quash insurrections against their rulers. | |||
In 1421, the next most powerful fleet afloat was that of Venice. The Venetians possessed around three hundred galleys fast, light, thin-skinned ships built with softwood planking, rowed by oarsmen and only suitable for island-hopping in the calm of a Mediterranean summer. The biggest Venetian galleys were some 150 feet long and 20 feet wide and carried at best 50 tons of cargo. In comparison, Zhu Dis treasure ships were ocean-going monsters built of teak. The rudder of one of these great ships stood 36 feet high almost as long as the whole of the flagship the Niña in which Columbus was later to set sail for the New World. Each treasure ship could carry more than two thousand tons of cargo and reach Malacca in five weeks, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in twelve. They were capable of sailing the wildest oceans of the world, in voyages lasting years at a time. | |||
2 A Thunderbolt Strikes |
Note (Hals): end note | ||
There had always been an inherent contradiction at the heart of Zhu Dis government: it was effectively two separate administrations a mandarin cabinet in charge of finance, economics, home affairs and law and order, and the eunuchs, who led the armed forces and executed Zhu Dis foreign policy. At the peak of his powers, Zhu Di had tolerated his mandarin critics, allowing them to influence his favourite son and successor, Zhu Gaozhi. Deep down the mandarins loathed Zhu Dis grandiose plans, his foreign policy, and the bleak northern location of the Forbidden City. They seized the opportunity offered by his illness and waning powers and looked to the crown prince, Zhu Gaozhi, to reverse his fathers policies. | |||
The last of the battered remnants of the great treasure fleets limped home in October 1423 after two and a half years at sea. Zheng Hes men had no idea of the dramatic events unfolding at home and must have been expecting a heroes welcome. Their voyages had been a remarkable success. They had reached countless unknown lands and immeasurably furthered their knowledge of navigation, but instead of plaudits, the returning admirals were spurned by those who now ruled China. | Topic: | ||
By late 1421, Chinas history was set for centuries to come. The legacy of Zhu Di, Zheng He and their great treasure fleets would be all but obliterated. What oceans they had sailed, what lands they had seen, what discoveries they had made, what colonies they had created were no longer of interest to the Chinese hierarchy. | |||
3 The Fleets Set Sail |
Note (Hals): end note | ||
The first task of the fleets was to return the rulers, ambassadors and envoys to their home ports in India, Arabia and East Africa. They were then to rendezvous off the southern coast of Africa and set sail into uncharted waters to fulfil Zhu Dis vision. They knew exactly what was expected of them. They would proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas or they would die in the attempt. | |||
II The Guiding Stars |
4 Rounding the Cape |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | |
5 The New World |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | ||
During the Northern and Southern dynasties in the first year of the Everlasting Origin Emperor, AD 499, a Buddhist priest named Hoei-Shin (Universal Compassion) returned from a land twenty thousand li (eight thousand nautical miles) east of China. He named this continent Fusang after the trees that grew there. The Fusang tree bore fruit like a red pear, and had edible shoots and bark the inhabitants used for clothing and paper. Coupled with his statement that the country had no iron, Hoei-Shins description suggests that the Fusang was the maguey tree that grows only in Central and South America. It bears red fruit and is also used in the other ways he described. Iron is found in almost every part of the world except for Central America, just as Hoei-Shin indicated. | |||
III The Voyage of Hong Bao |
6 Voyage to Antarctica and Australia |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | |
The existence of the strait leading from the Atlantic to the Pacific was well known both to the King of Spain and Magellan before he set sail. He took with him on the voyage a marine chart that showed the strait and the Pacific Ocean beyond it. The contract he had signed with the king specified the aims of the voyage to sail westwards for the Spice Islands and the share of the profits each was to enjoy. | |||
IV The Voyage of Zhou Man |
7 Australia |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | |
8 The Barrier Reef and the Spice Islands |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | ||
When Europeans eventually arrived, they were not sailing blindly into a great unknown. The Dauphin chart, one of the other charts from the Dieppe School and almost identical to the Rotz chart, came into the possession of Edmund Harley, Earl of Oxford and First Lord of the Admiralty, in the mid-eighteenth century and became known as the Harleian. It was later acquired by Joseph Banks, the young scientist who sailed in the Endeavour with Captain Cook. At the time Captain Cook sailed, the British government therefore had access to both the Harleian and Rotz charts, since the latter was at that stage owned by the Admiralty. Cooks orders from the Admiralty were to search down to 40°S the latitude of South Australia shown on both charts where they had good reason to suppose the southern continent existed. | |||
9 The First Colony in the Americas |
Note (Hals): Evidence:
end note | ||
10 Colonies in Central America |
Note (Hals): Evidence of Chinese contact with Central America:
end note | ||
I began to wonder why American and European historians had managed to persuade the world for so long that Columbus had discovered America and Cook Australia. Were they ignorant of the Chinese voyages to the Americas before Columbus? I decided to find out. To my amazement, I discovered that there were more than a thousand books providing overwhelming evidence of pre-Columbian Chinese journeys to the Americas. | |||
text checked (note A) Feb 2005 |