1421: The Year China Discovered America

Gavin Menzies has written a blockbuster book on China discovering America in 1421. Zhu Di, a Ming Dynasty Emperor relocated the Chinese capital to what is now Beijing from Nanjing, rebuilt and extended the Great Wall of China from 5000 to 6400 kilometres. In addition to this and other major works of canal building, he decided to build and send out thousands of ships to explore and map the world. He sent this armada out in 1421. In the following two and a half years the fleet would circumnavigate Antarctica, map the shorelines of all of the continents, and develop an understanding of latitude. They had already correctly calculated longitude. While they had no way to measure currents carrying these ships, when the currents are taken into account, any discrepancy between today's maps and their maps disappears.

They left many settlements on the coasts of many lands, buildings that still exist today including lighthouses. Wrecks of ships have been discovered and dated to the 1420's and Ming china shards are located over wide areas. European explorers discovered people with Chinese coloring and clothing styles, and they actually found one small group that spoke Chinese.

Since the Europeans wanted to be the first to find and explore the new worlds, they looked at any discoveries through the self-imposed lens of what they wanted to see rather than what they actually found. Chinese poultry and an indigeneous rose is found in the Americas. Chinese took back unusual animals for their zoo and recorded them at the time. I have found this book to be fascinating, if a bit tedious, to read and wonder if it is not time to set the historical record straight, giving credit to Chinese and Viking explorers rather than just celebrating Columbus (who thought he had traveled to India).

This book was on the New York Times Best Seller List, published in 2003 by Harper Perennial Press. It is well worth your reading. Have you found a book that you feel others must read? Let me know since I like to read about and learn new ideas and things.