Did China discover America? (video)

The primary proponent of the “China discovered America” theory is Gavin Menzies, a British historian who has published several books on the subject, most notably 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. In it, he claims that the Chinese admiral Zheng He sailed from China to the Bahamas and back, but how factual are his claims?

This map is one that Menzies uses to support his claims. A Shanghai-based lawyer purchased the map in 2001. He claims that it is a 1760s copy of an original map created in 1418, three years before Menzies’ alleged date of Zheng’s discovery of America.[1]

There are several things wrong with using this map as proof. For one, the depiction of the Earth as two intersecting hemispheres is a feature that is only found in European maps. Additionally, the immense detail in which North and South America is depicted would not be able to be achieved in 30 years of voyages. It took the Europeans hundreds of years to get to this level of detail, and the amount of detail of inland features could only have been reproduced by inland explorers. [2]

The Himalayas are labeled as the largest mountain range in the world, but this was not found to be the case until the 19th century, and the Arctic is depicted on this map allegedly from 1418 but does not show up on any other Ming map until 1593. The depiction of California as an island is common on 17th-century European maps. Not to mention how this map was allegedly created 3 years before Menzies claimed that Zheng He discovered America.[3]

There is a general historical consensus that the map is actually a copy of a European map originally made in the 17th century,[4][5] but what about Menzies’ claims themselves, and the limited evidence he gives to support those claims?

Menzies mostly follows the primary historical narrative, which is that the Yongle Emperor sent Zheng He in command of a fleet of 107 ships in 1421. They then sailed all the way to India and Africa, collecting exotic animals and goods before returning to China. Menzies, however, makes the additional claim that the Chinese continued their expedition across the Atlantic, and eventually reached the Americas after splitting up into four separate fleets.

He claims that one fleet circumnavigated the globe via the tip of South America and then sailed around the coast of Australia and that another fleet circled around Antarctica. Additionally, he claims that 75% of the ships and their passengers (up to 500 per ship) set up Chinese colonies in the Americas and Australia.[6]

This begs the question: is there any physical evidence for these colonies? Well, no. No remains of a Chinese settlement have been found in the Americas or Australia, and there is little reason to believe that the Chinese could have such overseas colonial ambitions, yet not aim to conquer lands closer to home, e.g. Japan. His genetic “evidence” for these claims comes from a company that was later proven to be a scam. Menzies also claims that several structures around the world were constructed by Chinese colonists, but there is no evidence linking these constructions to the Chinese at all.[7] If you would like to do more reading on the topic, here is a helpful link: The myth of Menzies' "1421 " exposed

In summary, there are no other reputable historians that propose alternate theories about China discovering America. Menzies was the first to propose this and have any sort of success, and his theories have mostly been debunked as pseudohistory, and he relies on very little solid evidence to back up his seemingly absurd claims.

In the end, none of this matters. The Vikings beat them both, and even then, the hunter-gatherers who ventured across the Bering Strait were the true “discoverers” of America.

Footnotes

[1] SimonJenkins: Of course, the Chinese didn't discover America.

[2] Historical charlatan Gavin Menzies' new book claims that Chinese sailors crossed the Pacific in 40,000 BC

[3] Did China discover America?

[4] Simon Jenkins: Of course the Chinese didn't discover America.

[5] Does this map prove that China discovered America before Columbus?

[6] http://www.global-directions.com...

[7] Most Outrageous Claims

Let’s look at arguments from two viewpoints.

1. China discovered America first
2. China did not discover America first

Viewpoint 1

Menzies (A historian) claims that the map above is from 1418 and that Admiral Zheng discovered the Americas.

The map has a layout of various rivers and towns in the Americas. I’m not sure about the rivers but the towns look to be accurately placed.

Viewpoint 2

This is a more well-supported viewpoint, endorsed by many historians. The key arguments they present to disprove the map are:

The map is in a style that belongs exclusively to Europe

California is represented as an Island, as is the case on most European maps from the 17th century.

The Himalayas are marked as the tallest mountains (They were not discovered yet). But Chinese folklore does exist from ancient times, that points towards the existence of the Himalayas.

It is too accurate to belong to the time that

---

I think

There’s really no point in arguing who discovered the Americas.

We don’t have a definition of ‘discovering’. Did the Siberians who crossed the Bering Straits discover America? Did the Vikings of Vinlandsaga discover America?

It’s a confusing debate, but if we talk about the discovery in terms of a cultural expedition, then the evidence points overwhelmingly towards Columbus and Co.

Thanks to Derek Frost, for helping me out with some information.