PBS Previews: 1421: the year China discovered America?

PBS ^

[SteveH]

1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA?

1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA?, airing on PBS Wednesday, July 21, investigates a theory that could turn the conventional view of world history on its head: the startling possibility that a daring Chinese admiral, commanding the largest wooden armada ever built, reached America 71 years before Columbus.

The documentary examines the mystery surrounding China's legendary Zheng He and the spectacular Ming fleet of treasure junks he commanded in the early 15th century. The special provides a history of the known journeys of Zheng He's fleet and an account of new information uncovered by Gavin Menzies, a former British submarine commander who has spent nine years trying to prove that Zheng He reached America decades before Columbus. Menzies, author of the best-selling book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, has assembled evidence that he believes substantiates his theory.

The first part of the documentary presents 15th-century China as an emerging super-nation with an armada of treasure junks that dominated the Indian Ocean. At the behest of Chinese emperor Zhu Di, Zheng He sailed this fleet to far-flung outposts throughout the eastern hemisphere, established major ports and extended the commercial reach of "the Middle Kingdom" far beyond its previous bounds. The first segment recounts this story through re-enactments, extensive location filming and innovative computer graphics imaging models of the fleet itself.

1421: THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED AMERICA? then investigates the major historical mystery that arises from Menzies' theory: Could this incredible and intrepid fleet have shown the European explorers the way to the west - reaching America's shores decades before Columbus? Menzies seeks to prove his extraordinary theory by retracing the steps he believes the Chinese took from Africa to Europe to the Caribbean and along the eastern coast of the United States. The program examines the evidence behind his theory, then puts it to the test, drawing together historical accounts, archaeology and information from consultations with contemporary historians, archaeologists and scientists. The results are often dramatic and - like Menzies' theory itself - highly controversial.

[EggsAckley]

No problem.

[DannyTN]

So what. We know Vikings discovered North America before Columbus. But it was of little consequence.

Same thing with China. So what if they discovered it. If they did, they thought it was a worthless discovery.

It's like finding out Plato discovered relativity and then didn't tell anybody.

[SunkenCiv]

The problem with Chinese explorers is that after you explore you want to explore again soon after.

Heh...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SteveH.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.

[ChinaThreat]

Unfortunately this will give China a legitimate claim that the US mainland is part of China. We will probably end up in the same situation now as Taiwan, Hong Kong or the Spratly Islands. Great!!!!

[ChinaThreat]

ROTFLMAO!!!!

[DannyTN]

"The muslins are also saying they came to America first;"

Yeah, what happened? There weren't any Jews here to kill so they went back home?

[DannyTN]

No library's to burn to the ground so they could later say they saved our civilization?

[SunkenCiv]

I've never been a huge fan of this one, although I do have the book. The Americas have been discovered many times. Because of the era of Columbus, communication was never lost again (well, at least, not so far).

Columbus also made a big impression precisely because he claimed to have discovered a way to China by sailing west. Prior to his discovery of China (smirk) the circumference of the Earth had been known for more than a thousand years to be larger than the figure Columbus used. Columbus began to doubt that he'd reached China after all, figuring he'd found islands that lay just off the shore of China, and clinging to his eccentric view that the Earth's circumference was much smaller.

Vespucci, on seeing the Orinoco during one of Columbus' voyagers, realized there was too much water coming from inland for the landmass to be some smallish island, and realized it was a continent. Others came to that conclusion, and Vespucci got the whole thing named after him. Not bad.

Columbus had visited Iceland prior to his 1492 voyage, doing research, having heard about the lands west of the Atlantic. Those lands were known to the Scandinavians, and probably most other medieval maritime peoples of western Europe who pursued cod for European markets. There is sufficient evidence that navigation of the Atlantic took place before the Middle Ages, but again, not much in the way of documentary evidence in Europe.

The Phoenician tin mines were probably in Cornwall. The "Periplus of Hanno" indicates a voyage of exploration at least as far south in Africa as Mount Cameroon, the only volcano visible from the Atlantic and active in ancient times.

Herodotus records a Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa, openly doubting the one detail that makes it bona fide -- that the Sun was on the right (the Phoenicians were sailing far south of the equator). These Phoenicians sailed under the auspices of the Egyptian pharaoh, making a counterclockwise run, and returning via the Pillars of Hercules. Another reference in Herodotus, to "shoals" in the waters far to the south, which make them unnavigable, suggests ancient knowledge of Antarctic icebergs.

Carthaginian and other Phoenician ruins, coins, tools, pottery, and other remains are found wherever they've been suspected in western Africa. On Mogador (Berber "Amegdul") a piece of pottery bearing the name of Mago, general of Carthage, was found along with Corinthian pottery of circa 7th c BC, perhaps predating this voyage of Hanno. It's clear that more digging needs to be done. The very currents that snagged Thor Heyerdahl's reed boat and carried it to the Americas flow out of the area west of Africa known to have been frequented by the Phoenicians.

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1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies

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[UCANSEE2]

Actually, the Vikings major explorations were in invading and conquering the towns and villages along the river trading lines in what is commonly called RUSSIA.

That continent was named that because of these RED NORSEMEN who came along like they were trading, while exploring and INVADING.

RUSSIA is derived from a Word used by the original peoples that were living in what eventually became RUSSIA.

[DannyTN]

But didn't they have settlements in Greenland?

[JimSEA]

I have read the book but wouldn't put finished to the theory yet one way or the other. What I do find interesting is what the Chinese Imperial Bureaucracy did with all the discoveries. In short, they decided that all that knowledge was a threat to their power and thus unnecessary. They burned the fleet, the maps and many of the sailors.

The Muslim who headed the expedition (for all his genius) was less a Muslim that a eunuch servant of the Imperial government.

[blam]

Thanks.

The Man Who 'Beat Columbus To America'

[blam]

I always liked this picture comparison.

Zheng He's Ship (400Ft) Compared To Columbus's (85Ft)

[blam]

"RUSSIA is derived from a Word used by the original peoples that were living in what eventually became RUSSIA."

The Emergence Of The Rus: 830's AD

[JimSEA]

Just Wow!

[nopardons]

It was an interesting show.:-)

[night reader]

There weren't any Jews here to kill so they went back home?

You read the Book of Mormon lately?

[SunkenCiv]

...and a run of the mill Roman era galley displaced more tons than the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria combined. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Unfortunately this will give China a legitimate claim that the US mainland is part of China. We will probably end up in the same situation now as Taiwan, Hong Kong or the Spratly Islands. Great!!!!

Heh heh... But indeed, the same problem rears its ugly head for any pre-Columbian discovery. For example, circa 1970 remains of a Roman era wreck (perhaps more than one) were found perched on a submerged reef off Brazil. The project to excavate it was scrapped when the antiquity was discovered, probably because of the fear of priority of discovery claims that could wind up in court. If it sounds idiotic, that's because it is.