Explorer From China Who 'Beat Columbus To America'

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 3-4-2002 | Elizabeth Grice

[elbucko]

"Let's not leave out ole Prince Madoc,1170

Sure! An I'll be drinkin' a pint to the brave Welsh Prince, as well.

(Chinese discover world...what a load o'Commie Cr*p.)

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Regarding Chinese junks' anchor stones: these have indeed been found on the West coast, but they are of very recent date. Chinese junks and other asian shipping have been coming to California since at least the Gold Rush, over 150 years ago.

The Chinese fleets and ships mentioned in the article are very impressive, but they are a good example of "prestige politics" rather than serious commercial or scientific exploration. The fleet was sent out to overawe China's neighbors and to extract "tribute" (diplomatic gifts) to "prove" that China was the central kingdom and all other lands were tributaries of the central kingdom.

Naturally, when the Chinese emperor (or rather, the bureaucrats) got tired of financing this boondoggle, that was the end of the fleet. On the other hand, European exploration tended to pay for itself, and opened up new and greater possibilities for trade, conquest, and colonization, thereby forever changing the world and leading to the world we know today.

Had the Chinese fleets never sailed, history as we know it would have hardly been any different.

[aruanan]

Very cool. Too bad it was abortive like most of China's discoveries and innovations, swept away when the new regime came into power. Sounds a lot like what happened in the 1950's. At least their maritime pioneering made it possible for others with sticking power to quickly spread throughout the world.

[aruanan]

Had the Chinese fleets never sailed, history as we know it would have hardly been any different.

Except that the Western maritime explorers wouldn't have had the maps.

[dougherty]

Interesting. But the Vikings found America long before Columbus too. It isn't who landed here first that counts, it's who made it stick - who came back and settled.

The Vikings were my first thought as I began to read this article.

[Pharmboy]

Instead, according to Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commanding officer who has spent 14 years charting the movements of a Chinese expeditionary fleet between 1421 and 1423, the eunuch admiral, Zheng He, was there first.

Nah...couldn't be. He didn't have the stones for it.

[dvan]

This is all true! In fact there is evidence that the first Chinese restuarant was founded in San Franscisco when Columbus was still a small child.

[dvan]

This being so perhaps the Chinese have squatter's rights on the U.S.!!!!

[JenB]

I believe that Columbus found maps - or at least legends - that came from the Vikings, who reportedly heard the stories from the Irish. Or did Marco Polo bring back maps with him? And why hasn't this story come out before, if there are five hundred year old maps with Chinese written all over them?

[Ditter]

intresting read bump

[#3Fan]

HISTORY books in 23 countries may need to be rewritten in the light of new evidence that Chinese explorers had discovered most parts of the world by the mid-15th century.

Interesting but whoopdedoo, as far as who got here first. The Phoenicians were here 3000 years before that. Not to mention there were Hebrews here just before Christ in 107 BC.

[Fishing-guy]

Using his knowledge of winds and tides, Menzies has located what he believes are nine Chinese leviathans wrecked in the Caribbean in December 1421.</>

Now if he could bring them to the surface, then he really got a story.

[VadeRetro]

On the planisphere was a note in medieval Phoenician . . .

I've never heard of Medieval Phoenician before and can hardly imagine what it could refer to. Phoenicia, the seagoing empire of Eastern Med coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos with their various colonies, had left the stage before the Roman Empire was an Empire.

[Tench_Coxe]

I still believe the Phonecians were first to the New World. There was, if I remember correctly, pictoglyphs in Central America depicting visitors who were not the typical Mayan. In fact, the pictoglyph showed shoes with points curled and beards that looked Sumerian.

There was also a clay tablet found in South America ( can't remember the source ) that had cunieform writing on it.

Lastly, the infamous Piri Reis map, which depicted the Antarctic continent as recently verified by satellite.

[Verginius Rufus]

There are brown birch trees in Indiana, and there are brown birch trees in Korea, and therefore a Chinese eunuch discovered America?

As Fluellen says in Henry the Fifth, Act IV, Scene VII, "There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth...and there is salmons in both." Therefore Alexander the Great visited England?

[blam]

The Olmecs And The Shang

[blam]

This figurine was found in the ruins of an Olmec site in Southern Mexico.

[#3Fan]

Cool. Have you recieved your latest edition of Ancient American yet? (I think that was you that also subscribes.)

[blam]

"Have you recieved your latest edition of Ancient American yet? (I think that was you that also subscribes.)"

Yup. But, I'm behind in my reading.