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Did the Chinese discover America?
CNN ^ | January 13, 2003 | Adam Dunn

Posted on 01/13/2003 2:50:54 PM PST by NP-INCOMPLETE

Edited on 04/29/2004 2:01:55 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In his new book, "1421: The Year China Discovered America" (William Morrow), Gavin Menzies claims that a massive Chinese fleet of huge junks and support ships made a two-year circumnavigation of the globe, with extensive exploration of the Americas, nearly a century before Magellan and Columbus.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: china; discovery; gavinmenzies; godsgravesglyphs; history; navigation; navy
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To: Question_Assumptions

Statue found in Olmec ruins.

41 posted on 01/13/2003 5:12:32 PM PST by blam
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To: Question_Assumptions

Statue found in Olmec ruins

42 posted on 01/13/2003 5:14:49 PM PST by blam
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To: NP-INCOMPLETE
America was invented by Al Gore - in 1979.
43 posted on 01/13/2003 5:14:51 PM PST by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Question_Assumptions

Statue found in Olmec ruins.

44 posted on 01/13/2003 5:24:48 PM PST by blam
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To: NP-INCOMPLETE
nop, just Seattle.
45 posted on 01/13/2003 5:26:32 PM PST by PatrioticAmerican (Let's all pay our fair share...make the poor pay taxes! They pay nothing!)
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To: Question_Assumptions

OOPS! This statue was found in Olmec ruins also....complicates things a bit.

46 posted on 01/13/2003 5:28:59 PM PST by blam
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
"Proof of which exploration program was important, and which was not: imagine if these Chinese expeditions had never taken place. Would the world be any different today? No; we would hardly notice the difference. The Chinese treasure fleets changed nothing; they are a footnote in history; impressive, but still just a footnote. Now, imagine if the European explorations had never happened. The entire history of the world, for all nations, would be radically altered. That is the difference."

Over 30 years ago one of my history professors talked at length about the evidence left behind, that Chinese had visited North America and intermingled with the locals. However, this evidence led all the way back to the early 600's (around 609 A.D.). A lot of records exist in China from that era, about visits to Mexico (of course it wasn't called that at the time!) and descriptions of the pottery and plant life etc. Some similarities exist between the two cultures, in language, stories, etc. But in the end, none of this amounted to much. It was the Spanish who exploited their journeys to the new lands.

I also remember that the Spanish made their big push up California because of fears that the English and Russians would exploit it first. The Spanish founded their fort in San Francisco to stop the Russians encroachment (about 40 miles north of SF). The Russians didn't care, all they wanted was seals and fish, and they pulled back. Same was probably true of the Chinese a long time ago. They visited Mexico and didn't think about exploitation and went home.

48 posted on 01/13/2003 5:46:22 PM PST by roadcat
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To: DAnconia55
Calico: A 200,000-Year Old Site In The Americas?
49 posted on 01/13/2003 5:52:16 PM PST by blam
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To: Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy
Bump for Admiral Cheng Ho:

And you're right about all this being forgotten. There is a small statue of Cheng Ho in a temple in Malacca. When I visited it, I coudn't find anybody else who knew who he was. Most of the Chinese there thought he was Buddha!

50 posted on 01/13/2003 6:20:01 PM PST by John Locke
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A Blast from the Past.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

51 posted on 07/28/2006 10:55:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Thursday, July 27, 2006. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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