[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.

[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?