The Chinese beat him to it in 1421, says Gavin Menzies, author of 1421, The Year China Discovered America. But an amateur historian says Columbus was about 70 years too late. In addition, PBS will air a documentary series in 2004.Book cover from 1421, The Year China Discovered America.Ĭolumbus discovered America in 1492, any elementary school student will tell you. Controversy surrounding the book should be lively, generating sales. New York Times and elsewhere last March after he spoke at the Royal Geographical Society in London (see Book News, Nov. 7)įorecast: Menzies's theory was featured in the 32 pages of color illus., 27 maps and diagrams. Such an approach to scholarship, along with a promise of more proof to come in the paperback edition, casts a shadow of doubt over Menzies's discoveries. In just one instance, when confounded by the derivation of cryptic words on a Venetian map, Menzies first consults an expert at crossword puzzles rather than an etymologist. While the book does contain some compelling claims-for example, that the Chinese were able to calculate longitude long before Western explorers-drawn from Menzies's experiences at sea, his overall credibility is undermined by dubious research methods.

Because China burned the records of its historic expeditions led by Zheng He, the famed eunuch admiral and the focus of this account, Menzies is forced to defend his argument by compiling a tedious package of circumstantial evidence that ranges from reasonable to ridiculous. Menzies alleges that the Chinese not only discovered America, but also established colonies here long before Columbus set out to sea. According to Menzies's brazen but dull account of the Middle Kingdom's exploits at sea, Magellan, Dias, da Gama, Cabral and Cook only 'discovered' lands the Chinese had already visited, and they sailed with maps drawn from Chinese charts. The amateur historian's lightly footnoted, heavily speculative re-creation of little-known voyages made by Chinese ships in the early 1400s goes far beyond what most experts in and outside of China are willing to assert and will surely set tongues wagging. A former submarine commander in Britain's Royal Navy, Menzies must enjoy doing battle.

The year china discovered america