Mr. Ward

"1421: The Year China Discovered The World"

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”  Apparently, that is akin to saying, “In 1992, Clinton went to The White House.”  Neither was the first to accomplish their individual feat; regardless of how historic the events were.  After a seriously cool guy’s recommendation, I decided to read this book for the summer reading club.  Gavin Menzies has spent years gathering evidence that in 1421, the Chinese Emperor sent out massive fleets of ships to establish trade and map the world.  We learn that de Gama was not the first to sail to India around the tip of Africa, Columbus “rediscovered” the Americas, Captain Cook found Australia three centuries after the Chinese, and they were in Antarctica four hundred years before Europeans.  Oh yeah, remember the straits of Magellan? That dude had a map that showed the passage with him when he “found” it. 

The evidence presented in this weighty tome is enough to convince the most ardent skeptic. What kind do you want?  How about animals and plants found by Europeans on their discovery voyages that are not indigenous to those lands?  What about metals found on islands where no ore exists?  What about the wreckage of ships larger than anything the Europeans ever had?  How about numerous writings in European sailors’ diaries about meeting Asian people in the new world?  Did you know that many Native American tribes have Chinese DNA?  Or that it shows up frequently in Norwegian fishermen? There are structures throughout the new world that were designed and built in a manner that no native people did.  My personal favorite piece of evidence is the existence of two villages in Peru three miles apart who cannot speak each others’ language, but both understand Chinese. 

All of that is secondary to the most compelling evidence; maps that demonstrate navigation and astronomy skills that Europeans did not possess at the time of their voyages.  I will admit that sometimes the science here went a bit over my head; but laymen can still get the gist of it.  If you are at all interested in cartography, you will love this book. 

So why did we not know any of this before?  There are two conspiracies of silence here.  When these great fleets returned home, they found a weakened emperor and bureaucrats changing the nation.  Instead of being welcomed as heroes, the admirals were set out to pasture and most of the evidence of their discoveries was destroyed.  Thus began the long age of Chinese isolation that lasted until recent history.

It also seems that the Portuguese, who led the European charge of exploration in the late 15^th Century, were the only ones who had maps that contained the Chinese information.  Since they were in competition with the rest of Europe, they hid their knowledge.  As a result of both these circumstances, Europe took over the spice trade the Chinese had worked so long to establish and put their names on everything else, as there was no one to stop them. 

This is a compelling work of new ancient history that changes everything we thought we knew about exploration of the western hemisphere.  The “what if” presented here is endless.  I think everyone of European descent in the Americas should read this book. 

Two final things; First, if you are a skeptic, there is the mention of an alternate theory that aliens did all this. Second, with China beginning to open up again, it makes me wonder if this time they really will rule the world.