1421 the Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies

This was an absolutely fascinating book which I read this summer. Gavin Menzies, a former British submarine captain, presents his case for the Chinese discovery of America 7 decades before the Europeans did. In fact, Menzies discusses how the Chinese knowledge of these lands migrated into the hands of the Europeans beginning the great age of European exploration. In fact the Chinese treasure fleets discovered, North America, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. Apparently the only place they managed to miss was Europe. Unfortunately, all of the official records of these voyages were destroyed after the fleets returned. This was the time when China went into it’s great period of isolationism and so the ruling Mandarins destroyed all of the records, charts, etc. of areas outside of China to discourage interaction with other lands and peoples. Which is why people especially those in the western world know so little about them. As a result much of Menzies evidence is circumstantial but taken as a whole would be very hard to discount. Menzies combines his knowledge of prevailing winds and currents along with the sailing quality of the Chinese ships of the period to show how the Chinese could have made this voyage. He combines this with cultural and archaeological evidence from the native societies the Chinese encountered. Menzies does an excellent job of composing a time line for the Chinese Treasure Fleet’s movements and discoveries. In the end, Menzies presents a very believable case for the Chinese exploration which takes away very little from the European explorations and in fact does a lot to explain how those came to take place.

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