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Recently read Gavin Menzies book 1421. He has put forth a theory that in 1421, China sent out 4 sets of ships to plot the globe. These voyages of discovery took several years. While they were on their trips, there was a cultural revolution and all of the records of these voyages were destroyed. He also thinks that all the later explorers who went out such as Columbus, Magellan, Cook, etc. were working off maps already made, and making "discoveries" of places that were already found. Found the book well researched and very interesting. Thoughts?
Recently read Gavin Menzies book 1421. He has put forth a theory that in 1421, China sent out 4 sets of ships to plot the globe. These voyages of discovery took several years. While they were on their trips, there was a cultural revolution and all of the records of these voyages were destroyed. He also thinks that all the later explorers who went out such as Columbus, Magellan, Cook, etc. were working off maps already made, and making "discoveries" of places that were already found. Found the book well researched and very interesting. Thoughts?
I don't think mainstream historians in the Western world have bought Menzies' views, which I read some years back. The hard part is that one has to be pretty well read in cartography and seamanship in order to really evaluate what he says. While I don't think it's been demonstrated beyond doubt, the theory remains worth exploring.
Yeah. They also invented gunpowder, paper money, and the printing press. Yet they did nothing with any of these things.
Yes they did. They built one one of a half dozen great civilizations that continued to flourish, so that when the Europeans lapsed into a coma, there would be somebody like the Arabs to slap Europe awake and bring them back up to speed, instead of just killing or enslaving them. (We could all be speaking Arabic!).
You consider them a failure because they did not use gunpowder to enslave the world, paper money to steal from it, and the printing press to lie to it. Interesting criteria.
Recently read Gavin Menzies book 1421. He has put forth a theory that in 1421, China sent out 4 sets of ships to plot the globe. These voyages of discovery took several years. While they were on their trips, there was a cultural revolution and all of the records of these voyages were destroyed. He also thinks that all the later explorers who went out such as Columbus, Magellan, Cook, etc. were working off maps already made, and making "discoveries" of places that were already found. Found the book well researched and very interesting. Thoughts?
I thought the book was fascinating. And the title could equally as well have been 1424--when the new Emperor totally reversed the policies of his predecessor.
As to the maps used by later explorers, there's never been any question that the Europeans who made voyages at the end of the 15th century were using maps that were anything but original. Most of the maps they used weren't even second-generation copies, and of course the explorers themselves had only vague ideas as to what they were looking for and where they were sailing. Columbus himself had no idea that there was any such thing as the North American continent.
You can follow some of the progression in maps and their accuracy through Antique Maps & Charts (A.L. Humphries, 1989, Dorset Press)
I thought the book was fascinating. And the title could equally as well have been 1424--when the new Emperor totally reversed the policies of his predecessor.
As to the maps used by later explorers, there's never been any question that the Europeans who made voyages at the end of the 15th century were using maps that were anything but original. Most of the maps they used weren't even second-generation copies, and of course the explorers themselves had only vague ideas as to what they were looking for and where they were sailing. Columbus himself had no idea that there was any such thing as the North American continent.
You can follow some of the progression in maps and their accuracy through Antique Maps & Charts (A.L. Humphries, 1989, Dorset Press)
Found the book an incredible read. Have read it about 3 times since it came out. Makes quite a bit of sense to me. How did some people wind up where they are? Ships were damaged, storms, etc. Colonies of Chinese all over the world left from when they were stranded during these voyages. Things that have never been explained. The long roads of stone underwater by Bermuda. Chariots of the Gods claim they're of extra-terrestrial origin. Menzies claim of something so mundane as a ramp with which to drag those huge ships ashore to careen them. The towers in Connecticut that no one can figure out how they got there, but which are similar to towers in China. Flora and fauna transplanted throughout the world supposedly in a way that suggests human intervention. A colony in California of Chinese and a wrecked junk buried in a streambed. Fantastic stuff. Goes on and on. Palace intrigue where he accuses Columbus' brother of forging a huge dogleg of land on a map in the Indian ocean so it would appear you couldn't reach the Orient if you headed east. Which was why they headed west and found america. While I'm not the most scholarly of people, I found it plausible. Easy to understand, fairly easy to follow.
No question the intrigue surrounding the worlds earliest discoveries oft times remains buried, dismissed, or sometimes lost to history. You have to wonder how much of discovery is the result of mistake. There could be many discoveries throughout history that result from this, there are also acts of sabotage and deceit that are at work.
I just finished the book myself, and while I find the theory intriguing, the only evidence that exists is circumstantial. This doesn't disprove his theory, but it doesn't make it definitive either. It's sorta in that wierd place between hypothesis and accepted theory. As a whole, I like it, but I do wish there was more hard evidence and less inference. I do think it goes a long way to explaining certain unexplainable phenomema including (and not mentioned in the book) the massive depopulation of the New World during the century prior to European discovery. Old World diseases could have been introduced from China as well as Europe. I wish Menzies would have explored that angle.
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