1421: The Year China Discovered the World

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1421 book cover (US edition)

1421: The Year China Discovered The World is a controversial book written by retired submarine commander Gavin Menzies. It was first published in 2002 in Great Britain and was published in the US under the title 1421: The Year China Discovered America. It has been translated into several languages other than English.

1 Synopsis
2 Book Outline
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Main article: 1421 hypothesis

Menzies sets out in his introduction that the book is an attempt to answer the following question:

On some early European world maps, it appears that someone had charted and surveyed lands supposedly unknown to the Europeans. Who could have charted and surveyed these lands before they were "discovered"?

Menzies first analyzes the nations capable of sending missions to the "ends of the earth", from Venice to Tamerlane's empire. He concludes that only China had the time, money, manpower and leadership to send such expeditions. The book then sets out to prove that the Chinese visited these unknown lands. Menzies produces what he calls "undisputable evidence" that the Chinese visited the Americas and other lands unknown to Europeans, made attempts to reach both the North and South Poles, and circumnavigated the world before Ferdinand Magellan. This is known as the 1421 hypothesis. After the section "The Voyage of Yang Qing", Menzies talks about the first European attempts to colonize the New World. He also talks about in that section the maps which he used as evidence.

The book has had wide popular success, but Menzies' theories and his methods of analyzing and evaluating evidence have been dismissed by mainstream historians.

[edit] Book Outline

List Of Maps And Diagrams

List of Plates

Chinese Nomenclature

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Imperial China
1. The Emperor's Grand Plan
2. A Thunderbolt Strikes
3. The Fleets Set Sail
The Guiding Stars
1. Rounding The Cape
2. The New World
The Voyage of Hong Bao
1. Voyage To Antarctica and Australia
The Voyage of Zhou Man
1. Australia
2. The Barrier Reef And The Spice Islands
3. The First Colony In The Americas
4. Colonies In Central America
The Voyage of Zhou Wen
1. Satan's Island
2. The Treasure Fleet Runs Aground
3. Settlement In North America
4. Expedition To The North Pole
The Voyage of Yang Qing
1. Solving The Riddle
Portugal Inherits the Crown
1. Where The Earth Ends
2. Colonizing The New World
3. On The Shoulders Of Giants