1421: The Year China Discovered the World

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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 United States under the title 1421: The Year China Discovered America. It has been translated into several languages other than English.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Book Outline 3 See also 4 External links 5 Footnotes

[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 "indisputable 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 discusses the first European attempts to colonize the New World and identifies the maps he used as evidence for his theories.

The book has had wide popular success, but Menzies' theories and his methods of analyzing and evaluating evidence have been dismissed by some mainstream historians.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]} Many in China, however, are impressed with Menzies' efforts.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Book Outline

List Of Maps And Diagrams

List of Plates

Chinese Nomenclature

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Imperial China
   1. The Emperor's Grand Plan
   2. A Thunderbolt Strikes
   3. The Fleets Set Sail
2. The Guiding Stars
   1. Rounding The Cape
   2. The New World
3. The Voyage of Hong Bao
   1. Voyage To Antarctica and Australia
4. 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
5. 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
6. The Voyage of Yang Qing
   1. Solving The Riddle
7. Portugal Inherits the Crown
   1. Where The Earth Ends
   2. Colonizing The New World
   3. On The Shoulders Of Giants

Epilogue: The Chinese Legacy

Postscript

Appendices

1. Chinese Circumnavigation Of The World 1421-1423: Synopsis of Evidence
2. The Determination Of Longitude By The Chinese In the Early Fifteenth Century

Notes

Index

[edit] See also

• 1421 hypothesis
• Gavin Menzies

[edit] External links

• The book's official website
• salon.com Natalie Danford, "The Chinese discovered America!"

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ [1] The 1421 myth exposed
2. ^ [2] Zheng He in the Americas and Other Unlikely Tales of Exploration and Discovery
3. ^ [3] 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies
4. ^ Finlay, Robert (2004), "How Not to (Re)Write World History: Gavin Menzies and the Chinese Discovery of America", Journal of World History 15 (2): 241