1421: El año que China descubrio el mundo

I was 13, I read "Were the Gods kosmonauts?" by von Däniken, and I was immeditaly swept away: it all seemed very plausible and convincing. With this book I almost had the same experience. Menzies writes well, knows how to tell a story, and so he seems to convince you that a giant Chinese flotilla at the beginning of the 15th Century explored the world, and discovered America and Australia.

But then you think about it: the author doesn't understand one word of Chinese and does not but put up a chain of suppositions. Now, indeed, there's convincing evidence that some giant Chinese vessels did explore South Asia and even the East coast of Africa. But some simple checks through internet reveil that his assertions about America and Australia are based upon nothing and lots of experts in the meantime have unmasked Menzies as a fraud. Alas, this book is an enticing read and that's probably why it captivates so many people, we just want these kind of stories to be true.

A fascinating examination into the possibility (certainty, according to the author) that the Chinese first circumnavigated the world between 1421 and 1423 during the Ming Dynasty. If true, the list of achievements goes beyond one simple voyage of discovery potentially to include the establishment of colonies and the transplantation of food crops that became vital to sustaining human life in many parts of the globe. Again if true, the most astonishing assertion is that the giant treasure fleets of Admiral Zheng He, sailing under orders from Emperor Zhu Di to discover the furthest extremities of the world, might have circumnavigated Greenland before returning home by sailing along the Siberian coast and the Bering Sea.

The book is easy to read and compelling, if not repetitive in asking and re-asking "If not the Chinese, then who?" Still, it presents interesting hypotheses. I will certainly be on the look-out for corroborating accounts of voyages of discovery.

Oh, and Vasco de Gama was a true fiend!

DNFed on page 237.

I tried so hard, you guys. I wanted to love this book. I mean, turning all of western exploration on its head? YAAAAAAAAAAAS.

But here's the thing: this book is not a non-fiction history book. This book is pure speculation based on the experiences of one man with no background in history. Like, his entire premise is "I was in the navy, therefore I can read charts and most historians can't." It literally took all of my self control not to put this book on my fantasy, alternate history and historical fiction shelves.

Is it possible that expeditions from China sailed to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South American, Central America and North America? Yes. Is there historical evidence for most of these? No. Menzies provides historical sources for Chinese expeditions visiting Africa, but after that the sources dry up.

Additionally, all of his sources are secondary documents which he claims were based on Chinese sources, but for which there is no evidence because apparently the Chinese emperor ordered all reference to the expeditions destroyed when they returned to China. Menzies doesn't read Chinese, and therefore can't have examined any primary documents himself.

So after the fleet leaves Africa, the rest of the book is pure speculation: lots of "I knew instantly that X, Y, and Z" and "chickens in South America lay blue eggs, which is a uniquely Asian chicken trait, therefore the only possible conclusion is that the Chinese fleet landed in South America" and "there's an Aboriginal rock painting of a huge animal with a dog-shaped head. The only possible conclusion is that it's a milodon which the Chinese fleet brought with them from Patagonia" and "I found this rock with swirly patterns on it in New Zealand. There's a similar rock with swirly patterns on it in Central America. THE TWO MUST HAVE BEEN LEFT AS MARKERS BY THE FLEET!"

In short, it's a lovely idea and I wish to God it were true. And it's a very readable (if rage inducing) book. However, Menzies sounds increasingly like the Captain of the HMS Tinfoil Hat Brigade as the book progresses.

Essentially, this book involves many a tenuous connection and a hell of a lot of jumping to conclusions. So after reading about how the Chinese explorers rode their horses hundreds of kilometres inland from the Australian coast to mine for gold and iron and who knows what else, I noped my way firmly to the exit, following the path that dozens of reputable historians have forged before me.

I bought this book December 2006 on Indonesia Book Fair. The real prize was IDR75000, but I got it for only IDR49000 (still one of expensive books I've ever bought).

The book's content amazed me. It's a kind of re-writing world history that attempted to tell us that Magellan, Columbus and other Western discoverers were only followers of a path built by Chinese sailors under the command of Zheng-He (or Cheng-Ho, his popular name in Indonesia) on Emperor Zhu-Di era.

I like Menzies' style in writing. Seemed that he's trying to be honest, because the greatest part he did for the book was arranging other people's work ; he wondered everytime he found a match in his research; he wanted to make sure that the proof are not coincidences. He showed that he's only a writer for things that alresdy exist, for history that never be written in decent manner.

You may find many discussion and critics about the book when you surf on internet. Americans (or Europeans), many of them, don't feel comfortable about replacing their superior Columbus with Chinese wanderers they never heard before. As for me, I do not have enough scientific authority to judge whether all the writer said in the book are true or not, but I really respect all research he's done for the book. He said it took him forty years of research; here, there and everywhere. He went to many parts of the world in finding and matching the proof to support his theory. It inspired me, at least to think that when there's a will, there's a way, especially when I get stuck in finishing one of my writing work.

For me, it's still a book on my priority list to be read again and again

Exactly how history should not be done. Take a compelling event and then use it to string together just about every unexplained or mysterious archeological find or coincidence across the globe. Could barely finish this book it got so silly.

Totally changed my understanding of american and world history.

Revisionist accounting of history suggesting that Chinese explorers and traders sent out by the Emperor Zhu Di were the first to discover vast swathes of the Earth’s surface. Amongst others the author suggests that these Chinese fleets discovered and explored Australia, Cape Horn and both coasts of Africa, Peurto Rico, Cuba and the Carribean, both Coasts of the United States, Greenland, both the Arctic and Antartica and a few places in between. Not only this the author claims that the Chinese actually established settlements in many of these places. The book is peppered with speculative maps showing the routes the various Chinese fleets took in these journeys of discovery, however the question is left begging, why if the fleets travelled all over the world did none think of stopping in at Europe where their arrival could presumably have been recorded?

The most interesting section of the book is in fact the first few chapters which details Chinese history of the period. The coming to power of the Emperor, the building of the Imperial Palaces and the positions of power of the Eunuchs all makes for interesting reading. Indeed it was the Grand Eunuch Zheng He who led the fleets and was admiral of the 100 or so ships carrying 28,000 men in total who set out on the voyages here described which took place between 1421-1423.

The historical backgrounds to the trip are then counterbalanced by changes in Chinese society which occurred while the ships were away. The lightning storm which burnt down the Imperial Palaces was seen as a sign of bad fortune which eventually led to the side-lining of the Emperor Zhu Di and the re-assertion of power of the Manadarins. Davies suggests these Mandarins were not only opposed to the voyages and exploration because of the financial burden they imposed (this despite the fact that the ships were also supposed to be trading missions that brought in untold riches).t More conveniently for the writer this opposition extended not only into China withdrawing from its overseas missions (which explains why there was no more history of Chinese exploration) but also led to the destruction of ALL records and accounts of the trips that these various fleets had made.

Indeed despite the tens of thousands of sailors on these trips there is no support for their existence from Chinese sources at all. Not one written account exists from any of the Chinese sailors, mandarins, historians or whoever. Rather the author builds his speculation on a number of maps he claims to have found indicating the existence of Australia, North and South America and Antartica that he claims have been proven to pre-date Columbus, Cooke’s, Magellan’s and De Gama’s later ‘discoveries’. However with one exception each of these maps is European in origin. The author argues that the fact indicates that someone had already discovered the places and then jumps to the conclusion that as ONLY the Chinese were capable of this kind of navigation at the time that the maps MUST be the result of the Europeans copying from Chinese sources, of course all the Chinese maps having been destroyed by those pesky mandarins.

The bulk of the book recounts the various expeditions, the author surmising that the fleets broke into various smaller groupings and going their different ways to explore the world. Once again the author uses very suspect research techniques and huge leaps of logic and the imagination to back up his claims that these places were visited and sometimes settled by the Chinese explorers. Among these are ‘finds’ of ming era statues or crockery made centuries later that the author claims could only have come from these 1421 sailings. Later recounts from any source of peoples who were light-skinned or wore unusual dress for the area id recounted as CLEAR evidence that the Chinese must of populated these lands. Similar far fetched theories that vegetation or animal species could only have crossed continents with the help of the Chinese fleets is presented as facts. The whole book at times becomes a house of cards, with speculation piled upon suppositions all resting on a vivid imagination.

The book closes with a few uninspiring chapters detailing the subsequent growth of Portugal, Spain and Britain into the worlds largest fleets, repeating the claim that the famous western explorers were ‘climbing on the backs of giants’ using maps based on these previous Chinese voyages and discoveries.

Despite its length the book is a good read, being ably supported by use of maps and illustrations. There is certainly something to think about in the authors assertions. There may be a kernel of truth to what is being put forward, however the over-arching enthusiasm and grandiose claims stretch that kernel to breaking point. Alternative theories of how the maps came into existence are seldom discussed and where they are, they are quickly dismissed. Much of the ‘evidence’ presented for example suggests that Indian sailors may have had much to do with some of the discoveries suggested however this alternative is never explored in any detail at all.

So an interesting starting point for future researchers to rethink some common conceptions of the history of world exploration - but by itself too far ‘out there’ to carry respectability as a solid historical account.

I listened to the audiobook version from my library, narrated by Simon Vance.

It is an interesting story, but from what I googled, not proven, just "pseudohistory".