Reddit reviews 1421: The Year China Discovered America

http://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893/

(is that it?)

I'd call it an interesting read. I wouldn't say there was terribly strong scientific evidence presented in the book.

It's very funny you say that. Here's kind of a backstory. I read 1491 a few years ago. Since then I've read a whole bunch on Colonial America, so I decided recently to re-read 1491. With knowledge of Colonial America and still scant knowledge of pre-Columbian America, 1491 was even better.

So today I was in Barnes and Noble and saw 1493 on the shelf (near 1421, lol) so I picked it up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Then I got home and started glancing through some of it and my initial reaction was, "Huh, I read this when it was called The Columbian Exhchange and had a different author."

I'm gonna read it anyway and try to set that feeling aside though because I want to give Mann the benefit of the doubt and because without reading it I don't know if that comparison is valid. 1491 was an outstanding read for me. Maybe that would change if I did decide to look into the bibliography instead, but still. We shall see. This summer is going to give me plenty of down time to explore my own interests.

If you move it back another century you could work for Zheng He, the most badass eunuch ever. According to a good book called 1421, which the author backs up with a ton of evidence, he not only reached the New World 70 years before Columbus did but Columbus had copies of He's maps on his voyage.


He was the admiral of a fleet that put everything Europe had at the time to shame and he sailed it all over the world exploring and mapping it, trading and learning things about the civilizations he found. The fleet was complete with scientists, astronomers, cartographers, writers, diplomats, courtesans, soldiers and anybody else who might prove useful. They were like floating cities. Shit could make ACIV sailing look like ACIII sailing.

A lot of people dispute the extent of his travels, but I'm pretty convinced. Not all of the evidence seems 100% accurate but there is so much of it that a few false leads hardly matter.

Gimme that Zheng He and Ching Shih period of naval exploration and commerce. If you want a fun "what if" book, Gavin Menzies' 1451: The Year China Discovered America, lays out the author's theory that Zheng He's fleet navigated the entire world and reached most of the Americas and even Norway. It's certainly entertaining to read, and a few points are interesting, though overall I don't buy it and most legitimate historians don't, either. Still, if you can suspend disbelief for a while, as I did and I even majored in History, it's pretty entertaining.

1. Happy Cake Day dude.
   
2. This is not an alt-history book.
   https://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893
   
   Don’t trust everything you read.
   

Here's another idea, based on Gavin Menzie's 1421: The Year China Discovered America. Menzies' theory that China circumnavigated the globe has been mostly discredited by historians, but it's known that during the Ming Dynasty a giant treasure fleet did at least explore Indonesia, India, the east coast of Africa and possibly the north coast of Australia (A more accepted discussion is found in this book.) Right after that expedition, China became disinterested in trade and exploration, a policy that continued for centuries. You can see a couple of Menzies' maps here. A more scholarly map is here.

What if China had colonized the entire Pacific Rim and the Indian Ocean before Columbus even discovered America?

A couple of books you may find interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239643357&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239643315&sr=1-3

The second is quite a bit more academic than the first. The first having been written by a retired British Naval officer and the second by a researcher/academic writer.

Here's a great book I've been reading about the subject, Gavin Menzies has really done his research and I plan to read his other books as well.

http://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1416207672&sr=8-12&keywords=1491


Sorry to necro an old thread but saw it linked in the Noah's ark thread.

zero - The Biography of a dangerous Idea

Salt

1421

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

The Canadian War Museum has an inkling of proof. When the British made their way to British Colombia in their first expedition (Juan Perez) he had found that the Chinese were already fishing there. He also found evidence of small Chinese settlements that might have been there at least a hundred years before the British set foot in British Colombia.

The Metis also corroborate this story. Their oral traditions tell that the Chinese were the first non-North American aboriginals in British Colombia. They believe the Chinese to have been there for far longer than white men had ever been in North America. From this article "It is noteworthy that the Chinese had explored this region starting about 1421."

The story from the Chinese perspective is that a voyage of a treasure fleet heads to North America to try and gain treasures from "barbarians." When they find the new land they come home to a rebellion and all outside ideas, including all members of the treasure fleet and all evidence of the voyage are destroyed.

Here is a book on Zheng He, Worth a read.
http://www.amazon.com/1421-Year-China-Discovered-America/dp/0061564893