Did Columbus really discover the 'New World'?

HISTORY: I was listening to a local quiz show on the television the other day. One of the first-round questions asked was, "Who discovered America?" The answer came in a jiffy. "Christopher Columbus!" The contestant was awarded the full points.

That is exactly what we have been taught in our history class at the school. We do know that, in 1492, Columbus arrived in America and at that time people in Europe, where he had come from, didn't even knew that America existed.

He wasn't even looking for America: he was just looking for a shorter route to the Indies.

But was he the first one? Or did someone else make a voyage of discovery to the "New World" before Columbus? There are some facts and some legends that suggest that other explorers arrived here before Columbus.

Negates Columbus discovery

Gavin Menzies, a British amateur historian and a retired submarine commander, has developed a theory - supported by a wide variety of sources - that negates the Columbus discovery.


Columbus lands in America

Claiming that Columbus travelled west with a map of the lands he would encounter, Menzies deducted that a Chinese Admiral named Zheng He commanded a huge fleet of vessels that reached America's East Coast decades earlier.

Did Italian merchant Nicolo da Conti travel with the Chinese, then back to Europe with maps that ended up in hands of Columbus? Do Native Americans have Chinese DNA strands because of interaction with the Chinese arriving from the East, rather than because of migration across the Bering Strait? Are the "shark mounds" found in Bimini Islands in Bahamas really the burial site of shipwrecked Chinese junks?

These are the ideas of Menzies which have created intense controversy. Scientists and historians have challenged almost every aspect of the theory. Although the truth may never be known, his revelations are quite interesting and thought-provoking.

Sea Voyages

Zheng He was a Chinese Muslim admiral and a figure, who until recently, has been relatively unknown outside of East Asia. He was born in 1371 in Kunyang, a town in southwest Yunnan Province. His family were part of a minority group known as the Semur.


Portrait of Zheng He

They originally came from Central Asia and followed the religion of Islam. Both his grandfather and father had made the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Zheng grew up hearing their accounts of travel through foreign lands.

Yunnan was one of the last strongholds of Mongol support, holding out long after the Ming Dynasty began. After Ming armies conquered Yunnan in 1382, Zheng was taken captive and brought to Nanjing.

The eleven-year-old boy was made a servant of the prince who would become the Yong Le Emperor. The Yong Le emperor had ambitious plans. A vigorous man, he rebuilt the Great Wall to the condition in which it exists today.

He also built his new capital at Beijing, next to the remains of the former Yuan capital.

The emperor decided to go ahead with the sea voyages that had long been planned. He appointed Zheng to lead them and gave him the title "Admiral of the Western Seas." In 1405 Zheng set out on his first voyage.

The fleet included sixty-two large ships, some 600 feet long, larger than any other on the seas. Hundreds of smaller vessels accompanied them. The fleet visited much of southern Asia, including Indochina, Indonesia, Malacca, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Calicut (Kozhikode, India).

In Zheng's second expedition (1407-1409) his fleet sailed westward across the Indian Ocean and again reached Calicut on the Indian coast. During four subsequent voyages (1409-1421) Zheng's fleet visited Southeast Asia, India, Ceylon, the Persian Gulf, East Africa and Egypt creating trade opportunities along the way.

In 1421, he undertook a major voyage. A fleet of four mighty junks under his command set sail from Nanjing, a port on the Yangtze river. Each ship was three times the size of Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, HMS Victory and their triple hulls were more advanced than many 19th century warships.

Menzies says there is incontrovertible evidence that three of the four ships went to Arabia, the Cape of Good Hope, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Australia and then the west coast of North America.

He says: "The Chinese set up settlements all along the west coast of North America, from Vancouver Island to New Mexico and inter-married happily with the local Indians.

Controversial book

In his controversial book, "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" Menzies claims that, prior to Columbus and Magellan, Zheng's men already circumnavigated the globe, discovered America, and set up colonies in areas such as Australia, the Caribbean Sea, and Massachusetts.

Menzies says that when Columbus discovered America in 1492, he was 72 years too late.

In all, Zheng made seven voyages around the world.

Menzies spent years retracing historical maritime routes and gathering evidence that Zheng's men journeyed beyond the Indian Ocean.

He attempts to rewrite history, citing a variety of sources, including wrecked junks along the North American coast, the Fra Mauro map of 1459, verbal accounts of rice plantations on the Amazon, Chinese drawings of armadillos dating to 1430, and linguistic similarities between the Chinese and natives of Peru.

Menzies' theory found more support, when Liu Gang, a prominent Shanghai lawyer and map collector, announced that he owned a map tracing back to 1418 that contains details of the New World.

The map, which Liu claims to be drawn in 1763 by Mo Yi Tong, has an inscription on one corner saying it imitates another map made in 1418.

Despite noticeable errors in cartography, Liu's map outlines Europe, Africa, and the Americas with relative precision.

Liu told reporters that he only realised the map's significance after reading Menzies' book, and showing his map to five map experts, who all believed that it is genuine.

During his 28-year naval career, Admiral Zheng He visited 37 countries, travelled around the tip of Africa into the Atlantic Ocean and commanded a single fleet whose numbers surpassed the combined fleets of all Europe.

Between 1405 and 1433, at least 317 ships and 37,000 men were under his command. He created a set of 24 maps praised today for their accuracy.

Zheng's journeys also stimulated a number of important maritime inventions, including central rudders, watertight compartments and various new types of sails. Perhaps more importantly, his voyages demonstrated the power of the Chinese civilization and yielded many important liaisons between China and other nations.

Visit to Sri Lanka

Zheng came to Sri Lanka several times. Along with his crew he visited Sri Pada, (or as he called "Buddhist Temple Hill"). He marvelled at all the temples, particularly Sri Dalada Maligawa. According to a crew member, the people of the island do not venture to eat cow's flesh, they merely drink the milk.

When a cow dies they bury it. It is capital punishment for anyone to secretly kill a cow; he who does so can however escape punishment by paying a ransom of a cow's head made of solid gold.

His writings say: "Sri Lanka seemed like a treasure island, where rubies and other precious stones were abundant. The people harvested pearls from the sea and had discovered the trick of making cultured pearls by planting a speck of sand inside an oyster's shell".

"The king of Sri Lanka was an ardent Buddhist who treated both cows and elephants with religious respect.

However, because he did not show proper respect for the ambassadors from the Son of Heaven, he was taken back to China for "instruction." He was returned to his island on a later voyage".

To commemorate his second visit to Sri Lanka in 1406, he erected a stone tablet in Galle. There he gives praise to the Buddha and records lavish offerings in His honour: he donates 1,000 pieces of gold; 5,000 pieces of silver and a heap of other valuables.

The stone tablet with the inscription is in the National Museum in Colombo.

Gavin Menzies may never fully convince the international community that Zheng He's men accomplished the feats of Columbus, Magellan, de Gama, and Cook in merely two years.

Nevertheless, he has already done Zheng a great service, rescuing the admiral from centuries of obscurity. As a response to Menzies' book, PBS, BBC, and National Geographic have all produced extensive reports on Zheng He's expeditions and explored their significance in the history of maritime exploration.

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