Zheng He

Gavin MenziesThe End of Sovereignty

By Vikas Jagwani

Mrs. PerryHistory 101 Survival of United StatesJune 2014Word Count- 796

It is a common belief that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus , but there has been recent evidence and mentioned ideologies by an author whom states that the Chinese were the first civilization to discover America. Gavin Menzies, a British author and former Royal Navy submarine commander, with his soft spoken and diminutive presence, believes that the Chinese were the first people to discover America through the help of Zheng He. Zheng He was the commander of an admirable fleet of ships that explored the world to spread Chinese influence (Menzies, 167). Menzies believes that it is during this 15th century exploration by Zheng He and his troops that America was discovered, long before Christopher Columbus. According to Menzie, a group of Zheng Hes fleet led by Admiral Zhou Man, left the main fleet and followed the currents towards the north past Japan towards the American west coast to California and arrived at San Francisco (Menzies, 263).Examples from his research have considered evidence that challenges the traditional views of New World discovery, thus making a valid argument to prove that Menzies theory is true and various scholars have gone against his basic ideologies.At Bordega bay, ceramics still disgorge from a Chinese junk that sunk at the area. At sacramental river, another proof of the Chinese presence in the America is seen. A Chinese junk buried there under a sandbank was discovered. According to Menzies, the Chinese were centuries ahead of Europe as the Chinese ships were armed with gunpowder weapons, brass and iron cannon, mortars etc. The Armada would hold up almost thirty thousand men for their voyage. And by the end of the middle watch, the provisions had been lashed down and the armada had weighed anchor. The water currents led these very old wrecks to go around and one of them was a teak that was made of caeophyllum, a wood unique to south-east Asia. While this was one of the evidences, the Asiatic chicken found from Chile to California. Great Wall of China being one of the seven wonders of the world shows the important significance for the Chinese. At San Francisco bay, there are mysterious walls built of stone that have been believed to have been built by the Chinese. These examples and research have definitely given us some sort of acceptance that the Chinese discovered America. But there have been some opposing views by various scholars and historians. P.J Rivers has opposed to Menzies theory that explains that one of the canals used by the Chinese, the red sea canal, is believed that there was no direct sea route between the red and Mediterranean sea. Another opposition came from Robert Finlay who said Menzies had to delve into the realms of pseudo-science, and that he held on to outrageous claims that lack evidence. [endnoteRef:1]By the evidence brought forward by Dr. John Furry of the Natural History Museum of Northern California who read that the armor that had once been found was made of an unusual metal and that back in the day the native Americans did not know how to forge metal. This cannot conclude the fact that native Americans could not forge metal. These fragments were sent to China and were provisionally identified as the wood of Keteleria, a conifer native to south-east China but North America. [1: Madaras, Larry, and James SoRelle.Taking Sides. 15th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013.Menzies, Gavin.1421: The Year China Discovered America. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2003. Print.Douglas S. Watson, Fu Sang and Hui Shen, California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol 14, No.1 ( Mar., 1935), pp. 47-48 ( Primary Source ) ]

The example above has definitely proved me correct and the research has somewhat proven that Menzies side is more believable as he does not dwell on showing that the previous scholars were wrong. But instead proves his own theories by visiting California and forming a team of individuals that helped him in the research. "In 1892, Gustave Schlegel contributed a monograph to T' oung-Pao that meant that he had found in the ancient Chinese historians".[1] Stephen powers an office inspector had published an article talking about the linguistic evidence of Chinese colony on the Russian river in California. Furthermore, Powers claimed that diseases brought by Europeans had decimated this Chinese colony as well as the other Indian people of California. If the disease had not decimated the Chinese, they would have been the possible colonizers of America and the Chinese culture would have been spread in America. That been said, evidence shows that the Chinese did discover America but they were eventually decimated by the Europeans.

1

1