According to the author of the book in the link, the Chinese not only “discovered” America, but also were the first ones to circumnavigate the globe.
Any opinions on the merits of this claim? I also find it interesting that apparently nobody was really interested in colonizing a completely unheard of area until Columbus made his little trip or 4 with backing from the Spanish Government.
Or was columbus just the first one to point out to his backers that he met a lot of people who hadn’t discovered steel, let alone gunpowder yet, and thus could be presuaded to do backbrakeing work without pay for little or no cost at benefit to the crown?
The claim of a fleet of 800 junks circumnavigating the globe seems a bit out there, but the jury is out until The History Channel does a special on this one…
Well, I’m withholding judgement until I read his book and see some more critiques of it. But color me extremely sceptical.
Some of his claims are pretty spectacular - i.e. Zheng-He’s treasure fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope and made it all the way to America and set down roots all over the Americas ( from Brazil to the San Francisco Bay ). Not only does this fly in the face of traditional accounts, but he claims evidence both archaeological ( pottery and a sunken junk in the Sacramento Delta? ) and genetic, some of which, without having examined all the specifics, seem fishy. I have seen critical comments about the Bay Area claims ( i.e. pottery was nothing more than sandstone ) and I find the genetic claims a little extraordinary - If the supposed settlements were small, it seems odd any such evidence would have survived in populations and if they were large, well, why would they be? It doesn’t fit with what we know about Chinese Imperial philosophy at the time that they would expend the enormous expense to dispatch large colonies across the huge expanse of the Pacific for damn little ( or even a lot ). Especially as the atypically adventurous Yong-Le Emperor had died by 1424. Even if they had made such a huge investment, where were the massive die-offs from smallpox and the like we saw with the Europeans? Why not more oral history from native populations about such an extraordinarily large impact? Why not more technology diffusion? It defies logic.
So it might be worth investigating, but his such bold claims from an amateur historian requires a lot of corraboration before I’m convinced.
But I won’t quite say it is impossible that at least some contact was made. Maybe he has hit on something real, but has blown it out of proportion. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Also, there’s evidence to show that Spanish fisherman knew of the existence of the New World before Columbus.
I can’t find a cite for it, and I’m relying on my unreliable memory here, but I remember reading a few years ago that a farmer in west Co. Cork, Ireland, was ploughing his field, and turned up several dozen Chinese “chops” (name stamps). They were identified as being about (something like) 600 years old. I think they’re in a museum in Cork now. Where did they come from? They could have been brought along the Silk Road, could have been deposited. But could they have been from Admiral Zheng passing through?
I’d love to see the maps that were drawn by Zheng’s navigator, Sanbao. Hoping they’re in the book, which I intend to buy.
I think someone just might have noticed there was an enormous naval flotilla from China. And recorded it. You, know, its not like it happens every day.
Through Ireland? I’d have to agree with smiling bandit here. Somebody would have mentioned something - This was a grand naval task force, with some enormous vessels of the sort never seen in Europe. In fact if they had made it to Europe at all, they would have hit more than just Ireland. One thing Zheng-He didn’t do and that was skulk in the shadows ;).
I have indeed heard the stories about Colombus getting info from Basque fishermen and I wouldn’t automatically discount them, though I don’t really know if that is a well-regarded tale these days or not.
There was a pretty good article about this in the NYT Magazine a few weeks ago. There is no question about the existence of Zheng’s fleet, and that it was impressive (both in size of ships and number of ships). Personally, I think it’s entirely possible that he made it to America. And, if you look at the Atlantic, it’s not all that hard for Europeans to navigate around the northern lattitudes and make landfall in America. We have absolute proof that the Vikings did it.
But… Who really cares? Other than the Native people already here since the Stone Age, only Columbus’ “discovery” resulted in anything that actually changed history. None of these other “discoverers” set up permanent trade and/or conquest resulting in continued contact between their respective continents and America.
And what about food crops? One of the most important aftereffects of the opening of America was the exchange of food crops between the Old and New worlds. Potatoes, maize, tomatoes, chiles, beans, squash, how come none of these made it back to China? Considering that new world crops are now a cornerstone of asian cuisine, it would be surprising that nothing was exchanged.
Was China capable of sailing to America? Absolutely, their fleet sailed to Africa, they could have gone anywhere in the world. But they had no particular reason to sail to America, because they didn’t know America was there. Pretty much anyone in Europe could sail to America, but they had no reason to try until after Columbus.
China could have easily beaten the European powers at the colonial game. But they chose not to.