I saw a book in Borders the other day that claimed that Chinese explorers discovered North America before Columbus. I’d heard that there were some Viking colonies here before him, I didn’t know if anyone beat them to it. Is it true? And can someone give me a “timeline” of who got here at what time?
I read a book detailing ancient history in the Pacific covering this subject for a course in Eastern History. Giving it some consideration, I’d say it would have definetely been possible, but highly unlikely for a variety of reasons.
China was in fact the greatest naval power at one time, and had many ship fleets that traversed the Indian Ocean and areas further west, but I don’t ever recall reading about them journeying east into the Pacific toward our West Coast. The Chinese Empire mostly stuck to winning over new nation states further west, and established trade routes over land and sea with India and such. China, at the height of its power, spanned quite a bit of territory, but aggressive conquest of Asia was not their intention. They had a very isolationist attitude for many hundreds of years due to the beliefs of successive emperors in the ruling dynasty (Ming?) of that time. They basically kept to themselves, hoping that other nations would actively seek out China to establish trade and diplomacy (instead of the other way around) because the Chinese leaders thought China was the end-all-be-all of civilization and that everyone would want their fine silks, teas, porcelain and such. Yes, they were arrogant. This was part of what led to their loss of power as they grew quite complacent diplomatically and ceased to evolve technologically for hundreds of years, during which they did little exploring or anything we’d consider creative. And I never once read anything about them braving the Pacific Ocean in search of new land. Not only did it go against their idea of “expansion” but they probably saw it as a waste of time since the commonly held belief was that China was the heart of the world and there was no point in exploring the vastness of the Pacific.
If I still had that book, I’d be happy to give some dates but alas, it’s gone. I wish the subject had interested me a little more … I didn’t really commit names and dates to memory all that well. 
Here is a previous thread on this particular work, where I express extreme skepticism and give some reasons why. I don’t think many historians are giving much credence to it.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=156320
Depends on the dynasty and the period ;). The T’ang were plenty expansionist, not to mention the Qing.
- Tamerlane
Grape or orange?
In all seriousness, there are numerous claims of people from the old world* getting to the Americas before Columbus. However, the evidence for this is lacking, to say the least. I guess the question boils down to what do you mean by discover? I don’t doubt that pre-Columbian explorers knew of the Americas, and maybe spent a day or two here. There is circumstantial evidence for Norse settlements, but other than that, there are no records, no maps and no archaeological evidence in proper context.
The (latterly) native Americans were here already; how could anyone discover what was not covered?
I hate that term.
… but do you have a FLAG?
Read a dictionary for the definition of “discover” and your question will be answered.
Got a better one?
Somehow this seemed even more funny to me when I realized the word “Tang” means “sugar” in Chinese.