![]() Its shipyards regularly turned out hulking vessels 400 feet long, with as many as nine masts by contrast, da Gama's largest ship, more than 70 years later, was barely 100 feet long.īy the early part of the century, under the emperor Zhu Di, fleets of these treasure ships and accompanying supply vessels, commanded by eunuch admirals, carried crews, ambassadors and concubines on voyages through the Indian Ocean to Calicut, the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa. In ''1421: The Year China Discovered America,'' Menzies points out the undisputed fact that 15th-century Ming China was the world's foremost naval power. The full scope of the world, in short, was a Chinese discovery.īut what is the proof? Ay, there's the rub. For Menzies declares that between 14, fleets of huge Chinese ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope, reached North and South America, circumnavigated the globe and landed in Australia. ![]() They had not sailed into the unknown they set out with knowledge and maps handed down from intrepid predecessors, the Chinese. ![]() It is his contention - a certainty, in his mind - that Vasco da Gama, Columbus, Magellan and, later, James Cook achieved nothing new. ![]() WITH verve and unflagging conviction, Gavin Menzies advances a thesis that, if proved, would fundamentally rewrite the history of 15th-century maritime exploration. ![]()
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