Archives - History: Page 22
Author: amparo enriquez (Fri Feb 03, 2006 3:04 am)
Title: A Chinese admiral might have beat Columbus after all.
A Chinese admiral might have beat Columbus after all.
The brave seamen whose great voyages of exploration opened up the world are iconic figures in European history. Columbus found the new world in 1492; Dias discovered the cape of good hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. however there is one difficulty with this confident assertion European mastery: it may not be true.
It seems more likely that the world and all its continents where discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng. He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called “The Marvelous visions of the start raft”. A copy can be found of a remarkable map that outlines the coasts of Africa, Europe and the Americas. Each continent could be instantly recognizable.