1421

The Year China Discovered America

By: Gavin Menzies

Narrated by: Simon Vance

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was "to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony.

When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and had circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed was how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted in America and other countries the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world.

Unveiling incontrovertible evidence of these astonishing voyages, 1421 rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it has been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this landmark work of historical investigation.

Wow wow wow! Great book for lovers of history!

People even remotely interested in history and origins will love this book. The peoples of the world of been mixing for so much longer than we ever knew. What a fantastic book.

Fascinating

The evidence sounded convincing to me. This is a very thought-provoking book. Well narrated.

Chinese discovers the Americas before the Europeans is the best idea I have ever seen.

I think this is a Brilliant book that came in the perfect timing for the current situation in which I am.

I saw many pictures of indigenous people and met indigenous descents in places of America.

They look Chinese to me. They are like a mixture of Europeans, Asians and Black.

They have Chinese eyes and brown skin which is a mixture of white and black.

But studying genetics we would know better.

Therefore a book of the Genoma project endorsed by the Science Academies around the world would be a trump.

Therefore I think that if it is to go forward we need to correct history.

I think the Europeans should be the Center because they are more beautiful and more intelligent and when they mix with black people it gets to be a beautiful image. So I am for the Status Quo.

But things can get better for everyone if we create a Universe that allows every race to develop well and have its Giselle Bundchën Über Model to open the hearts of the locked out as well as this book for the three Diamonds: Black, White and Yellow.

All these with the purpose to create understanding, acceptance, brotherhood and love to all; besides Science, Prosperity, etc.


So I am very much for this type of history.


Thank you.


I am very appreciative and admirer of people who went outside the comfort zone and had what probably was an intense work to compile all this.

Truth can hurt!

I wrote other reviews and this book needs to be read. Zheng He history and all of it needs to be rediscovered. History needs to be reviewed and rewritten. Give credit where credit is due! The Mings need to be recognized for thwir discoveries. It needs more focus and every historian or to be historians need to address this missing part of history! This is a must read! We all need to open pur eyes!

Fascinating Theory

I thoroughly enjoyed the book 1421 and readily accept significant portions of the book, however there are also many parts of the book that would seem to be pure conjecture - coupling facts and theories that fit his narrative. Clearly the Chinese civilization made some huge accomplishments in areas far sooner than their European counterparts and naval discoveries pertaining to navigation are among them. I found the portions dealing with the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean far more plausible than those proposed in the Atlantic, especially those associated with the North Atlantic. The book really is fascinating and the narration is first rate. I would strongly recommend the book to people who enjoy history and histories mysteries.