Gavin Menzies

The End of Sovereignty

By Vikas Jagwani

Mrs. Perry
History 101 Survival of United States
June 2014
Word Count- 796
1

It is a common belief that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus , but there has been
recent evidence and mentioned ideologies by an author whom states that the Chinese were the
first civilization to discover America. Gavin Menzies, a British author and former Royal Navy
submarine commander, with his soft spoken and diminutive presence, believes that the Chinese
were the first people to discover America through the help of Zheng He. Zheng He was the
commander of an admirable fleet of ships that explored the world to spread Chinese influence
(Menzies, 167). Menzies believes that it is during this 15th century exploration by Zheng He and
his troops that America was discovered, long before Christopher Columbus. According to
Menzie, a group of Zheng Hes fleet led by Admiral Zhou Man, left the main fleet and followed
the currents towards the north past Japan towards the American west coast to California and
arrived at San Francisco (Menzies, 263). Examples from his research have considered evidence
that challenges the traditional views of New World discovery, thus making a valid argument to
prove that Menzies theory is true and various scholars have gone against his basic ideologies.
At Bordega bay, ceramics still disgorge from a Chinese junk that sunk at the area. At sacramental
river, another proof of the Chinese presence in the America is seen. A Chinese junk buried there
under a sandbank was discovered. According to Menzies, the Chinese were centuries ahead of
Europe as the Chinese ships were armed with gunpowder weapons, brass and iron cannon,
mortars etc. The Armada would hold up almost thirty thousand men for their voyage. And by the
end of the middle watch, the provisions had been lashed down and the armada had weighed
anchor.
The water currents led these very old wrecks to go around and one of them was a teak that was
made of caeophyllum, a wood unique to south-east Asia. While this was one of the evidences, the
Asiatic chicken found from Chile to California. Great Wall of China being one of the seven
wonders of the world shows the important significance for the Chinese. At San Francisco bay,
there are mysterious walls built of stone that have been believed to have been built by the
Chinese. These examples and research have definitely given us some sort of acceptance that the
Chinese discovered America.
But there have been some opposing views by various scholars and historians. P.J Rivers has
opposed to Menzies theory that explains that one of the canals used by the Chinese, the red sea
canal, is believed that there was no direct sea route between the red and Mediterranean sea.
Another opposition came from Robert Finlay who said Menzies had to delve into the realms of
pseudo-science, and that he held on to outrageous claims that lack evidence. iBy the evidence
brought forward by Dr. John Furry of the Natural History Museum of Northern California who
read that the armor that had once been found was made of an unusual metal and that back in the
day the native Americans did not know how to forge metal. This cannot conclude the fact that
native Americans could not forge metal. These fragments were sent to China and were
provisionally identified as the wood of Keteleria, a conifer native to south-east China but North
America.

The example above has definitely proved me correct and the research has somewhat proven that
Menzies side is more believable as he does not dwell on showing that the previous scholars were
wrong. But instead proves his own theories by visiting California and forming a team of
individuals that helped him in the research. "In 1892, Gustave Schlegel contributed a monograph
to T' oung-Pao that meant that he had found in the ancient Chinese historians".[1] Stephen
powers an office inspector had published an article talking about the linguistic evidence of
Chinese colony on the Russian river in California. Furthermore, Powers claimed that diseases
brought by Europeans had decimated this Chinese colony as well as the other Indian people of
California. If the disease had not decimated the Chinese, they would have been the possible
colonizers of America and the Chinese culture would have been spread in America. That been
said, evidence shows that the Chinese did discover America but they were eventually decimated
by the Europeans.

Madaras, Larry, and James SoRelle. Taking Sides. 15th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill,
2013.Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered America. New York, NY: William Morrow,
2003. Print.
Douglas S. Watson, Fu Sang and Hui Shen, California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol 14, No.1
( Mar., 1935), pp. 47-48 ( Primary Source )
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