Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China to "proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas." When the fleet returned home 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 the 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. And they colonized America before the Europeans, transplanting the principal economic crops that have since fed and clothed the world.

Average Customer Rating:

1421, the Year Chinese Discovered America

Customer Rating:

Before Columbus started his journey, he already had in his possession a world map presented to the Pope by a Chinee envoy showing the American continent. Since the map already showed the new world (American continent) that means some other people had already been there and in this case the Chinese. Therefore, Columbus's claim that he discovered the new world was a false claim at best. Capt. Menzies listed detailed evidence to argue his case that the Chinese discovered America in 1421, about 100 years before Columbus and he has succeeded.

A Fine Work of Fiction

Customer Rating:

Yet another one of those books that had all the markings of something I would rather use as an assault missile from my deck when the neighboring children get too loud as I'm trying to read. I wish I could give this a great review. Had Sir Menzies filed his work in the fiction section where it belongs, I may have. But unfortunately, a history this is not. I don't need to give you specifics as they are too plentiful everywhere else. All I can say is that I really enjoyed the book for many reasons. Among them I now know that literary talent is judged not only by its product but also by its categorization.

Goodbye to the "Spaceman" theory

Customer Rating:

This book may not be to everyone's liking, but it does use a great of deal of commonsense with regard to Mankind's perception of geographical knowledge in Medieval times. It makes perfect common sense that people explored the world BEFORE Chris Columbus. He must have had an idea from somewhere, that the 'Final Frontier' was out there.......the way to The Indies....only problem was the American continent got in the way! Or did it?? Did he know, that there was a landmass to the West? Where did he get his maps? If this book is not to your liking, you must have a mind that is welded shut to the reception of new ideas.

Excellent history	Customer Rating:
A must read and a corrective of the present history of the discovery of America by Columbus. The cruelness of the emperor and his vision of a great "market" and "friends" across the seas are truly fascinating and understandable, yet frightening. The "proofs" and evidence presented make this the most wonderfully believable part of history not yet exposed.

Fact/Fiction who cares......

Customer Rating:

You have to admit the author has ALOT and I do mean ALOT of evidence to prove that something went on long before Columbus got here. I think most of the proof lies with the plants, crops, animals and of course the wreckages found along the coasts. The ships lost alone is proof enough that the Chinese were in fact out there and discovering the world long before others. The maps used by others alone is proof. This auther has given history a swift kick in the pants and those who record it need to get some pretty big erasers. Get the book. Worth the read and the education.