1421 The Year China Discovered The World

Type: HistoryAuthor: Gavin Menzies  My rating: Buy now
Posted by Dominic Book introduction: Based on 10 years of research by Gavin Menzies, piecing together evidence that Zheng He had conducted a great sea voyage to explore the world in the early 15th century. Many of the evidence, ideas and facts contradicts the conventional beliefs that many of the places were discovered by European explorers. This includes America, Australia and more. Gavin went as far to claim that the European explorers already had some maps obtained directly/indirectly from Chinese. If the research work of this book are proven correct, history books will have to be rewritten. It also explains technical breakthrough and long history of star charting practice, for example the Chinese technique to accurately measure longtitude, 300 years before the Western world was able to master the technology.
My review: Gavin Menzies has an interesting combination of background that makes him unique in undertaking this research work, his link to China (he spent his years in China), he is an experienced navy navigator and is able to comprehen deeper meaning and extract more information of ancient maps. Chinese has long known about the great exploration by Zheng He during the Ming dynasty, this is a more complete and extensive collection of evidence. This is certainly a very interesting and easy to read book, whether you agree with its findings. View more information from the official website http://www.1421.tv