http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4609074.stm China map lays claim to Americas A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus. The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418. If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival. The map, which is being dated to check it was made in 1763, faces a lot of scepticism from experts. Chinese characters written beside the map say it was drawn by Mo Yi Tong and copied from a map made in the 16th year of the Emperor Yongle, or 1418. It clearly shows Africa and Australia. The British Isles, however, are not marked. Controversial claim The map was bought for about $500 from a Shanghai dealer in 2001 by a Chinese lawyer and collector, Liu Gang. According to the Economist magazine, Mr Liu only became aware of the map's potential significance after he read a book by British author Gavin Menzies. The book, 1421: The Year China discovered America, made the controversial claim that a Chinese admiral and eunuch, Zheng He, sailed around the world and discovered America on the way. Zheng He, a Muslim mariner and explorer, is widely thought to have sailed around South East Asia and India, but the claim he visited America is hotly disputed. The map is now being tested to check the age of its paper and ink, with the results due to be known in February. Even if it does prove to have been drawn in 1763, sceptics will point out that we still only have the mapmaker's word that he copied if from a 1418 map, rather than from a more recent one. But for some, this would still not make the Chinese admiral the first modern discoverer of the Americas, as they believe that Viking Leif Eriksson sailed to north America in the year 1000.
Oh great, now China can claim the right to 'self-defense' and invade the US with their 200 million man army.
Actually, I think that some people may "discovered it" ~40,000 years before that. But interesting find nonetheless.
theres an article about him in the July 2005 National Geographic http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0507/feature2/index.html another great article: http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/intro.html
no kiddin...i'm pretty sure the first nations ,and the mayan indians, had a clue about what was here.
ummmm Weren't the indians savages that roamed the land before the God loving Europeans landed? If the Indians were more sophisticated like the Europeans, they could be considered the true founders. In columbus's journals, he described these indians as beasts that were very similar to the animals they hunted.
they were sophisticated...just not in the european way. they spoke another language - they were hunters and gatherers...no doubt columbus thought they were beasts...i mean damn, they didn't even have fur hats.
Columbus landed on Hispanolia IIRC. When Cortez "met" the Aztecs there were a number of technologies that the Aztec had that were new to Europeans, and he was absolutely amazed by Tenochtitlan which he described in glowing terms and compared favorably with the greatest European cities. The two specific technologies that I can remember offhand were precious metal alloying, and the complex irrigation technologies. One significant reason that Cortez and his men survived was the Aztec need for people to sacrifice. Cortez killed wholesale while the Aztec captured enemies to sacrifice. This allowed defeated soldiers a chance to escape and rejoin the fight, and it is much more difficult to win a fight when you have to avoid killing the other side.
