1421: The Year China Discovered America [Paperback]

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.

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.

[Menzies] makes history sound like pure fun . . . This high-spiritedness, which infuses every page of 1421, makes his book a seductive read. -New York Times Magazine

Captivating . . . a historical detective story . . . that adds to our knowledge of the world, past and present. -Daily News

<1421>is likely to be the most fascinating read of 2003. -UPI

No matter what you think of Menziess theories, his enthusiasm is infectious. lcM