Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Gavin Menzies
(born 1937) is a retired British submarine commander and author. He is
best known for his controversial book published in 2002, 1421: The Year
China Discovered the World, in which he presents his hypothesis that
ships from the fleet of Chinese admiral Zheng He visited the Americas
prior to their discovery by European explorer Christopher Columbus in
1492, and that the same fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before
Ferdinand Magellan, as part of the era of Chinese exploration. Menzies'
second book, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy
and Ignited the Renaissance, was published in 2008.In the community of
professional historians Menzies' theories are strongly criticized and
have received no support as of this writing. It has also been pointed
out that he has no command of the Chinese language, which would prevent
him from understanding original source material relevant to his thesis.
