History Is Hard Enough To Follow Without Junk

In August, I went to the movies with two coworkers, and we wound up seeing The Other Guys. While we were in town, we stopped at a bookstore, and there was a book that caught my eye. For whatever reason, I didn't buy it, and mostly forgot about it. At Christmas, my dad wanted to know something I'd like, I remembered the book, he found it, bought it (and another, related book), and sent them to me. Which brings us to the point where I actually started reading Gavin Menzies' 1421: The Year China Discovered America.

While I was reading the book, I noticed a shift in my reaction. I started out wondering how I hadn't heard anything about this discovery (surprise). By page 300 I was starting to wonder why I hadn't heard anything about it (suspicion). Which lead to me poking around online last night. Menzies has a website which he apparently updates with new evidence, but there's also a website, 1421 Exposed, set up by a group of historians that details the myriad ways in which Menzies obscures or ignores information that disagrees with his conclusions, selectively cites passages, misreads ocean currents, makes claims which rely on results which would be at odds with each other, and so on. Basically, this book is bunk*.

Which is too bad, because Menzies can be an engaging writer. He paints a beautiful picture of Emperor Zhu Di sending this treasure fleet out for its 6th voyage in the year 1421, first to return envoys to the various realms around the Indian Ocean the Chinese traded with**. Then, leading Admiral Zheng He sent the fleet out (while he returned home for some reason). Yang Quing stayed in the Indian Ocean, Menzies says to determine longitude (Menzies describes a method that might have been useful for making maps once one returned home, but would be useless while out at sea). The other 3 went around the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic, split up, and proceeded to explore the eastern coast of South America, Antarctica, the Caribbean, Greenland, the northern coast of Russia, New Zealand, and so on. All 70 years before Columbus reached the Americas. It sounds very impressive.

Menzies is confident in his conclusions, which worked against him as I read the book. Often, he dismisses any conclusion other than his own quickly. One of his arguments is both the Chinese and people of Mexico knew how to use lacquer, which he takes as a sign the Chinese reached Mexico and taught the people there. He says it's highly implausible the technique could have developed simultaneously but independently, but it's not clear why they'd have to develop simultaneously. Why couldn't the inhabitants of Mexico figure out lacquer on their own? Also, he argues that one creature depicted on the South American section of a Piri Reis map of 1513 is the Mylodon, a giant sloth native to South America. He argues the Chinese must have seen them, captured them, then this information was distributed to Europe after their return home and later incorporated in the map. Setting aside the bits about the information reaching Europe, which relies on Menzies' theories about how Niccolo da Conti spent the years 1421-1423***, Mylodons went extinct over 10,000 years ago. It goes on and on like that.

It's too bad really. It was a beautiful story, but it seems to be about as historically accurate as those Harry Turtledove books I used to read. At least Turtledove labeled his stuff fiction. Now I'm going to have ask my dad if he knew about this book when he bought it for me, and wanted to see if I'd catch on, or if he really didn't know anything about it.

* The part that's especially disappointing is the 1421 exposed website also has a section on Paul Chiasson's The Island of Seven Cities, which is the other book my dad bought. I'm not disappointed I learned its findings are highly questionable before I even started it, more that my dad spent money on it. Hopefully he bought the cheapest available copy.

** This is something that isn't disputed, for the record. Pretty much all historians agree the Chinese traded quite a bit with East Africa, Arabia, India, and the Spice Islands before China became extremely isolationist.

*** Menzies argues da Conti (or de Conti) had been traveling throughout the Middle East, was present when the treasure fleet reached Calicut, and traveled with it for the next two years, before eventually returning to Europe and relating all he'd learned to. Most resources online don't corroborate the claim da Conti traveled with the fleet, and there a few that have quotes from da Conti stating he never in his life even saw a Chinese junk, let alone spent two years circumnavigating the globe on one, so take it for what it's worth.