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rabbit hole (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 73 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020)[1][2][3] was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions[4][5][6][7][8]: 367–372  and have categorised his work as pseudohistory.[9][10][11]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The Haida and other native groups of coastal BC have no record of Zheng He's voyage.

    And because his ships weren't capable of handling the open ocean, the only way he'd be able to do such a trip is by hugging the coast, so they'd have absolutely seen them.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    I'd never heard about this "Zheng He in America" thing before, so I just did a little reading about it. One thing I read said he supposedly sailed around Africa and to the east coast of America, which is even more implausible.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    They did sail to Africa. They picked up giraffes and shit and brought them back to China. They intervened in local conflicts like "both of you lose! China wins! Give tribute."

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Sure, I'm not saying I doubted that part. The part that apparently doesn't have real evidence and thus seems implausible is the notion that they continued all the way around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Atlantic.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They didnt have to sail to Africa per say. By the time of those trips, there had been a reliable trade network for more than 1500 years stretching from Africa up through the Middle East into India.

    I don't doubt that it'd be possible to harbour hop those boats down to Africa, but they only needed to go as far as India/Persia to connect.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They did sail to Africa. It's well documented in primary and secondary sources. They made a map with Africa on it:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Kun_map

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