General DiscussionGet a nice cuppa, sit in your favourite chair and let yourself go in this general off topic forum. Discuss all your normal daily stuff here, share funny videos and pictures, rant about the weather and much more.
Hmm saw this on the news a day or two ago, according to some historian blokey, the Chinese landed in the americas 70 or 80 years ahead of Columbus, they also discovered Austrailia before Captain Cook!!!
Unfortunately they were recalled back to china, but the first european 'discoverers' all found chinese people living on the so called 'new' continents.
It is also been said that the first maps given to columbus showing him where the americas were in relation to europe, were made by the chinese.
Oh how i wish i had known this now way back in 3rd year history lol....
Imagine if the chinese had actually settled and populated these continents back at the start of the 15th century, how different the world would be now eh?
id believe that
in fact i read that columbus got his maps from the vikings
columbus never even set foot on mainland usa. he went for the caribbean islands, alledgedly looking for atlantis... lol. or a shipping route to the orient.
the norsemen had been in canada and the usa hundreds of years before columbus.
columbus sailed under the Templar flag. and 1 of the templars best churches is right near me (gloats). built hundreds of years before columbus set sail, it has carvings of maize and cacti. plants indigenous to north america, which can only have been found by the vikings.
there is absolutely no reason why the chinese wouldnt have been there before some spanish nobleman.
imagine they had populated it tho.... i darent comment, because i have had too much experience of ill-educated fools calling me a racist for pointing out fundamental differences between cultures on this forum!
I think there was trade routes between europe, asia and america not only hundreds of years before columbus but thousands. And yeah the vikings definately went there way before columbus too.
The first European discoverer of the Ameicas was Bjarni Herjulfsson, where he landed in Vinland (probably Nova Scotia) there is archaelogical evidence that suggests the viking/noresmen were the firs discoverers.
But, the real first people to discover America probably came from the east over the Bearing straits through Alaska during the last Ice age
If you're referring to Gavin Menzies and his book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, it's rather poor evidence for China's discovery of the Americas. While in theory, it is entirely possible, the proof of it is few and far between. One example being the ships that were required to make the voyages. He says there is no physical evidence for these because the Chinese emperor ordered them all broken down, burned and destroyed on a whim. Then he offers up his nautical expertise of the Atlantic as examples as to why the Chinese could have made the voyage. However, he only briefly mentions his knowledge was based on a British battleship making the voyage, not a tiny wooden sail ship 500 years before, but goes on to say that if the British battleship could make it, certainly the Chinese could make it. While it was an interesting read, the arguments and proof are quite weak.
Of course, if you're not referring to Gavin Menzies's book, then ingore this post.
For a while the Chinese built huge ships (HUGE) and set sail exploring this and that pretty early on (I think 14th and early 15th century), they were way ahead of the western world on technologies back then. But then the emperor decided (or his advisors) that it was more important to concentrate on issues in China rather than go exlporing, so all the ships were scuttled, and the logs of the explorers burnt and forgotten about.
erm kinda nonsensical to me this post lol, when all of these ppl arrived at america as its now called the indians were already there so didnt they discover it 1st?
I know it's historial and people want the records to be right and what not, but I have to ask myself, does it really matter now? The world is getting smaller all the time metephorically speaking and soon it will be like in Judge Dread anyway, with it being a few huge Mega States, rather than actual countries, Europe is heading that way now anyway, wether we like it or not... After all every country these days is full of people from amny diffeent countries... With the odd exception where nobody wants to go...
It matters to them really, consider it an ego boost for the country who can claim they found it . Det your right about the world getting smaller, they have just looked into a new way of travel that could mean a trip from London to Japan could take something like 2 hours. They are of course not devolping it for that reason, they are devolping it to make missiles better as well as to make space travel better or something, only caught it in passing on the news I think it was.
The ships the chinese made were approximately 10 times the size of european ships of the times, (ty Grrrrrrrr) oh and to add credance to my choice of thread topic, I like things that challenge what I was taught at school. Most people believe Mr columbus did the business, as I myself did, until I saw a program about it last week. BTW there is evidence, in the London musuem, a chinese map of the world, dated early 15th century, showing the americas and africa and austraila, long time before the western world 'discovered' them.
I think the world will eventually move to mega-states, going to be cool at the olympics, the UK might win some stuff for a change lol.
The Americas discovered by the Chinese?
Then he offers up his nautical expertise of the Atlantic as examples as to why the Chinese could have made the voyage. However, he only briefly mentions his knowledge was based on a British battleship making the voyage, not a tiny wooden sail ship 500 years before, but goes on to say that if the British battleship could make it, certainly the Chinese could make it. While it was an interesting read, the arguments and proof are quite weak.
Linear Mode
