Did the Chinese discover America? Is Gavin Menzies a genius? Hell, no. Smallpox shows they did not.

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Sometime around 2003, a man named Gavin Menzies wrote a book entitled "1421, the year China Discovered the World." In this book, he advocated that the Chinese had built a large fleet and sailed around the world discovering new lands such as Australia and the Americas and trading and interacting with the people there long before the Europeans did. It was an exciting idea and it captured the imagination of many people around the world.

Menzies based his theory on the fact that around that time the Chinese did build a large fleet of vessels and ships and sailed around Asia going as far as the east coast of Africa near Eritria. Since many records of the voyages were lost or even deliberately destroyed soon after (for reasons having to do with Chinese politics of the time and differing opinions on the voyages) Menzies felt free to assume the Chinese might have done virtually anything imaginable during that time when he could find gaps in the record. Furthermore, Menzies liked to travel the world seeing different countries and different things and when he did, whenever he encountered things he personally could not understand (which was frequent) he would often tie what he saw in with his theory that the Chinese of that time had gone on vast global voyages around the world and create an explanation for these things, an explanation that often only made sense to him, and universally used these unproven Chinese historical voyages as the explanation. (If you've ever read Von Daniken's equally goofy book, Chariot of the Gods, in which we learn that the key to understanding much of ancient history is to insert space aliens whenever possible, you have seen this style of thinking before.)

Unfortunately, there were often large leaps in his logic and gaps in his knowledge of actual history and the result is a very silly book full of silly claims. The book is universally panned by Chinese historians, who at best, don't wish to talk about the book and others who scream when the topic comes up.


"But wait," someone will say, "Pete, how do you KNOW, yes, really KNOW, that the book and its premise is false? Is it not possible that you are too locked into a certain framework and tradition and pattern of thinking to see its brilliance? Isn't it possible that Gavin Menzies might be right, after all his books were best sellers and almost no one anywhere reads your books, and you might be wrong? Who can say?"

Well, sorry boys and girls, although history is a social science, and does require large amounts of interpretation with much room for discussion, debate, and disagreement, some things are not arbitrary. Some things are firmly grounded in evidence. And one of these things is the idea that the
Chinese did not arrive or settle or explore the "New World" in the pre-Colombian times.

And how do we know this?

Simple. Smallpox. Smallpox was a deadly disease endemic to both much of Europe and much of China during this time. (In many parts of China, smallpox was considered a normal part of childhood and some Chinese medical practitioners of the time thought it had something to do with material or energies in the mother's womb. -forgive me. I'll try and find a citation for this. I did write a paper on smallpox in China once at Cornell when I earned my MA. OK, not good enough. You deserve better. Here's one. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15734218-12341377#FN60 Check around endnote 60. Follow it, tap into the vein, and you shall be blessed with the chance to learn a great deal about how the Chinese of centuries ago sometimes connected the disease smallpox with "fetal poisons." Lucky you. Ask and you shall receive.) 

So, okay, smallpox was endemic to much of China.

Smallpox was endemic to much of Europe.

Smallpox was unknown in the new world until the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

How can we be sure of this? Because when the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they brought smallpox and it killed huge swathes of the native American peoples. They were hit with the disease like they'd never been hit with it before.

Why?

BECAUSE THEY'D NEVER BEEN HIT WITH IT BEFORE, -SIMPLE HUH?

Yeah, and if Gavin Menzies was right, well, those poor, sorry, smallpox infected Indians who died in such large numbers from smallpox contagion when the Europeans arrived, well, they would have been hit with it before and the devastation would not have been so great when the Europeans would have arrived.

Yup, simple, huh? Yup, Gavin Menzies books are stupid. Nevertheless, I hope to write more about  them, and other varieties of pseudohistory here in the future.

By the way, as if the subject weren't ridiculous enough already, Gavin Menzies book, "1421, when China discovered the world," was released under a new title for the American audience -"1421, when China discovered America." Apparently it was felt Americans did not really care too much about the rest of the world. Sadly, there's probably more truth to this than to the rest of Menzies thinking.