Everything you learned in school is wrong.
 

r.f.

Interesting..
 

It wouldn't surprise me if that's how it happened. After all, Marco Polo brought back pasta from the Orient and claimed it for the Italians as well.

It's really not a very new theory, although the evidence might be new. For example, I think Boorstin's book "The Discoverers" talks at some length about the Chinese explorers, and this guy in particular, and discusses the possibility of his landfall in No or So America.

There is all sorts of evidence that others arrived before columbus. Cocaine has been found in the stomachs of Egyptian mummies-- a substance which only grows in South America. The pyramids in Mesoamerica are possibly derived from their egyptian counterparts. Polynesians, Chinese, Vikings, and possibly (and probably) others made it to America before Columbus.

Columbus is significant because his "discovery" made Europe aware of the New World and initiated the era of colonialization. The other discoveries did not.

Re: Everything you learned in school is wrong.
 

What was great about Columbus's "discovery" (whether or not that makes Columbus great or not is irrelevant) is the simple fact that he began the flood of exploration of the Western Hemisphere, ultimately leading to the establishment of America.

But then again, with all of the American hate the world seems to find in vogue, including a fair number of natives that thrive on self-loathing, maybe it wasn't so great after all.

That is a great book. One of my favorites.

Re: Everything you learned in school is wrong.
 

Gavin Menzies book, 1421 is well worth the read. The discoveries occurred during a period of Chinese openness but during the voyages the emperor changed and Chinese turned inward.