1421: The Year China Discovered America
Gavin Menzies
- New York HarperCollins 2003
- 552p
Menzies contends that a massive Chinese fleet under Zheng He circumnavigated the globe around 1421, reaching the Americas and other continents decades before Columbus. The book presents claims of Chinese maps, wreckage artifacts, and Eurasian crop transmissions, although it has been highly criticized for weak evidence and questionable methods .