Finished 1421 today. Very interesting read. The author is very pleased with himeself, but overall does a great job conveying his view of the facts. He often tries to point out that he might not be 100% correct, but he makes a great case for the 1421~3 treasure fleets of China visiting every continent (including Antartica!).

I find it interesting that one of the things that bothered me about this book is his depiction of Christopher Columbus. From my other reading I am fairly convinced that Columbus (and most people in the 15th century) knew the Earth was round. In addition, when Columbus returned home he knew he reached the Americas. In his journal he wrote so much. Menzies acknowledges that Columbus knew about the Earth’s shape (in fact, he had maps guiding him, Menzies says), however Menzies claims that Columbus thought he reached China.

I was talking about this book with my in-laws (my father (in-law) lent me the book). We got on the subject of the obviously wrong portrayal of Columbus that school children are taught and I brought up Helen Keller. According to Lies My Teacher Told Me Keller was mostly know to her contemporaries for her radical socialist views. Sure she had triumphed over her disabilities, but her most important contribution was around political activism. Today none of that is taught to children. My brother’s question was simple – Why?

I don’t have an answer.

Back to 1421. The book was a little dry, and I got tired of Menzies continued attempts to convince the reader that he had enough credibility to write and research this topic. I still enjoyed the book. The evidence is quite interesting, and there are lots of side stories that are really intriguing – like the Bimini Road. Menzies contents that the road was constructed by the Chinese to beach their huge junks and then be able to float them again after the repairs.

I don’t think anyone can really disagree that the Chinese were millennia ahead of European culture and science. Guns, Germs and Steel has some interesting data about why the Chinese advanced so much faster than Europe, but Diamond credited the diversity of Europe as to why they ended up winning out over China. Menzies has a different view, in that a single event in 1421 (or 1422?) where a freak lightning strike that leveled the Forbidden City and sent China into a isolationist period as being the tipping point for China.

The amazing thing that I find about 1421 is the just the concept that a single event could have so changed the course of history. Even if there was no truth to the story, the plausabity of the story is compelling. If lightning hadn’t have struck we most likely would have seen China shore up it’s positions in North and South America, New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and India. It wouldn’t be too hard to imagine that the Chinese, and not European people would have colonized the world.

It should be interesting to see if Menzies is validated – as it would surely mean the rewriting of a lot of history books.