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Rewriting History

Rewriting History

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I'm halfway though a rather interesting book called 1421 by Gavin Menzies. It is the culmination of 15 years worth of research, the basic outline of the book is that the chinese empire sent ships which explored and discovered the world long before the famous european explorers. Now just about every school kid will say that captain cook discovered Australia. However the evidence put forward that the chinese did so long before is quite compelling. All very interesting. Also there is a website http://www.1421.tv/

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Originally posted by Jay Peatea
I'm halfway though a rather interesting book called 1421 by Gavin Menzies. It is the culmination of 15 years worth of research, the basic outline of the book is that the chinese empire sent ships which explored and discovered the world long before the famous european explorers. Now just about every school kid will say that captain cook discovered Austral ...[text shortened]... ng before is quite compelling. All very interesting. Also there is a website http://www.1421.tv/
Sounds reasonable to me. Does the book mention the Americas? Seems like it wasn't long ago that I read about archeologists unearthing Asian artifacts along our west coast that predated any artifacts so far found in Americas. I'm not sure where I read it, maybe Science News weekly magazine.

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Originally posted by Delmer
Sounds reasonable to me. Does the book mention the Americas? Seems like it wasn't long ago that I read about archeologists unearthing Asian artifacts along our west coast that predated any artifacts so far found in Americas. I'm not sure where I read it, maybe Science News weekly magazine.
Yes it also the Americas. Apparantly there is the wreck of an ancient chinese junk found on the banks of the sacramento. Plus there is also evidence of a chinese colony on the russian river.

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Originally posted by Jay Peatea
Yes it also the Americas. Apparantly there is the wreck of an ancient chinese junk found on the banks of the sacramento. Plus there is also evidence of a chinese colony on the russian river.
That's it! That's what I can remember reading. I'll have to order a copy of 1421. I'll also check out the website. Thanks.

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I read most of the book several years ago. It's not as astounding as it might seem, especially if you consider limited, but very compelling evidence that a Chinese traveller visited the Americas in the fifth century. If I recall correctly, Hui Shen's account of his travels describes birds then known only in the Americas.

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I've heard this too. I remember hearing that the fleet was ordered destroyed as an economy measure by the bureaucracy or something like that.

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Many books now claim that Columbus etc were the first Europeans to discover a place, as oppossed to 'the' discoverers.

Also, as some comedian once said, "Columbus discovered America, which came as a great surprise to all those people already living there".

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When people say "Columbus discovered America" and "Cook discovered Australia" (actually didn't the Dutch (van Deimens possibly) discover it first?) they tend to omit a bit which should say "to the Europeans" or whatever.
Way back in the 16th C or whenever, who cares if the Chinese discovered it, because that still didn't mean that we knew about it!
Anyway, I read that the Chinese explored all over, then decided that nothing they saw that was any better than they had at home, then just stopped travelling, and brought all their ships home.

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Originally posted by Jay Peatea
the chinese empire sent ships which explored and discovered the world long before the famous european explorers. Now just about every school kid will say that captain cook discovered Australia. However the evidence put forward that the c ...[text shortened]... All very interesting. Also there is a website http://www.1421.tv/
Doesn't the Aboriginal discovery and settlement of Australia forty thousand years ago count?

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Originally posted by Jay Peatea
I'm halfway though a rather interesting book called 1421 by Gavin Menzies. It is the culmination of 15 years worth of research, the basic outline of the book is that the chinese empire sent ships which explored and discovered the world long before the famous european explorers. Now just about every school kid will say that captain cook discovered Austral ...[text shortened]... ng before is quite compelling. All very interesting. Also there is a website http://www.1421.tv/
these themes are the same for the discovery of australia, america and ideas such as democracy and freedom.

i remember a book called the vegemite history of australia which i read many years ago.

it goes something like:

the indonesians didnt discover australia 20000 years ago when they came to live here ... nor 10000 when they did it again ... nor 5000 years ago.

the chinese didnt discover it when they came 2000 years ago nor 1000 years ago,

... nor the dutch ...

... nor the french ....

... thank god for captain cook!!!!!!

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Columbus, Cook, and crew were not the first at anything. But their voyages were more significant than their predecessors because of advertising and promotion--they became trendsetters. They were true proto-capitalists, offering superior marketing, where previously quality determined value.

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Discovery in that sense means uncovering the existence of these places in the eyes of Western civilisation, and doesn't discount previous people having dropped by!

By the way, if you want to know who discovered America, it was an Irishman, Saint Brendan the Voyager, who managed it way back in the Sixth Century!!!

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02758c.htm

That's one in the eye for China, and the People's Republic of Genoa, respectively!!!

Hooray!😏

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Originally posted by sjeg
That's one in the eye for China, and the People's Republic of Genoa, respectively!!!

Hooray!😏
And the Vikings as well?

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Originally posted by Wulebgr
Columbus, Cook, and crew were not the first at anything. But their voyages were more significant than their predecessors because of advertising and promotion--they became trendsetters. They were true proto-capitalists, offering superior marketing, where previously quality determined value.
Well if you discover something new and don't tell anyone, you have no-one to blame but yourself when someone else comes along and "discovers" it.

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Originally posted by Varg
And the Vikings as well?
Quite right! Take that, Scandinavia! Good old St.B.!!

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