Did the Chinese discover America First? Who cares?

Lessons for Global Security Today.

Did the Chinese discover America around 2640BC-2200BC? The Debate Continues. Conventional belief said that Marco Polo used Chinese Maritime Maps from the Yuan Dynasty dating back to the 13th Century. Original Chinese Maps were much earlier. A world map published during the Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1418 also suggests that the famous Chinese Admiral Zheng He (a Muslim) and his mariners had not only sailed in the Indian Ocean but had also circumnavigated the earth.

A comparison of the 1418 map with the slightly later “Shanhai Yudi Quantu” (“Map of Mountains and Seas”) map (c.1430) shows that the Ming navy had, in the meantime, established the peninsular nature of California, improved the west coast outline of South America, and added key east coast features such as Labrador, Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico. The similarities (including errors) that the secret European maps shared with the Ming maps suggest that the maps used by European explorers like Magellan, Columbus and Vasco da Gama, were partly derived from the Chinese. Portuguese spies such as Niccolo da Conti (c. 1425) and Pero de Covilha (in 1487–1493) and Marco Polo had probably managed to obtain copies of the Ming maps.