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shattered and rusty Orange River , a map recently unfurled in Beijing has reignite an international war of words over who reached the New World first .
Chinais the latest to throw its sailor lid into the ring , but it wo n’t likely be the last in this long - run , hotly contested debate .
The controversial Chinese map argued by some to be from 1418.
The Chinese voyage to America theory was popularise by British recreational historian Gavin Menzies in his 2002 Good Book entitled " 1421 : the Year China Discovered America . " The controversial , bestselling work claims that Chinese full admiral Zheng He reached the Americas more than 70 years prior to Christopher Columbus ' notable ocean trip .
After reading " 1421 , " Liu Gang , a Chinese lawyer , realized the potential import of a map he ’d purchase for his individual collecting . date stamp 1418 and clearly show the outline of both North and South America , the mathematical function could be used to corroborate Menzies ' hypothesis if it proves legitimate .
Forgery ?
Liu unveiled his mapping at a packed press group discussion in Beijing on Jan. 16 .
Despite arousing immediate international interest , the map was quick dismiss by many historians as an outright counterfeit .
" Scholars who screw this field have refuted this title under no uncertain terms , " Sally K. Church , Fellow at the University of Cambridge , toldLiveScience .
Geoff Wade , Senior Research Fellow at the University of Singapore ’s Asia Research Institute , echo her sentiment . " The map is an 18th - century written matter of a European map , as evidenced by the two hemispheres depicted , the continents shown and the non - maritime detailed [ sic ] depict , " he spell recently to a group of nautical scholar .
In the other camp , Menzies is brook Liu and the 1418 single-valued function with fervor . His key logical thinking , send on by e-mail from a appendage of his faculty , is that " every continent , ocean , land , island , river shown on the 1418 map also appear on other Chinese maps of the same day of the month or earlier . There is nothing new on the 1418 map — it simply combine everything on one sheet of paper , " he said .
Menzies also place to a Portuguese map of the Americas dating from 1419 whose error — like the drawing of California as an island — are think to have been replicate from cartographical error made by the Chinese .
" In 1419 European voyages of exploration had not started . If the 1418 map is a counterfeit , then the 1419 map must be as well . How do you forge something yet to be fall upon , " Menzies reasoned .
British magazineThe Economistrecently printed an article about Liu ’s prized possession , quoting both help and knocker of Menzies ' beliefs .
In a letter written toThe Economistand provided toLiveScience , Wade , the critic of the map from the Asia Research Institute , urged its editor to print a retraction .
" That your writer has contributed to the Menzies ' bandwagon and continuing conjuring trick of the public is sadden , " Wade wrote . " The support mentioned all hail from Mr. Menzies ' band of acolytes and the claims have no academic support whatsoever . Your writer has been taken in by Mr. Menzies and you do have a social responsibility to rectify this . "
Other claims
The Chinese map disceptation can be added to a growing database of title for pre - Columbian find of the Americas .
grant to some scholar , it was Scottish Earl Sir Henry Sinclair of Orkney who first touch American ground in 1397 , on one of many ocean trip the sailor undertook with Italian partner Nicolo Zeno . Another controversial map drawn by Zeno himself is believe to adumbrate the coasts of Nova Scotia .
help of this possibility offer as evidence Sinclair ’s known contact with nearby Viking lords , whose ancestors unequivocally did reach North America centuries prior to any other Europeans — a exploit that ’s often blank out in the mix .
For now , a rewrite of the history books is unnecessary , harmonize to Wade . " There is no demand to rewrite anything except the chronicle of twenty-first - century charlatan , " he said .
