Christopher Columbus or Zheng He, who "discovered" America? Write 300-350 words discussing your viewpoint, while utilizing evidence and logic to support your rationale. Please comment on two of your classmate's posts as well.
Who really discovered the Western world, Zheng He or Christopher Columbus? The definition of discovered is, “find something or someone unexpectedly or in the course of a search”. I believe that Zheng He was actually the first person to discover america. One reason I believe this is because the chinese had left little gifts wherever they went, leaving animals, flowers, food and stone that had the date in chinese on it. There had been ming pottery pots found around the world. A research showed that the stone found with the writing was stone from that time period that only could have been found in china. They found shipwrecks of chinese ships along the coast of america and australia. That is also true with the wood they found. It was a specific wood from china that had ended up in the americas. Another reason I believe that Zheng He found america first was because there is documented maps and writing from china that show the course they took and how they navigated the seas all the way to the western world. They had mpas of the oceans, currents and stars that helped them travel the world. It was even documented that the Europeans used the maps the chinese made to follow the currents. There are letters that prove the europeans where using the maps because they knew what they were looking for even though no one had previously explored that side of the world. One other thing to support my claim was that there are pictures of native people in the western world having traditional chinese clothing from that time era. The only way they could have had that type of clothing was if the chinese stopped there and gave them gifts. The natives even told local stories of having special visitors before Columbus. Even though columbus started the europeans colonizing in the americas, he did not discover the americas because he was not the first foreigner to see the land and explore it.
“Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” is one of the most common phrases said among children and remembered by most. Columbus Day is a day where americans celebrate the finding of north america by Columbus, this is why he is so well known. Many people believe that columbus discovered America but did he? Many theorists believe that North America was found in 1421, 71 years before Columbus did. Many believe that Zheng He, a chinese admiral found North America while sailing the world. There are many pieces of evidence that prove this theory. Maps exist that show continents, rivers, and straits, chinese could not know these things unless they went to the new world and mapped it. Chinese clothing was found in the new world, they no other way the clothes got there unless they were traded, left behind or given to native people. Also animals and plants that are only native to china were found in America before columbu, american plants and animals were also found in china. There not other way that plants or animals got to these locations without help from humans, it's not like animals swam to these places or plant seeds got flown that way. Wrecks from Chinese ships were also found in Australia and North America, which were tests and matched wood used on the ships and time period. The only way that these pieces of wood from the ships got to these location was from damaged chinese ships that were repaired in these locations. It's not like damaged wood from ships drifted from china all the way to North America, it's not really possible. Finally European explorers found Chinense in America. The only way that this is possible is if the chinese landed in America and left people there. Also Star charts from the ming dynasty were found. Stars look different in certain spots in the world and that would mean that would have to sail around or be in North America on order to record such star patterns. From all these pieces of evidences we can clearly tell that Zheng He did discover America and not Columbus.
It is intriguing to think about, the question of who discovered America first, Christopher Columbus or Zheng He. Based on my knowledge of this subject, I would have to say it was Zheng He. Based on the research conducted by Gavin Menzies and explained in his book, it makes perfect sense that the Chinese discovered America first all the way back in 1421. The Chinese were world travelers, who had boats 450 feet long, which were definitely capable of taking them across the world. According to Menzies they not only discovered America, but circumnavigated the globe. Columbus was most likely able to find his way to each place he visited, by using Chinese maps of the New World. That evidence is corroborated by ship logs, diaries and letters. What more is that languages across the Americas have been influenced by Chinese. As the Chinese went on their travels across the globe, they marked where they had been, by leaving plants as gifts. They would also bring plants back to China with them. This is evidenced by the fact that there are plants native to Asia in America and plants native to America in Asia. Those plants were also dated to long before Columbus set foot in America. Due to wrecks of Chinese vessels in North America and Australia, there was pottery from the Ming Dynasty found in the new world. It is not likely that the pottery simply floated from China to North America, so the discovery of the new world makes the most sense. There is also evidence of similarity in DNA between Chinese and Native Americans, some evidence that European explorers found Chinese in Americas (suggesting that that were some tries at colonization) and local stories of foreign visitors before Columbus. Menzies suggests that it was Zheng He who discovered America for the Chinese, because he was a Chinese admiral who led multiple voyages for their country. It is due to these reasons that I believe that Zheng He found America first. If you look at the collected evidence, it is the only logical conclusion.
I really like the opening sentences and I like how you kinda chronological talked about the reasons, their some grammatical errors witch take away from it but overall really well written.
After learning about Zheng He, I have come to the conclusion that Zheng He did discover America. While CHristopher Columbus was also a sailor, Zheng He had many more qualifications when it came to sailing the ocean. He was a seasoned voyager who had traveled to more than 30 countries in humongous ships that obviously must have been hard to handle. His tremendous experience helped him create a modern map that included all the continents and showed calculations of longitude. When the chinese arrived, they left evidence that they had made a visit to america. Items such as ming pottery were found, along with plants and animals native to China. Even without the artifacts, Native Americans were found with Chinese DNA long before the Europeans arrived. The Native Americans themselves had stories that showed the Chinese had once visited. On the other hand, Christopher Columbus had accidently discovered America, while Zheng He and his people had written evidence of knowing what they were trying to discover. Furthermore, Christopher Columbus mistook the people as Indians, which led to them permanently being stuck with a racist stereotype that still lingers over Native Americans today, and also proving that Christopher Columbus had no idea what he was doing. Even with this evidence that Zheng He had discovered America, many people are still in denial of the Chinese discovery. Many Americans, specifically white people, take pride in knowing that Christopher Columbus had “discovered” America. If we think about it, the people controlling the information being taught in schools are mostly dominated by white people, which might be a reason this information is not printed out in children's textbooks and people do not learn from a early age that Christopher Columbus did not discover America and he was not a peaceful man either. Teaching crucial information like this has to be taught at a young age because if it isn’t, children end up having a warped version of history. Relearning information almost every year does not benefit anyone in America, which is a problem that should be addressed immediately.
“Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” has always been a rhyme that we learned. Columbus was a man who may have sailed the ocean blue but he was not the man who discovered America. Zheng He, according to claims, actually landed in America in 1421. The evidence is astounding from maps to physical pieces of ships that wrecked. Zheng He had maps of the world that included rivers, continents, and other things. Chinese clothing was also found in the new world which means that at some point, the chinese sailors and the people of the new world collided. The most compelling piece of evidence is pieces of ships that have been found in North American rivers. This means that at some point, a chinese ship reached our coast, and sank in either a battle or a storm. These are basic pieces of evidence that some may be able to call “coincidental”. DNA is something that people can not deny. There were DNA ties between the Native Americans and the Chinese. The only way that this can happen is by having babies that had both Chinese and Native American DNA in them. Besides the DNA, the Native Americans had other influences as well. People claim that languages in the Americas were under Chinese influence as well. This shows a big cultural impact from the Chinese. A big question is also, if the Chinese did discover America, how did they know where to go? The answer is star charts. These star charts, which may seem useless, were actually very important in knowing where they were and which they were headed. For example, many people know the North Star which seems unimportant now but could have saved sailors hundreds of years ago. Evidence like this makes a compelling argument for who discovered America. Overall, it can be concluded, in my own opinion, that Zheng He actually discovered America.
Since time immemorial, children have been told “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”; that Christopher Columbus, European explorer, was the discover of America. In his 2003 book 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies presents decent amount of evidence pointing to another explorer: One who “sailed the ocean blue” much earlier, 71 years earlier, in 1421. Zheng He. The book experienced a great deal of commercial success and popularity. Though some of his claims are convincing, Menzies’ hypothesis has been largely rejected by historians around the world. The major claims that Menzies makes about Zheng He’s voyage are these: He was the first to circumnavigate the globe, that he create a longitudinally accurate map of the entire world long before europeans did, and that he visited every continent (particularly being the first to visit the americas). The evidence provided to refute these claims is often not fully investigated and taken at face value, such as a map purchased in a gift shop in 2001 that was claimed to have been copied from a map made in 1421: the same year Zheng He went on his voyage. Menzies readily accepted this to be fact, as the map was strikingly accurate, even mapping the americas, but features of the map were too modern to have been accurate to the time period. European influences and vocabulary that were not introduced to the chinese until hundreds of years after the map was claimed to have been made were present, bringing into question the validity of the map. Menzies himself was initially inspired to write a book about the year 1421 after a trip to china, but was told the 1500 page manuscript that he produced was unpublishable. A single chapter in that manuscript about Zheng He intrigued the publisher, however, and he encouraged Menzies to create a book about that. The publisher claimed that the writing was messy and generally unreadable. A team of ghost writers was brought in to rework the entire text after news coverage of the book was secured. No fact checking was done by anyone as they wrote information that was provided by Menzies and turned in into the finished book. Despite its success, 1421 presents many unfounded claims and does not definitively prove that Zheng He discovered the Americas, though it remains a possibility. The irrefutable documentation and proof that Columbus “discovered” the Americas remains the oldest on record, and remains so unless a more convincing piece of evidence is brought to light.
As Americans we have grown up with the idea that Christopher Columbus had discovered America. We’ve given columbus all the credit but we’ve neglected to consider other options. Zheng he was a chinese admiral and explorer during the 15th century and in my opinion and based on evidence presented by Gavin Menzies, it very strongly suggests that Zheng he discovered America in 1421 long before columbus did in 1492. Along with discovering America, Menzies also makes claims that Zheng He and his men mapped the world, visited every continent and invented the way to calculate longitude. The strongest piece of evidence that shows Zheng He’s discovery is the presence of plants and animals that were native to Asia found and America and plants native to America found in Asia. It was tradition for the chinese explorers to leave gifts to mark and label where they have been, this explains the discovery of plants found where they were not native. Another piece of evidence to consider is the maps that columbus had used to discover america. These maps showed the geography of the land,such as rivers from the 1420s. This is because Zheng he had previously discovered America and was therefore able to map it out. Menzies also presents cultural evidence such as the influence in language and the chinese clothing that was found in America. These things had to have been given and included by the arrival of chinese explorers. Physical shipwreck evidence further shows Zheng he being in America. Chinese ships wreckage was found in Australia and North America, this would mean that these ships would have been near of at the coast. DNA evidence also shows ties in DNA between Native Americans and Chinese. Although some historians disapprove of Menzies claim, there is strong evidence that shows Chinese explorers discovering America 70 years before columbus did. Geographical,Cultural and Physical signs all support the claim that Zheng he was an advanced and intelligent sailor who along with his men were the the first to discover America.
Who really discovered the Western world, Zheng He or Christopher Columbus? The definition of discovered is, “find something or someone unexpectedly or in the course of a search”. I believe that Zheng He was actually the first person to discover america. One reason I believe this is because the chinese had left little gifts wherever they went, leaving animals, flowers, food and stone that had the date in chinese on it. There had been ming pottery pots found around the world. A research showed that the stone found with the writing was stone from that time period that only could have been found in china. They found shipwrecks of chinese ships along the coast of america and australia. That is also true with the wood they found. It was a specific wood from china that had ended up in the americas. Another reason I believe that Zheng He found america first was because there is documented maps and writing from china that show the course they took and how they navigated the seas all the way to the western world. They had mpas of the oceans, currents and stars that helped them travel the world. It was even documented that the Europeans used the maps the chinese made to follow the currents. There are letters that prove the europeans where using the maps because they knew what they were looking for even though no one had previously explored that side of the world. One other thing to support my claim was that there are pictures of native people in the western world having traditional chinese clothing from that time era. The only way they could have had that type of clothing was if the chinese stopped there and gave them gifts. The natives even told local stories of having special visitors before Columbus. Even though columbus started the europeans colonizing in the americas, he did not discover the americas because he was not the first foreigner to see the land and explore it.
ReplyDeleteI like the use of the definition of discovered and I like the reasons you uses, really strong and reliable
DeleteYou have a really strong paragraph, with good reasons. I like how you started with the question.
Delete“Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” is one of the most common phrases said among children and remembered by most. Columbus Day is a day where americans celebrate the finding of north america by Columbus, this is why he is so well known. Many people believe that columbus discovered America but did he? Many theorists believe that North America was found in 1421, 71 years before Columbus did. Many believe that Zheng He, a chinese admiral found North America while sailing the world. There are many pieces of evidence that prove this theory. Maps exist that show continents, rivers, and straits, chinese could not know these things unless they went to the new world and mapped it. Chinese clothing was found in the new world, they no other way the clothes got there unless they were traded, left behind or given to native people. Also animals and plants that are only native to china were found in America before columbu, american plants and animals were also found in china. There not other way that plants or animals got to these locations without help from humans, it's not like animals swam to these places or plant seeds got flown that way. Wrecks from Chinese ships were also found in Australia and North America, which were tests and matched wood used on the ships and time period. The only way that these pieces of wood from the ships got to these location was from damaged chinese ships that were repaired in these locations. It's not like damaged wood from ships drifted from china all the way to North America, it's not really possible. Finally European explorers found Chinense in America. The only way that this is possible is if the chinese landed in America and left people there. Also Star charts from the ming dynasty were found. Stars look different in certain spots in the world and that would mean that would have to sail around or be in North America on order to record such star patterns. From all these pieces of evidences we can clearly tell that Zheng He did discover America and not Columbus.
ReplyDeleteYou use good reasons, but is that phrase really the most common among children?
DeleteI like how you used different reasonings and elaborated on how the theories can actually make sense.
DeleteGreat job. I really like your introduction and the background you give and the evidence was explained and analyzed well.
DeleteIt is intriguing to think about, the question of who discovered America first, Christopher Columbus or Zheng He. Based on my knowledge of this subject, I would have to say it was Zheng He. Based on the research conducted by Gavin Menzies and explained in his book, it makes perfect sense that the Chinese discovered America first all the way back in 1421. The Chinese were world travelers, who had boats 450 feet long, which were definitely capable of taking them across the world. According to Menzies they not only discovered America, but circumnavigated the globe. Columbus was most likely able to find his way to each place he visited, by using Chinese maps of the New World. That evidence is corroborated by ship logs, diaries and letters. What more is that languages across the Americas have been influenced by Chinese. As the Chinese went on their travels across the globe, they marked where they had been, by leaving plants as gifts. They would also bring plants back to China with them. This is evidenced by the fact that there are plants native to Asia in America and plants native to America in Asia. Those plants were also dated to long before Columbus set foot in America. Due to wrecks of Chinese vessels in North America and Australia, there was pottery from the Ming Dynasty found in the new world. It is not likely that the pottery simply floated from China to North America, so the discovery of the new world makes the most sense. There is also evidence of similarity in DNA between Chinese and Native Americans, some evidence that European explorers found Chinese in Americas (suggesting that that were some tries at colonization) and local stories of foreign visitors before Columbus. Menzies suggests that it was Zheng He who discovered America for the Chinese, because he was a Chinese admiral who led multiple voyages for their country. It is due to these reasons that I believe that Zheng He found America first. If you look at the collected evidence, it is the only logical conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you used diction and made the passage and information flow.
Delete
DeleteI really like the opening sentences and I like how you kinda chronological talked about the reasons, their some grammatical errors witch take away from it but overall really well written.
After learning about Zheng He, I have come to the conclusion that Zheng He did discover America. While CHristopher Columbus was also a sailor, Zheng He had many more qualifications when it came to sailing the ocean. He was a seasoned voyager who had traveled to more than 30 countries in humongous ships that obviously must have been hard to handle. His tremendous experience helped him create a modern map that included all the continents and showed calculations of longitude. When the chinese arrived, they left evidence that they had made a visit to america. Items such as ming pottery were found, along with plants and animals native to China. Even without the artifacts, Native Americans were found with Chinese DNA long before the Europeans arrived. The Native Americans themselves had stories that showed the Chinese had once visited. On the other hand, Christopher Columbus had accidently discovered America, while Zheng He and his people had written evidence of knowing what they were trying to discover. Furthermore, Christopher Columbus mistook the people as Indians, which led to them permanently being stuck with a racist stereotype that still lingers over Native Americans today, and also proving that Christopher Columbus had no idea what he was doing. Even with this evidence that Zheng He had discovered America, many people are still in denial of the Chinese discovery. Many Americans, specifically white people, take pride in knowing that Christopher Columbus had “discovered” America. If we think about it, the people controlling the information being taught in schools are mostly dominated by white people, which might be a reason this information is not printed out in children's textbooks and people do not learn from a early age that Christopher Columbus did not discover America and he was not a peaceful man either. Teaching crucial information like this has to be taught at a young age because if it isn’t, children end up having a warped version of history. Relearning information almost every year does not benefit anyone in America, which is a problem that should be addressed immediately.
ReplyDeleteWell constructed and structured paragraph. Nice job
DeleteI like how you used Zheng he's background on sailing to make your claim. Good paragraph
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete“Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” has always been a rhyme that we learned. Columbus was a man who may have sailed the ocean blue but he was not the man who discovered America. Zheng He, according to claims, actually landed in America in 1421. The evidence is astounding from maps to physical pieces of ships that wrecked. Zheng He had maps of the world that included rivers, continents, and other things. Chinese clothing was also found in the new world which means that at some point, the chinese sailors and the people of the new world collided. The most compelling piece of evidence is pieces of ships that have been found in North American rivers. This means that at some point, a chinese ship reached our coast, and sank in either a battle or a storm. These are basic pieces of evidence that some may be able to call “coincidental”. DNA is something that people can not deny. There were DNA ties between the Native Americans and the Chinese. The only way that this can happen is by having babies that had both Chinese and Native American DNA in them. Besides the DNA, the Native Americans had other influences as well. People claim that languages in the Americas were under Chinese influence as well. This shows a big cultural impact from the Chinese. A big question is also, if the Chinese did discover America, how did they know where to go? The answer is star charts. These star charts, which may seem useless, were actually very important in knowing where they were and which they were headed. For example, many people know the North Star which seems unimportant now but could have saved sailors hundreds of years ago. Evidence like this makes a compelling argument for who discovered America. Overall, it can be concluded, in my own opinion, that Zheng He actually discovered America.
ReplyDeleteI like that you introduced your paragraph with the famous saying. Cliche just as I have done. Well done paragraph
DeleteSince time immemorial, children have been told “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”; that Christopher Columbus, European explorer, was the discover of America. In his 2003 book 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies presents decent amount of evidence pointing to another explorer: One who “sailed the ocean blue” much earlier, 71 years earlier, in 1421. Zheng He. The book experienced a great deal of commercial success and popularity. Though some of his claims are convincing, Menzies’ hypothesis has been largely rejected by historians around the world.
ReplyDeleteThe major claims that Menzies makes about Zheng He’s voyage are these: He was the first to circumnavigate the globe, that he create a longitudinally accurate map of the entire world long before europeans did, and that he visited every continent (particularly being the first to visit the americas). The evidence provided to refute these claims is often not fully investigated and taken at face value, such as a map purchased in a gift shop in 2001 that was claimed to have been copied from a map made in 1421: the same year Zheng He went on his voyage. Menzies readily accepted this to be fact, as the map was strikingly accurate, even mapping the americas, but features of the map were too modern to have been accurate to the time period. European influences and vocabulary that were not introduced to the chinese until hundreds of years after the map was claimed to have been made were present, bringing into question the validity of the map.
Menzies himself was initially inspired to write a book about the year 1421 after a trip to china, but was told the 1500 page manuscript that he produced was unpublishable. A single chapter in that manuscript about Zheng He intrigued the publisher, however, and he encouraged Menzies to create a book about that. The publisher claimed that the writing was messy and generally unreadable. A team of ghost writers was brought in to rework the entire text after news coverage of the book was secured. No fact checking was done by anyone as they wrote information that was provided by Menzies and turned in into the finished book. Despite its success, 1421 presents many unfounded claims and does not definitively prove that Zheng He discovered the Americas, though it remains a possibility. The irrefutable documentation and proof that Columbus “discovered” the Americas remains the oldest on record, and remains so unless a more convincing piece of evidence is brought to light.
As Americans we have grown up with the idea that Christopher Columbus had discovered America. We’ve given columbus all the credit but we’ve neglected to consider other options. Zheng he was a chinese admiral and explorer during the 15th century and in my opinion and based on evidence presented by Gavin Menzies, it very strongly suggests that Zheng he discovered America in 1421 long before columbus did in 1492. Along with discovering America, Menzies also makes claims that Zheng He and his men mapped the world, visited every continent and invented the way to calculate longitude.
ReplyDeleteThe strongest piece of evidence that shows Zheng He’s discovery is the presence of plants and animals that were native to Asia found and America and plants native to America found in Asia. It was tradition for the chinese explorers to leave gifts to mark and label where they have been, this explains the discovery of plants found where they were not native. Another piece of evidence to consider is the maps that columbus had used to discover america. These maps showed the geography of the land,such as rivers from the 1420s. This is because Zheng he had previously discovered America and was therefore able to map it out. Menzies also presents cultural evidence such as the influence in language and the chinese clothing that was found in America. These things had to have been given and included by the arrival of chinese explorers. Physical shipwreck evidence further shows Zheng he being in America. Chinese ships wreckage was found in Australia and North America, this would mean that these ships would have been near of at the coast. DNA evidence also shows ties in DNA between Native Americans and Chinese.
Although some historians disapprove of Menzies claim, there is strong evidence that shows Chinese explorers discovering America 70 years before columbus did. Geographical,Cultural and Physical signs all support the claim that Zheng he was an advanced and intelligent sailor who along with his men were the the first to discover America.