1421: THE YEAR IN WHICH THE CHINESE DISCOVERED THE NEW WORLD

Abstract

The Colombian historian Gustavo Vargas Martínez, basing his argument on the most recent contributions of the British researcher and mariner Gavin Menzies, bases this essay on the thesis that the Chínese Admiral Zheng He (1371-1434) circumnavigated the seven seas, including the South American coasts, in command of a powerful flotilla of junks, between 1421 and 1423. This thesis, counter to eurocentrism, adds to those several already existing concerning the primitive pre-Colombian navigators who likely reached the American continent: Celts, Africans, Vikings, Phoenicians, Basques and Templars.