1421: The Year China Discovered America
| Gavin Menzies | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies 14 August 1937 London |
| Occupation | Author, retired naval officer |
| Nationality | English |
| Genre | Pseudohistory |
| Notable works |
|
| Spouse | Marcella Menzies |
Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (born 14 August 1937) is a British author and retired submarine lieutenant-commander who has written books promoting claims that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions and have categorised his work as pseudohistory.
He is best known for his controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, in which he asserts that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited the Americas prior to European explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, and that the same fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Menzies' second book, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance extended his discovery hypothesis to the European continent. In his third book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, Menzies claims that Atlantis did exist, in the form of the Minoan Civilization, and that it maintained a global seaborne empire extending to the shores of America and India, millennia before actual contact in the Age of Discovery.
Menzies was born in London, England, and his family moved to China when he was three weeks old. He was educated at Orwell Park Preparatory School in Ipswich, and Charterhouse School. Menzies joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines from 1959 to 1970. Menzies claims he sailed the routes sailed by Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook, while he was commanding officer of the diesel submarine HMS Rorqual between 1968 and 1970, a contention questioned by some of his critics.
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