Who do you think is the discoverer of America? According to the official version of the story - Christopher Columbus. There is another version according to which America could have been discovered by the Vikings. But could the Chinese navigators also reach it, and even before Columbus?
Have you ever heard of an old Chinese map dated 1763? What's interesting is that you can see images of four continents on it - both the Americas, Eurasia and Africa.
But it is even more interesting that it was not done in the 18th century - or rather, not so, it was made then of course, but by copying from an older sample of the map, dated to the beginning of the 15th century - 1418.
That card was also Chinese. What does it mean - the Chinese knew about the existence of America long before Columbus? After all, Columbus sailed to the territory of the Caribbean islands only at the end of the 15th century - in 1492.
As for the map, dated to the 18th century, it was given to one of the museums in China by the famous collector of antiquities Liu Gang, who acquired it in one of the antique varnishes in Shanghai in 2001.
And here the question immediately arises - could the seller of the card deliberately put on it an inscription that it was copied from an older version, in order to increase its value by deception? Yes, he could.
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Therefore, no one has direct evidence that the Chinese could have discovered America. By the way - this map also contains an image of Antarctica. Let me remind you that it was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century. The map dates back to the 18th century.
Why hasn't this fact attracted the attention of researchers? And the thing is that although Antarctica was not officially discovered, the cartographers of that time believed that there really was a continent in those places.
This explains the fact that Antarctica looks completely different on other maps of that time - after all, no one knew its real outlines, therefore they drew as best they could.
Personally, I don't really believe that the Chinese discovered America before Columbus. And there are several reasons for this:
1) I would rather believe that America was discovered by the Vikings, because if you sail across the Pacific Ocean, then such a trip will be much more dangerous - storms and storms happen here much more often. Now imagine those days, without radio communications, GPS and other useful technical devices, how could one survive during a storm in the open ocean?
2) Ships of that time were much less adapted for sailing in the open ocean than they are now, and traveling from China to America by water is not a harmless sea trip for you.
Also, supporters of the theory of the discovery of America by the Chinese argue that it was the Chinese who could be that mysterious people of the Olmecs, who suddenly appeared on the territory of America, leaving behind many statues and ancient buildings, and also suddenly disappeared. But there is no direct evidence for this theory.
