Who Discovered The Americas Essay

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Who discovered the Americas? When people are asked this question they respond, “In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Is this the correct answer? Most people would say yes although, the evidence points toward the Chinese discovering the Americas. I believe that the Chinese discovered the Americas before Christopher Columbus. A hundred years before Columbus discovered the Americas, China was in their golden age of science and math. China was doing so well that they sponsored the Voyages of Zheng He. The Voyages of Zheng He were a group of Chinese ships, called junks, that traveled throughout the Indian Ocean sharing their knowledge. While sharing their knowledge, the Chinese also collected many animals and new inventions …show more content…
The Chinese have left many clues and signs to them being in the Americas. The first sign of the Chinese being in the Americas was written in a journal by the leader of the voyages , Zheng He. “We have traversed more than one-thousand li of immense water spaces…” One thousand li is about the distance from China to the Southern part of current day Florida if you traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. This is very reliable information because it is coming from a Zheng He, a first hand account, who was the leader of the Chinese fleet and would have been in charge of deciding where this voyage goes. Another piece of physical evidence from the Chinese is a map of the world. The map was created in 1763 and states on the map that it is a second hand map from the original made in 1418, 74 years before Columbus made it to the Americas. This map shows both the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. In order for the map to show the Western Hemisphere, the creator must have traveled to the Western Hemisphere. This map shows the Chinese going past the tip of southern Africa, therefore; going toward the direction of the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas. Although, this is a second hand map, it has been verified as a authentic by various scientists and

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