HW 2/26/14

Do you buy Menzie's argument that Zheng He's fleet made it to America before Colombus? Evaluate the evidence he used and explain why or why not? 

I do believe that the fleet reached America before Christopher Colombus did in 1492. This is because there is much more evidence to support the Chinese than Colombus. Menzie talks about the tides and the wind and how even if the Chinese put up their sails, they would still end up in the Carribean. He also describes the shark mounds in Bimini, which are most likely the remains of some junks that crashed there while there was a hurricane and the land was a sand bank. Menzie also talks about the relationship between the Chinses and Native Americans. All of the places that an explorer described had Native Americans whose's DNA was similar to that of the Chinese. The Narive American DNA and the DNA of a Chinese person are very similar. This is why I believe that the Cninese fleet reached America before the Europeans and Colombus.