Mike Carrell wrote:
In the early 1400s China was *the* great power and an immense fleet was built and launched to map the world and bring it under the Chinese tribute system. The world was mapped, and America discovered in 1421. Philip the Navigator of Portugal and Columbus had seen copies of the Chinese maps.
Really? Columbus had seen Chinese maps showing America? Then why was he so confused about the size of the world and so totally ignorant of the possibility that there might be another continent lurking between Europe and China?
Surely he must have realized the Chinese had not encountered Europe by sailing east -- people in Europe would have noticed the arrival of the Chinese fleet, and they manifestly had not. So a big bunch of land located far, far off the Chinese coast could only have been another continent.
