Gavin Menzies

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Gavin Menzies (full name: Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies ) (born August 14, 1937 in London , † April 12, 2020 ) was a British commandant of the Royal Navy and author . He put forward the controversial hypothesis that America and other regions of the world were discovered by the Chinese in the years 1421 to 1423 as part of a circumnavigation of the world. Menzie's theses are rejected as fiction by specialist historians.

Life

Gavin Menzies was born in London in 1937. Information in the blurb of the first English edition of his book, according to which he was born in China, was corrected in the subsequent editions. He did not speak Chinese.

Menzies joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served on submarines from 1959 to 1970. From 1968 to 1970 he was in the rank of Lieutenant Commander in command of the submarine HMS Rorqual .

The following year Menzies resigned from the naval service and stood unsuccessfully in the British general election in 1970 as an independent candidate in the constituency of Wolverhampton South West , where he spoke out in favor of unrestricted immigration to Great Britain and won 0.2% of the vote.

In 1996 Menzies was classified in connection with bankruptcy proceedings by the highest English civil court as a "chronic litigant " ( vexatious litigant ), which means that he was no longer allowed to conduct civil proceedings in England and Wales without the consent of a judge.

Menzies lived in London with his wife Marcella and two daughters and died on Easter Sunday 2020.

The 1421 hypothesis

In his book 1421. When China Discovered the World , Menzies hypothesized that Chinese fleets, under the orders of Emperor Zhu Di, discovered the American continent before Columbus from 1421 to 1423 under the admirals Zheng He , Zhou Wen, Zhou Man and Hong Bao also carried out the first circumnavigation a hundred years before Magellan . Not only North and South America , but also Australia , the Arctic and the Antarctic are said to have been mapped along their coastlines. Menzies was of the opinion that knowledge of these maps made the worldwide discoveries of European navigators in the 15th and 16th centuries possible. He cited the following examples, among others:

Menzies later modified his theory in the direction of an even earlier systematic mapping of the earth and wanted to underpin this with a Chinese world map, which is said to come from the year 1418. The authenticity of the card, which only exists in a version from the 18th century, is, however, contested by experts. Menzies' theses are rejected by specialist historians due to a lack of evidence or even viewed as pure fantasy products.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Contemporary Authors: Gavin Menzies . Highbeam Research. 2006. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  2. ↑ Ian Morris : Who Rules the World? Why civilizations rule or are ruled, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2011, p. 397
  3. ↑ Quentin McDermott: Junk History ( Memento June 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Australian television series Four Corners , transcript from the program on July 31, 2006
  4. ↑ Ptak, Roderich; Salmon, Claudine (2005): "Zheng He: History and Fiction", in Ptak, Roderich; Höllmann, Thomas O .: Zheng He. Images & Perceptions, South China and Maritime Asia, Vol. 15, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 9–35 (12)
  5. ↑ The Times , "Immigrant Girl Will Vote in Despair," Friday June 5, 1970, issue 57888, pg. 9, col C
  6. ↑ Vexatious litigants , list on gov.uk
  7. ↑ Gavin Menzies: August 14th 1937- April 12th, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The '1421' myth exposed ( Memento of March 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). (English)
  9. ↑ 1421: The year the Chinese did NOT discover America ( Memento of October 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Critic Page (English)
  10. ↑ Ian Morris : Who Rules the World? Why civilizations rule or are ruled, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2011, p. 397; There Morris compares Menzies with Erich von Däniken .

Works

  • 1421. When China discovered the world , Droemer, Munich, 2003, ISBN 3-426-27306-3 .
  • Gavin Menzies: 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance . William Morrow, New York 2008, ISBN 0061492175 .
  • Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed , New York, William Morrow, 2011, ISBN 0062049488 .

literature

Web links

criticism

personal data
SURNAME Menzies, Gavin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British military and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 2020