(no subject)

[lollardfish]

Prettiest map ever.

Comments

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

I get really tired of the whining "but so-and-so got to America first ..." I hear it a lot, actually.

My response is (whether it's the Chinese, Basques, Polynesians, Africans, or Vikings) - they didn't stay, they didn't colonize, their efforts didn't lead to future expeditions.

Now, it's interesting to look at why people's forays to the Americas, if any, didn't result in anything in particular. For China, the Ming emperor decided that China didn't want to look outward. For the Vikings, Vinland was an inhospitable place filled with 'skraelings'. For the Basques, they had the richest fishing ground ever known (the Grand Banks), and didn't want anyone to know. And so forth.

The Americas were there. Currents and winds blow from both sides of Eurasia to the Americas. I'm sure lots of people got there before Columbus. But so what? :)

But anyway - that's an 18th century map. Zheng He definitely got to East Africa. I don't really see how that map changes anything. Forgeries are interesting though. And Journalists want stories.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

it's a pretty picture, too, I thought. I also thought it was interesting that it's in The Economist.