NASA Completes early tests of mini nuclear fission Reactor which could Power human Settlements on Ma

[csziggy]

40. True - and it is appalling that the Columbus "discovery" is still taught

Last fall I read two books by Charles Mann, "1491" and "1493", that covered the state of the world before Columbus and his ilk arrived in the Americas. Then I read Gavin Menzies books, "1421" and "1434" in which he posits that the Chinese got to the Americas and mapped nearly the entire world seventy years before Columbus (in "1421&quot .

Today I pulled out a book my grandfather was given in 1904, Mabie's Popular History of the United States 1897 and in the first chapter they talk about how the Vikings discovered America.

Mann had problems with the Columbus discovery but he does claim that Columbus ushered in a huge economic shift in the world which he mostly covered in "1493" ("1491" mostly covers the state of the Americas prior to Columbus' arrival). Menzies seems to be sinocentric rather than eurocentric and discounts what earlier occupants of the Americas had done. In "1434" Menzies even gives the Chinese credit for the European Reformation crediting the Chinese with every single advance of that period. While there may have been influences

Humans found the "New World" over and over and over. Even "Native Americans" arrived in various waves. No one person or culture can claim it as their discovery!