But his research has led him to astonishing new discoveries that Chinese influence on Western culture didn't stop there. Erudite and brilliantly reasoned, 1434 will change the way we see ourselves, our history, and our world.In his bestselling book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies presented controversial and compelling evidence that Chinese fleets beat Columbus, Cook and Magellan to the New World. He brings the reader aboard the remarkable Chinese fleet as it sails from China to Cairo and Florence, and then back across the world. In 1434, Gavin Menzies combines this long-overdue historical reexamination with the excitement of an investigative adventure. This vast treasure trove of knowledge spread across Europe, igniting the legendary inventiveness of the Renaissance, including the work of such geniuses as da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo, and more. The delegation presented the influential pope with a wealth of Chinese learning from a diverse range of fields: art, geography (including world maps that were passed on to Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan), astronomy, mathematics, printing, architecture, steel manufacturing, military weaponry, and more.

Based on years of research, this marvelous history argues that a Chinese fleet-official ambassadors of the emperor-arrived in Tuscany in 1434, where they were received by Pope Eugenius IV in Florence. From that date onward, Europeans embraced Chinese intellectual ideas, discoveries, and inventions, all of which form the basis of western civilization today.įlorence and Venice of the early fifteenth century were hubs of world trade, attracting traders from across the globe. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434, China-then the world's most technologically advanced civilization-provided the spark that set the European Renaissance ablaze. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. The brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world.

The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 offers another stunning reappraisal of history, presenting compelling new evidence that traces the roots of the European Renaissance to Chinese exploration in the fifteenth century

1434 menzies