Debate # 1
For the first debate that we are talking about in class is if the Chinese actually discovered America before Christopher Columbus. The two arguments between the yes (Gavin Menzies) and the no (Robert Finlay). Menzies is the yes the Chinese found American first. He says that the Chinese spent four months exploring the pacific coastline and left substantial evidence that will support his contention that the chines found America way before the Europeans. Finlay believes that Menzies does not have concrete evidence that the Chinese found America because other historians have not come up with the same conclusion, that the Chinese discovered America first
Robert Finlay talks about how Menzies is wrong and how he bases all his knowledge on facts and evidence that puts the Chinese on America before Columbus. Finlay accuses Menzies of “ignoring the basic rules of historical study and logic to concoct an implausible interpretation of the Chinese”. Finlay believes that Columbus found America first because they used the maps of the Chinese. When the Chinese explored the pacific coast they didn’t set foot on the land they just made a map that told there was land. The Chinese then used the maps that they made to trade with the Europeans for other goods. Then Columbus used the maps to find other land to colonize and make a new colony to spread. Finlay believes that Columbus explored the land and actually set foot on the new America, and expanded the map by putting new locations and land marks that he and his crew explored. He says that Menzies has very limited evidence that the Chinese found America first. Finlay says that “many professional historians who ignore evidence of Chinese influence in the Americans, presumably because it contradicts the accepted wisdom on which not few careers have been based”. Finlay explains that “he has uncovered information that has