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1434 by GAVIN MENZIES

Published by Harper Collins

Subtitled The year a magnificent Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Rennaissance, 1434 is Gavin Menzies' follow up to his bestselling 1421 and here he makes some equally startling claims as to how much European culture owes to the Chinese.

In 1434 Menzies tell the story of how a Chinese delagation visits Italy and in the process manages to inspire a whole new direction in the works of figures such as Da Vinci, Copernicus and Galileo. The seeds for 1434 were sown after a Chinese-Canadian scholar put forward some definite proof that a visit from China definitely happened in the early 1430's. At the same time Menzies was invstigating the fact that great explorers Columbus and Magellan already had maps to guide them in their voyages to the Americas and through the Magellan straights (as it came to be known).

Certainly no dry history tome this, 1434 is more like a thriller, in fact you wouldn't be surprised to see Dan Brown's name of the cover, such is its page turning potential; Told at breakneck pace, there are new discoveries with almost every chapter. China is certainly in the ascendent today and it looks like they really always have been.

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