Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (1937-08-14)14 August 1937 London
Died
12 April 2020(2020-04-12) (aged 82)
Occupation
Author, retired naval officer
Nationality
English
Genre
Pseudohistory
Notable works
1421: The Year China Discovered the World (2002)
1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance (2008)
The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed (2011)
Who Discovered America?: The Untold Story of the Peopling of the Americas (2013)
Spouse
Marcella Menzies
Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020)[1][2][3] was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed to America before Columbus. Historians have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions[4][5][6][7][8]: 367–372 and have categorised his work as pseudohistory.[9][10][11]
He was best known for his controversial book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, in which he asserts that the fleets of Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited the Americas prior to European explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492, and that the same fleet circumnavigated the globe a century before the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Menzies' second book, 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance, extended his discovery hypothesis to the European continent. In his third book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis, Menzies claims that Atlantis did exist, in the form of the Minoan civilization, and that it maintained a global seaborne empire extending to the shores of America and India, millennia before actual contact in the Age of Discovery.
^"Contemporary Authors: Gavin Menzies". Highbeam Research. 2006. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
^"Lt Cdr Gavin Menzies, submariner turned author of far-fetched oceanic histories – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 14 May 2020.
^"Gavin Menzies: August 14th 1937– April 12th, 2020". 18 April 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
^"The 1421 myth exposed". 1421exposed.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
^Zheng He in the Americas and Other Unlikely Tales of Exploration and Discovery, archived from the original on 17 March 2007, retrieved 22 March 2007
^Gordon, Peter (30 January 2003). "1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies". Asian Review of Books. Archived from the original on 5 July 2003. Retrieved 2 November 2023.
^Finlay 2004
^Goodman, David S. G. (2006). "Mao and The Da Vinci Code: Conspiracy, Narrative and History". The Pacific Review. 19 (3): 359–384. doi:10.1080/09512740600875135. S2CID 144521610.
^Fritze, Ronald H. (2011). Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions (Reprint ed.). Reaktion Books. pp. 12, 19. ISBN 978-1861898173.
^Melleuish, Greg; Sheiko, Konstantin; Brown, Stephen (1 November 2009). "Pseudo History/Weird History: Nationalism and the Internet". History Compass. 7 (6): 1484–1495. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00649.x.
^Henige, David (July 2008). "The Alchemy of Turning Fiction into Truth" (PDF). Journal of Scholarly Publishing. 39 (4): 354–372. doi:10.3138/jsp.39.4.354. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
Rowan Gavin Paton Menzies (14 August 1937 – 12 April 2020) was a British submarine lieutenant-commander who authored books claiming that the Chinese sailed...
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documentary, 1421: The Year China Discovered America? amateur historian GavinMenzies claimed that when Chinese admiral Zheng He's fleet was in the process...
analysis debunking the Corte-Real origin myth. Chinese …proposed by GavinMenzies in his 2002 book 1421: The Year China Discovered America In November...
Forbes, the travel and detective story writer, and amateur historian GavinMenzies both lived in the area. St Paul's, at the junction of Essex Road and...
Fusang Naval history of China List of Chinese discoveries Zheng He GavinMenzies, known for claiming that Chinese explorers discovered America in the...
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Year China Discovered the World, published in 2002, English writer GavinMenzies suggested the "Jave La Grande" landform of the Dieppe maps relates to...
claims that the Americas were actually discovered by Arabs or Muslims. GavinMenzies' book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which argues for the...
Wildcats). Rubén Menini, 96, Argentine basketball player (1948, 1952). GavinMenzies, 82, British submarine lieutenant commander and author. Charles Miossec...
evidence of ancient settlement in Australia by the Incas of South America. GavinMenzies suggests that it is "direct and persuasive evidence of the Chinese visits...
meteor impact. This event has been controversially linked by author GavinMenzies with a disaster which reputedly hit a Chinese exploration fleet in 1422...
Australia: Souvenir Press. p. 52. ISBN 0285623036. OCLC 815606382. Menzies, Gavin (2002). 1421: The year China discovered the world. London: Bantam Press...
Barton’s The Jefferson Lies, Michael Bellesiles’s Arming America, GavinMenzies’s 1421 : The Year China Discovered America, Richard G. Williams’s 2006...
release of John Paul Getty III. In 1967, he married Tessa Menzies, and had two children (including Gavin) before divorcing her after five years. In 1968, he...
his selection and transcription of evidence. In 2002 English writer GavinMenzies speculated that the ship was a modified Chinese junk. He pointed to...
loyalty to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Menzies was born in Manly, New South Wales, Australia. Menzies is the grandson of Manly-Warringah pioneer Mackie...
Nanshan, erecting steles praising her protection. Amateur historian GavinMenzies claims that Zheng He traveled to West Africa, North America and South...
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