Did China discover America in the 14th Century or earlier?

by Shawn_Spenstar

I recently watched an American Unearthed episode where they look into the idea that America was discovered by the Chinese. In the episode they showed ancient maps which were claimed to have been made by the Chinese admirial Zheng He, which to my untrained eye, and the host seemed to clearly show the american continent mapped in pretty good detail. If legitimate these maps seem like they would be concrete evidence that the Chinese really did travel to America in the 14th century or earlier. So my question if anyone better versed in history who saw the episode could shine some light on whether this should be taken with a grain of salt or if these maps really are concrete evidence of the Chinese discovering America.

Jasfss

As a note, this is not to discourage any further discussion. This section of our FAQ should provide some answers to your questions. As a terse answer, no, this theory is pretty uncredible and should not be viewed as holding any sort of legitimacy. Feel free to ask any other questions about it you may have though.