Did China, Japan or any other asian country "discover" the Americas before Columbus? Did they settle it and if they did, why didn't they have the same impact as the British Empire, France or Spain?

by bummati1235
y_sengaku

Sorry for late response.

In short answer, they didn't.

While more can always be said, I recently summarized some relevant posts in: Did Chinese and Japanese rulers and scientists have any thoughts about what lay to their east in the Pacific?

As for the notorious claim of Gavin Menzies' "1421: The Year China Discovered the World", please check the section, titled as Historians' views of Gavin Menzies' "1421: The Year China Discovered the World" in FAQs of this subreddit.