What evidence is presented about the various Chinese inscriptions? How does Menzies use it and what do Chinese scholars think it means?ĥ. How do scholars respond to Menzies’s evidence?Ĥ. What are the theories of Gavin Menzies concerning the voyages of Zheng He?ģ. Which exotic animal most impressed the Chinese and why? How did they get one of the animals back to their emperor in China?ġ. What was the Chinese impact on East Africa?ĩ. Compare and contrast Chinese and Arabic navigational science? Who influenced who?Ĩ. What did the Chinese say was the mission and nature of Zheng He’s voyages? How did the presence of large numbers of soldiers, including they ways they were used, contradict those claims?ħ. How did the Chinese fleet change the fortunes of the port of Malacca?Ħ. What type of sailors did Zheng He recruit for his fleet? And what were his reasons for recruiting this group?ĥ.

What were the debates about the size of Zheng He’s ships?Ĥ. How are the descriptions of Zheng He’s background and voyages in the documentary the same and different from the Dreyer book?ģ. In the documentary, how does Menzies say that he developed his idea for 1421? Compare this account with the account described in Invented Knowledge, which is based on the transcript of an interview with Menzies on Australian radio.Ģ. You need to keep this in mind because that narrative approach gives an impression that the Chinese visited everywhere from the Chinese coast to East Africa in one voyage.ġ. N O T E : When you view the documentary, keep in mind that the presentation in Part I basically takes the seven voyages of Zheng He and combines them into a single narrative that progresses from leaving China to the Star Fleet's visit to the East African coast.

1421 year