DBQ Sample HW Assignment

Prompt: Do you buy Menzie's argument that Zheng He's fleet made it to America before Columbus? Evaluate the evidence he used and explain why or why not?

In this given video, Menzie asserts that Zheng He's Ming fleet made it to America and traveled around the world in 1421, 58 years before Columbus was said to have first "discovered" America.  Menzie cannot rely, however, on many of the sources he would like to because Zheng He's project was stopped early and all written evidence destroyed.  Because there are very few, if any, remaining documents concerning the journey, his argument is not very strong.

Menzie states, at the beginning of his argument, that all European colonists had a map and a preconceived notion that the Americas existed, but he failed to provide any evidence that the Europeans did in fact know that America did exist.  

To back his argument, he asks scholars their opinions on the matter; however, the information they provide him with are merely THEIR OPINIONS.  There is no telling whether or not their rationale is correct.  What would help his argument would have been a primary source document written by a Chinese sailor who joined them on their journey.  

Menzie establishes that the Chinese Ming fleet was greater in aspect and in size than the Columbus's fleet.  He is comparing the fleets to each other, and this is failing to substantiate his argument.  The question is not whether the Chinese were ABLE to sail to the Americas more easily than Columbus, but whether or not the Chinese ACTUALLY completed the voyage.  Discussing how the Chinese had fleets greater than Columbus just indicates that the Chinese were more sophisticated than Columbus, not that they made it to America first. 

He does bring up a map, which he declares will help substantiate his theory, but it is only one map suggesting such an occurrence.  This is the only part of his argument that makes sense.  

He believes that the Chinese Junks which presumably carried the Chinese to the Americas were struck by a hurricane, and that the 700 Junks were wrecked and beached.  Wow.  This is much too general of a conclusion for it to be even considered.  Menzie cannot assume that a hurricane struck and wrecked the ships.  His entire story is based on the assumption that a hurricane destroyed their Junks and they were marooned on the island.  There is no evidence or proof that backs up this statement alone, so it is impossible for the rest of his argument to be structurally sound.  

For these reasons, I do not believe that the Chinese came upon the Americas before Columbus did.