Why Muslims are under rated.

[cratehorus]

1. Tupoc inca yupanqui was an contemporary of Columbus. So even if he did make a trip to Africa, his trip could not really be said to be a separate per-columban exchange.

First of all, his name is Tupac like the rapper..... second of all the trip was apparently in 1480 before Columbus arrived

2. Inca empire was on the pacific side of south America, it would be truly amazing if balsal craft with cotton sails as possessed by the incas could have traversed the Drake passage to reach Africa, much less return and round the Drake passage against wind and tide. I think the theory implies the Incas had better ships than we currently kow about.

I think the theory implies they had better boats than we currently know about

3. Yes, polynesians had Sweet potatoe. I forgot about that. But the absence of evidence of any other exchange, for example pigs and chickens that Polynesians took with them to virtually everywhere else they went, make the notion of substantial contact problematic. I might argue sweet potatoe might have been exchanged through some one off event, such as encounter of Polynesian and south American craft at sea, than through true land based contact involving fully stocked Polynesian ship with pigs and chickens landing in south america.

They actually did find specifically pre-columbian chicken bones and it's used as evidence, that the Polynesians contacted atleast the Mapuche people of south-central Chile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbi...he_contact

In recent years evidence has emerged suggesting pre-Columbian contact between the Mapuche people of south-central Chile and Polynesians. Chicken bones found at the site El Arenal in the Arauco Peninsula, an area inhabited by Mapuche, support a pre-Columbian introduction of chicken to South America. The bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, before the arrival of the Spanish.