Our high-school history class had reached the "Age of Discovery". Being an annoying know-it-all, I raised my hand when the teacher began to tell us that the Portuguese and the Spanish were the ones who discovered the world.

" But sir, surely the Chinese and the Arabs made voyages of discovery before, had they not?"

His answer was a clear "no". He told me that the Chinese, Arabs, Indians etcetera had only travelled short distances and always stayed near the coast, while the great and glorious Europeans were the first to travel the oceans.

At the time I did not yet know the names of Zheng He and Ibn Battuta, and considered it wiser not to contradict him, for I couldn't bring forward any examples, but I still had my doubts.

Europe of the fifteenth century was a backward region. The mighty church of Rome, once the guardian of the Latin civilization, had turned into a corrupt and hollow organization. The plague wiped out entire cities and there were numerous conflicts between kings and noblemen. New weapons (copied from the Turks and Mongols) caused death and destruction and the standard of living was probably lower than in today's developing world.

Across the Mediterranean there was a more advanced world, with cities like Cairo and Baghdad, places of scholarship and relative religious and intellectual freedom. Muslim mathematicians had invented algebra, tried to count all stars in heaven and built mosques with golden domes.

Further east lay the wide lands of the Persians and the Indians, two ancient civilizations in two of the world's most fertile areas. They had suffered from Mongol invasions and civil wars and were divided into many kingdoms, but they had managed to maintain a wealth that would later amaze travellers like Vasco da Gama.

Beyond them lay the lands of the Khmer and Vietnamese, as well as the kingdom of Majapahit that stretched over a large part of the Indonesian archipelago.

And even further from Europe, there was the most powerful and advanced nation of its age. The Ming dynasty had not only restored the Great Wall and the Imperial Canal but also built the largest palace on earth. Moreover it employed one of the greatest voyagers of that age: Admiral Zheng He.

With ships that dwarfed any Western ship for centuries to come he travelled to Java, India and the Middle East, he visited Mecca and reached Mogadishu. He had seen all the lands mentioned above and some claim he may even have discovered Australia and that he was the inspiration for the legendary Sindbad the sailor.

Yet our history teacher had never heard of him. Perhaps because he had not bothered to discover Europe?