Who was Marco Polo?
It’s exhausting to think about not knowing or being capable of finding out in regards to the people, lands and cultures around the globe. The Internet has made it doable to amass in depth knowledge with the click of a mouse. And before the Internet, books, tv and different media were readily out there sources of knowledge. In the not-too-distant previous, nonetheless, folks might only think about what lay past the scope of their land. Enter Marco Polo, one in every of the best voyagers of all time (assume Indiana Jones without the stuntmen), whose writings have influenced other travelers for centuries. On the time that Polo embarked on his sojourn, Western Europeans knew little or no concerning the nations Polo visited. China particularly was a thriller as a result of it’s surrounded by treacherous mountain terrain, deserts and oceans. Before travel from Europe to China grew to become commonplace, information and goods from faraway lands were obtained primarily from individuals who traveled the Silk Road.
Marco Polo’s travels on the Silk Road and other historic trade routes, which took him farther than any European earlier than him, have been chronicled in his book “The outline of the World” (also referred to as “The Travels of Marco Polo”). His father, Niccolo Polo, was a successful trader who spent most of Marco’s childhood touring with Marco’s uncle. The 2 men returned to Venice when Marco was a teenager, solely to search out out that his mom had died whereas they were gone. During their travels in China, Marco’s father and uncle made an unlikely good friend in Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Khan requested the explorers to return to China with a hundred or so missionaries and priests to teach his individuals about Christianity, in addition to holy oil blessed by the Pope. On the subsequent web page, we’ll discuss how Marco made it to China and what he was as much as throughout his keep in Khan’s court docket.
As you’ll be able to think about, the sojourn took an incredible deal longer than it would in today’s world of planes, trains and cars. The Polo household additionally needed to contend with the elements: Rain, snow and other inclement weather precipitated the journey from Venice to China to be a three-and-a-half-yr-trek. The group lastly reached Shangdu, China, in 1275. Marco was introduced to Khan and shortly won him over. The Mongols (to whom Marco referred as “Tartars”) had ruled China and different Asian lands since they took them by force in the 13th century with their fierce horseback warfare. Traditionally, the Mongols lived as nomads; however, leaders reminiscent of Genghis Khan recognized that a profitable empire would have to be built on different rules. As such, the Mongols supported international craftsmen, merchants and traders. These travels made Marco the primary European to see the width and breadth of the nation. Overall, Marco seen China as a hotbed of business that far surpassed the rest of the world when it comes to technological and cultural advances.
Despite these luxuries, Marco, his father and uncle decided to skip town after 17 years in Khan’s court. However, Khan refused to allow them to leave at first. Luckily, salvation got here within the type of Persian emissaries, who arrived to request a princess for Khan’s nice-nephew. After delivering the princess safely, the Polos trekked residence to Venice. Very little is understood about Marco’s private life, although he’s believed to have married a woman named Donata and had three daughters: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. Marco didn’t put pen to paper about his travels until he wound up in prison for his position in a battle in opposition to town of Genoa. He made good use of that time, however, by dictating the story of his journey to and from China to a fellow inmate by the title of Rustichello, a known author. First revealed in French, Marco’s e-book has been warped into more than one hundred fifty completely different versions, due to the inaccurate translations and modifying completed by the monks and printers who reproduced it.