Unable to recruit the priests that Kublai Khan had requested, they left with only two, who, after getting a taste of the hard journey ahead of them, soon turned back for home. The Polos' journey took place on land, and they were forced to cut through challenging and sometimes harsh territory.
But through it all, Polo reveled in the adventure. His later memory for the places and cultures he witnessed was remarkable and exceptionally accurate. As they made their way through the Middle East, Polo absorbed its sights and smells.
His account of the Orient, especially, provided the western world with its first clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs. Hardships, of course, came his way. In what is now Afghanistan, Polo was forced to retreat to the mountains in order to recoup from an illness he'd contracted. Crossing the Gobi desert, meanwhile, proved long and, at times, arduous.
It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat. Finally, after four years of travel, the Polos reached China and Kublai Khan, who was staying at his summer palace known as Xanadu, a grand marble architectural wonder that dazzled young Polo.
The Polos had originally planned to be gone for only a few years. However, they were away from Venice for more than 23 years. Debate has swirled among historians as to whether Polo ever really made it to China. There is no evidence outside his famous book that he traveled so far east. Yet his knowledge of the culture and its customs are hard to dismiss. His later account told of Khan's extensive communication system, which served as the foundation for his rule. Polo's book, in fact, devotes five pages to the elaborate structure, describing how the empire's information highway efficiently and economically covered millions of square miles.
Khan's acceptance of the Polos offered the foreigners unparalleled access to his empire. Niccolo and Maffeo were granted important positions in the leader's Court. Polo, too, impressed Khan, who thought highly of the young man's abilities as a merchant. Polo's immersion into the Chinese culture resulted in him mastering four languages.
Kublai Khan eventually employed Polo as a special envoy he sent to far-flung areas of Asia never before explored by Europeans, including Burma, India and Tibet. With Polo, as always, was a stamped metal packet from Khan himself that served as his official credentials from the powerful leader. As the years wore on, Polo was promoted for his work. He served as governor of a Chinese city.
Later, Khan appointed him as an official of the Privy Council. At one point, he was the tax inspector in the city of Yanzhou. Everything we know about him comes from his own text and a few Venetian documents; Asian sources never mentioned him.
This lack of hard evidence has caused a small number of skeptics to question whether Marco Polo actually made it to China. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. John Cabot or Giovanni Caboto, as he was known in Italian was an Italian explorer and navigator who may have developed the idea of sailing westward to reach the riches of Asia while working for a Venetian merchant. Though the exact details of his life and expeditions are the In , Coronado led a major Spanish expedition In , Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias c.
Lawrence River would later enable France to Henry Hudson made his first voyage west from England in , when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean. After twice being turned back by ice, Hudson embarked on a third voyage—this time on behalf of the Dutch East India Company—in The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East.
After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa The story of North American exploration spans an entire millennium and involves a wide array of European powers and uniquely American characters. The 16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto c. Live TV. This Day In History. Coal was by no means unknown in Europe but was new to Marco: " It is true that they have plenty of firewood, too.
But the population is so enormous and there are so many bath-houses and baths constantly being heated, that it would be impossible to supply enough firewood, since there is no one who does not visit a bath-house at least 3 times a week and take a bath - in winter every day, if he can manage it.
Every man of rank or means has his own bathroom in his house There were three main grades of dispatch, which may be rendered in modern terms as 'second class', 'first class', and 'On His Imperial Majesty's Service: Top Priority'.
Each messenger wore a special belt hung with small bells to announce his approach and ensure that his relief was out on the road and ready for a smooth takeover. This system enabled a message to cover the distance of a normal ten-day journey in 24 hours. At each three miles station a log was kept on the flow of messages and all the routes were patrolled by inspectors. But the really important business of Kublai empire was carried by non-stop dispatch-riders carrying the special tablet with the sign of the gerfalcon.
At the approach to each post-house the messenger would sound his horn; the ostlers would bring out a ready-saddled fresh horse, the messenger would transfer to it and gallop straight off. Marco affirmed that those courier horsemen could travel or miles in a day. Marco Polo traveled in great deal in China. He was amazed with China's enormous power, great wealth, and complex social structure.
China under the Yuan The Mongol Empire dynasty was a huge empire whose internal economy dwarfed that of Europe. He reported that Iron manufacture was around , tons a year a level not reached in Europe before the 18th century and salt production was on a prodigious scale: 30, tons a year in one province alone. A canal-based transportation system linked China's huge cities and markets in a vast internal communication network in which paper money and credit facilities were highly developed.
The citizens could purchase paperback books with paper money, eat rice from fine porcelain bowls and wear silk garments, lived in prosperous city that no European town could match. Kublai Khan appointed Marco Polo as an official of the Privy Council in and for 3 years he was a tax inspector in Yanzhou, a city on the Grand Canal, northeast of Nanking.
He also visited Karakorum and part of Siberia. Meanwhile his father and uncle took part in the assault on the town of Siang Yang Fou, for which they designed and constructed siege engines. He frequently visited Hangzhou, another city very near Yangzhou. At one time Hangzhou was the capital of the Song dynasty and had a beautiful lakes and many canals, like Marco's hometown, Venice. Marco fell in love with it. Coming Home The Polos stayed in Khan's court for 17 years, acquiring great wealth in jewels and gold.
They were anxious to be on the move since they feared that if Kublai - now in his late seventies - were to die, they might not be able to get their considerable fortune out of the country. The Kublai Khan reluctantly agreed to let them return after they escorted a Mongol princess Kokachin to marry to a Persian prince, Arghun.
Marco did not provide full account of his long journey home. The sea journey took 2 years during which passengers and crewed died. Marco did not give much clue as to what went wrong on the trip, but there are some theories.
Some think they may have died from scurvy, cholera or by drowning; others suggest the losses were caused by the hostile natives and pirate attacks. There they learned that Arghun had died two years previously so the princess married to his son, prince Ghazan, instead.
In Persia they also learned of the death of Kublai Khan. However his protection outlived him, for it was only by showing his golden tablet of authority that they were able to travel safely through the bandit-ridden interior.
Marco admitted that the passports of golden tablets were powerful: "Throughout his dominions the Polos were supplied with horses and provisions and everything needful I assure you for a fact that on many occasions they were given two hundred horsemen, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the number needed to escort them and ensure their safe passage from one district to another.
He was captured during the flighting and spent a year in a Genoese prison - where one of his fellow-prisoners was a writer of romances named Rustichello of Pisa.
His account of the wealth of Cathay China , the might of the Mongol empire, and the exotic customs of India and Africa made his book the bestseller soon after. The book became one of the most popular books in medieval Europe and the impact of his book on the contemporary Europe was tremendous. It was known as Il Milione , The Million Lies and Marco earned the nickname of Marco Milione because few believed that his stories were true and most Europeans dismissed the book as mere fable.
In the summer of a peace was concluded between Venice and Genoa, and after a year of captivity, Marco Polo was released from the prison and returned to Venice. He was married to Donata Badoer and had three daughters. He remained in Venice until his death in , aged At his deathbed, he left the famous epitaph for the world: "I have only told the half of what I saw!
He also mentioned his servant, Peter, who came from the Mongols, was to set free. We also learned that 30 years after his return home, Marco still owned a quantity of cloths, valuable pieces, coverings, brocades of silk and gold, exactly like those mentioned several times in his book, together with other precious objects. Among them there was "golden tablet of command" that had been given him by the Great Khan on his departure from the Mongol capital. Many people took his accounts with a grain of salt and some skeptics question the authenticity of his account.
Many of his stories have been considered as fairytales: the strange oil in Baku and the monstrous birds which dropped elephants from a height and devoured their broken carcasses. His Travels made no mention about the Great Wall. While traveled extensively in China, Marco Polo never learned the Chinese language nor mentioned a number of articles which are part of everyday life, such as women's foot-binding, calligraphy, or tea.
In additional, Marco Polo's name was never occurred in the Annals of the Empire Yuan Shih , which recorded the names of foreign visitors far less important and illustrious than the three Venetians. So did Marco Polo ever go to China? Contribution Fiction or not, his Travels has captured readers through the centuries. Manuscript editions of his work ran into the hundreds within a century after his death.
The book was recognized as the most important account of the world outside Europe that was available at the time. Today there are more than 80 manuscript copies in various versions and several languages around the world. We see that Marco Polo was in every way a man of his time.
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