Comparing Ibn Battuta And Marco Polo 's Journey Through Persia And Southwest Asia

In Documents 2 and 4, traveling to unfamiliar areas shows its importance. Although Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo were not traveling for the same

Vasco Da Gama was a Portuguese explorer and the first person to reach India by sea. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, he was determined to find a water route to Asia, but he never did. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas. Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer, known for being the first person to circumnavigate the planet Earth.

He traveled along the Silk Road which led him to China. The Mongol ruler, Khubilai Khan, then took Polo into his court. Khubilai assigned one last task to Marco Polo before he could be free from his services at court, Marco was to escort a princess safely to her potential husband the Persian ruler Arghun. With the task at hand, they had to travel from Zaitun to Sumatra to Persia. When they arrived in Persia, they found out that Arghun was dead; so the princess was now appointed to marry Arghun’s son. Marco continued on his travels which led him to Greece, Constantinople, and Venice. Soon after arriving back in Venice, he was captured by the Genoans. During his imprisonment, Marco Polo met Rustichello and together they wrote “The Travels of Marco

Events which occurred in the 1500s that began a new era in global connections are, Vasco da Gama sailed across the Arabian Sea and found a cosmopolitan society in Calicut in southern India. Da Gama’s expedition also opened the door to direct maritime trade between European and Asian peoples and helped to establish permanent links between the worlds’s various regions. Ming emperors sponsored expeditions that visited all parts of the Indian Ocean basin. Merchant and military vessels established an Ottoman presence throughout the Indian Ocean. Between 1400 and 1800, European mariners launched exploratory voyages to nearly all of the earth’s waters.

Marco Polo- A sailor who told his tales of success in Asia, finding gold, silks, and spices which encouraged people to sail overseas in search for wealth.

Nowadays the wide array of transportation means and infrastructures at our disposal has made it relatively easy for us to travel from one country to another; even when those countries are thousands of miles away from each other. However, during the 13th and 14th centuries, travelling was not that easy. Yet, two men, the Italian tradesman Marco Polo and the Moroccan Jurist Ibn Battuta became famous for having managed to perform extremely long distance journeys away from their home country. At the end of their long travels, both men shared their experiences with the world via the books, The Travels of Marco Polo and The Travels of Ibn Battuta. An analysis of those two texts reveals two things. On one hand, Marco Polo remained a cultural

1. Marco Polo- A Venetian merchant and adventurer who traveled from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He traveled from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295 and remained in China for 17 years until he left to guide a Mongol princess to Persia. These travels are recorded in Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo that has influenced later merchants and travelers.

Marco Polo's Travels formulated in Europe of the fourteenth and fifteenth century a new perception of the Eastern world, a world just as advanced and sophisticated as that of the West. Yet, another two centuries were needed for a significant change to take place; this was Christopher Columbus' voyage. For Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo's travelogue was a valuable and solid resource that contained the necessary details of the East. The geographical descriptions in his writing generated a basis for Columbus' scientific calculations for his expedition and the explicit depictions of the luxury of Cipangu and Cathay, flawed though they were, created a strong motivation for Columbus. In the 12th of May 1492, Christopher Columbus, accompanied

Source: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant who may have worked for the Yuan dynasty, the Mongol rulers of China, late 13th century. This excerpt is a description of Hangzhou, a southern city that was part of the Yuan empire.

Although Marco Polo started out as a humble merchant from Venice, he eventually developed a reputation as one of the world’s greatest explorers (“Marco Polo”). He was much more than just a trader however, providing the Western world with detailed accounts of the foreign society that was Medieval China under the Mongol conquest. These accounts would later become invaluable to historians for centuries to come.

a) Marco Polo (Italian adventurer) returned to Europe in 1295, telling of his journey in China. His book with descriptions of goods made him an indirect discoverer of the New World.

During the 15th and 16th century, countries such as Portugal set out to find out more about the world in an era called the “Age of Exploration.” The explorers set out on voyages mainly to find sea trade routes to Asia. Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan were the explorers that made the most important breakthroughs. They used different boats, tools, and maps to help them explore.

During the Crusades, Europeans brought luxury good from Italian merchants, who got them from Arab traders; Europeans taste for luxury items greatly increased. During the 13th and 14th explorers like Marco Polo claimed that Asia had the luxury goods the Europeans desired. This began the race towards finding a trade route to Asia. Christopher Columbus and many other explorer seek funds from Kings,Queens, and wealthy businessman to fund their explorations. After gaining funds from the King and Queen of Spain .Columbus set sail off on August 3, 1492 from Spain to investigate this a all-water route to Asia. This letter written by Columbus foreshadows the clash of two completely different cultures.

Many children, including myself, have once played the game Marco Polo. Although, I have always been curious, who exactly is Marco Polo? My fascination of Marco Polo warped into a fixation of his travels. Marco Polo was born in Venice in the year 1254. His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who had seats in the great nobleman council of Venice (Polo IV). According to his records, he had traveled thousands of miles with his father and uncle.

Ibn Battuta’s remarks of his travels say a great deal about his own culture and norms. Almost every place he travels to he brings up women and how they are treated, as well as what their status is in that society. He is also very amused with the décor of the buildings in terms of gold and silver decorations. It seems as though he does not come from a wealthy society or his family is not on the wealthy status level. Battuta also seems to bring up the cleanliness of each area he travels to.