Marco Polo Research Paper

Marco Polo was a renowned explorer in the medieval era and he wrote the work in which most of our past understanding of the regions is remembered today. He was born in 1252 in Venice and later deceased in Venice at the age of 70 in 1352. The reason he so is so famous and remembered today is because he reached the farthest on his 24 year journey down the silk road reaching extents of China and Mongolian empire. To begin with Marco Polo was born into a wealthy family who was known for their travels and spread of merchantability already and a young Marco Polo would begin his journey as early as 14-16 Years old. Though his date of birth is unknown and the exact location his family was a big name in the Venice community making it only seem fitting. This paper is going to correlate to the book found in the franciscan library at Saint Bonaventure, “Did Marco Polo Really Go to China” by Dr. Wood; she does a scholarly review questioning whether or not Mr. Polo really carried out the things he said to have done and has he actually visited the regions in which he said he's went too. Before we begin though we cannot fully disprove the veracity of the journey in which Mr. polo took because other explorers have also left out important historical happenings when discovering new regions and cultures. Born in 1254 in Venetian Republic, Marco Polo headed to Asia with his merchant father (weapons trader supposedly as we will later touch on) . He would spend the next 24 years exploring

1. What aspects of Marco Polos description of the orient might early readers have found alluring?

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

Accompanied by 27,000 men on 62 large and 255 small ships, the Chinese eunuch Zheng He, led 7 naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, Middle East and east coast of Africa in the span of 28 years during the Ming Dynasty. The scale of Zheng He’s fleet was unprecedented in world history. The large treasure ships used during the expeditions were purported to be 440 feet long and 180 feet wide (Dreyer, p. 102). Throughout his travels, Zheng He brought Chinese tea, porcelain and silk products to foreign countries and also brought back exotic goods to the Ming court such as spices, plants and leather. Although his voyages fostered commercial trades and cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, the goal of his expeditions stemmed from

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.

In 1271, Marco Polo’s father and uncle, both merchants from Europe, were requested to return to China for the second time by the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan. The purpose of the request made by the Great Khan (Kublai) was to bring back to the Mongol court some holy oil from Jerusalem and “a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Christian religion” (Polo 7) to convince the Mongols to convert to Christianity. Marco Polo joined his father and uncle for this second journey to the East. As part of this journey, Polo traveled throughout regions of the Middle East and Central Asia before reaching the final destination. Further, while working for Kublai Khan in China, he was sent on many inspection tours which allowed him to explore most of the provinces of China. In all the regions that were visited along the way, and more so in the case of the Mongol Empire, there was a distinct disparity in the culture as compared to Polo’s native land. Moreover, Marco Polo’s religious disposition towards Christianity set him apart from the people of the region –the Tartars—who , according to the Kublai Khan, where worshippers of “evil spirits” (Polo 7). These factors placed Marco Polo in the position of an “outsider” as defined by Hage, i.e. “someone who does not experience either socio-cultural or political belonging. It is someone whose mental and bodily dispositions have evolved somewhere else and thus feels culturally ‘out of place’.

First, in the background essay, it says he was attacked by pirates and attacked by many other peoples and still made it back to China with his whole crew. Another reason is in Doc D. It says He brought tribute to foreign lands and people. This created an excellent trading opportunity. Finally, Zheng He was skillful in communication. In Doc E, it tells about how he communicated with the other countries by displaying China’s power while still showing kindness to the distant peoples. Zheng He’s skill affected how china communicated with the other peoples of the world. He showed kindness by bringing tribute, while still showing China’s power by bringing an army of soldiers with him. He also escaped many attacks and lived to take more

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.

Next is the evidence provided by the works from their methodology. For The Travels of Marco Polo, the evidence for Polo’s conclusions are his own experiences while in China. Therefore, Polo’s work provided Europe a more unfiltered and objective view of China in all its extravagance to Polo and later the Europeans. This unfiltered view point meant that Polo was inaccurate in some of his information. When describing Kublai Khan’s palace, Polo remarked how large the walls are and how extravagant and magnificent it was. The palace itself was in fact just an enclosed royal park used as an encampment. Polo’s observations and vocabulary used to describe the palace showed that European’s viewed China and what they did in awe, even when the Chinese were acting similar to the Europeans in many aspects.

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

His mother died around the age of 15 and he lived with an uncle and by the time his father came back from the journey he had already learned numerous merchant skills that his father has possessed. At the age of 17 he went on his first journey to Asia. In 1269, they were on a diplomatic mission to the court of Kublai Khan, where the Mongol leader Genghis Khan expressed his interest in Christianity and asked them to come again yet, this time to bring 100 priests and a collection of holy water with them. Even though they were unable to fulfill that mission later the Kublai Khan employed Marco as a special envoy and soon they promoted him and appointed him as an official of the Privy Council. This is where he discovered so much about China, the Mongol Empire and the Kublai Khan and his knowledge of being a traveler grew since he did come from a family that traveled so much he ended up becoming a traveler and learning many of the necessary skills to become a traveler at an early age. The knowledge he knew from a kid and the kickstart of his career as a traveler led him to accomplish the expansion of trade routes including the Silk Road and made him a wealthy merchant and inspire explorers around Europe and elsewhere. Whereas, Charlemagne was one of the Medieval Europe’s famous king. In 768 CE at the age of 26 he became king of the

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.

The voyages of Zheng He are vastly understated, the difficult trials and tributes making for a grand exploration little known today. Zheng He was a Eunuch, or a castrated man employed by the government, born as Ma He. He was enslaved at the age of ten in the Ming Dynasty. He rose through the ranks quickly, and Emperor Yongle decided to recognize him. He received a new noble name, Zheng He, and was sent on the first of seven voyages in 1405. Zheng He’s voyages should be celebrated due to all that was accomplished during them. Zheng He was a kind, strong, leader who led thousands of people in a grand exploration which later inspired the Spaniards to send out Christopher Columbus. He traveled on the coast of Eurasia, stopping at places such as Calicut, Hormuz, and Mombasa.

He explored places, but wasn't mean or rude at all. Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy. He had a brother, Maffeo, named after his Uncle Maffeo, and also a father named Nicolo. When Polo was 17, he took his first trip to China. He went with his father and Uncle Maffeo. They thought he would be help to them. The reason they went was to tell the king news about the Pope, who had not yet been elected. When they got to China they went to the great Kublai Khanś palace.When they got to the palace, the king seemed to take great interest in Polo and offered him an important job. The job was to go to different places around the king's empire and find out what was going on there. Polo accepted gradly.

After about a three and a half year journey, Marco noted that the Polos arrived in the court of Kublai Khan, the conqueror of China. The Great Khan ruled a vast empire of prosperous cities that had richer goods, services, and technology than any place in Europe that Marco had ever seen (Freedman 6). Kublai Khan was the grandson of the infamous Genghis Khan, the fearless Mongol who swept across Asia and the Middle East generations earlier. When the Polos arrived in Shangdu (the capitol of Kublai Khan’s empire), the Mongol empire stretched from China, to Russia and Iraq; the empire was at the pinnacle of its existence (Polo 26). Marco stated that he soon rose to a position of power in Kublai Khan’s court, because Mublai Khan was pleased by Marco’s knowledge and logic. Marco endeavored on confidential missions to “learn about all kinds of different matters in the countries he visited, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the Great Khan” (Hart 35). The Polos accumulated great wealth in jewels and gold, thanks to the generosity of Kublai Khan; however, they eventually grew homesick and began their