Marco Polo
Marco Polo: This is a name well known in the modern world. It brings to mind images of travel to then-unknown worlds, then, as the great explorer did, returning back home to spark wonder in the minds of many – even inspiring Christopher Columbus. Who was this traveler? And did he really travel to China?
Marco Polo was born in 1254 C.E. “to a wealthy Venetian family” (“Marco Polo – a Biography”). His father and uncle traveled to China when he was 6, and didn’t come back till he was 15 and his mother had passed away. Two years later, they set out again, this time with Marco. They also brought two priests with them, as an attempt to fulfill the Kublai Khan’s request to bring 100. The priests didn’t make it the whole way and traveled back when the going became rough (“Marco Polo and His Travels”).
The Polo’s route was supposed to be partly by land, and partly by sea. However, when they saw how flimsy the boats in the port of Hormuz were, they changed their minds. The travel was treacherous, passing through the immense Gobi Desert and mountains (“Marco Polo and His Travels”).
When Marco Polo and his father and uncle arrived in China, they met with the Mongolian emperor of the time, Kublai Khan. The Khan welcomed them and appointed Marco a variety of jobs over the next 17 years. In the first years, “he served at the Khan's court and was sent on a number of special missions in China, Burma and India.”
He then became “an official of the Privy Council” and, after that, a tax inspector of a city. And on all his travels, he carried with him a golden tablet that said that he had the protection of the Khan. No one dared to harm him (“Marco Polo and His Travels”).
After 17 years with Kublai Khan, the Polos lefts China to get their newfound wealth back home before the aging Khan died (“Marco Polo and His Travels”). They took with them hundreds of people and a Mongolian princess, as part of a deal they made stating that if they were to leave, they would escort her to Persia to be married. Only 18 people survived the trip. The princess was dropped off at Persia and the Polos got home to Venice (“Marco Polo – a Biography”).
Shortly after he returned, Marco did a slightly surprising thing, leading a ship against Genoa, a neighboring city. Marco was captured and put in prison along with a novelist, Rustichello (For some reason, my computer thinks I have made a mistake and that I attempting to describe an individual giving out ancient greetings – in other words, rustic hellos.). Rustichello, who, I remind you, is not an ancient greeting, encouraged Marco to tell of his journey to Cathay (“Marco Polo – a Biography”).
On the way to China and there, Marco recorded or remembered the strange things he saw. He later described in detail the customs of many different cultures. He ‘discovered’ jade, asbestos, and coal. Polo was amazed by paper money and its efficiency and the complicated mail-carrying system in the Mongol Empire (“Marco Polo and His Travels”). He also included history in his accounts, telling of how the Khans conquered Cathay (Marco Polo – a Biography”).
All of these descriptions, and more, were published in a book titled A Description of the World, later becoming The Travels of Marco Polo. Most believed it was fiction, hence giving it the nickname Il Millione, or the Million Lies (“Marco Polo – a Biography”). This was the book that inspired Christopher Columbus to look for another route to the Indies, and instead be named the discoverer North America although Leif the Lucky, a Viking, discovered it half a century earlier. This is because certain Europeans are full of themselves (Disclaimer: I said certain Europeans. I am not being stereotypical).
Historians argue whether Marco Polo really went to China. Some say he didn’t because there were no known records in the Mongol Empire of his visit. However, some say that his book and his descriptions of what no other medieval European was known to have seen are proof enough that he made his famous journey (“Marco Polo – a Biography”) .
Marco Polo died in 1324. At his deathbed, “friends and family urged him to admit his book was fiction.” He resisted, telling them “I have only told half of what I saw” (“Marco Polo – a Biography”).