Marco Polo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Marco Polo, (1254 - January 8 1324) was a Venetian merchant and explorer who, together with his father and uncle, was among the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road all the way to China, which he called Cathay. They supposedly lived there for seventeen years before returning to Venice. After his return, in a sea battle between Venice and Genoa, Marco was captured and taken to prison, where he dictated to Rustichello da Pisa a widely read book (Il Milione, or The Travels of Marco Polo) about his travels. He is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest explorers — although some rather see him as the world's greatest storyteller.
Marco Polo is also a children's game: see Marco Polo (game).
Marco Polo is the title of a story in the science fiction series Doctor Who: see Marco Polo (Doctor Who)
Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan
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2 The second voyage 3 The Million 4 Did the trip really take place? 5 Historical impact 6 References 7 External links |
The first voyage
The Polo family was originally from the island of Curzola in the Adriatic Sea (now Korčula, part of Croatia), where the house in which Marco was born still stands. His father Niccolo (Nikola) and his uncle Matteo (Mate) were prosperous merchants in the East trade. The two merchants set out to Asia in 1255, reached China in 1266, arriving at Khanbaliq near Peking. They returned from China as Kublai Khan's envoys with a letter for the Pope asking to be sent educated people to teach in his empire, to inform the Mongols about their way of life.
The second voyage
Matteo and Niccolo Polo set out on a second journey, with the Pope's response to Kublai Khan, in 1271. This time Niccolo took his son Marco whose intelligence and ability to learn soon won the favour of Kublai Khan, who made Marco his adviser. Soon afterwards Marco became the governor of big provinces and the Khan's diplomat. In his twenty years of service to the Khan, Marco Polo became acquainted with the vast regions of China and with numerous achievements of Chinese civilization, at that time superior to the European.
On their return from China in 1295, the family settled in Venice where they became a sensation and attracted crowds of listeners, who had difficulties in believing their reports of distant China. His restless spirit drove Marco Polo to take part in the naval battle of Korčula between Genoa and Venice in 1298. He was captured by and spent the few months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels in the then-unknown parts of the Far East. His book, Il Milione ("The Million"; known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo) was written in the Provencal language and was soon translated into many European languages. The original is lost and we have several often-conflicting versions of the translations. The book became an instant success — quite an achievement in a time when printing was not known in Europe.
On his deathbed, his family begged Marco to confess that he had lied in his stories. Marco refused, insisting, "I have only told half of what I saw!"
While most historians believe that Marco Polo did indeed reach China, in recent times some have proposed that he did not get that far, and only retold information he had heard from others. Those skeptics point out that, among other omissions, his account fails to mention Chinese writing, chopsticks, tea, foot binding, or the Great Wall. Also, Chinese records of the time do not mention him, despite the fact that he claimed to have served as a special emissary for Kublai Khan - which is puzzling, given the careful record-keeping in China at that time. On the other hand, Marco describes other apects of Far Eastern life in much detail: paper money, the Grand Canal, the structure of a Mongol army, tigers, the Imperial postal system. He also refers to Japan by its Chinese name "Zipang" or Cipangu. This is usually considered the first mention of Japan in Western literature. Marco Polo is also believed to have described a bridge that was the site of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, a battle that marked the beginning of the Japanese invasion of north central China in World War II.
Although the Polos were by no means the first Europeans to reach China overland (see for example Giovanni da Pian del Carpini), thanks to Marco's book their trip was the first to be widely known, and the best-documented until then. Legend has it that Marco Polo introduced to Italy some products from China, including ice cream, the pinata and pasta, especially spaghetti. However, these legends are highly dubious — for instance, there is evidence that pasta was known in Italy since antiquity. The airport in Venice, Italy is named Marco Polo International Airport.
See also the Marcopolo satellites.
The Million
Did the trip really take place?
Historical impact
References
External links
- Category at Open Directory.
- Marco Polo Travels
- Marko Polo's Korčula Home
- Marco Polo Stamps
- Croatian Cartographers
- Marco Polo's Description of the World - from Frances Wood's book Did Marco Polo Go to China