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Marco Polo

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geographers and explorers

             Marco Polo
             Marco Polo
   Born September 15, 1254
        Venice, Republic of Venice
   Died January 8, 1324
        Venice, Republic of Venice

   Marco Polo ( September 15, 1254 – January 8, 1324) was a Venetian
   trader and explorer who, together with his father Niccolò and his uncle
   Maffeo, was one of the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to
   China (which he called Cathay) and visited the Great Khan of the Mongol
   Empire, Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan). His travels are written
   down in Il Milione ("The Million" or The Travels of Marco Polo).

The voyage of Niccolò and Maffeo Polo

   The Polo name originally did not belong to a family of explorers, but
   to a family of traders. Marco Polo's father, Niccolò (also Nicolò in
   Venetian) and his uncle, Maffeo (also Maffio), were prosperous
   merchants who traded with the East. They were partners with a third
   brother, named Marco il vecchio (the Elder).

   In 1259, the two brothers lived in the Venetian quarter of
   Constantinople, where they enjoyed political privileges and tax relief
   because of their country’s role in establishing the Latin Empire in the
   Fourth Crusade of 1204. But the family judged the political situation
   of the city precarious, so they decided to transfer their business
   northeast to Soldaia, a city in Crimea. Their decision proved wise.
   Constantinople was recaptured in 1261 by Michael Palaeologus, the ruler
   of the Empire of Nicaea, who promptly burned the Venetian quarter.
   Captured Venetian citizens were blinded, while many of those who
   managed to escape perished aboard overloaded refugee ships fleeing to
   other Venetian colonies in the Aegean Sea.

   As their new home on the north rim of the Black Sea, Soldaia had been
   frequented by Venetian traders since the 12th century. The Mongol army
   sacked it in 1223, but the city had never been definitively conquered
   until 1239, when it became a part of the newly formed Mongol state
   known as the Golden Horde. Searching for better profits, the Polos
   continued their journey to Sarai, where the court of Berke Khan, the
   ruler of the Golden Horde, was located. At that time, the city of Sarai
   — already visited by William of Rubruck a few years earlier — was no
   more than a huge encampment, and the Polos stayed for about a year.
   Finally, they decided to avoid Crimea, because of a civil war between
   Berke and his cousin Hulagu or perhaps because of the bad relationship
   between Berke Khan and the Byzantine Empire. Instead, they moved
   further east to Bukhara, in modern day Uzbekistan, where the family
   lived and traded for three years.

   In 1264, Nicolò and Maffio joined up with an embassy sent by the Ilkhan
   Hulagu to his brother, the Grand Khan Kublai. In 1266, they reached the
   seat of the Grand Khan in the Mongol capital Khanbaliq, now known as
   Beijing, China.

   In his book, Il Milione, Marco explains how Kublai officially received
   the Polos and sent them back — with a Mongol named Koeketei as an
   ambassador to the Pope. They brought with them a letter from the Khan
   requesting educated people to come and teach Christianity and Western
   customs to his people, as well as the paiza, a golden tablet a foot
   long and three inches wide, authorizing the holder to require and
   obtain lodging, horses and food throughout the Great Khan's dominion.
   Koeketei left in the middle of the journey, leaving the Polos to travel
   alone to Ayas in the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. From that port city,
   they sailed to Saint Jean d'Acre, capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

   The long sede vacante — between the death of Pope Clement IV, in 1268,
   and the election of Pope Gregory X, in 1271 — prevented the Polos from
   fulfilling Kublai’s request. As suggested by Theobald Visconti, papal
   legate for the realm of Egypt, in Acres for the Ninth Crusade, the two
   brothers returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270, waiting for the nomination
   of the new Pope.

The voyages of Marco

   The Polo family arrives in a Chinese city
   Enlarge
   The Polo family arrives in a Chinese city

The journey to Cathay

   Maffeo and Niccolò Polo set out on a second journey with the Pope's
   response to Kublai Khan, in 1271. This time Niccolò took his son Marco,
   along with two friars that did not finish the voyage due to fear.
   Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan
   Enlarge
   Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan

The service to the Khan

   When Marco Polo arrived at Kublai Khan's court he became a favorite of
   the Khan and was employed for 17 years and was sent on voyages and was
   given permission to trade freely throughout China
   Map of the journey
   Enlarge
   Map of the journey

The return to Europe

   In 1291, Kublai entrusted Marco with his last duty, to escort the
   Mongol princess Koekecin (Cocacin in Il Milione) to her betrothed, the
   Ilkhan Arghun. In 1293 or 1294 the Polos reached the Ilkhanate, ruled
   by Gaykhatu after the death of Arghun, and left Koekecin with the new
   Ilkhan. Then they moved to Trabzon and from that city sailed to Venice.

Il Milione

   A page from a manuscript of "Il Milione"
   Enlarge
   A page from a manuscript of "Il Milione"

   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. According to
   a late tradition, since they did not believe him, Marco Polo invited
   them all to dinner one night during which the Polos dressed in the
   simple clothes of a peasant in China. Shortly before the crowds ate,
   the Polos opened their pockets to reveal hundreds of rubies and other
   jewels which they had received in Asia. Though they were much
   impressed, the people of Venice still doubted the Polos.

   Marco Polo was later captured in a minor clash of the war between
   Venice and Genoa, or in the naval battle of Curzola, according to a
   dubious tradition. He spent the few months of his imprisonment, in
   1298, dictating to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, a detailed
   account of his travels in the then-unknown parts of the Far East.

   His book, Il Milione (the title comes from either "The Million", then
   considered a gigantic number, or from Polo's family nickname Emilione),
   was written in Old French and entitled Le divisament dou monde ("The
   description of the world"). The book was soon translated into many
   European languages and is known in English as The Travels of Marco
   Polo. The original is lost and there are now 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.

Later life

   Marco Polo was finally released from captivity in the summer of 1299,
   and he returned home to Venice, where his father and uncles had bought
   a large house in the central quarter named contrada San Giovanni
   Crisostomo with the company's profits.

   The company continued its activities, and Marco was now a wealthy
   merchant. While he personally financed other expeditions, he would
   never leave Venice again. In 1300, he married Donata Badoer, a woman
   from an old, respected patrician family. Marco would have three
   children with her: Fantina, Bellela and Moreta. All of them later
   married into noble families.

   Between 1310 and 1320, he wrote a new version of his book, Il Milione,
   in Italian. The text was lost, but not before a Franciscan friar, named
   Francesco Pipino, translated it into Latin. This Latin version was then
   translated back into the Italian, creating conflicts between different
   editions of the book.

   Marco Polo died in his home on January 1324, at almost 70 years old. He
   was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo.

Did the trip really take place?

   According to a famous story, a priest begged Marco on his deathbed to
   confess that he had lied in his stories. Marco refused, insisting, "I
   have not told half of what I saw!" This anecdote is an example of the
   skepticism that welcomed Marco's tales during his life.

   In recent times, while most historians believe Marco Polo did reach
   China, some have proposed 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 (although in the last
   case this should not be surprising given that the wall was not built at
   its present location until the Ming Dynasty). 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 aspects of Far Eastern life in
   much detail: paper money, the Grand Canal, the structure of a Mongol
   army, tigers, the Imperial postal system, the sea route from China to
   the Middle East (including references to Sumatra, Java (as Java major
   and Java minor respectively) and the Philippines) and the existence of
   rhinoceros in Sumatra. He also refers to Japan by its Chinese name "
   Zipang" or Cipangu. This is usually considered the first mention of
   Japan in Western literature. However, it is possible that Marco heard
   of these things from Arab silk road traders. Trade between the Middle
   East and Far East was flourishing and travellers are often happy to
   retell stories of their ventures in great detail.

   In his defense, much of what he did not mention is circumstantial and
   there are no known arguments today to refute any of the descriptions he
   wrote about. Additionally, Marco gives a detailed account of
   accompanying an embassy from China to the Khan of Persia and of the
   delivery of Princess Kökechin for marriage to the Khan. Both Chinese
   and Persian annals mention this mission and include the names of the
   envoys; but the additional information about the journey which Marco
   provides is such that, one can reasonably assume, he could only have
   known if he had been a member of that embassy.

   Marco Polo is also believed to have described a bridge that later was
   the site of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, a battle that marked the
   beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Historical and Cultural impact

   Statue of Marco Polo in Hangzhou, China, near the West Lake
   Enlarge
   Statue of Marco Polo in Hangzhou, China, near the West Lake

   Although the Polos were by no means the first Europeans to reach China
   overland (see, for example, Radhanites and Giovanni da Pian del
   Carpine), thanks to Marco's book their trip was the first to be widely
   known, and the best-documented until then.

   Marco Polo's description of the Far East and its riches inspired
   Christopher Columbus's decision to try to reach those lands by a
   western route. A heavily annotated copy of Polo's book was among the
   belongings of Columbus.

   Legend has it that Marco Polo introduced to Italy some products from
   China, including ice cream, the piñata and pasta, especially spaghetti.
   However these legends are not grounded in fact, and pasta on the
   Italian peninsula can be traced back to 400 BC, through decorations
   found on an Etruscan tomb.

   The name Marco Polo was also given to a children's game ( Marco Polo),
   a story in the science fiction series Doctor Who ( Marco Polo) and a
   three-masted clipper ship built in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1851.
   The fastest ship of her day, Marco Polo was the first ship to sail
   around the world in under six months. Several ships of the Italian navy
   were named Marco Polo. The airport in Venice is named Marco Polo
   International Airport. See also the Marcopolo satellites.

   The travels of Marco Polo are given an extended fantasy treatment in
   the Irish writer Donn Byrne's Messer Marco Polo, and in Gary Jennings'
   1984 novel The Journeyer. He also appears as the pivotal character in
   Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities. Peter T. Cavallaro's novel The
   Wonderful Travels of Drake was inspired by Polo's travels.

   In 1982, Giuliano Montaldo directed an ambitious television miniseries,
   simply titled "Marco Polo". The Italian financed project starred Ken
   Marshall as Marco Polo and guest-starred a handful of Academy Awards
   winning actors, like Denholm Elliott, F. Murray Abraham, Anne Bancroft,
   John Gielgud, John Houseman, Burt Lancaster and also Tony Lo Bianco and
   Leonard Nimoy. The music was scored by the famous Italian music
   composer Ennio Morricone. The miniseries won 2 Emmy Awards and was
   nominated for 6 more.

Was Polo Croat?

   The tourism authorities of Korčula (Curzola) advertise it as the home
   of Marco Polo , based on a later legend that places the Polo family in
   the Dalmatian town of Sebenico (today Šibenik), later moving to Curzola
   (today Korčula ) and then to Venice. The island was in Polo's time,
   part of the Republic of Venice, but today is part of Croatia. As a
   consequence in Croatia, Polo is often presented as Croatian . The
   popularity of this theory has increased in recent years in Croatia,
   even because of the political situation. Even the former Croatian
   president Franjo Tudjman claimed several time the Croaticy of Polo,
   even in front of official contests . Nevertheless, Venice is clearly
   indicated as Polo's birthplace in The Travels of Marco Polo .

Dalmatian origins

   A possible Dalmatian origin of Polos Family is debated^[ citations
   needed].

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