I’m writing a series of articles about European explorers during the “Age of Exploration and Discovery” from the 1400s to the 1700s. Last week, I gave some background information about how the Venetian Republic set up trading routes throughout the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas to transport goods such as silks and spices from China and India to Europe via the Great Silk Road and Constantinople.
In the mid-to-late 1200s, the Mongolian Empire took over the ancient trading routes of the Great Silk Road. Then the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453, and it took over parts of southern Europe in the late 1400s and early 1500s. During this time, travel became unsafe for Christian Europeans, and western European powers such as Portugal, Spain, and Venice became isolated. As a result, they looked for new routes to India and China around the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. As you know, explorers such as Christopher Columbus “discovered” lands in the Americas, and later explorers traveled to Central America, South America, and southern Africa. Others were the first to sail around Africa, around South America, and across the Pacific Ocean.
I never really learned what each explorer did, so in this series of posts, I am going to describe the travels and influence of a few famous explorers, starting with Marco Polo. Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant and traveler who lived in the mid-to-late 1200s. A merchant is like an international wholesale trader who transports and sells goods across countries.
Marco Polo is famous for traveling to Mongolian China and for being a close confidant of the Mongolian-Chinese ruler Kublai Khan, who was a grandson of Genghis Khan. Marco spent much of his adult life in Mongolian China, and he wrote a tell-all book about the riches of the East and about his travels when he returned to Venice. Marco's book described the luxuries of the east in detail to Europeans for the first time, and his story inspired many other European explorers to find their own riches in China. In many ways, Marco Polo set off the Age of Exploration through his own travels and narrative.
Marco Polo’s Father and Uncle
Marco Polo’s father (Niccolo) and uncle (Maffeo) were also travelling merchants from Venice. In the 1250s, Niccolo and Maffeo took their business to Constantinople, which was where Europe met the Great Silk Road. They did business in Constantinople for several years, but they went across the Black Sea to Crimea in 1259 or 1260 when Constantinople became unsafe. There was actually a very violent rebellion against Venetians in 1261, so Niccolo and Maffeo escaped just in time.
However, when they arrived in Crimea, they found that the territory had been recently conquered (and devastated) by a Mongolian leader, and he was still fighting with his cousin, so they kept travelling east to find a safer and more prosperous area. They went around the Caspian Sea and ended up in eastern Uzbekistan, tired, broke, and unable to return home. Eventually, they found their way to Kublai Khan's palace in China.
Kublai Khan was very curious about Christianity (his mother was Christian), and he asked the Polo brothers to bring back holy water from the Vatican and 100 Christian priests who could teach his people about Christianity. I’m not sure how accurate this quest narrative is, but that’s the legend Marco Polo tells about his father.
Finding Marco
Niccolo and Maffeo Polo returned to Rome to get what Kublai Khan requested, but the Pope had recently died, and it took three years to elect a new one. In the meantime, Niccolo and Maffeo returned to Venice, and they met Marco for the first time. Niccolo had left before Marco was born - Marco’s mother had died when he was young - and Marco was now about 15 or 16 and living with other relatives. When Niccolo and Maffeo arrived, they told Marco about their travels, and they took him with them for their return trip to Kublai Khan.
Returning to Mongolian China
Marco Polo set off for China with his father and uncle in 1271. They travelled through Syria, Iraq, Iran, and probably Afghanistan, then through the whole of China until they arrived in Beijing and Shangdu. By this time, Marco was about 21 years old; he enjoyed the multi-year journey and he learned a lot. This initial trip through the Middle East makes up the first part of Marco Polo’s book of travels. He tells about riding camels through the desert, joining a caravan of travelling merchants on the Great Silk Road, and being attacked by bandits.
Marco Polo quickly earned the trust of Kublai Khan, and Kublai made Marco a trusted ambassador. He sent Marco on diplomatic missions to India, Burma, Vietnam, and many other places in southeast Asia. This lasted for 17 years.
Part 2 of Marco Polo’s book describes incredible palaces in Kublai’s realm, then Part 3 describes the other countries he visits. During his travels, he is treated to many luxuries because of his connection to Kublai, and he tells about palaces and amazing architecture, south-east Asian culture, and many other natural wonders.
Return to Venice
Eventually, Kublai Khan became an old man, and Marco Polo started to worry about his own safety. If Kublai were to die, there would likely be a violent contest for leadership, and Marco Polo would be targeted (killed) by opposing leaders because of his high-level relationship with Kublai and his influence and power within Kublai’s royal court.
Marco Polo requested to go home to Venice. Kublai Khan initially refused to let Marco go, but he eventually agreed when an opportunity for long-distance travel arose. Marco was asked to accompany the Mongol Princess Kokochin to Persia for a wedding to another Mongol leader. This was a two-year journey that Marco describes as full of fanfare and danger. Eventually, Marco drops off the princess, and he heads back to Constantinople and Venice.
War in Venice
When Marco Polo arrives in Venice, the city is waging war against its rival Genoa. Marco gets a ship and outfits it with battle weapons, but he is captured and imprisoned in Genoa for four years. During this time, he meets a famous writer named Rustichello of Pisa, and Rustichello helps Marco write his famous book of travels. There was no printing press when Marco’s book was published, so each copy had to be hand-written, and at that time books were like a work of art. Here is an example of a page from the book.
When the war ends, Marco is released, and he and his family conduct business from Venice. They never return to the Great Silk Road or China again, but his book makes Marco a famous explorer, and he inspires others to seek their fortunes through travel.
Il Milione
When Marco Polo described armies, cities, and the wealth of China and India, he often talked about thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions. Europeans had never heard of numbers of so big! As a result, they started to refer to Marco Polo as “The Millionaire,” and the book is also known as “The Millions.”
But this title is also a point of criticism. Many readers have thought that Marco Polo exaggerated his story, so they also joke about his “Million Lies.” Even some serious historians have doubted that Marco Polo actually travelled to all those places. They suspect that Marco may have travelled only to the edge of the Middle East and that he presented stories he heard about other travelers as his own experiences. These scholars also point out that some events are too extreme to be true. For example, the expedition to deliver the princess started with over 1600 people but only 18 survived!
Marco Polo Legacy … and on Netflix
Marco Polo’s travels have always been very fascinating. They helped start the Age of Exploration, and they also created a genre of travel writing. “Gulliver’s Travels” is a famous example of a fantastical travel narrative.
For me personally, one of the endearing qualities of Marco Polo’s experience is that he actually lived much of his adult life in Mongolian China. Unlike Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, and many other explorers (or, “exploiters” and “conquerors”) who came later and only aimed to enslave and rob the native population, Marco Polo actually learned to live with the people he met. He learned their language, he studied their culture, he worked among them.
Marco Polo presents a very positive image of what international travel can be like. Travelers can respect the cultures they visit, and they can learn to live with them.
In 2014-2016, Netflix tried to give new life to Marco Polo’s story. The series lasted for only two only seasons, and it was cancelled before it told the whole story, but it was supposed to be the most expensive show Netflix had produced at that time.
The story begins with Niccolo Polo giving Marco to Kublai Khan as a kind of slave or personal assistant in exchange for the right to conduct business along the Great Silk Road. Episodes show how Marco learns about Mongolian-Chinese society, then he becomes entangled in the histories and battles of many characters. By the end of Season 2, he becomes like an adopted son of Kublai Khan, and he joins him in military campaigns. (Here is a link to Netflix’s show page.)
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.