Marco Polo Essay Research Paper Marco Polo 3

Marco Polo Essay, Research Paper

Marco Polo: An Inspiration to Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration. During the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century, Marco Polo gave Europe a mentalimage of the Far East. With his very detailed descriptions of all he saw, from the Khan sbeautiful palace and the flourishing trade market filled with rare goods from far awayports, with his book called the Travels, Marco Polo captured his readers and filled themwith the stuff dreams are made of. Marco s text was the most read book in the medievalperiod. It excited the imagination and wonder of all nations and inspiring explorers to usehis book as a guidebook, even Christopher Columbus was inspired (Fuson 70). The Thirteenth Century was a time of great prosperity and a major demand forexotic trade goods(Penrose 10). Historian Richard Humble say s that the energy andebullience of Thirteenth Century Europeans was never more clearly shown than by thespeed in which far-sighted European entrepreneurs, especially the Venetians, adjustedtheir attitude towards the awe-inspiring new power (the Tarter reign, A.K.A. the Mongolreign or the Yuan Dynasty) which was said to have towered above the East (Marco Polo9). Merchants knew fortunes awaited them if they made agreements with the Tarter rulersto trade. The first Venetian merchants to go to the Far East in search of that fortune werethe Polo brothers, Niccolo and Maffeo. The Polo s went to the court of the of the BarkaKahn to make a trading contract within the Kahn s territory. They traded for twelvemonths and then, accepted an invitation to visit the court of Kublai Kahn inCathay(Andrews 24). As the first Europeans to visit the capital city of the Tarter Empire, the Polos wereamazed in the format of the city and Kublai Kahn, he was an intelligent, strong, thick-setman of medium height ( Forman and Burland 81). The Kahn welcomed them with greathospitality and many questions about the East. Kublai Kahn was also very interested inthe Christian Religion. He sent the Polo brothers back to Europe with a request of 100priests to teach him and his people about the strange religion along with a sample of holyoil from Jerusalem for the Kahn s collection of religious relics(Marco Polo 92). When the Polo s arrived in Europe they found out that Pope Gregory died and thechurch was disorganized. Finally, after many trials of arranging the priests, it fell throughand the Polo s had to go back to the Kahn, and tell of the failure. Richard Humble says,however, that they were able to get the holy oil he had requested, an action that deepenedthe trust between the Kahn and the Polo s (Marco Polo 111). But before the Polos left Venice in 1297, Nicole made a critical decision to bringhis fifteen year old son named Marco. Marco later recorded the details of their trip in abook called the Travels, including a prologue with his fathers first trip to the Far East. According to historian Richard Humble, Marco spent 26 years exploring the Far East, 17of those working as a surveyor of potential markets for Kublai Kahn (The Explorers23-26). Throughout the travels, Marco s influence is revealed and takes the main lead. The Travels is not his itinerary, but a collection of descriptions of the cities he visited. Marco tells about the main communities with busy marketplaces, such as Caindu,Kalachan, Tenduc, and Fu-chow (Andews 26). In the Travels, Marco also notes of the magnificent wonders that he saw while hetraveled the Empire. In Burma, he saw one pagoda covered entirely by gold and anotherone covered in silver. Marco also mentions the province Maarbar, across the straight fromCeylon, and described the process of pearl fishing. Pearl fishing is when a trainedswimmer takes a large breath of water at the surface and dives off the shore of an ocean tofind pearls in shells(Samhaber 89). Eventually, the Polo s made it back to Europe, although the trip meant making onemore errand for the Kahn. Their task was to escort a Mongol princess to Persia to marrya prince their, It was completed(Forman39,40). The Kahn also sent a letter with thePolo s to deliver to the Pope and to the King s of Europe, including King Edward ofEngland and King Louis of France (Forman 41,42). The Polos returned to Venice in 1925. At first, their Tarter clothing was made funof, but ,as legend has it, they ripped open their seams of their robes and streams of jewelsfell to the ground and people were ready to listen to their stories ( Penrose 54). Within a few years the trade routes the Polo s had taken were inaccessible due toTurkish and Moslem advances. European trade had to be channeled through middle mensuch as Arab, Turkish, Persian merchants who had monopolies on Asian markets (Albion62). Meanwhile, the great Kahn Empire that Marco had known in Cathay didn t remainunmoving either. Eighty years after Polo left Cathay, the Yuan Dynasty fell , ending theTarter reign. Native Chinese rule was restored to Cathay by the ethnic Han peopleThrough the Ming Dynasty, a fact unknown to Europe until 200 years later ( Forman 28). Upon his return to Venice, Marco Polo married and had children. Later he helpedto fight against Genoa as a gentlemen commander of a venetian galley( Humble 205). In one of the battles Marco was captured and put in Prison in Genoa. He shared hisexperience with Messer Rusticiano of Pisa who in 1928 began to record the adventures ofMarco Polo in medieval French as they re dictated to him. It reached its audience a