Marco Polo

Marco Polo is one of the most well-known heroic travelers and

traders around the world. In my paper I will discuss with you Marco Polo's
life, his travels, and his visit to China to see the great Khan. Marco

Polo was born in c.1254 in Venice. He was a Venetian explorer and merchant
whose account of his travels in Asia was the primary source for the

European image of the Far East until the late 19th century.

Marco's father, Niccolщ, and his uncle Maffeo had traveled to

China (1260-69) as merchants. When they left (1271) Venice to return to

China, they were accompanied by 17-year-old Marco and two priests. Early
Life Despite his enduring fame, very little was known about the personal

life of Marco Polo. It is known that he was born into a leading Venetian
family of merchants. He also lived during a propitious time in world

history, when the height of Venice's influence as a city-state coincided
with the greatest extent of Mongol conquest of Asia(Li Man Kin 9). Ruled

by Kublai Khan, the Mongol Empire stretched all the way from China to
Russia and the Levant. The Mongol hordes also threatened other parts of

Europe, particularly Poland and Hungary, inspiring fear everywhere by
their bloodthirsty advances. Yet the ruthless methods brought a measure

of stability to the lands they controlled, opening up trade routes such as
the famous Silk Road. Eventually,the Mongols discovered that it was more

profitable to collect tribute from people than to kill them outright, and
this policy too stimulated trade(Hull 23).

Into this favorable atmosphere a number of European traders

ventured, including the family of Marco Polo. The Polos had long-
established ties in the Levant and around the Black Sea: for example, they

owned property in onstantinople, and Marco's uncle, for whom he was named,
had a home in Sudak in the Crimea(Rugoff 8). From Sudak, around 1260,

another uncle, Maffeo, and Marco's father, Niccolщ, made a trading visit
into Mongol territory, the land of the Golden Horde(Russia), ruled by

Berke Khan. While they were there, a war broke out between Berke and the
Cowan of Levant, blocking their return home. Thus Niccolщ and Maffeo

traveled deeper into mongol territory, moving southeast to Bukhara, which
was ruled by a third Cowan. While waiting there, they met an emissary

traveling farther eastward who invited them to accompany him to the court
of the great Cowan, Kublai, in Cathay(modern China). In Cathay, Kublai

Khan gave the Polos a friendly reception, appointed them his emissaries to
the pope, and ensured their safe travel back to Europe(Steffof 10). They

were to return to Cathay with one hundred learned men who could instruct
the Mongols in the Christian religion and the liberal arts.

In 1269, Niccol and Maffeo Polo arrived back in Venice, where

Niccol found out his wife had died while he was gone (Rugoff 5). Their son,
Marco, who was only about fifteen years old, had been only six or younger

when his father left home:thus; Marco was reared primarily by his mother
and the extended Polo family-and the streets of Venice. After his

mother's death, Marco had probably begun to think of himself as something
of a orphan(Rugoff 6). Then his father and uncle suddenly reappeared, as

if from the dead, after nine years of traveling in far-off, romantic lands.
These experiences were the formative influences on young Marco, and one

can see their effects mirrored in his character: a combination of
sensitivity and toughness, independence and loyalty, motivated by an

eagerness for adventure, a love of stories, and a desire to please or
impress(Li Man Kin 10).

Life's Work