Marco Polo

Marco Polo has influenced other travelers from his book that he later published. He was originally from Venice but actually spent a huge part of his life in China.  His story really starts even before he was born with his father and uncle’s travels.

Marco’s father uncle’s names were Niccilo and Maffeo. These two men were Venetian merchants. They ended up in war and had to find a detour route to return back home. From trying to find a different route, they were captured for three whole years. Fortunately they were rescued by Kublai Khan’s soldiers who got the two men to visit China with them before returning.

When they arrived in China they were warmly welcomed by Kublai and were treated like royalty. While they were visiting Kublai requested certain things that should be brought back to him from Venice. Two of the things that Kublai asked for were for the Pope to bring 100 monks and some holy water from Jerusalem. To please Kublai the two Polos did what they were told and went back to return to Venice to retrieve what they were to bring back to him.

Marco was now born in 1254. He might have been born in Venice but we are not sure. He was not living with his father obviously because his father was in China, so he was living with an aunt and uncle. When his father returned Marco was 15 years old and it was the first time he ever met his father.

Going back to what Kublai requested from Marco’s father and uncle it took them two years to complete this task that had to be done. They began their journey back with Marco this time in 1271 but it took them three and a half years to arrive in China. When Marco was tagging along with them he decided to keep a journal all about his travels.

All of the Polos were welcomed royally once again and Kublai ended up adoring Marco and actually sooner or later appointed him part of his council. Marco thought that the palace was so grand that he had to write about it in his journal.  As Marco was staying in China he started to notice some differences between Venice’s culture and China’s. First, there was no silver and gold being used for trade, it was paper money. Then he never had seen burning coal before because they might have not done that sort of thing in Venice. He actually described coal more like, “stones that burn like logs”.  

Marco liked traveling all over China and was very impressed by the Mongol Empire. At this point Kublai Khan decided to appoint Marco into his Privy Council in 1277. Marco did not decide to return to Europe until quite later because he ended up staying in China for a very long time. To be exact, the Polos stayed and served in the courts of Kublai Khan in China for 17 years. Marco eventually ended up being able to speak four different languages. As all of the Polos were staying in China they were accumulating lots of wealth.

Marco, his father, and uncle later decided that they wanted to return back to Venice after such a long time but they were very worried that they were not going to be able to return home or take the riches if a new Khan rose to power. They requested to Kublai that they wanted to leave China. At first, Kublai refused that they should leave. But, sooner or later he let them leave but they had to make an agreement upon their departure with Kublai. The agreement was to accompany a Mongol Princess who was on her way to marry a Persian Prince. They agreed and took the princess with them.

They were finally on their way back home but they had to stop at Persia so they could bring the Mongol Princess to her Prince. At first, they had 600 passengers with them, but only 18 survived. That shows that they probably did not have a very good trip back home.

They finally reached their destination in Venice. There were a total of 25 years that they were gone from Venice. They ended up having trouble speaking Italian at their home because they were gone for so long.

War broke out and Marco became captain of the galley ship. That did not last long because he was captured and was held prisoner for three years. Maybe to entertain everybody, Marco told all about his traveling stories to his fellow prisoners.

Peace sooner or later ended the war and Marco was able to publish his book, “The Travels of Marco Polo”. Many people nicknamed his book “The Million Lies” because very few actually believed in his amazing traveling stories. But Marco did insist that all of his stories were true and it did inspire other travelers later in history. He later married and had three daughters. He ended up not ever leaving Venice again.  He fell ill in 1323. He died in 1324 at his home.

Marco did want his book to lead other travelers to follow in his footsteps and be inspired by him. Marco’s wish did indeed come true because one of the most famous travelers in later history named Christopher Columbus made his own journey in 1492 and he had Marco’s book with him.