Many people, having graduated from high school for a long time, are interested in who is Marco Polo, what did he discover and what was so important for the world?
The beginning of the way
The famous traveler was born in Venice (or on the island of Korcula, here the information is twofold) around 1254. His father Nicolo and uncle Maffeo were quite prosperous merchants who had many years of trading with eastern countries. They visited Bukhara, on the Volga, in the possessions of Khan Khubilai. The famous journey of Marco Polo, which lasted twenty-four years, began in 1271, when the relatives took the seventeen-year-old boy on their next trip. The elders were engaged in commercial affairs, the younger took the diplomatic missions of Khan Khubilai, who very warmly welcomed the merchants.
Selected path
The route of Marco Polo was as follows: the end point of the path was to be the city of Flounder in China (this is modern Beijing), the starting point, of course, is Venice. But historians cast the rest of the points into all kinds of doubts. Some argue that travelers went through Akku, Hormuz, Erzurum, Pamir to Kashgar, and from there to Flounder. Other researchers argue that merchants traveled to Akka, the south coast of Asia, the Armenian Highlands, Kerman, Basra, the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush, the Pamirs, the Takla Makan desert, spent a year in the city of Zhanye, visited Karakoram and only then arrived to Beijing.
Life in china
Whatever their path, Marco Polo (what he discovered will become known a little later) and his relatives reached Beijing in 1275. They stayed in China for many years, successfully traded, Marco himself served with the great Khan Khubilai and won his great sympathy. It was in the service of the ruler that the Italian traveled all over China, and later even became the ruler of a province called Jiangnan.
Homecoming
In 1292, Italians nevertheless left China, accompanying the Mongol princess, who was taken to Persia, marrying the ruler of that country. They did not go back to China, since in 1294, already in Persia, they received news of the death of the great khan. A year later, the merchants of Polo return to their homeland, in Venice. In 1297, Marco Polo fights for his native city-state in a naval battle against the troops of Genoa and is taken prisoner, where he dictates to another prisoner, Rusticana from Pisa, a story about his journey. Marco died in 1324, in January, in his native Venice, being a very wealthy man, married, with three daughters. And what did Marco Polo discover (briefly stated)?
The work of Marco Polo
The “book” of the great traveler is an invaluable vessel of Europeans' knowledge of East, South and Central Asia. In fact, Marco Polo discovered for Europeans not only China, but also all neighboring lands. The only minus of his work is an inaccurate description of the distances along the way. But Marko was not a geographer, so it was hardly worth waiting for such accurate information from him. It is because of this shortcoming that cartographers still cannot draw up detailed maps. But on the other hand, his work contains capacious, accurate and colorful descriptions of the customs, life, beliefs and views of the eastern peoples. This is who Marco Polo is. What did he discover for Europe? Such paper money, spices, various types of tea, subtleties of oriental art, such elementary for modern people, but then unknown to Europeans. People heard about cities with a population of more than a million, about Japan, Ceylon, Indonesia, Madagascar, the islands of Sumatra and Java. This is where Marco Polo visited. What he revealed to the Europeans is valuable information that influenced in many respects the development of European civilization.