In 1254, Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy to a very rich Venetian merchant family. His parents are Nicole Anna Defuseh and Niccolo Polo, but he was raised by extended family. His father and uncle were merchants who traveled a lot, and his mother died when he was six years old.
In 1262, Marco’s father and uncle made an unforgettable journey to Kaifeng, China to meet Kublai Khan, who is the grandson of Genghis Khan. While they were in China, Kubali expressed a great interest in Christianity. He wanted Marco’s father and uncle to bring one hundred priests and holy water with them when they returned back to China. In 1269, the men returned back to Venice, and immediately made plans for their return, this time bringing Marco along.
In 1271, the three of them all set out for the magnificent journey to China. They were unable to round up the one hundred priests Kublai requested. They did bring two, but they turned back in the beginning of the trip. The trip was filled with obstacles and challenges. In modern-day Afghanistan, Marco had to evacuate to the mountains to recover from an illness he had contracted. In the Golbi desert, they had to trudge through mountains and valleys with little to no food sources.
After four years of dangerous travel, the trio finally arrived in China. They went to visit Kublai in his summer palace. Khan gave Marco’s father and uncle high positions on his court. He was very pleased with Marco, as well; therefore, he gave him a special job. Marco spent most of his time traveling to places unheard of back then. He was then the governor of a Chinese city, an official of the Privy Council, and a tax inspector. He inquired great knowledge on his trip. He was astonished by their economy and form of currenc...
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...ather and uncle would have never travelled to China in the first place allowing Marco a chance to go. Kublai saw Marco’s eagerness to work, and saw his passion for discovering new things. Kublai made all of Marco’s dream come true, and helped him go to all the great places he went.
I believe Marco Polo was very successful. How many people can say they were on Kublai Khan’s court? How many people can say they made one of the first great voyages to China? There is only one, and that is Marco. He accomplished things that were unimaginable in his time period. Most people only dreamed of these things, and found it very difficult to believe they were true. I would of loved to travel and see the great things he saw, and had the opportunities he had.
Works Cited
Childress, Diana. Marco Polo's Journey to China. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books, 2008. Print.
When comparing the Chinese and Western historical development, the similar key events would have very different outcomes due to their different backgrounds. During the fifteenth century, Zheng He was commissioned to lead the “treasure ships” for seven voyages down the Western Seas. And, Prince Henry sent expeditions to explore the western coast of Africa. China and Portugal, the both ends of the Eurasian continent, almost simultaneously began marine navigations. They have shared some similar features, but there are actually major differences between the two. This paper will compare and contrast these two remarkable explorers. The focus will be on the ideas and circumstances that influenced their actions, and their importance in shaping history.
Galileo was born in Pisa Italy on February 15, 1564. Galileo was the first born child to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. His family moved to Florence Italy after living in Pisa for ten years. In Florence he received education at the Camaldolese monastery in Vallombrosa. Later on in his life he decided to study medicine at the University of Pisa to study medicine. Wh...
After becoming educated in the ways of a page and squire and helping his country rid itself of the Moors, Leon became restless and searched for his next adventure. His next adventure came when Christopher Columbus needed volunteers to outfit his second expedition to the New World. Leon had heard the stories Columbus brought back with him and saw the a...
und three hundred men. His journey took him around three years and while making this journey he was thinking about no one but himself. Magellan took all the credit for everything and without his crew members he would be nothing and could not have achieved half as much. He also ended up using violence to make people change they way they believe. Magellan was not worth defending and shouldn't get all the credit he does.
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Smarr, Janet. “Emperor Wu”. Making of the Modern World 12. Ledden Auditorium, La Jolla, CA. 17 Feb. 2012. Lecture.
After receiving a job in a minor administrative position for the Mongol ruler, Marco Polo stayed in China for another seventeen years. Throughout this time he wildly traveled across the Chinese land and collected stories about his experiences in the foreign country. His book, The Travels of Marco Polo helped to shape Western European culture, though scholars question the legitimacy behind his stories since he left out many prominent features of the Chinese life.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10,1856 into a Serbian family. He was born in the village of Smiljan, Croatia. He was the fourth of five children born to Milutin & Duka Tesla. Milutin, Nikola’s father was an Orthodox priest and a writer. His Mother, Duka had a talent for making home craft tools and mechanical appliances. His father wanted him to become a priest but he was more like his Mother and drawn to inventing and the sciences.
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Shortly after, Tzi-hsi was forced to give up her regency and retired to a summer palace, but she soon resumed rule over China. From that moment on until her death in 1908 she ruled China, instilling new policies and reforms into Chinese culture. There have been many assertions and assumptions about Tzi-hsi’s policies and their value to the history of China and her popularity among Chinese citizens (her tomb was raided and destroyed). Regardless of these opinio...
The Chinese empire had once been one of the greatest and most powerful empires in the world. Before the 19th century, China had a large population and was ruled by families or dynasties. It was considered technologically advanced as China had a history of many miraculous inventions, such as: writing, magnetic compasses, movable sails, porcelain, abacus and paper money. Although China was isolated from the rest of the world, it coped well on its own, and saw no need to begin trading with the west, (as Lord McCartney proposed in 1793), since it was a self-sufficient nation. At that particular time, the Chinese empire was still able to exclude the ‘barbarians’, thus forcing them to only trade at one port. However, China soon took a turn for the worst as important ...
...s of the journey were of such extremes that they made the travels skip something that they were forced to believe was a very important ritual.
The year was 1095; Pope Urban II was caught in a war with Germany, and he had multiple conflicts in France as well as amongst his countrymen. In the midst of all this chaos, the Pope still wanted to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims who occupied the city. So he decided to start a pilgrimage to the holy land in order to regain it back. This pilgrimage was called The First Crusade. The Pope led a rally at Claremont, a town in France in 1095, to gain the support of the christian community. In his speech he said, “Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned." He made men feel obligated to fight for this cause as if Christ himself was being defiled. These pilgrims were also given benefits such as exemption from taxes and their protection by the church. The trip to the Holy land proved to be difficult, for the Crusaders could not use the Mediterranean Sea because it was controlled by the Muslims. Instead they had to cross the land in scorching heat and also deep snow in order to reach their destination. They soon ran out of fresh water and had to resort to drinking blood and their own urine in order to survive. They suffered from heat stroke and dysentery caused by drinking the di...
Holum, Kenneth G. “Hadrian and St. Helena: Imperial Travel and the Origins of Christian Holy Land Pilgrimage,” The Blessings of Pilgrimage. U. of Illinois, 1990.