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Marco Polo

Marco Polo. Victor A Pulizzi GEOG/HIST 4950 Summer 2010. General Background. Born in Venice in the year 1254 Grew up with his mother Father Nicolo Polo left home 1260 Mother passed away, grew up with Uncle and Aunt Middle Class non-noble Well educated in merchant subjects

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Marco Polo

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  1. Marco Polo Victor A Pulizzi GEOG/HIST 4950 Summer 2010

  2. General Background • Born in Venice in the year 1254 • Grew up with his mother • Father Nicolo Polo left home 1260 • Mother passed away, grew up with Uncle and Aunt • Middle Class non-noble • Well educated in merchant subjects • Currency, appraising, handling of cargo ships • Venice was an important trading center of the Mediterranean sea

  3. Exploration • Before the Polo’s time few Europeans had visited China • Europe was in the Dark Ages • Roman Empire Crumbled • Education was ignored, most people poor, and constant invasion from the East • The South of the Mediterranean Sea controlled by Arabs • The resources available to Polo • Compass • Celestial Navigation, Maps • Father’s Knowledge • Traveled the length of the silk road 1271-1295 • Mongolia • China • Alaska? Siberia • India, Maritime Islands • Middle East • Accomplishments • Book “The description of the world”, “The Travels of Marco Polo” “The Travels • Renown Fame, Introduced Europeans to the Far East Orient • Revealed the Silk Road Trading Route

  4. Discoveries • Kublai Khan – Mongols • China’s centralized bureaucracy, Japan, India, and the Islands of India • Alaska (Peninsula of Sea Lions), Siberia ? • West Coast of North America? • “Spice Islands” • Eye Glasses, Spaghetti, Emperor Paper Currency (stamped with red rare pigment), Rice Wine, Coal, Ice Cream, Gun Powder • Magnetic Compass Declination • Magnetic Pole and the Geographic North Pole • Maps of the Orient • Marco Polo’s “Strait of Anian” or the “Northwest Passage.”

  5. Primary Sources • The Travels of Marco Polo • Christopher Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella • Marcian F. Rossi submission of Marco Polo’s Maps and Documents • Mercator’s Cartography using Polo’s names and

  6. “Map with a Ship”

  7. Translation

  8. Significance • Contributions • European Discovery of the Silk Road • Book most famous European, heavily copied, translated before the printing press and after. • Knowledge over the orient • The North Pole and Declination • Columbus Exploration 1492 • Vasco De Gama – “Spice Islands” • Lasting importance • Polo’s book influenced the world of discovery • Geographers now understood travel by land and sea to China • Motivated Other Explorers to prove validity and discover the “spice islands” and rare Orient goods. • Cartography • The Northwest Passage Myth, proved by Admunsen • Reflection • Marco Polo right place right time. Was not the first to travel such distances, Frair John Chaing Chin. He became a legend of travels and gave insight on the Orient world bringing back things like eye glasses, spices, jewels, dye, maps, clothes, and one of the most famous stories ever told.

  9. Mercator’s Map

  10. The Polo’s Routes

  11. Destiny “I believe it was God's will that we should come back, so that men might know the things that are in the world, since, as we have said in the first chapter of this book, no other man, Christian or Saracen, Mongol or pagan, has explored so much of the world as Messer Marco, son of Messer Niccolo Polo, great and noble citizen of the city of Venice."

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