Spotlight: Marco Polo A Great Venetian Explorer

While many an earlier explorer, Spanish and Portuguese, had traveled by sea, Marco Polo is the land explorer, famous and most remembered. Marco Polo was born to a family of well-off traders in approximately 1254. Marco Polo began his life in Constantinople, but the family moved gradually east over the years, as the political climate changed. As they moved east, they found themselves in the courts of the Mongol Khans, and their lives began to change from those of prosperous traders to that of a great explorer, famous and remembered. In 1266, Marco Polo’s uncle and father first visited the court of the Kublai Khan, located in what is now Beijing, China. They returned with news of the great court, and made a return journey, this time with young Marco Polo along, in 1271. He would spend the next 17 years in the court of Kublai Khan.

Marco Polo in the Court of Kublai Khan

Young Marco wrote of his journeys, sharing the history of the Mongol peoples, the cultures he encountered and the vastness of the desert on the journey. The trip to the court of Kublai Khan would take three and a half years and cover some 5600 miles, making this a memorable journey, just as memorable as those of the famous explorer Spanish who would follow in the future. Marco Polo was popular in the court of Kublai Khan, the Khan would not grant the Polos permission to leave his court. Marco Polo served as a linguist, a diplomat, and filled a number of administrative positions during his years in the court of Kublai Khan. Marco Polo finally made his long return journey to Venice by sea, in a trip that sustained many losses.

The Impact of Marco Polo

Marco Polo not only allowed for trade and information to be shared between east and west, but also wrote of his journeys and his adventures in the east, leaving a record of a previously unheard of culture in the west. Marco Polo’s book became a medieval bestseller, and the information he shared remains a valuable historical record.