Marco Polo

8 Marco Polo In 13th century Europe, silk, tea, spices and gold were what made people rich. And China was known to have them in abundance. But the only way to get those treasures was to travel overland to China via the Silk Road. This was a dangerous journey and one that was controlled by the Arabs through Constantinople. Only friends and partners of the Arabs were allowed to pass safely along the trail. Europeans were not allowed to travel this road. This drove up the costs of the precious goods. The Polo family was one of the wealthiest merchant families in Venice, a city state and major trading power at the time. They took it upon themselves to seek out a route to China that would avoid the Silk Road. In 1266, they journeyed east from Venice and arrived at Kaifeng, the eastern capital of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. They returned to Venice in 1269. Two years later, they left again on a second voyage. This time, they took the young Marco Polo with them.

They reached Cambuluc (now Beijing) in 1275. Marco became a favourite of the great Kublai Khan and was allowed to learn much about the Chinese way of life. When he returned to his home in Venice after a long stay in China, he wrote a book that described his life in China. He called it The Travels of Marco Polo. In the book, he explained much about the customs and ways of the people who lived there. The Europeans were fascinated by his descriptions of the Chinese culture and technology. He wrote about paper currency, asbestos, coal, gunpowder, and other marvels that were unknown in Europe at the time. Marco Polo and his family established an overland trade route to China, but it wasn't until the first sea route was discovered that travel and commerce between the East and the West would become easy.