Marco Polo
Storyboard Text
- Background Information
- Kublai Khan
- Christian Empire
- Marco Polo was an Italian merchant born in Venice, Italy. He was known for traveling along the Silk Road to China, with his dad and uncle, where he explored and documented much of Asia that was not yet explored by Europeans.
- New Animals
- A UNICORN!
- When he was 17, he left Venice with his father and uncle. They travelled the Silk Road to China where they entered the court of powerful Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. He dispatched him on trips to help administer the territory. After this, Polo remained abroad for 24 years.
- Prison
- Marco Polo is well known for supposedly being the first to discover and explore Asia and well he may be the most storied far East traveler, he certainly was not the first. The Franciscan monk, Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, reached China in the 1240s, over 20 years before Polo left Europe. Other Catholic emissaries would later follow, largely inspired by the myth of Prester John, a legendary king who was believed to rule over a Christian empire in the East.
- Books
- After his return from Asia, Marco Polo thoroughly documented his encounters with new animals such as elephants, monkeys, and crocodiles. He described them as giant, sharp-clawed “serpents” that could “swallow a man at one time.” But, he often confused these strange animals with creatures from myth and legend. As one of the first Europeans to glimpse an Asian rhinoceros, Polo had mistaken them for unicorns.
- In 1298, three years after he returned from his journey, Polo was captured and put in prison after leading a Venice-owned boat into battle against the rival Italian city of Genoa.
- A book of Polo’s years as an explorer was written while he was stuck behind bars. While in prison he encountered Rustichello of Pisa, a fellow captive who was a talented writer of romances. Polo became eager to document his years as a traveler, so he dictated his life story to Rustichello. The story, called 'The Travels Of Marco Polo' was then released in 1299.
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