Why marco polo is important

Marco Polo was a Venetian explorer known for the book The Travels of Marco Polo , which describes his voyage to and experiences in Asia.

Polo traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from to and remaining in China for 17 of those years. Around , he left China, acting as escort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia.

Polo was born in , in Venice, Italy. Polo's mother died when he was young, and his father and uncle, successful jewel merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, were in Asia for much of Polo's youth. In , the two men returned to Venice and immediately started making plans for their return to Khan's court. During their stay with the leader, Khan had expressed his interest in Christianity and asked the Polo brothers to visit again with priests and a collection of holy water.

Khan's Empire, the largest the world had ever seen, was largely a mystery to those living within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. A sophisticated culture outside the reaches of the Vatican seemed unfathomable, and yet that's exactly what the Polo brothers described to confounded Venetians when they arrived home. In , Polo set out with his father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, for Asia, where they would remain until Unable to recruit the priests that Kublai Khan had requested, they left with only two, who, after getting a taste of the hard journey ahead of them, soon turned back for home.

The Polos' journey took place on land, and they were forced to cut through challenging and sometimes harsh territory. But through it all, Polo reveled in the adventure. His later memory for the places and cultures he witnessed was remarkable and exceptionally accurate. As they made their way through the Middle East, Polo absorbed its sights and smells. His account of the Orient, especially, provided the western world with its first clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs.

Hardships, of course, came his way. In what is now Afghanistan, Polo was forced to retreat to the mountains in order to recoup from an illness he'd contracted. Crossing the Gobi desert, meanwhile, proved long and, at times, arduous. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat. Finally, after four years of travel, the Polos reached China and Kublai Khan, who was staying at his summer palace known as Xanadu, a grand marble architectural wonder that dazzled young Polo.

The Polos had originally planned to be gone for only a few years. However, they were away from Venice for more than 23 years. Debate has swirled among historians as to whether Polo ever really made it to China.

There is no evidence outside his famous book that he traveled so far east. Yet his knowledge of the culture and its customs are hard to dismiss. His later account told of Khan's extensive communication system, which served as the foundation for his rule. Polo's book, in fact, devotes five pages to the elaborate structure, describing how the empire's information highway efficiently and economically covered millions of square miles.

He was a trader from Venice. With his family, he traveled to China and saw amazing things such as paper money and coal for fuel. He met the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and became a government official. Over his time on the silk road, he has traded and collected jewels, silk, and ivory. Marco Polo accomplished some of his goals, but he was not successful in everything.

For instance, he and his uncle completed missions for the Great…. A common belief about pasta is that it was brought to Italy from China by Marco Polo during the 13th century.

This, combined with the fact that pasta was already gaining popularity in other areas of Italy during the 13th century, makes it very unlikely that Marco Polo was the first to introduce pasta to Italy. Rice may have been introduced to Italy repeatedly in different periods of time via different routes such as by the Arabians or by Venetian commerce e.

It should come as no surprise that Marco Polo, such a well-known figure in European and Italian history, was responsible for giving Italy what is now its national food: pasta. As the story goes, Polo discovered noodles during his travels in China, where they were widely eaten at the time. It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled wheat and water and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals.

The traditional spaghetti and meatballs dinner is a creation of the American household and has no actual roots in Italian culture. Though the exact details of his life and expeditions are the In , Coronado led a major Spanish expedition In , Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias c. Lawrence River would later enable France to Henry Hudson made his first voyage west from England in , when he was hired to find a shorter route to Asia from Europe through the Arctic Ocean.

After twice being turned back by ice, Hudson embarked on a third voyage—this time on behalf of the Dutch East India Company—in The Portuguese nobleman Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in on a mission to reach India and open a sea route from Europe to the East. After sailing down the western coast of Africa and rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his expedition made numerous stops in Africa The story of North American exploration spans an entire millennium and involves a wide array of European powers and uniquely American characters.

The 16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto c. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Marco Polo. Hernando de Soto. Leif Eriksson.