Marco Polo

1. Marco Polo By Keren Gefen Presentation By Nico Laborera

2. Introduction The reason why I chose a person who is from a very far past is because I think they have more information then the books about people today and is easier for me to talk about. Marco Polo was born in 1254. in the city of Venice. He was one of the first person of Europe to explore the Mysterious lands of Asia. He died at the age of 70 in 1324.

3. Childhood The famous explorer was born in Venice, Italy in 1254. He was born very lucky because he was born into a rich and very successful merchant family. They were known by a lot of people in the community of Venice. Venice was a very rich city because it controls all the shipping routes of the Mediterranean. His family owned a fine house. They also owned a few shops and warehouses in the port town of Korcula. His father and uncle left for their usually merchant rounds to trade. They got stuck in between a civil war and couldn’t go any forward for afraid of being captured. They still hadn’t return after 5 years of waiting for them.

4. Adolescence Marco’s father and uncle hadn’t return until he was 15 years old. Their family was overjoyed to see each other again for they thought they were dead. They had an amazing story to tell of their adventures. They talked about how they were rescued by an Mongolian emperor to escape the war, the emperor asked where they come from and they told they come from Europe. He was interested where they come from and told them to return to Europe and return with a 100 Christian scholars and holy oil because he wanted to learn their religion and try to ally with their nation. Marco was very excited by their adventures. He was even more excited when his father asked him to come with them. They could only find 2 scholars who are willingly come with them on this long and dangerous journey. They hadn’t started their journey until 1271 with all the preparations to China to meet Kublai Khan, when Marco was 18 years old.

5. Adolescence Their scholars turned back as soon as their was a war coming toward them. The Polos decided to continue their journey to China. They took the biggest known route leading from Europe and Asia, the “Silk road”. Even though with just the three of them the journey was still dangerous. They had to take turns watching for the wild animals might attack their campsite when theysleep. That was not the worse part they had to watch out for the terrain theywere going on from tall mountains, to the scorching deserts, and to the vastplains of Asia. The journey was very long and even longer when the whetherwas bad. None the less they continued on to China.

6. Adulthood They hadn’t arrived at the palace in China until 1274. When they arrived, the emperor had remembered both Marco’s father and uncle, he warmly greeted both of them back to the court of the Mongolian empire. Khan was one of the great and powerful ruler for his empire stretch from Korea to part India The Polos gave him the holy oil to him and apologized for not bring the amount of scholars he wanted. None the less the emperor accepted it and offered the both of them jobs here. He also saw Marco and greeted him too. When Kublai first saw him, he saw how intelligent he was and offered him a job also. His job was at his palace as a Senior Tax Inspector. He offered them jobs because he trusted foreigners more then the Chinese workers. Marco workedfor him for 17 loyal years but until the Khan got ill. The years working for them was great, Marco earned 1 million gold coins total. They expected the next ruler wouldn’t be as great so they plan to leave. But before they left Khan gave them one more job of bring a Persian princess back to Persia. They left China in 1292 forever.

7. Adulthood They plan to go home by sea because the way by land blocked by the many wars happening over there. It also helps because they will stop at Persia and continue on by foot which means they can drop off the prince of there. Their boat of choice the most advance ship in the world , the Chinese junk boat. Even though its purpose is taking junk it’s a very sturdy boat. The plan looked great but once they arrived at Persia in 1294, out of the 600 passengers 18 survived the whole trip ( including the Polos ). They continued their journey on foot to Venice it would take them a year until they arrive. In 1295, they had finally arrived and their family were overjoyed for the many years thought dead of them. Marco was going to stay with them for 3 years untilwar broke out and got him into prison. While he was their he talked to this writer about all of his adventures in Asia, later he would write a book aboutit. Afterhe was released, he got married and had 3 daughters. Marco died in 1324 at the age of 70.

8. Contributions He was one of the first people to ever explore the unknown regions east of Europe. While they were walking through the lands he wrote down all of what he saw in a journal during the adventures going to China. He wrote down what the people in Asia what they looked like, how do they do things differently then the Europeans, and what they eat in their lands. He also wrote down all of his surroundings on what the animals live in this land, and the plants unknown to the people. Since he wrote it all down he was able o tell all the looks and sounds that makes Asia so different.

9. Most Interesting Story About Him The most interesting story I read is when he works for Kublai Khan when he has to go on many missions. Kublai Khan likes him the best to go on theses many missions because Marco would pay attention to everything that surrounds him in the place he has to go. When he comes back from the place he was sent to the Emperor would ask him what he saw in the land he went to. Marco would tell every detail of the regions he went through or stayed in. he talks about how the land looks and how very different it appears. He would also tells him how the people adapts to the surroundings of this place and how they do things so differently they do things to survive their conditions. He would also talk how they sound when they speak to each other with different accent they can’t really understand. When ever he does this he gets a lot of money for this kind of service.

10. 3 Question I Would Ask Him • Why did you accept the Khan’s request of working for him? • How did it feel when this writer wrote almost all the adventures you told while you were in Asia into a book? • At your death bed you said you only told half of your adventures in Asia, why not tell all of it?

11. Bibliography Gefen, Keren. Great Explorers: Marco Polo. Milwaukee, Wis: World Almanac, 2002