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1271-1295 CEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Marco Polo Leaves Venice for the Court of Kublai Khan

A Venetian teenager's 24-year round trip to China rewrites Europe's idea of Asia

On the timeline · around 1271-1295 CE · Medieval Italy and the City-StatesMedieval Italy and the City-StatesRenaissance and Foreign RuleMarco Polo Leaves Venice for the Court of Kublai Khan10001100120013001400

Quick facts

Departure from Venice
1271 CE, age 17
Time in China
c. 17 years, at Kublai Khan's court
Return to Venice
1295 CE
His account
The Travels (Il Milione)

What happened

In 1271, at age 17, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo set out overland along the Silk Road with his father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo, who were making their second journey to East Asia to visit the court of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan. Marco remained in China for roughly 17 years in Kublai Khan's service before the three Polos finally left in 1292, the year after the Khan's death, and sailed home by way of Vietnam, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and the Persian Gulf, reaching Venice again in 1295. Marco later dictated an account of his travels, known as The Travels, which described the wealth and customs of Kublai Khan's empire in detail that struck many contemporary readers as too fantastic to believe.

Why it matters

The Travels became one of the most influential travel narratives in European history, fixing an image in the European imagination of China as a land of almost unimaginable wealth that helped motivate the later age of European maritime exploration in search of a sea route to Asia. Marco Polo's journey also shows how deeply Venice's maritime and mercantile networks, built up over the previous two centuries as one of Italy's leading city-states, already reached across the known world by the late 13th century.

How we know

Marco Polo's travels are documented in his own dictated narrative, The Travels (also known as Il Milione), composed after his return, and cross-referenced against independent Mongol-era Chinese and Persian records describing the same period of Kublai Khan's court.

Sources

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Marco Polo Leaves Venice for the Court of Kublai Khan · History of Italy · SourcedStory