Marco Polo

Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer whose extensive travels across Asia between 1271 and 1295 made him one of the best-known figures of the medieval world. His detailed account, The Travels of Marco Polo—also known as Il Milione or The Book of the Marvels of the World—offered Europeans their first comprehensive description of the geography, cultures and wealth of the Mongol Empire and wider Asia. His narrative shaped European knowledge of China, Persia, India, Japan and Southeast Asia for centuries and inspired subsequent generations of explorers.

Family Background and Early Life

Marco Polo was born around 1254 into a prosperous merchant family in the Republic of Venice. Although the precise details of his birth and early upbringing remain uncertain, surviving accounts agree that his father Niccolò Polo and uncle Maffeo Polo were experienced traders in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Before Marco’s birth, they had embarked on a long commercial journey to the East. During this time, Marco’s mother died, and he was raised by relatives in Venice.
In 1269 the brothers returned from their travels and met Marco, then a teenager, for the first time. Marco received an education suited to mercantile life, including experience in currency handling, appraisal and trade practices. By his mid-teens he was prepared to accompany his father and uncle on a new expedition, forging a path that would define his life.

Journey Across Asia

In 1271, at the age of seventeen, Marco Polo set out with Niccolò and Maffeo from Venice on an overland journey to the Mongol Empire. After sailing to Acre and receiving letters from the recently elected Pope for the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, the party travelled through Armenia, Persia and Central Asia, eventually reaching the court at Shangdu (Xanadu), the summer residence of the Great Khan.
Kublai Khan was impressed by Marco’s intelligence and adaptability, and he appointed him to serve as an emissary throughout the vast territories of the empire. Marco travelled widely in China and beyond, visiting regions corresponding to modern Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. His assignments included diplomatic missions, administrative duties and various observations of the empire’s economic and social life.
Marco and his family remained in Mongol territory for about seventeen years, gaining intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Yuan dynasty and the complexities of life at Kublai Khan’s court.

Escort of Princess Kökechin and Return to Venice

Around 1291 Kublai Khan entrusted the Polos with an important mission: to accompany the Mongol princess Kökechin to Persia, where she was to marry a member of the Ilkhanate’s ruling family. The voyage brought them across the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, and they reached Persia around 1293. After completing their mission, the Polos travelled westward overland through Constantinople before returning to Venice in 1295, ending a journey that had lasted twenty-four years.

Captivity in Genoa and the Writing of His Travels

Soon after his return, Marco became involved in the ongoing conflict between Venice and Genoa. While commanding a Venetian galley during the war, he was captured by Genoese forces and imprisoned. In captivity he met the writer Rustichello da Pisa, to whom he dictated the story of his travels. Rustichello compiled these accounts into the text that became The Travels of Marco Polo.
Marco was released in 1299 and resumed life in Venice as a wealthy merchant. He married, had three daughters and lived in relative comfort until his death in January 1324. He was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice.

Accounts of Asia and Legacy

Although Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China during the Middle Ages, he was the first to leave a detailed narrative of his experiences. His book introduced Europeans to a wide array of Asian phenomena, including:

• descriptions of the splendour of Kublai Khan’s court,
• the administrative, economic and cultural systems of the Yuan dynasty,
• the use of paper money,
• the production of porcelain,
• the existence of gunpowder and its military applications,
• exotic animals and unfamiliar plants,
• the diversity of religions and ethnic groups across Asia.

His account exerted profound influence on European geography and imagination. It contributed to the development of maps such as the Catalan Atlas and the Fra Mauro map, and it inspired explorers including Christopher Columbus, who carried a copy of Marco’s book on his voyages.

Name and Nickname

During his lifetime Marco Polo was widely known by the nickname “Milione”, an epithet that gave rise to the Italian title Il Milione. This name was commonly explained as referring either to Marco’s descriptions of Kublai Khan’s immense wealth or to a shortened form of a family byname distinguishing his branch of the Polo family.
His name was traditionally rendered in English using the older Wade–Giles transcription system, resulting in “Mao Tsetung”—though modern usage favours the pinyin form, “Mao Zedong”. In Marco Polo’s case, however, his name has always been rendered according to Italian conventions.

Historical Significance

Marco Polo’s legacy lies not only in his exploration but also in his ability to communicate a vivid and systematic description of Asia to a European audience that knew little of the region. His work shaped Western perceptions of the East for centuries and remains a foundational text in the history of global exploration. Through his writings, trade networks, cultural exchanges and imperial systems of the medieval world became accessible to readers far beyond the borders of the Mongol Empire.