Marco Polo (No China)

Marco Polo was an Italian merchant, explorer, and writer, born in the Republic of Venice. His travels are recorded in Livres des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo), a book that described to Europeans the wealth and great size of India, Mongolia and other Asian countries, like Daiviet and Pagan.

He learned the mercantile trade from his father and his uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia, to Mongolia during the Yuan Dynasty and met Kublai Khan.

About
Marco Polo was born in 1254 in the Republic of Venice. His exact date and place of birth are archivally unknown, although presumably he was born in Venice.

His father, Niccolò Polo, a merchant, traded with the Near East, becoming wealthy and achieving great prestige. Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage before Marco's birth. In 1260, Niccolò and Maffeo, while residing in Constantinople, then the capital of the Latin Empire, foresaw a political change; they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away. According to The Travels of Marco Polo, they passed through much of Asia, and met with Kublai Khan, a Mongol ruler and founder of the Yuan dynasty.

Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295 with his fortune converted into gemstones. At this time, Venice was at war with the Republic of Genoa. Polo armed a galley equipped with a trebuchet to join the war. He was probably caught by Genoans in a skirmish in 1296.

He spent several months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels to a fellow inmate, Rustichello da Pisa, who incorporated tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from Mongolia. The book soon spread throughout Europe in manuscript form, and became known as The Travels of Marco Polo. It depicts the Polos' journeys throughout Asia through the Silk Road, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the Far East, including Mongolia, India, Pagan and Daiviet.