Did Marco Polo Go to China? Chapter 1

Marco Polo’s book, the Description of the World, was written in 1298 and contains valuable information about his travels. The book starts off with a Prologue which gives a background of the Polo family, their travels, and how the book came to be written. Marco’s father and uncle traveled across the Black Sea. They were forced to travel because of border wars. They ended up in the Mongol capital of Karakorum. Qubilai Khan sent them on a mission to go back to Venice to retrieve items relating to the religion of Christianity. On their return they bring Niccolo’s son, Marco, with them. Qubilai used Marco as his emissary and sent him throughout China. Marco would return to Qubilai and tell him of all the remarkable things he had seen on his way. The contents of the Prologue are very brief for such a large time period. The Polo’s begged to return home and they were allowed, but they had to travel by sea. The trip was very difficult only 12 of the 600 men survived. The Polo’s arrived back in Italy in the year 1295.