Adventure and Learning

For Adventure and Learning

Humans travel from place to place often just to find out what is over the next hill or down the road. They may have heard tales about wonders to be experienced in strange places of the world. Often these travelers leave journals either written (as in the past) or in the form of video recordings (modern times). Their documented accounts have opened whole new worlds for some and generated a new era of discovery.

One such traveler was Marco Polo, the son of an Italian trader. He heard the tales brought back by his father and uncle about fabulous lands to which they had traveled. In particular, he was determined to experience the wonders of Cathay (modern China), which was ruled by Kublai Khan, a Mongolian descendant of Genghis Khan.

When Marco's father and uncle organized another expedition to Cathay, Marco was allowed to join the expedition to experience new cultures and new ways of doing things. He traveled to many places. While there, he recorded details about the system of government, which used an excellent state-run postal system to maintain contact throughout the large empire. He also saw first-hand how metals could be produced at a rate that was impossible in Europe. In addition, he recorded a system of using paper for currency and a demonstration of the effects of gunpowder through fireworks. He also brought back new foods, such as the spaghetti noodle.

He explored new lands including the Gobi desert and wrote about his explorations. His journeys lasted 24 years. When he returned, he wrote a book about what he had seen and experienced. Although attacked as a fanciful account, it proved accurate, and more importantly, it fired the desire of others to explore and find new worlds.

Polo's books stirred the imagination of many Italian explorers including Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) and Cristobal Columbo (Christopher Columbus), to look for new trade routes to the worlds that Marco Polo had written about. Columbus managed to convince the king and queen of Spain to fund a sailing expedition to Cathay. This avoided the pitfalls of the arduous overland journey that Polo had taken. Columbus promised them new wealth through control of trade in such valuable commodities as spice and possibly gold. Moreover, the people in these new lands would be converted to Christianity. His voyage did not find Cathay, but rather a new world, previously unheard of.

This began the imperial growth of Spain and spawned new explorations across the globe. The age of globalization and imperialism on a world stage had dawned.