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A citizen of the Republic of Venice, Polo grew up in a family where both his father Niccoló and uncle Maffeo were merchants.

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Marco particpated in the war

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The Polo brother’s embarked on a new journey, and they brought Marco with them.

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It has been assumed that the Polos travelled along the Northern Silk Road, although the possibility of a southern route has also been advanced by some scholars.

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When the three Polo’s finally returned to Venice, the city state was at war with neighbooring Genoa.

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Marco was eventually imprisoned, spending his time in jail dictating travel stories to a cellmate.

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Marco Polo was born in 1254. His family were Ventians, but it is unclear if he was actually born in Venice or if the birth took place on the island of Curzola off the Dalmatian coast, where his father and uncle had established a trading post.

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Marco Polo spent at least part of his childhood in Venice, which was at the time a city state heavily engaged in international commerce.

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He recieved a good education that included, among other things, classes in French and Italian.

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Polo read many classical authors and was also schooled in the Christian teology of the Latin Church.

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Growing up in a merchantile family, he was taught subjects such as appraising, foreign currency trade, and the handling of cargo ships.

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Marco Polo’s mother died when he was just a child, after which he was taken care of by his aunt and uncle.

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In 1271, the Polo brothers embarked on a new journey

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They had finally been able to deliver the letter from Kublai Khan to the pope, since Teobaldo Visconti had been elected at the conclusion of the papal election that had been running from 1268 to 1271 – the longest papal election in the history of the Latin Church.

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With them on their new journey east, the Polo family brought letters and gifts from the pope that they were to give to Kublai Khan, and they were also accompanied by two friars.

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The friars left them fairly soon, however, because they reached a war zone and the friars got too scared to continue.

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The Polo family pushed on without them

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They traveled through Armenia

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They traveled through Persia

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They traveled through Afghanistan

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following a route that went over the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia to get to China.

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He set off on a journey to the East at the age of seventeen with his uncle and father as part of a diplomatic mission for Pope Gregory X.

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He set off on a journey to the East at the age of seventeen with his uncle and father as part of a diplomatic mission for Pope Gregory X.

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On their journey home The Polos left China from Zaiton (Quangzhou) in 1291, maybe 1292, to escort the Mongol princess with a fleet of 14 ocean-going ships that contained 600 people, plus sailors (Marco Polo's estimate), and was loaded with two years of supplies.

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Eventually, a Mongol ambassador arrived to Bukhara, asking the brothers to go to the Hulagu Khan who was interested in meeting the exotic foreigners.

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the brothers started travelling even further to the east, via Samarkand and then through the dangerous Gobi desert.

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Passing through Turfan, Hami and Dunhuang, they finally got to the Hexi Corridor, and arrived to Beijing in 1266 – where Hulagu Khan’s brother Kublai Khan had his court.

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Kublai Khan, fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the would-be founder of China’s Yuan dynasty, was happy to see the foreigners and greeted them with great hospitality.

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He wanted to know a lot about Europe, and especially about the Pope and the Roman church.

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Niccolo and Matteo could communicate with him since they had learn Turkic dialects.