He had been writing in jail in Genoa. He had been sent to prison because he was a prisoner of war. Until the time of peace between Genoa and Venice, Marco had to stay in prison. (Hart 11,12)

Marco told of tales in which he went into cities with vast bridges and large palaces but only a handful of people had believed him and his stories. He had told the men about spices and gold in the East. This was one of the reasons that people had braved many dangerous

roads and covered vast seas to reach a land of where there was some pepper and some gold. (Hart 12,13) This means that Marco Polo had helped Christopher Columbus find the great land that is our home. Marco Polo had helped Columbus find America indirectly. Columbus had heard of the great stories of India in which there was many spices. He was thinking of reaching India by going around the world and reaching India but he ran into America. When Marco Polo had left Venice to go China with his father and uncle in 1254, he was only an infant and they had stopped at Constantinople for 7 years trading precious stones until they went again into the sea to reach China to learn of their cultures and their great emperor, Kublai Khan. Peking was the capital of China when Kublai Khan was the king of the Chinese empire so they went to Peking to see the great emperor. Kublai was Genghis Khan¯s grandson. The Polos had once had a quarrel with Birkai, who was one of the grandson¯s of Genghis Khan. Kublai was a very curious person like Marco and asked many questions about the European princes and government ideas but the thing that Kublai really wanted to know about was the popes and Christianity. He was so curious about Christianity th

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Approximate Word count = 825
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)