How Did The American Marco Polo Influence Medieval Europe

Medieval Europe – Marko Polo
The Venetian Marco polo is not only one of the most renowned travellers in world history, but he and his book also generated more speculation than almost any other or volume in world literature. The travels and discoveries of Marco polo were well appreciated in the medieval times and of great significance. Marco Polo travelled to China and Mongolia and brought back many important useable goods that were then copied and used back in Medieval Europe. Marco Polo brought back many things that the Europeans had never seen during that time.
Polo brought back new technologies for example and navigation technology the compass. With the compass, navigation and exploration changed for the Europeans, as they were now able
to navigate both land and sea more easily and efficiently. Maps would also be more accurate. In addition to technology, Marco Polo also brought paper, paper currency, porcelain, raw silk, ivory, jade, spices, and noodles. One of the most important was paper as it is used so much now in this era.
The Mongols were the people who introduced to Marco Polo a very new and intriguing concept - paper currency. The idea of paper currency seemed like a great idea as when traveling merchants did not have to carry clunky gold and silver coins everywhere they went, making traveling for the merchants much more easy and efficient.
Before Marco Polo's travels, Europe believed they were the most prosperous society in the world.
This was incorrect as for they did not even know of the existence of China and the Mongol Empire, which were much more complex societies than they were. Some places in China and the Mongol Empire even had indoor plumbing and the successful economic usage of paper money was utilized in society. This made the Europeans competitive and they started trying to match the other empires. The fire was so much that the Europeans would eventually take over China in terms of advancement during Europe's industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th
century.
Europe was not the only one that positively affected by Marco Polo's travels. Unsurprisingly, China, too, was affected in a positive manner. Marco Polo had introduced gunpowder to the Chinese. With this, the Chinese were able to utilize gunpowder to make not only fireworks, but military arms too. They were able to develop their military weapons from steel weapons and hand-combat weapons to more advanced arms. They were able to make ammunitions like fire lances, but more importantly, the Chinese were able to develop the rocket. Without the Chinese's invention of multi-staged rockets, it is possible that the future development of the space shuttle would not have occurred.

With trade between Europe and China, the Europeans were introduced to citrus fruits, spices, and other newly seen goods.
Having seen such goods like these, the Europeans started to buy these things from the Chinese. The Europeans also had goods of their own that the Chinese would buy. This was the symbiotic relation the two had with each other. The trade between the two would boost both economies, as it would also open up many jobs in both lands. The West had new materials to work with in cooking and the like, while the East had things like gunpowder, which opened up jobs to make armaments and fireworks. The introduction to these new items both positively impacted the West and East directly through economic income gain and through the opening of new jobs that would allow the poor to learn skills that no one yet knew how to perform in these
jobs.

Not only materialistic goods were introduced to China. Marco Polo tried to bring Christianity to the East, going through emperor Kublai Khan first. Khan was, surprisingly, all for Christianity. He deemed it as "good". Despite Kublai Khan's reputation for honoring all religions, the fact that he claimed "...truest and best the faith of the Christians... declares that it commands nothing that is not full of all goodness and holiness" (Bearcat). A great impact of Christianity upon China would not come about though. Before Christianity could gain momentum and spread throughout the East, the Mongol Empire had fallen to the Chinese. After this victory, China was to be orthodox Confucian, under a new dynasty--the Ming Dynasty. Although Marco Polo's attempt to expand the Christian religion was a failure, his close network interactions with the Mongol emperor led to much prosperity for the East and the West.