Marco Polo Worships the Great Khan

Traveling from Cathay to Tinju, there is non a hotshot page in The Travels of Marco Polo where he does not mention the great(p) caravansary. Whether this is a positive or a negative, the agent of the Great Khan is routinely emphasized and the leader is repeatedly discussed in terms of his ability as a ruler. . A bully deal of the reason for this is that when one looks at a unalike culture and its biography, there is a tacit avoidance of providing judgment on the way the militarism of a culture may deliver itself. Through his travels in China, Marco Polo depicts the Great Khan as a powerful, benevolent, and pushy leader of East Asia.It is easy to see that the Great Khan had great power throughout nearly of China. In chapter 4 of The Travels, Polo describes various visits to divers(prenominal) locations in northern and southwestern China. He states ingestly that Tibet belongs to the Great Khan, as do on the whole the other kingdoms and provinces and regions described in th is book, ask out alone the provinces mentioned at the beginning of our book which belong to the son of Arghun (174).In chapter 5, all places that Polo visits do the Great Khans musical composition currency and the throng remain subjects of the Great Khan. In his description of the journey from Ho-Kein-fu through Kein-ning-fu, the radical that stands out is that people are idolaters, subjects to the Great Khan and using paper money because such a brief and generalized statement provides solid insight into the overriding themes of the Great Khans motivations. (211).However, in different areas under Khans rule, a unique monetary governing body was used. For example, Kaindu had real unique hard currency They have gold in bars and weight it out by saggi and it is valued according to its weight. scarcely they have no coined money bearing a stamp (176).Ironically, in some instances, salt was used as short change currency. Traders in Tibet made an immense profit, because they coul d use the salt in food as well as for buying the necessities of life. In the cities they used fragments of salt blocks in cooking and spent the unbroken blocks.However, regardless of the f flake that Kaindu did not use the Great Khans money, the Great Khans cast remained strongly evident within these providences. Kaindu was subject to the Great Khan and it was in an area known to have an abundance of pearls. Regardless the Great Khan would not let bothone harvest pearls because he believed harvesting too umteen pearls would eliminate their scarcity and lead to a significant devaluation.Thus, The Great Khan, when he has a mind, has pearls taken from it for his own use only but no one else may take them on pain of death (175) there was similarly a mountain there with a plentiful append of turquoise which produced rattling fine gems but the Great Khan would not allow them to be taken except at his bidding. This would seem to prognosticate that the Great Khans brash exterior hid a very insecure interior. That is, he seemed to desire wealth and treasure as a way of propping up his own picture. Allowing greater access to wealth and cunning metals was, perhaps, something the Great Khan feared because it would chip away at his loftiness. (175).Marco Polo also conveys the notion that the Great Khan maintained a sense of almsgiving that tempered his displays of power. In particular, Polos story about Litan emphasizes this benevolence. Tandinfu was a very large city and once a great kingdom, but the Great Khan had conquered it through force of arms. In 1272, the Great Khan had constitute one of his barons, Litan Sangon, to hold this city and province. However, Litan planned a monstrous act of disloyalty when he and his followers rebelled against the Great Khan in a arresting display of disobedience. When the Great Khan ascertained this, he sent his militia to confront them.When Litan was defeated, the Great Khan pardoned those who served under Litan forgave them for their trespasses and indiscretions. Those who were pardoned never afterward displaced any disloyalty towards their great leader. This story reflects the Great Khans benevolence because, strange other leaders who would respond ruthlessly to opposition, The Great Khan quite made them into the most loyal subjects by bestowing a pardon to them.It is clear the Kubilai Khan was exceptionally ambitious and this is what made him so powerful and vie a great part in allowing him to conquer most of Asia. Polos description of the conquest of Manzi evokes the ambitiousness of the Great Khan. After conquering some cities and countries, Kubilai was still not satisfied and continued the expansion of his territory.He essay to conquer the great province of Manzi, a wealthy territory. The king of Manzi had discovered through astrology that he could not lose his kingdom except at the hands of a man with a hundred eyes. In response, Bayan Chincsan, known as Bayan Hundred-eyes, was sent in to Manzi by order of the Great Khan. Bayan succeeded and Kubilai in the end conquered Manzi. This clearly demonstrates the Great Khans desire to expand his power base from all fronts. Perhaps, in a way, it depicts over ambition as foreign to logistical, military expansion. Ultimately, this type of imperialism would later lead to Khans eventually overextension and downfall.From Marco Polos descriptions of the influence of the Great Khan throughout most of China, it appears that he was a powerful sovereign whose impression on history still resonates to this very day. However, Marco Polos presentation of the Great Khan drafts an image of the Great Khan as the only leader who could rule and overtop the world Although Marco Polos explanation that many cities he visited were ruled by the Great Khan is true, to the reader it seems like he venerated Kubilai Khan above all others. Perhaps Marco Polo was in such awe of Khan, he want to see him as a great leader as opposed to a destructiv e, predatory imperialist and from this, an idealized version of history was cr