The famous travel of Marco Polo around the Silk Road and
Asia are one of the most documented and debated reference in the field of academic
studies specifically in the field of History and Social Sciences. His travel not only open the gates and the
mind of Kublai Khan’s openness to welcome guest from other kingdoms but it
created special relationship between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. During the time of Marco Polo young adulthood
that his father was already traveling in the route of the famous silk road,
Marco’s eagerness to travel with his father open the door of history and the
relationship of Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
As the history reveals Marco’s father and company are merchants in the
Silk Road that at that time to pass the Silk Road needs to get approval from
different borders of the Central Asia connecting to Europe.
At that time Christianity is already
traveling as a belief and an ideology going to the deepest part of Asia. The spiritual belief of the European
Christians started to flourish to the lands of Asia. With Islam in the Persian region and Marco
Polo coming as a traveler The Khan Dynasty and Empire adopted and welcomed the
variety of beliefs and ideology in the Khan Empire to be used as a molding
place of ideas to be used as a furtherance of the Kublai Khan’s world
navigation and invasion of other Kingdoms.
The envy of the Khans to the walls of China gave them and Marco Polo
himself to create a weapon to topple down the walls of the Sung Dynasty. Marco was even imprisoned for his failure
idea in the first attack of the Chinese Sung dynasty. But even in prison Marco Polo tried to think
what can he do with all his strategic ideas to help the Khan of Khans in
defeating the walls of the Sung Dynasty in China. Kublai Khan trusted Marco Polo as a foreigner
in the Kingdom for the reason that for so many writers like Theophylactus
Simocatta from Europe betrayed the remote knowledge of the Chinese empire,
Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela in Navarre visited Baghdad in the twelfth century is also
not successful in giving their fealty to the Kingdoms responsible for them.
Kublai Khan on the other hand is particular with honesty of words and
action. And that is the power of Marco
when he analyze and told all the right words that can describe the picture of
the places and roads that he passed during his journey. In many instances Marco Polo and Kublai Khan
has many disagreements but by the honest words of Marco Polo he was able to
reflect all the narrative words he impart to the Khan of Khans in return Kublai
Khan assumed Marco as a part of his Kingdom and family. Marco’s travel in life and in Central Asia
gave as a wonder lesson to be true to our words and action. Kublai Khan did not after of the belief and
religion of Marco Polo but rather the natural character of the person that he
can be trusted.
Catapult Knowledge Contributed By Marco Polo to Kublai Khan
Meanwhile during that
time the Crusader are also pressing their legions to Central Asia by the year
1206. The crusader seized Constantinople 3,000 miles farther east. By history the Mongol took regions of China
like the Cathay lands. The ambitious
plans of the Khans to further invade more lands in Europe and the West was disagreed
to the advice of Marco Polo giving the Khan the idea that the West and European
countries are more advance with their weapons.
At that time the Europeans are already exporting gun powder to China in
return with the goods like Silk and Porcelain from China. On the contrary, the father of Marco was imprisoned
by the Khan because the father of Marco Niccolo Polo smuggled silk worm hidden
from the goods they transported along Central Asia. But because Marco has his good impression to
the Khan, his father was released from prison but they did not stay in the
Kingdom anymore. But Marco continued
their friendship with Kublai Khan. The
test of Marco’s character in the pledge of fealty to the Khan proves that as a
foreigner, home is not the physical place you live in but home is the place
where you can trust the people as your own family.
Marco Polo & Kublai Khan
Impressive Fight Scenes
KINGDOMS IN THE SILK ROAD
During the time of the Silk Road era Central Asia is not
only ruled by the Khans and the Sung Dynasty of China but also the country of Russia,
Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and
Tajikistan you could just imagine the political and military struggle along the
Silk Road that I may call it the not so silky road because diplomacy at that
time is not that refined as of today. International laws across borders are
totally different from other countries or kingdoms. As such the Khan Dynasty only rely their diplomacy
through bilateral agreements and negotiations.
As Peter Frankopan narrated the Mongols in chapter 9 of his book that
the Mongols is considered as the “hell” in terms of place and tribe in the
northern part of China. Mongols are
considered chaotic and bloodthirsty. But
with the knowledge of Marco Polo their eagerness to fight is associated by the knowledge
of Marco in terms of breaking the wall using the Catapult technology that was
suggested by Marco and engineered by the Arab brothers from Persia who are
working with the Khan Dynasty. If we can
see the power of US today is gotten from the knowledge of the migrant workers
using H1B visa “maybe” the US is getting these talent and human resource
concepts from the Khan era. On 1211 they
further pressed their battles against the Jin dynasty. The Mongol carefully cultivated the
management of fear among the Northern part of China and that fear echoed in
Europe and England that the legacy of war of the famous Alexander was challenged
by the ferocious war machine of the Kublai Khan era.
Marco Polo and the Very "Silky" Women of Central Asia
CONVERGENCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
In the present day perspective the good tails and lessons of
Marco Polo during the time of the Kublai Khan Era presents the importance of
the fundamental concepts of war and science and the many aspect of the modern
war analysis. Many historians and war
analyst try to ignore the contribution of the Mongols in terms of war that if
we can consider the technology of war at that time Romans, Greeks, Persia and
many more leading Kingdoms at that time is known to be more impressive in the
sense of war, science and logic. The
theorem of Niels Bohr in the writings of Peter Watson from his book convergence
suggest that knowledge may lead to the recognition of relations between
formerly unconnected groups of phenomenon, and the harmonious synthesis of
which demands a renewed revision of the presuppositions for the unambiguous application
of even our most elementary concepts.
Indeed, the history of Marco Polo and the story of his diplomatic friendship with the Khan Dynasty will give us the idea that the olden Kingdom’s knowledge like the Khan Dynasty is vital to our modern civilization standards both politics and military tactics as of today. Sometimes what we execute today is far worse than the Empires long time ago, olden type of diplomacy form the Khans and many Kingdoms of the world. And they are more sensible when we apply in our modern democratic diplomacy. Moreover, there are many angles of the history of Marco Polo during the time of Kublai Khan that are considered today as a myth that many historians cannot relate their specific research and findings to connect and converge to the modern warfare and diplomacy. These are the beliefs that are placed into certain degree. According to Sean Carroll in studying the beliefs in this world needs to have some degree of beliefs to relate to the understanding both from the past and the present.
Indeed, the history of Marco Polo and the story of his diplomatic friendship with the Khan Dynasty will give us the idea that the olden Kingdom’s knowledge like the Khan Dynasty is vital to our modern civilization standards both politics and military tactics as of today. Sometimes what we execute today is far worse than the Empires long time ago, olden type of diplomacy form the Khans and many Kingdoms of the world. And they are more sensible when we apply in our modern democratic diplomacy. Moreover, there are many angles of the history of Marco Polo during the time of Kublai Khan that are considered today as a myth that many historians cannot relate their specific research and findings to connect and converge to the modern warfare and diplomacy. These are the beliefs that are placed into certain degree. According to Sean Carroll in studying the beliefs in this world needs to have some degree of beliefs to relate to the understanding both from the past and the present.
What is important that the Knowledge during
the Khan era can be more sensible today when we use it in our diplomacy and daily
lives. This degree of beliefs is termed by mathematicians and statisticians as
the CREDENCES. Every single belief we have has some credence attached to it, even
if we don’t articulate it explicitly. Sometimes credences are just like
probabilities, as when we say we have a credence of 50 percent that a fair coin
will end up heads. Other times they simply reflect a lack of complete knowledge
on our part. But the Theorem of Baye conceived
that, credences from different beliefs can be subject for analysis and study.
Relatively these credences with rigorous careful study can be a useful
knowledge for our modern consumption both in military and economics. Finally, many neglected credences in the
Empire of Khan and the other Empires of the “Silk Road” can be of used today IF
and only we open our minds to the knowledge of the Kingdoms and Empires from
the Khan Dynasty and Converging it to the modern day warfare and economic
strategy.
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