sea route (part 2). what can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from marco...

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SEA ROUTE (PART 2)

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Page 1: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

SEA ROUTE (PART 2)

Page 2: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey

back home?

Page 3: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?
Page 4: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

The land route to China grew increasingly dangerous after the end of his journey

Why? Wasn’t there the Mongolian Empire?

A Mongolian coin commemorates Marco Polo’s Visit to The Court of Kublai Khan

Page 5: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

The land route became dangerous as it was blocked by warfare between Mongol factions. A sea journey was considered safer.

Why was there warfare? Wasn’t there the Mongolian Empire?

Camels along Silk Road

Page 6: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

What can we learnt about spices from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Page 7: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Class Discussion 1. Can you identify these items?

2. What are they used for?

Cloves Ginger Nutmeg

Cinnamon Pepper Corns Star Anise

Page 8: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Various Uses Preserve Food: Cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger inhibit mold and bacteria in cookies and cakes

Flavor: Star Anise is an ingredient of the traditional five-spice powder of Chinese cooking

Medicine: Cinnamon cures cold and diarrhoea

Freshen Breaths: Wealthy ladies used to keep spices in lockets around their necks so they could freshen their breaths easily

Page 9: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Particularly in Europe, though, food came to matter most. Spices preserve, and they also make the poorly preserved palatable, masking the appetite-killing stench of decay. After bad harvests and in cold winters the only thing that kept starvation at bay was heavily salted meat-with pepper. And there was never enough of it.

When the Mary Rose, an English ship that sank in 1545, was raised from the ocean floor in the 1980s, nearly every sailor was found with a bunch of peppercorns on his person, the most portable store of value available.

Page 10: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?
Page 11: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Arabs controlled spices because they kept the source of the spices a secret. They did everything possible to confuse consumers about the spices' origins.

They would make wild stories like the following…

Page 12: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

“Cinnamon is found only on a mountain range somewhere in Arabia. The spices are jealously guarded by vicious birds of prey, which make their nests out of cinnamon on steep mountain slopes. We Arabs will leave out large chunks of fresh donkey meat for the birds to take back to their nests. The donkey meat will make the nests crash to the ground because it is too heavy. Then our brave volunteers will grab these nests from under the talons of their previous owners”

Page 13: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?
Page 14: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Context: Spices during Marco Polo’s time•Great demand for spices due to their various uses and thus prices soared

•Moreover, one pound of pepper from India was traded dozens of times, before it reached Europe. Each time it was traded, the price of the pepper was increased. Each person who traded the pepper had to make a profit.

•Some spices like black peppers were so rare that they were often used in place of money to pay taxes, ransom, dowries and rent

Page 15: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

• Marco saw spices growing in various parts of Asia and spice trading in India

• Significance: Source of spices no longer a secret and Arabian monopoly of the spice trade declined

Harvesting of Pepper in Southern India

Page 16: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

1st Port of Call:

Sumatra

2nd and 3rd Port of Call: Sri Lanka and Southern India

Marco Polo sailed through the China Sea, the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean on his way home to Venice.

Page 17: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?

Maluku’s reputation as the Spice Islands Banda Islands in Maluku, Indonesia was the only source of rare nutmeg for a long time

Page 18: SEA ROUTE (PART 2). What can we learn about the attractiveness of the maritime route from Marco Polo’s sea journey back home?