What Would Marco Polo's Journey Look Like Today? | A Very Modern Journey: Full Series | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] let's take a look at China overtakes the U.S America has to live with the China that exists [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] to think he could find Marco Polo [Music] but he'd come to the right place this is where it had all begun s [Music] the place from where Marco Polo set out on his astonishing Journey it is the starting point of everything that has happened between China and the West ever since but where do you begin looking for someone who's been dead for 700 years with the labyrinths of endless streets and bridges [Music] or behind The Damp doors of the churches and palazzos Professor Zhao was not the first historian to try to find Marco Polo in Venice [Music] but not many have come from China [Music] if you love history then you'll love history hit our extensive library of documentary features everything from the ancient origins of our earliest ancestors to the daring mission to sink the bismar history hit has hundreds of exclusive documentaries with unrivaled access to the world's best historians we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is a Chinese specialist and an expert on Marco Polo no it is foreign [Music] if Marco Polo were alive today who would he be [Music] a student [Music] Northern Italy from Venice thank you [Music] [Music] was high [Music] did your shirt [Music] foreign [Music] the last subscribe Marco Polo was 17 in 1271. and the world was at War [Music] in the Middle East the 200 year old war between Christians and Muslims for control of the holy land was approaching a brutal end but the greatest threat to confronting Marco Polo's world came from the East the Mongols in the space of a lifetime had descended from the Asian grasslands to create the greatest land empire ever seen samakand bulk Moscow 1238 Kiev 1240. [Music] all the way to the gates of Vienna only a Muslim Army had managed to stop them near Jerusalem in 1260. Mongols would be back [Music] like many Venetian Merchants Marco Polo's father and uncle had traveled to the east before now they were returning to the Mongol Emperor Kubla Khan this time they were taking Marco with them foreign they sailed East from Venice towards the Holy Land [Music] inside the walls the city was still hanging on as a hub of venice's trading empire [Music] outside the walls Muslim armies were biding their time [Music] after eight Crusades acre was disputed territory and Marco Polo had arrived in medieval Europe's last toehold on the continent of Asia [Music] today acre is part of Israel Dillard divided City split between history's winners and history's loses in the Riyad Cafe you will find those who are defying history like activist Sami Hawaii [Music] one of the centers of the world Nations armies occupied akka and went the Ottomans stayed here for 400 years but in the end they went the Crusaders also came and went after 200 years all the conquerors they are like Marco Polo Marco Polo came and went and we stayed here we are always between two Wars East and West Crusader and Arab Jews and Muslims the fault lines run through the Middle East like a sparking wire on a circuit board religion ideology fanaticism Imperial ambition all the conditions of War have existed here in concentrated form thousands of years like all wars conflict provides opportunities for business and it was in the holy land that Marco Polo began to learn his trade but it was more than business that brought the polos to acre they headed for the Venetian quarter near the harbor it said that this was a hostel for Venetian Travelers in Marco Polo's time this is where people of high rank were thrown together with pilgrims and Commercial Travelers among the guests was theobaldo Visconti a Papal Envoy who had dealings with the polo family Visconti had an unusual distinction he had just been elected Pope now the Polo's journey took on a new complexion respect foreign of Europe [Music] they knew that they are coming to see The Barbarians maybe maybe to see the hertex [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign Marco Polo was being drawn into a mission impossible accepting letters from the pope to the great Khan truly miraculous if they pulled it off but first there was a task to fulfill in Jerusalem [Music] the Holy Sepulcher the sight of Christ's crucifixion the place where Jesus was buried for a Christian the center of the world Marco Polo's father had promised the great Khan oil from the Tomb of Jesus [Music] a gesture from the kingdom of heaven to the most powerful man on Earth and in 1271 the sun came to keep the Father's Promise [Music] [Music] good morning [Applause] [Music] from Jerusalem Marco Polo went North through the port of ayas and then turned East through southern turkey and Armenia this was territory largely already overrun by the Mongols not the most direct route safest The Travelers from the West the art of travel meant avoiding War not easy then not easy now Grandes fanteria foreign [Music] the ruler in Baghdad refused to Bow before the overwhelming threat of the huge Mongol Army its frightening array of modern weaponry The Siege lasted just seven days foreign [Music] a country more than 7 000 years old it destroyed within two weeks sheer naked Power and aggression [Music] Baghdad was again sacked [Music] foreign [Music] it was cruelty inhumanity [Music] and they devastate the people they turned them into Wild human beings deprived of their Humanity and [Music] foreign who had made a photographic record of the buildings of old Baghdad since the american-led invasion of 2003 he has seen his country descend into sectarian War he is now one of thousands of Iraqis exiled in Jordan had I stayed I would have been neither killed or kidnapped something horrible would have happened to me within a few years nothing remains of old Baghdad I cannot associate my past memories with with the present it's not about that that I knew people live with Terror it's a terrified City um even in in its worst days in history it has never been like this is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Professor Zhao is in Venice on the trail of Marco Polo why did Marco Polo travel east [Music] was he a peace Envoy for the Pope a spy or simply a merchant he remains something of a mystery Marco Polo has heard about the brutal force of the Mongols and the terror they had inflicted on Baghdad so he navigates carefully away from the battlefields of the Middle East but as his journey takes him to Modern Day Iran he enters a territory already controlled by the Mongol Empire Marco travels through to bris and Kerman the road is hard question [Music] it is in the Heat and dust of Southern Iran that we find real roads traveled by Marco Polo the excitement of the hunt all right Iranian Scholars professor vasugi and Mr ozai think they picked up on the scent of Marco Polo draft foreign have a simple idea find the right Road and you might find the right man you track him in the towns in the rivers down the tracks [Music] you look for him in the market you look for him in the eyes that looked at him [Music] [Music] the town is the biggest in the region in Marco Polo's time his name is India foreign foreign ammo [Music] in case irony [Music] for example the name of the city of China Persian version not the Chinese version for example the name of chuenjo chonju in Chinese but Marco mentioned zetun zaitun the perian name of trenjo foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] monstrous races the Garden of Eden the end of the world [Music] the road East led to all the places of Christian Europe's wildest imaginings medieval Maps even placed Paradise here a real place on Earth not finding Paradise here challenged the Christian story but then Marco Polo also failed to find any monstrous races Marco Polo Nissan [Music] but then at the northern edge of today's Iran Marco Polo did hear a story more potent than any of the myths of his time a story that still affects the way the world looks at Iran [Music] [Music] [Music] assure the ceremony of mourning for the brutal death of Hussein grandson of the prophet continues to be upheld by Shia Muslims worldwide to this day idea of martyrdom is one of the most unusual stories Marco Polo encounters on his travels [Music] it is the story of an old man and a mountain [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the castle of alamut it was here according to Marco Polo that in the 11th century Hassan Sabah the old man of the mountains ruled over a cult of drugged and fanatical followers known and feared throughout the world as the assassins foreign [Music] has been working at alamoud for 10 years [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] no one has ever found the garden of paradise no one has found evidence of Ashish Dr chubac's excavations of alamut revealed a sophisticated center of learning a library an observatory a mosque built deep into the Rock a picture of the old man of the mountains and his successors as enlightened rulers foreign foreign [Music] no one pretends they expected to return from their missions alive they killed and died not only for what they believed in what they believed in was martyrdom itself by e foreign [Music] [Music] by 1256 the Assassins were finally defeated by the Mongols overcoming the fiercest resistance they faced on their March westwards alamut Castle was taken the famous library and Observatory were destroyed the secrets of the Assassins of alamut were lost in the ruins [Music] foreign [Music] mmm [Music] Rufus ES foreign [Music] the travels of Marco Polo was written in 1298. on his return to Venice 20 years later when he dictated it to a popular writer of romances Professor Zhao has come to the bibliotech marciana in The Piazza San Marco okay foreign foreign foreign thank you foreign Marco Polo signature Marco Polo where's the signature Marco Polo Marco Polo uh document is foreign [Music] yes only touch okay foreign [Music] foreign [Music] Marco Polo's extraordinary Journey continues East where he will encounter the great Kubla Khan and discover the kingdom of women changing dog usually Jerusalem draw a junction Professor Zhao is on the trail of the 13th century explorer Marco Polo whose travels through the Mongol Empire have shaped How the West viewed the East ever since foreign [Music] [Music] Marco Polo is on a journey to the court of the Mongol Emperor Kubla Khan in around 1273 after two years Journey he has reached the pamia mountains on the edge of today's China Montana Del Mondo [Music] foreign the thousands of miles around everyone at the time was the subject of the Mongol Empire this is silk [Music] and this used to be the Silk Road a route not just for trade but for ideas and beliefs for thousands of years Europeans have always compared the search for Eastern riches to the search for Paradise [Music] in the markets of kashgar Marco Polo has reached the gates of merchant heaven [Music] up down the tanti mercanti Parton [Music] from the West came perfumes Ivory precious stones and glassware from China silk and spices Marco Polo follows the path of the Silk Road from town to town skirting along the southern rim of the forbidding taklamakan desert Legend is [Music] a merchant Marco Polo is always looking for opportunities to trade as a young male he's also looking for other opportunities lid on is a is in Venice Professor Zhao is continuing his quest for Marco Polo looking for physical evidence of his existence foreign Marco Polo takes the southern Silk Road he reaches a dangerous area where many Travelers before him have found their death is foreign has been working in the taklamakan desert for 30 years he knows the dangers faced by Marco Polo at first hand this is all they are [Music] um foreign [Music] little did Marco Polo know that this forbidding Place had once been the fertile home to earlier civilizations foreign in the early 20th century Western archaeologists discovered evidence for these early settlements they found ancient cities buried in the sand [Music] the big surprise was that many of these inhabitants turned out to be indo-europeans like Marco Polo himself adilis Abdul russal has worked here on an archaeological site that was first discovered in 1934 but never excavated until recently it is a Bronze Age burial site over 3000 years old in the xinjiang province [Music] of Gala it took adilis years of excavation but in 2006 he discovered a treasure it had been under the shifting Sands for centuries today [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the final destination of Marco Polo's journey is the court of the Mongol Emperor Kubla Khan he leaves the technomakan desert behind his route now turns further east through lanju and along the Gobi Desert he eventually makes his way into the heartland of the Mongol Empire ironically this is the safest part of his three-year-long journey your AUA Mongolians thank you foreign in his bag he is carrying oil from the Tomb of Jesus and a letter from the pope requesting an alliance with the Mongol Emperor Kubla public [Music] [Music] foreign much of the Mongolian grasslands is now part of China but when Marco Polo came here it was a different story the Mongols had just defeated the Chinese and ruled the biggest empire the world had ever seen mongoli foreign conquista in Mongolia today the lifestyle of these Mongols is eerily similar to the scenes which Marco Polo recorded in his book over 700 years ago [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] the young Venetian man was clearly in awe of these Warriors born from a harshness he had never encountered before [Music] foreign [Music] then is now Mongolian boys are trained in the three manly skills Horsemanship archery and wrestling Mongolian wrestling or boek means durability the highest honors in the Marshall code still goes to the Mongolian wrestlers men trained to survive just like in Marco Polo's time foreign out on this step there are still Mongols that Marco Polo would recognize today sing some um this is [Music] name means revolution is well known on the Mongolian grassland as a breeder of fine sheep today he'll swap his sheep to fulfill a lifetime's ambition is foreign foreign this is how they have always traded on the grasslands oh yeah foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] there are only a quarter of the horses that there were a generation ago the grasslands have become China's industrial backyard it's not the power of the Mongols but the power of China that can be felt everywhere [Music] foreign Marco Polo is about to reach Xanadu and the court of the mighty Mongol Emperor Kubla Khan Venice once a powerful Trading Post of the western world Professor Zhao is on the trail of Marco Polo the Venetian Merchant who traveled East and recorded his journeys for posterity but Marco Polo was not just a merchant he has a mission from the Pope to deliver a letter to the Mongol Emperor asking for a political Alliance Marco Polo has traveled for three years without ever leaving Mongol territory now he approaches the heart of it the court of Kubla Khan the grandson of the all-conquering Genghis Khan the most powerful man in Marco Polo's time La parolacan significa Lo Grande Senora de signori is a Gran can help you foreign All That Remains of the marble Palace the temples the beautiful Park and the pleasure Dome The Fabulous city of Kubla Khan through these Gates emissaries and ambassadors arrived from all over the world past the Khan's personal guard of thousand Horsemen High um [Music] shenzai Marco Polo is represents thank you Marco Polo momento Apache [Music] foreign [Music] Marco Polo arrives as an Envoy of the West Kubla Khan rejects an alliance with the Pope and instead he hires Marco Polo for himself Marco Polo is to report to him from the newly conquered parts of his own Empire the Khan gives him a golden pass to use the Imperial Postal System the fastest and biggest Communications Network until the coming of the motorcycle [Music] surely [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign Polo is sent first to a region close to the emperor's heart the territory of his first Conquest so remote that it is called Yuna beyond the clouds [Music] [Music] there are still people today who travel through the mountains of Yunnan in the same manner as Marco Polo did on the horse Caravans towards and still is a tough male world but godana the guide is an exception foreign [Music] [Music] stands at the crossroads of ancient salt and tea roots to Tibet such towns were staging posts for the vast Mongol Caravans that carried Goods soldiers information and Marco Polo across the empire [Music] there is still a hint of the Heyday of the horse Caravans [Music] Marco Polo would have seen horse Caravan hostels like mother meese she was still running it until the 1980s [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you two GPS [Music] foreign time has stood still in this part of the world the horse Caravans are as close to the world Marco Polo described to Kubla Khan as it is possible to find today and the tales they tell are no doubt the same too foreign the modern uh foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] Ophelia Al contrario talera Porto is Fortuna [Music] foreign [Laughter] foreign [Music] [Music] on their sacred Mountain any traveler's desire for an exotic story could be fulfilled [Music] thank you this is the kingdom of women and women do things differently [Music] Marco Polo never hid from his readers his fascination with women and no doubt he thought Kubla Khan would enjoy the strange Customs too perhaps even stranger this way of life survives today on the edge of the Tibetan plateau foreign [Music] foreign foreign foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] ER he must walk to her house hence the term walking marriage [Music] [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Music] she decides who she lets into her room [Music] Marco Polo records no such invitation but happily tells of equally unusual customs detained the Imperial ear uniform [Music] you'll be very sure [Music] [Laughter] means everything anything [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] should believe [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] it is the 25th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar for 700 years before Marco Polo and the 700 years since the massuos have honored the goddess of love and beauty [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I'm going down [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Marco Polo's mission is not finished yet he travels onto Beijing the Glorious new capital of the Mongol Empire his journey continues [Music] for China Space Program which saw the launch of its first lunar Pro China space program is trying to take on America and win told his animations stretch as far as you can imagine and it's a huge amount of natural prestiges involved [Music] washer foreign [Music] foreign foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music] Polo arrived in the 1270s city was still being built Kubla Khan the supreme ruler of all the Mongols that set up the Yuan Dynasty Beijing would now be capital of his newly conquered Chinese Empire [Music] foreign [Music] there was more to Beijing than met the eye for his new Chinese subjects there was a carefully coded message from Kublai Khan the city plan was not Mongolian it was Chinese the Mongol Khan intended to rule like a Chinese emperor honoring the ancient beliefs and traditions of the oldest civilization on Earth [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] forces of the universe ran like a thread through the heart of Beijing across Tiananmen Square through the Throne of the forbidden palace this Central axis was the dragon's vein a symbol that the emperor ruled from the very center of the Earth Marco Polo's Beijing became a rich and storied City expanded and renewed by one Dynasty after another adding layers of History but it retained its shape and essence is not everyone agreed with Marco Polo's verdict on the unimprovable Chinese City for many Mongols it too Chinese for a nomad people but the Chinese took their conqueror's creation to their hearts and for 700 years it remained a living emblem of everything Chinese since 1949 the People's Republic has sought to remove everything that had held China back the past had become the enemy of the future since the 1990s nothing in history has matched the speed and scale of beijing's transformation over 85 percent of its buildings were cleared to make way for a new age just as in the time of Kubla Khan a new Beijing is being built and it is sending out the same message new power is marching to the center of the world stage foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Jeep idea [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign foreign Russia Dr Wu Chen is one of China's leading architects of foreign has been transformed in a generation but the scale and ambition of Wu Chen's projects show that the city is still a work in progress foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] one of beijing's fast shrinking old neighborhoods some of which date back to the days of Marco Polo Mr Zhao is a good citizen he will not stand in the way of History but he hopes that when history comes knocking at his door she will treat him kindly ever [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] drug washer fonsi chicken Chinese [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign Marco Polo had been to Yunnan and Tibet he was appointed Kublai Khan's Envoy to every corner of the new Empire now he set out again time into the heartlands of China [Music] the route took him South [Music] across the Yellow River towards Manji the last stronghold of the Chinese Song Dynasty only recently taken by Kubla Khan's Mongol Army foreign [Music] [Music] the root into this new and undiscovered World astonished Marco Polo he traveled on a huge waterway that Kubla Khan had opened up to ship grain to his new capital Beijing Marco Polo was the first European to record the Grand Canal Logan profound [Music] a few my commas on a vast scale and on its banks the Smoky signs of a startlingly advanced civilization [Music] era [Music] Europeans at the time knew nothing about coal foreign [Music] that amazes Marco Polo Force venetians thought they knew about canals but this was the longest man-made waterway in the world 1800 kilometers long and built more than 600 years before Kubla Khan by the Chinese [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Polo traveled further and further Downstream he must have asked himself what force have made this happen ing here [Music] foreign man living in harmony with nature but there has always existed another China [Music] where rulers with absolute power will stop at nothing to force nature into obedience did it with the wall canal today they're doing it again [Music] foreign [Music] project tunnels for 3.5 kilometers under the Yellow River 40 meters above Canada Kubla Khan needed the Grand Canal to feed Beijing this new Grand Canal is to stop Beijing dying of thirst astonishingly the capital and surrounding regions with their 200 million inhabitants are living in what is in effect a desert is [Music] foreign moving North through these tunnels will outmatch anything ever attempted before three gigantic waterways three thousand kilometers of canals and tunnels will transfer 36 billion cubic meters of water a year from the Yangtze River Basin in the South and channel it North foreign foreign [Music] the young Venetian Merchant Marco Polo has been traveling the Mongol Empire for six years he has now reached China the new Heartland of this Empire [Music] journeying down the Grand Canal he discovers a city which to him is even more sophisticated than his hometown Venice hung Zhu [Music] vicontero inverita foreign [Music] the West Lake in the heart of Hangzhou a lake that is almost a sacred hold on the Chinese imagination for nearly 2 000 years The Poets painters and storytellers who've been inspired by the West Lake have mapped the soul of China foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] but Venice didn't invent the campus Venice didn't give us the printing press Venice did not use paper money Hangzhou sophistication eclipsed anything Marco had ever seen foreign [Music] Chinese Mandarin Elite no longer in charge seized New Opportunities presented to them [Music] um foreign Polo arrived he found Hong Zhu in the midst of its very own Renaissance [Music] they're all foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign were paved with gold anyone could get rich here [Music] [Music] [Music] hello [Music] hahaha [Music] refugee Sawyer decision [Music] Grande Lagos Edition only the water of the lake separates Hong and her fiance sear from the island Marco Polo wrote about full of the ghosts of ancient weddings foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is an actress working in ancient Chinese Opera foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] and change the past the present and the future [Music] great risks taken for a great prize [Music] temples are visited for blessings every rite of passage is a journey everyone who dares to change takes a leap into the unknown [Music] what will happen to the snake lady who dares to transform herself into a woman what will happen to the poor boy who dares to strike out on his own [Music] what will happen to China now that she has dared to join the race in modern China there's a new folk hero the poor boy from the country who is turning himself into a millionaire take us um foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] first Alibaba makes its clients rich and then it helps them to get richer this is alibaba's anonymous Global headquarters it could be anywhere in the world [Music] Alibaba connects manufacturers and Merchants from China with the rest of the world [Music] it has changed people's lives it has revolutionized how China trades with the West the brains behind it is Jack Ma 13 years ago he explained his plans for a new internet Trading Company to his friends today everyone in this photograph is a billionaire d somebody Alibaba is huge an international internet Trading Company bigger than eBay and Amazon combined the Chinese businesses it's a gateway to the world [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] thank you foreign [Music] like millions of couples the world over Hong and Sia have opted for a western-style wedding in a glamorous Hotel foreign [Music] the only element left of a traditional Chinese wedding is the husband's bow [Music] now foreign [Music] foreign [Music] can be gleaned from the Alibaba control room which monitors every deal that struck every second ever [Music] foreign [Music] age 17 in 1271. he returned 24 years later when he was 41. he had traveled to where no other European had ever been he had learned to appreciate difference and he had made an unbearable discovery that the West Was Not the very center of the world that in fact Europe was behind the game foreign [Music] foreign you could try seeing the jungle come on [Music] [Music] good

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 255,928

Keywords: Adventure, Ancient treasures, Ancient wonders, Bronze-age mummies, Cultural exchange, Cultural heritage, Educational, Exotic world, Explorers, Historical figures, Historical knowledge, Historical secrets, Historical sites, Historical trade, Historical travelogue, Iran, Silk Road, Timeline - World History Documentaries, UNESCO sites, Unraveling history, Xanadu

Id: 5aH-UfmDVjk

Length: 139min 9sec (8349 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023