The Worlds of Marco Polo: towards a History of Globalization: course description

Although Marco Polo’s account of his travels across inland Asia and the Indian Ocean was greeted with great skepticism by his contemporaries, the marvels of the East were real. This is not primarily a study of Polo himself or of his beloved Venice but of the distant worlds he visited. Polo will be a guide and Venice a point of departure, but the details Polo recorded will be supplemented by knowledge and understanding from modern scholarship.
The course looks at three “worlds” as they developed in the period between1200 and 1800: the long-existing the “Silk Road” to and from China, the Muslim maritime world of Indian Ocean, and the new world of the Atlantic. It assumes no prior knowledge. Polo with be the first of several traveler guides.
- From antiquity the Silk Road had facilitated the exchange of rich goods as well as the spread of world religions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam) foods, and spices. The rapid Mongol conquest of most of Eurasia during the 13th century gave new life for a time to this corridor of Eurasian globalization.
- Muslim merchants had greatly expanded commercial and cultural exchanges in Indian Ocean by Polo’s time. Following Polo’s return through these links the riches of the “Indies” attracted two different expeditions from its fringes in the fifteenth century. From the east in the first half of the century came the imperial Treasure Fleets from Ming China under the command of the admiral Zheng He. From the west at the end of the century came the Portuguese vessels of Vasco da Gama. By then the Ming had withdrawn from the Indian Ocean, but the Portuguese and other Europeans who followed added new and powerful presences in the Indian Ocean and connected its markets to the great oceans on either side.
- Accidental discoveries of the American continents by southern European mariners intent on reaching the East led to the development of the new world of the Atlantic. Except for fishermen and some northern European voyagers, Polo’s contemporaries regarded the “Ocean Sea” as a route to nowhere. Iberians first profited from transatlantic contacts, but it was Italians such as Cristoforo Colombo, Amerigo Vespucci, and the Venetians Alvise Ca’ da Mosto and Giovanni Cabota who played critical roles in charting the Atlantic.
The course will compare how these worlds were built largely by trade and in varying proportions by empires, but how they were also important arenas of cultural and biological exchanges. Polo brought silk and magical tales from Asia and the Indian Ocean: the Atlantic brought Italy pomodori, polenta, and potato gnocchi.

Course Aims: In addition to the goals summarized in the course description, this semester will provide students with opportunities to think about issues of political, cultural, economic, technological, and biological globalization by looking at a period when global contacts moved at a slower speed than is true today. Understanding this earlier period both raises issues similar to those of contemporary globalization and also explains how today’s interactive world came about. Besides mastering the course content and issues, students will learn to express themselves in class discussions, improve writing skills, and to interpret historical sources cross-culturally.
Attendance is critical. Each student must attend class regularly and punctually and arrive in class having completed the reading and assignments listed for that date. Attendance will be taken; more than one unexcused absence will lower a student’s final grade
Each class meeting has three components: 
-  Readings from primary sources produced by contemporaries living in the period we’re studying that should be prepared in advance. 
-  Lectures by the professor, which will include new material and interpretation of the sources. 
-  Student oral presentations assigned and prepared in advance; these make take the form of reports, debates, or role playing. Normally a written essay will accompany the oral presentations. Depending on the size of the enrolment in the class, each student will do one such assignment every two weeks.