Section outline

  • Kia ora, this week we will set some goals for our collaboration going forward and then try and achieve these goals through our learning activity with our critical friend. The learning activity will use a variety of social science skills including: geography mapping skills, historical research skills, social analysis skills and conceptual thinking. We will be exploring the journeys taken by some great explorers from history.

    LO's

    -We are learning to integrate our collaborative goals into our group work by taking positive action in my team's task.

    - we are learning to assess some of the significant histories of exploration by looking at what causes and impacts the explorers had on their society and others

    SC

    - I have used concepts and discussion to develop the ideas we had about the exploration journeys

    - I have collaborated on completing the work set in the time available by using proven teamwork strategies from my journalistic investigation

    Background on Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Zheng He | Explorers

    Marco Polo

    During a time when most Europeans never even left their place of birth, Marco Polo had the luck of being born into a family of wealthy Venetian merchants and traders. He grew up hearing stories of the Near East from his father and uncle, and in 1271 at the age of 17, he traveled with them along the Silk Road. Upon finally reaching China after a three-and-a-half year journey, the Polos entered the court of the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, whose grandfather Genghis Khan had conquered northeast Asia. There, Marco Polo was offered in service to the emperor, where he took on various diplomatic and administrative roles. Marco Polo was fascinated with Kublai Khan and his palaces as well as the remarkable innovations he saw that did not yet exist in Europe, including the use of paper for money and the burning of coal for heat.

    After 24 years at the court of Kublai Khan, the Polos finally returned home in 1295, as the Mongol Empire was beginning its decline. Soon after, Marco Polo was captured in battle and sent to prison. While there, he met the writer Rustichello of Pisa, and described his experiences in China, which Rustichello transcribed into a manuscript that was first entitled Description of the World, but is now known as The Travels of Marco Polo. This book had an enormous lasting impact. Though Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China, he was the first to record a detailed description. This book had a great influence on future European cartographers and, perhaps even more importantly, on future explorers. Two centuries after Marco Polo’s death, Christopher Columbus set off across the Atlantic Ocean looking for a route to China. With him, he carried an annotated copy of The Travels of Marco Polo.

    Ibn Battuta

    Another young explorer, Ibn Battuta of Tangier, Morocco, set out on his own in 1325, at the age of 21. His plan was to undertake the Hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, which he reached in 1326. Ibn Battuta spent nearly 30 years exploring, visiting almost every Muslim country and various other non-Muslim lands. His travels took him to North and West Africa, the Middle East, China, and south and central Asia. Throughout his long overland journey, he studied with Muslim scholars and became a trained qadi, or judge. 

    In 1354, Ibn Battuta returned to Morocco, where the local sultan commissioned a scholar to record Battuta’s experiences. The full title of his book translates to A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Traveling, though it is usually referred to as simply The Travels. His work was relatively unknown to the non-Muslim world until the 19th century, when a German explorer in the Middle East found a version of his book and published extracts in German. Ibn Battuta has been called “the traveler of Islam” and for good reason: it is estimated that he traveled nearly 75,000 miles and met at least 60 rulers and an even more governors and other dignitaries. His book mentions more than 2,000 people he knew or whose tombs he visited. Although Ibn Battuta did not discover unknown lands, his book remains a significant historical record of the social, cultural, and political history of the Muslim world and has even helped scholars determine when Islam spread in West Africa.

    Zheng He

    By the time Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim, was born in 1371, the Mongol dynasty known to Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta had fallen, and the Ming Dynasty was in power. In 1381, a Ming army conquered Zheng He’s province. He was captured and forced to serve in the emperor’s court. Zheng He eventually distinguished himself as a soldier and trusted advisor. In 1403, the new emperor ordered the construction of a fleet of trading ships and warships to travel across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. The emperor chose Zheng He as commander-in-chief of what was to become the largest naval expedition in history until the first World War. Zheng He first set sail in 1405, commanding over 300 ships that contained almost 28,000 men. Over the next 28 years, Zheng He led seven voyages that traveled to 37 countries through Southeast Asia, Africa, and Arabia; establishing Chinese trading relationships. After Zheng He’s final voyage ended in 1433, the new Chinese emperor ordered an end to these expensive expeditions, claiming that resources were needed for land defenses instead. For hundreds of years afterward, officials minimized the importance of Zheng He and his expeditions, and he was often left out of official publications. Eventually, by the 20th century, the Chinese recognized the significance of Zheng He’s journeys and the role they played in developing relations between China and Islamic countries.