Italy: Notable Explorers and Merchants

1185 - 1252 - Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (All Facts)

• Italian Catholic Explorer, Diplomat, and Archbishop

• He was one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, Guyuk Khan

  • He was sent by Pope Innocent IV

  • He began his journey with two fellow-monks, setting out into the vast steppes

  • They had not travelled far when they met Guyuk Khan’s people, the Mongols, and were sent on their way to the city of Karakorum for Guyuk Khan’s inauguration as great khan

  • Pope Innocent IV’s envoys then rode with the namesake for thousands of miles with very little respite and little to eat and drink but millet mixed with salt and melted mountain snow

    • This was a remarkable achievement for a rather portly 66-year old fat Italian friar used to the comforts and luxuries of civilized Italy

  • He and his companions reached Guyuk Khan just in time for his inauguration at which they were the sole western witnesses

  • As a result of there stay, Guyuk Khan was keen to contact the great priest who ruled the west and sent the namesake back with a letter that was given to Pope Innocent IV

1312 - Lancelotto Malocello (All Facts)

• Italian Explorer who, in a French ship, discovered the uninhabited Canary Islands

1254 - 1324 - Marco Polo (All Facts)

• Italian Explorer and Merchant from Venice

• He traveled to and visited the court of Kublai Khan in Dadu (modern-day Beijing) in China

  • He arrived with his father and uncle, the second visit already for his older family members and missionaries

    • On their first visit, they were entrusted by the khan to give the pope a message from the khan

    • On the second visit, the missionaries eventually abandoned their mission, but the adventurous Venetians stayed

    • There, they interacted in front of an international group of advisors and military technicians like the experts in siege warfare whom the khan had hired from Baghdad

  • He became a favorite of Kublai Khan’s at the Mongol emperor’s stately capital of Cambuluc where the Jin Dynasty once ruled

    • The khan was taken by the namesake’s wonder at the glories of the capital he had built

    • The khan employed the namesake on a number of diplomatic missions, having travelled to India and Persia on the khan’s business and having become fluent in Persian and Mongolian

  • He was a sharp-eyed observer, recording his impressions of the efficient Mongol administration with its roads and postal system, its census, markets and paper money; all of which was adopted by the khan from the Chinese

    • His favorite impression was the khan’s marble pleasure palace in the city of Shangdu, where he had said that the khan could drink “the milk of paradise”

  • He was partially motivated to visit due to the peaceful rule in China of the Mongols at the time

• His captivating descriptions of the customs of the people he met intrigued Europeans; for example, he described how Mongols

  • had multiple marriages

  • drank mare’s milk

  • burned coal to heat their homes

  • bathed frequently, often 3 times per week

• His contributions to European curiosity about Asia stimulated new interests, especially in cartography

• While in a Genoese prison, he recorded the story of his travels in China and Asia, his account having been the basis of Western knowledge of China

• He supposedly knew about Australia while on his journeys

1450 - 1499 - John Cabot (All Facts)

• Italian Explorer and Navigator from Genoa

  • He was born in Genoa and gained citizenship in Venice

  • He went to England to raise support for a transatlantic crossing expedition, where he settled in Bristol

  • He set sail thereafter from Bristol on his ship “The Matthew”

• He led an expedition across the Atlantic where he reached North America after a journey that lasted 35 days

  • His voyage was sponsored by King Henry VII of England who gave him money from the Privy Purse and an annuity thereafter

  • From there, he started to explore the coastline from Cape Breton to Labrador

  • At Labrador, he planted the banner of the House of Tudor back in England and the standard of St. Mark, in contravention of an agreement to allow Spain a monopoly of voyages of discovery

  • His journey had taken him less time than it had taken his contemporary Christopher Columbus, and vindicated his decision to explore a more northerly crossing

• He was given a boat to sail to Cathay (northern China) by King Henry VII of England

  • From there, the expedition reconnoitered the coastline from Newfoundland to New England, never making China

  • When the boat returned, the namesake did not as he had died on that very voyage

1451 - 1506 - Christopher Columbus (All Facts)

• Italian Explorer and Seaman from Genoa

  • He was an admiral from Genoa, genius of a navigator, and a shrewd master of men

• He is credited with discovering the “New World,” on his search for a western route to India

• He persuaded King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon to sponsor his planned expedition to discover a western route to the Indies

  • He then led the royal Spanish expedition to pioneer a westward route to the Indies

  • His ships weighed anchor just before dawn at Palos in Spain

  • His journey lasted 71 days

  • His flagship, the Santa Maria, was 85 feet long and displaced 100 tons

  • His escort ships, the Pinta and Nina, displaced 55 tons

  • His crews comprised men scraped together from the back streets of Palos in Spain and the local prison

• He proved to the world that the world itself is round

  • This is something he believed for many years, having proved the point to his doubters which included those in his crew who were convinced the world was flat

• On his first voyage, he

  • landed on an island he called San Salvador (in the Bahamas)

    • He named this island the “Saint of Salvation”, piously recognizing the good fortune in making his long-awaited landfall

    • He thought the island lay near Japan

  • arrived in Cuba, believing it to be Japan

  • landed on an island he called Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), in search of gold

• He

  • and his crew had sailed over the horizon from the Canaries, not having seen land for 35 days

  • for nine days found strong winds to carry him westward

    • Then, as his ship slowed in a dense swamp of sinister yellow seaweed, his crew became increasingly nervous

  • fooled his crew into believing that they had not run as far west as they thought

    • As his ship picked up speed again, so did fears grow that the westerly bearing would take them over the edge of the world to their deaths in a giant abyss

  • at last, seeing large flocks of migrating birds, remembered that the Portuguese had discovered the Azores by studying such behavior

    • so, he changed course to southwest, to the birds’ flight line

  • and his calm confidence persuaded the crew to agree to two more days’ exploration along the newfound birds’ flight line

• On his second voyage, he (left Cadiz and)

  • landed on an island he called Santa Gloria (Jamaica)

  • ordered all “Indians” (Native Americans) over 14 years old in Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) to pay tribute money in gold every three years to King Ferdinand of Spain

  • imposed a system of forced labor on the “Indians” (Native Americans) in Hispaniola

  • brought back from the West Indies to Europe samples of tobacco

    • his crew were offered the “bewitching vegetable” that was tobacco by Native Americans

• When he sailed out of Hiero, the most westerly of the Canary Islands, the needle of his compass was pointing markedly west-of-north

  • His crew, most of whom were anyway doubting the wisdom of these expeditions he managed, were shaken

  • Along the Atlantic Coast of Europe up to this point, mariners had long since noticed that the compass points slightly East of North

    • It was as if the Earth’s magnetic fields, instead of being fixed, were subject to fluctuation and variation

  • Thus, more than ever, his fleet of three caravels looked very vulnerable, as the ships were to be tested to their limits

  • Despite his untrustworthy compass, the namesake still was able to navigate using the North Star as his guide

• On his third voyage, he

  • Suppressed a revolt by Spanish settlers and natives against his poor administration in and of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo)

• He first sought backing for his grand obsession in Portugal, then in France, and then in England

  • He won support in Spain after

    • fighting the Moors in Granada

    • promising gold from his expedition to finance another Holy War for Christian Europe

• He had stirred things up with his stories about discovering a new world in the West or a new route to the Indies so much so that the kings of Spain and Portugal decided to divide between them all the new lands the namesake and all the Portuguese explorers of his time had discovered, leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas

1454 - 1512 - Amerigo Vespucci (All Facts)

• Italian Explorer and Navigator from Florence

• He explored the northeast coastline of South America