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It is indeed possible that Chinese trading vessels may have reached the Kamchatka peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. The more unlikely part here is that those
by benbreen 12y ago
It is indeed possible that Chinese trading vessels may have reached the Kamchatka peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. The more unlikely part here is that those voyages would have been made known to a random Venetian barbarian who happened to be passing through, and that said Venetian would be able to obtain such detailed maps. If I were going to come up with a hypothetical explanation for the maps beyond 20th century forgery, I'd say that it's more likely that some 16th century Manila galleon strayed a bit north on the return trip to Acapulco and did some secret mapping. The Spanish Manila route actually got surprisingly close to Alaska: http://historicphilippines.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ruta-de-urdaneta-02-600x344.jpg http://historicphilippines.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ru...
That's a stretch too, of course. But the Spanish were extremely secretive about their cartographic knowledge so the mere fact that there was no official announcement of a discovery doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know about it.
- spullara 12y agoThe Venetian barbarian was apparently in the court of Kublai Khan for 17 years — I wouldn't really call that passing through nor random.
- Turing_Machine 12y agoPolo describes (without claiming to have been there himself) a "Land of Darkness", rich in furs, which borders on "Great Rosia", the people of "Rosia" being Christians of the Greek (i.e., Orthodox) form. That sure seems to fit Siberia/Alaska.
- davidw 12y agoHad christianity spread that far east at that point in time? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia#History
- maaku 12y agoWhat you imply is correct. The Russian conquest of Siberia was basically enabled by the decline of Mongol influence, which necessarily post-dates Marco Polo's travels.
- Turing_Machine 12y agoHe doesn't say that the area itself is Christian, just that it borders on "Great Rosia", which is Orthodox Christian. He also describes "immense white bears" and dog sleds. Polo doesn't claim to have been there himself; he's relating stuff he's heard from the Chinese.