Accidentally Inspiring Colonialism | Marco Polo
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5 жыл бұрынA merchant's travel guide, full of misremembered facts, embellishments, and fabrications completely altered the course of history.
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Thanks to Blue from Overly Sarcastic Productions
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Check out his video on Marco Polo!
History-Makers: Marco Polo - • History-Makers: Marco ...
Thanks to SophsNotes for Calling in!
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Travels of Marco Polo - amzn.to/2SvCvjg
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Tr...
www.crossingtheoceansea.com/Oc...
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Video Credits -
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Marco Polo Season 1 Episode 1 - The Wayfarer (2014)
Photo Credits -
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Intro/Outro and Background Music by Michael Cotten/Nomad
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Intro Art and Channel Avatar by PoetheWonderCat
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Hashtags: #history #literature #marcopolo #explorer #mongol #china #silkroad #merchant #trade #travel #colonialism #imperialism #columbus #map #gold
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This video was sponsored by Skillshare.
@OverlySarcasticProductions 5 жыл бұрын
Great video! It really goes to show that even when two channels inadvertently cover the same topic a week apart, there are still so many different aspects to discuss! I'm glad I could lend my voice to this video as a medieval Google Maps :D -Blue
@mgt6814 5 жыл бұрын
eyyy, wassup bud, love your channel too
@UltraMush 5 жыл бұрын
I really love your videos man
@joeevans5770 5 жыл бұрын
And they said Avengers Endgame was the biggest crossover of 2019
@KnowingBetter 5 жыл бұрын
Us history youtubers don't really keep up with what each other is making, so this was bound to happen at some point. I'm just glad I was able to come at it from another angle!
@chamuchamupalchamperry6686 5 жыл бұрын
Uhhh, I'm at 8 minutes and apparently this was commented 3 days ago... wtf?
@marcopolo2395 5 жыл бұрын
hey dude my book does not have fabrications, embellishments or dismembered facts. You will hear further from my lawyers.
@kingfacedown4132 5 жыл бұрын
A little to perfect 😂
@avzarathustra6164 5 жыл бұрын
Lol.
@L-mo 5 жыл бұрын
Marco Polo did you bring spaghetti (noodles) back to Italy?
@eliad6543 5 жыл бұрын
oh shit watch out there's green salty water
@leonardodavid2842 5 жыл бұрын
Remember you didn’t write the book.
@CogitoEdu 5 жыл бұрын
"No guys I'm serious I was hanging out with some serious babes on my trip. I even have a girlfriend now....she lives in Cipangu...totally a real place."
@selahanany5645 5 жыл бұрын
@@gatorteg9315 early access
@FishfaceTheDestroyer 5 жыл бұрын
Interestingly, Japan seems to think they're Cipangu (or Zipangu as they call it) so I guess Marco Polo is just a big weeb.
@CNNR_-iz9wc 4 жыл бұрын
Lol
@wudupfammm8555 4 жыл бұрын
@@CNNR_-iz9wc i identify as nissan
@SonofSethoitae 3 жыл бұрын
@@FishfaceTheDestroyer they think that because it's true
@JeevesAnthrozaurUS 5 жыл бұрын
The real Travels of Marco Polo was the friends we made along the way
@petergriffintv8315 4 жыл бұрын
Jeeves Anthrozaur and thats what this is all about
@Missing_Nin 4 жыл бұрын
The One piece*
@mohammedjalloh7658 3 жыл бұрын
The gold we bought along the way*
@fadhil2831 3 жыл бұрын
@@Missing_Nin i know its joke but oda says the treassure one piece is Physical thing
@SophsNotes 5 жыл бұрын
Listen, the reason I walk so fast is because every place I go is just a quick detour on the way to Hamid’s for some of that falafel I've read so much about...
@quinn5109 5 жыл бұрын
I walk fast too. I also talk fast. And read fast. And watch youtube on 2x. My friends say I bike fast when I'm going slow. I can change clothes really fast. Maybe I'm just always in a rush.
@billybob9495 4 жыл бұрын
@Leaving Blank wtf is wrong with you?
@felixbeutin9530 4 жыл бұрын
@Leaving Blank the hell ?
@xxbeans93xx76 3 жыл бұрын
@@felixbeutin9530 what did @leaving blank do
@felixbeutin9530 3 жыл бұрын
@@xxbeans93xx76 dunno but i think it was something sexist
@iammrbeat 5 жыл бұрын
So The Travels of Marco Polo is basically The Hobbit.
@joemiller947 5 жыл бұрын
Hey Mr. Beat Fancy seeing you here
@BoisegangGaming 5 жыл бұрын
The trilogy or the original? Because it seems to me like it's more like the trilogy.
@joenotexotic4872 5 жыл бұрын
Hey Mr Beat Nice seeing you
@eddiejc1 5 жыл бұрын
I'm sure that when the English discovered New Zealand they had a copies of all of JRR Tolkien's works with them. Even though he wouldn't be born for a century or so.
@brendan9868 4 жыл бұрын
In a hole in the ground there lived an Italian merchant...
@felinecontrolled 5 жыл бұрын
Cipangu has entire cities built of gold. *Europeans have entered the chat*
@EduardoEscarez 5 жыл бұрын
Land: exists Europeans: _It's free real state_
@randommodnar7141 5 жыл бұрын
Spaniards have entered the chat
@EduardoEscarez 5 жыл бұрын
@@randommodnar7141 The Portuguese, French, English, German, Dutch have entered the chat
@L-mo 5 жыл бұрын
What you mean they didn’t just want to travel, discover new peoples, explore new places and make new friends? And boldly go where no white men had gone before??
@lucofparis4819 5 жыл бұрын
@@L-mo Actually, that's pretty much what the French did for their first colonial empire. They didn't even fought the Indians. They allied to them and established fur trade with them. Except with the Iroquois of course... Those guys allied to the British, since they were enemies of the Indians that allied themselves with the French. The deal was basically that the French were a good way to act as a buffer with imperialistic UK. That went well until the American colonists helped the Brits winning against the French during the Seven Years War. Things went out very grim for the Indians afterwards...
@JJoy-bk8yr 5 жыл бұрын
It would be silly for someone today to call a rhino a unicorn, but words shift meaning over time. Unicorn literally means one horn and this was before all those tapestries with the snow white horsey goaty critter were woven. At the time, the word fit the animal he saw.
@L-mo 5 жыл бұрын
Goaty? Which tapestries you been lookin at??!
@JJoy-bk8yr 5 жыл бұрын
@@L-mo Google "The Unicorn in Captivity," believed to be woven around 1500 and part of a series "The Hunt of the Unicorn." The unicorn has cloven hooves and a beard.
@7PlayingWithFire7 5 жыл бұрын
Unicorn? Means one horn? In what language?
@Ocrilat 5 жыл бұрын
@@7PlayingWithFire7 Middle English: via Old French from Latin unicornis, from uni-‘single’ + cornu‘horn’
@L-mo 5 жыл бұрын
7PlayingWithFire7 Middle Earth-ish
@thomasturner6980 5 жыл бұрын
Marco Polo: China is amazing, except from the green salty water
@danials1447 5 жыл бұрын
ThomasTurner69 what is green salty water?
@TheOneAndOnlyNeuromod 5 жыл бұрын
This isn’t too far off from algal blooms that occur due to polluting waters...which make you sick.
@EugeneAyindolmah 5 жыл бұрын
@@danials1447 algae?
@DarthVader1977 5 жыл бұрын
Palestine is beautiful.
@drewestification 4 жыл бұрын
2019 internet historians: Reeeeeee
@seb_5969 5 жыл бұрын
In his defense, a lot of temples are covered in gold and it would not take many reiterations to make some people claim they are made out of gold...
@James--Parker 5 жыл бұрын
I use to conqueror the world like you, but then I took a arrow to the knee. -Genghis Khan
@Garhunt05 5 жыл бұрын
*Laughs in Tamerlame*
@frankshearman2755 9 күн бұрын
Lol, I was thinking the same thing
@hopseshopsidis 5 жыл бұрын
Sea of Qin means Sea of China. The first Chinese dynasty was the Qin dynasty. Qin is also the origin of the word China
@ManiaMadden 5 жыл бұрын
Gibil Gasser yeah I felt he could’ve done more research there
@huge7800 5 жыл бұрын
Qin was merely the first dynasty the romans had contact with, not the first dynasty. It is the origin of the name "China" though.
@eliad6543 5 жыл бұрын
I think his problem was about it being written with a "Q"?
@hopseshopsidis 5 жыл бұрын
@@huge7800 Qin Shi Huangdi of Qin was the first emperor of China, making the Qin dynasty the first imperial dynasty
@hopseshopsidis 5 жыл бұрын
@@huge7800 and btw Romans had contact to the Han dynasty. The Qin dynasty was way before that time
@thefryingdutchman8795 4 жыл бұрын
The part about dogs in Siberia is a actually accurate. The Caucasian mountain dog has been breed in the Caucasus mountains for centuries. They're fairly common in Russia and Georgia are are notable for their large size and they were historically used for bear hunting.
@dorkmax7073 5 жыл бұрын
3:00 In Biblical lore, the Ark is said to have landed in the Mountains of Ararat, far to the north of Mesopotamia. Armenia is mountainous country, including one Mt. Ararat. If Marco Polo mentions this, he's probably just trying to create a frame of reference for the land by connecting it with places and events a medieval audience would already know about.
@yetigriff 5 жыл бұрын
I used to think his name was mark o'polo and he was irish
@doricashu4984 5 жыл бұрын
Lmaooo 😂😂 this is a good one
@hanwenyap 5 жыл бұрын
So should Tartar sauce be called Mongolian sauce?
@jimmym3352 5 жыл бұрын
now I am wondering how it got it's name. Why would you name a seafood sauce out of a landlocked nation hundreds of miles (if not thousands) from the sea?
@otto_jk 5 жыл бұрын
Almost every Tartar lives in russia not in Mongolia
@Virjunior01 5 жыл бұрын
Hey... go to a Spanish supermarket in the states, and you'll notice: -worcestshire sauce = English sauce -soy sauce = soya or China sauce
@Copyright_Infringement 5 жыл бұрын
@@otto_jk Nowadays, I'm sure you're correct. Remember also that Poland used to only have the eastern half of modern-day Poland, but also the entirety of Belarus, most of Ukraine and a significant chunk of Europeän Russia, and that it had some variation of those borders for most of its history, even stretching back to when it was called Ruthenia. You may even know that the Indo-Europeäns the people who now inhabit homelands across Europe, the Middle East, and northern India, originally had their homeland on the northwest shore of the Caspian. The Mongols are ancestors not just of those who still bear their name or live in the same place, but of a variëty of peoples, including the modern-day Manchu, the anciënt Mughals of India, and the Uighurs of Xinjiang. People from the city of Rome are not the only descendants of the Romans.
@otto_jk 5 жыл бұрын
@@Copyright_Infringement The Mongolians and Tartars are their own distinct ethnic groups. Your argument is as valid as calling the Belarussians Polish because historic Poland included modern Belarus.
@makerstudios5456 5 жыл бұрын
“Dogs to hunt tigers...somehow”. Dude, there are lots of dog breeds used to hunt large predators like lions tigers and bears. Rhodesian ridgebacks were used to hunt lions. Pit bulls weigh less than 100 lbs and used to fight bulls that can weigh a standard ton. Blue heelers are less than 50lbs and intimidate cattle 20 times their size.
@givemeyoureggs456 4 жыл бұрын
Plus If you have speed and pack hunting, you can practically kill anything
@qwertyuiop9060 3 жыл бұрын
I find that Knowing better's video's are often looking for a reason to be butthurt. Most of the stuff actually makes sense. Check out Biographics channel..it seems much more authentic
@clarenceonyekwere5428 3 жыл бұрын
Yeah that sounded weird. Dogs are important in hunting big game, even small dogs.
@makerstudios5456 3 жыл бұрын
Search “lions vs Maasai dog”.
@AttaBek1422 2 жыл бұрын
@@qwertyuiop9060 Ah yes Biographics. Because nothing says ‘content’ like a generic white English man reading off a Wikipedia page for 20 minutes
@cnquistador 5 жыл бұрын
12:43 Say what you will about this show, but casting Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan was a spark of genius.
@yannick245 5 жыл бұрын
How were u able to watch it yesterday?
@bsamaniac305 5 жыл бұрын
Dafuq is this?
@kaylim9489 5 жыл бұрын
@@yannick245 patreon
@yannick245 5 жыл бұрын
@@kaylim9489 Ay, thanks!
@thekingofcubing4224 5 жыл бұрын
How 1 day ago???
@Shibbymatt 5 жыл бұрын
Nice try but we know you are just keeping all the gold for yourself.
@konstantinossfoungaris8474 5 жыл бұрын
7:52 "He also describes giraffes which he calls 'camelopards'". Yes, that's another word from giraffe that has Greek etymology, and seems like has been used in English in the past as well
@collinsagyeman6131 5 жыл бұрын
7:57 Now here I am actually gonna defend Marco Polo. The word unicorn as we know it comes from the Latin “unicornis” meaning having one horn. Rhinos can also be called “Bicornis” meaning having two horns. Hell the scientific name for the Black rhino is“Diceros Bicornis”. What we currently know as a unicorn is a perversion of the word which was actually very commonly used in the past and did not refer to any kind of horse. TL;DR Unicorn is just a really old timey way of saying one-horned rhino. You know you really shouldn’t demonize a guy for something that’s not his fault. He spoke Medieval Venetian, probably heavily accented due to his time in Asia. I’m sure he’s guilty of some crimes but knowledge of 21st century English should certainly not be one of them
@brianwhite8465 4 жыл бұрын
And there's an extinct variety of single-horned rhino that's scientific name translates to "Siberian unicorn".
@humanOctupus Жыл бұрын
I didn’t think he was demonizing Marco at all and he prefaces the video stating Marco was recalling places and events decades after they happened and he wasn’t even writing it himself. So I don’t think he blames Marco at all or anybody really just circumstances.
@corey5032 5 жыл бұрын
Europe: Alright Marco we got some maps made on your very accurate book, so mind helping us find that gold? Marco Polo: About that...
@williamkarbala5718 5 жыл бұрын
Yellow is symbol of the emperor of China so the roofs of Chinese imperial buildings were painted yellow which could have been mistaken for gold
@zhubajie6940 5 жыл бұрын
Having been to Yangzhou many times for business, the locals told me that Marco Polo was the salt commissioner not the governor/mayor of Yangzhou. However, I don't know where they got their information from and if credible sources or that it is just a local legend.
@Apotheosis01 5 жыл бұрын
Hol up I clicked on the video AS SOON as I got the notification but these comments are three days old
@supermaniav87 5 жыл бұрын
Available to patrons first as an unlisted video? Idk
@kveeder3224 5 жыл бұрын
You get the notification when he makes it public. He uploaded it early, either unlisted or privately so that his friends can look for mistake.
@gavintantleff 5 жыл бұрын
@@kveeder3224 no patreons get it early
@mariuspequeno2175 5 жыл бұрын
i want to like but i am not allowed to
@totherarf 5 жыл бұрын
......... Well if Patrons spot a glaring error he can edit before publishing it openly! A bit like proof readers but they pay for it!
5 жыл бұрын
I am from Dominican Republic and the north part of the island is call Cibao. the are some theories about the name Cibao comes from the word Cipangu. Do that in the beginner colon thought that he was in cipangu.
@luismijangos7844 5 жыл бұрын
Very interesting, Juan Carlos. It's entirely possible. Saludos amigo.
@anishbagri6724 5 жыл бұрын
Wait... this actually makes a lot of sense as to why everyone thought there was gold in the Americas and why all the maps were so wack. Great video KB!
@anaustrianpainter4056 5 жыл бұрын
_oops looks like I just inspired colonialism_
@JM-fo1te 5 жыл бұрын
Nothing wrong with it
@cv4809 5 жыл бұрын
@Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure lol non euros today live a better life compared to their ancestors 500 years ago thanks to colonialism
@anaustrianpainter4056 5 жыл бұрын
O. M. The Irish were colonized
4 жыл бұрын
@Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure Oh yes. Having technology, law, and civilization available to you is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO opressive!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 жыл бұрын
@Zimmit's FunHouse Adventure You mean there was Science, Trains, Chemic-based Medicine, Positive Law, and european Engineering well before european colonialism????????? WOW! Please, I'd be happy to read about it :) But I agree, Colonialism has existed in one form or another in every organized society, on every land mass, in groups made up of ALL COLORS since the dawn of time. Take your leftist rethorics somewhere else bud.
@Sajirah 5 жыл бұрын
10:23 Just FYI, 'Qin' is actually indeed the correct spelling of that word. Qs have a 'ch' sound in Chinese. That's why 'China' is named after Emperor 'Qin'.
@alejandroochoa559 5 жыл бұрын
There were giant birds in madagascar. They were not eagles but it is undestandable how tales of a giant bird would get distorted through verbal accounts and translations into a giant eagle. These giant flightless birds went extinct between 1000-1200 CE so it makes sense their, existance although distorted, was still present in culture in a way that might have seemed plausible during Maro Polo's time since he was born in 1254 CE. The roc (rukh) is known from Sindbad the Sailor's encounter with one in One Thousand and One Nights. Some scholars think the roc is a distorted account of Aepyornis. Historical evidence for this can be found in Megiser (1623).
@sokar_rostau 4 жыл бұрын
You forgot to mention that those giant flightless birds in Madagascar are known today as Elephant Birds. Not sure when they got the name but Elephant Bird could easily be garbled into a bird big enough to devour an elephant. There was also the giant Haast's Eagle in New Zealand that preyed upon the Moa and went extinct around 1400. Moas were related to Elephant Birds so it's actually kind of true (if you squint) that there were giant eagles capable of taking an elephant (bird) at the time of Polo's travels. I don't now the context of Polo's report but it wouldn't be too difficult for traders in Asia to garble similar accounts of animals on different far away islands into a single story. The Maori began to colonise New Zealand only about 60 years after Polo returned home, so it isn't beyond the realm of possibility for Polynesian reports of new islands to get passed along the trade networks back to Indonesia, then on into China.
@halfaworldaway 5 жыл бұрын
Cipangu's golden city reminds me of something: Only a few years ago, the Swedish tourist board was bombarded by calls from Chinese men who sought information about 'Chako Paul City' - a supposed grand walled metropolis made up entirely of lesbians.
@gervinspoos 5 жыл бұрын
Marco? Accidentally inspiring masses of people to explore the unknown? Polo?
@funtimebruh2079 5 жыл бұрын
I started watching you 2 years ago and now i am 13 and you were one of my biggest inspirations for things i like
@1994CPK 5 жыл бұрын
I love the smell of colonialism in the morning.
@EugeneAyindolmah 5 жыл бұрын
*God save the Queen plays*
@MosoKaiser 5 жыл бұрын
Smells like... profit.
@levongevorgyan6789 2 жыл бұрын
Marco Polo literally described colonialism in his book. Turkomania: TUrkic colonialist states in native Caucasus and Anatolian lands.
@cebenify 5 жыл бұрын
Bold of you to assume that Arthurian writers let characters drive the plot
@TheOneAndOnlyNeuromod 5 жыл бұрын
FYI, giraffes ARE camelopards. That’s where their species name comes from - Giraffa camelopardalis. Yes, a lot of it cannot be substantiated as of HIS journeys. But, not everything is outside of possibility. Hawks that can carry elephants? No. Siberia being the “land of darkness” - it can very well be (if that’s how you see a barren expanse of cold)
@useodyseeorbitchute9450 5 жыл бұрын
During polar night the name would be suitable ;)
@JackRackam 5 жыл бұрын
Shoot, found this video a few minutes after it was posted and now I have to come up with something clever to say
@rabbiteighteen4012 5 жыл бұрын
Make a video instead
@JackRackam 5 жыл бұрын
@@rabbiteighteen4012 Roasted
@taxis_net 5 жыл бұрын
Love your content Jack
@joefrew1614 5 жыл бұрын
Marco Polo: Ah yes, Madagascar has plenty of unicorns and long necked camelopes and elephant snatching hawks, and the Himalayas have very naughty, epic women and weird mountain monks that can do dope stunts jumping off the mountains... Also, Cipangu is a very rich island with tons and tons of gold, so much that their houses are literally gold, go west Colombus
@LarsBlitzer 5 жыл бұрын
This makes me think that Gulliver's Travels was at least partially inspired by Marco Polo, and is MUCH more satirical than fantastical than we usually think these days.
@AbandonedVoid 3 жыл бұрын
@@LarsBlitzer Yes
@stephenwright8824 2 жыл бұрын
@@LarsBlitzer Nope. Jonathan Swift, who's known in the British Isles as _Ascendancy Irish_ , wrote it as an allegory criticising the participants of three election cycles in the then (and later) semi-autonomous Irish Parliament.
@mottmatt7844 5 жыл бұрын
Great video about one of my fave themes, ancient and medieval geography. But there's a few things I have to nitpick: 1) Camelopards/Unicorns: Both were pretty common Latin names for these animals at the time. 2) The journey of 15 days: In travel books of that it was common to not mention which mode of transport you'd need for a journey. 3) Qin is still a pretty common spelling of ancient China (e.g. qin dynasty) Although he might have been the origin of the spelling. I still highly doubt that he went to China but these points are not what make his accounts ridiculous.
@minutemansam1214 3 жыл бұрын
I mean, he probably went to China, he just exaggerated his journey. He accurately describes cities that only someone who'd been there would know.
@dewayner5388 5 жыл бұрын
Qin (pronounced Chin) is how it would be spelled in modern times too. Makes me wonder if they had an Arabicized Chinese that Polo pulled from when transliterating words.
@3st3st77 5 жыл бұрын
The thing is, Qin is actually not pronounced the same way as "Chin". Those are two completely different sounds in Chinese (for the Ch-sound you have your tongue curled back in the mouth similarly to the English R, while the tip is on your lower teeth for Q). It's COMPLETELY different, no confusion has ever come out of that. No, but seriously there is a difference.
@TheRenegade... 4 жыл бұрын
@@3st3st77 ENGLISH Chin
@loonachan 5 жыл бұрын
"Hey guys look at all this cool stuff I saw in the far east!" "Hmm that's cool let's take it over." "Shit no wait-"
@levongevorgyan6789 2 жыл бұрын
Well, those Easterns already took over parts of the WEst, so fair play.
@troublemaker1778 5 жыл бұрын
In my Russian-school the mongols were called “Mongol-tartars”
@hatonhatsoff 5 жыл бұрын
Trouble Maker well I believe china called mongal tribes tar tars
@stephenwright8824 2 жыл бұрын
English-born author Edward Rutherfurd in his novel "RUSSKA" credits the popularity of the word Tartar (or _Tatar_ ) to the Russians of the era of the White Horde, and says the word was confusedly applied to anyone who worked for the Khan before the invasion of Russia.
@EdSmith7464 5 жыл бұрын
Good Ol' KB! Keep posting history related videos like this one. Very informative, as always.
@Chewbaccafruit Жыл бұрын
Well "unicorn" means "one horned", and the Indian rhinoceros he would have seen in Asia have only one horn so he's technically not wrong on that
@g.v.3493 5 жыл бұрын
I was in cipangu! I saw a temple of gold!! (It’s called Kinkakuji and it’s in Kyoto).
@borkwoof696 5 жыл бұрын
The nerflix show is actually really underrated
@blazingphantom2813 5 жыл бұрын
Yeah. It got cancelled sadly
@soullesseater9327 4 жыл бұрын
@Mc Water Too much inaccuracies as well
@dantealighieri2606 5 жыл бұрын
Hey, KB! Just wanted to thank you for doing some videos on me a while back! Keep up the good work!
@mattimusreximus 5 жыл бұрын
So glad to see the subscriber count wayyy up. I have been watching your videos for a about a year now . I truly enjoy the content and your presentation of facts over opinion. Another thing that is refreshing on KZfaq is the vulnerability you wear on your sleeve. I'm sure you don't need to hear it from me but keep it up.
@peregrination3643 5 жыл бұрын
I appreciate hilarious ad transitions. Imagine, Marco Polo pulling up the Internet and signing up for Skillshare....
@CrimsonCynder 5 жыл бұрын
I love when you crossover into literature/ historiography. Please give more.
@brgorham68 2 жыл бұрын
I knew that was Blue from OSP as soon as he started talking. It's always great to see quality creators working together.
@jonaspeoples6931 5 жыл бұрын
Been waiting soooo long for a new one... love your vids!!!!
@AfroAsiaticLanguages 5 жыл бұрын
Marco Polo was one of Netflix's best shows.
@PandemoniumMeltDown 5 жыл бұрын
Ah man, you're so screwed now. I'm calling you Serge.
@BrianLane21 5 жыл бұрын
I just found your channel. I'm a pattreon for Beau of the Fifth Column. In his discord, someone mentioned your channel, and said you did a history channel. I'm a huge history and government buff, so I thought I'd check you out. Love the content, you got a new subscriber.
@golfknut777 5 жыл бұрын
This was a super interesting topic, didn’t want the video to end!!
@danz1182 5 жыл бұрын
I always enjoy your videos. The legend of El Dorado isn't drawn from Marco Polo. It is drawn from tales of an Andean tribe that covered new leaders in gold dust as part of a sort of coronation and that threw treasure into a lake to appease a god during the ceremony. The Spaniards heard these legends from coastal tribes in South America. Tales of fabled cities of wealth are present in many cultures. The death of vast numbers of people in the Americas from mere contact with Europeans, let alone their actions, is truly a great tragedy, but improving naval technology and the danger involved in rounding the Cape of Good Hope, even in a stout ship, would have sent Europeans (especially non-Portuguese) looking for a route across the Atlantic to Asia within 20 or 30 years anyway, and they would have brought with them all Eurasia's plagues. Different vector, same result, Marco Polo not required (I think you made this point in your Columbus video). You also make it sound like Marco Polo's Travels was somehow uniquely inaccurate. That may have been unintentional on your part. No matter where you go in the world if a local is describing someplace far away pre-Industrial Age, even if the local has supposedly been there, the greater the distance, the more elements of fantasy/distortion creep in. Just look at Chinese accounts of the Roman Empire (Da Qin).
@shingshongshamalama 5 жыл бұрын
"Children have been doing it in swimming pools for decades." Uh phrasing.
@OnettBoyXD 5 жыл бұрын
It's a reference to the game called Marco Polo.
@henryroberts4545 5 жыл бұрын
Favorite knowing better video yet! Keep it up love this channel!!!
@cheetahnuts39gaming81 5 жыл бұрын
Im new to this channel ive watched 2 videos so far, but I love it. This channel is different talking about the unpopular opinions and debunking popular myths
@recomoto 5 жыл бұрын
You made my day ten times better. I also got to know better hell yeah!
@gobokinje9183 5 жыл бұрын
Some rhinos ARE unicorns though... the only have the one horn.
@eazybuxafew 5 жыл бұрын
You guys are getting really good with these plugs
@ArtieStern09 5 жыл бұрын
you have an awesome channel. since i cut down drinking i enjoy watching your episodes at night to keep my mind occupied
@ttf1627 5 жыл бұрын
Is the fact you make references to King Arthur in this video multiple times, in context of your recent works being reviews of "historical fanfiction" a hint, or just you being weird?
@starfox0u0 5 жыл бұрын
Megawatt a little of column A, a little of column B?
@Sorenzo 4 жыл бұрын
Hey, Prester John did exist. He even sent a delegation to the Vatican, who were apparently totally cool with the whole race thing, but they did insist on calling their king Prester John despite them insisting he had a native Ethiopian name that would be much more appropriate.
@nksteps 4 жыл бұрын
Quality video, KB. Thank you for the interesting topic!
@TheSlasherJunkie 4 жыл бұрын
The fact that your ringtone was the Power Rangers beep filled me with joy.
@neutronalchemist3241 5 жыл бұрын
1) It's not clear if Marco said to have been the governor of Yangzou, since this particular is absent in some of the older known copies of his book. 2) It's not like we have anything resembling a complete, or even a fragmentary list of the governors of Yangzou, or of Kublai's reign's VIPs. Chinese records are far from complete, and, in particular for the early Yuan dinasty, THEY ARE VERY SCARCE. Much of the Chinese texts on Kublay's reign with wich we compare Marco Polo's account to decide if he was right or not HAD BEEN WRITTEN WELL AFTER "THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO", SOMETIMES MORE THAN A CENTURY LATER". 3) Actually, for incredible it might seem, if you put men, women, horses and camels in a convoy, they travel at the same pace. 4) Marco Polo's account on China is not the only one written until 1492. MANY other travelers had been there at that point. Several had been within few years from the return of Marco, and many wrote their own accounts. It only happens that Marco's one is the most complete. 5) Try to write something better.
@stirrcrazy2704 5 жыл бұрын
This really breaks the plot of national treasure 2.
@felipecarrera9127 5 жыл бұрын
I have missed your videos and voice. Being asperger is soothing learning like this with you
@libacus4741 5 жыл бұрын
I showed your channel to my dad who is a history professor in NYU and he suggests multiple of your videos on his google classroom.
@theshamanite 5 жыл бұрын
When I learned German, my pseudonym was Kai.
@ho-hyongyoo3251 5 жыл бұрын
Yuan Dynasty was very interesting and diverse empire. It affected entire Asia one way or another and It still does to this day. I am loving you are doing more Asian Videos! Keep on the good work Mr. Knowing Better. Love from South Korea.
@Timon-IrishFolk 5 жыл бұрын
The Yuan Dynasty, especially under Kublai, was the first instance of widespread religious freedom and people tend to sadly ignore how actually remarkably ably well that went a lot
@alexanderchristopher6237 5 жыл бұрын
@@Timon-IrishFolk that was already happening under his predecessors, the empire of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan believes in freedom of religion and only punishes those who rebelled against him.
@Timon-IrishFolk 5 жыл бұрын
@@alexanderchristopher6237 But Ghenghis in general was a rebel against the old guard, he often times promoted based on merit not on rank. Kublai however inherited that massive Empire with lots of rebellions and the Mongols being the minority and such but just kept it tolerant. Ghenghis was in a way "meant" to be tolerant but Kublai made it real, actual policy in an Empire
@lucyadam9128 Жыл бұрын
@@Timon-IrishFolk the yuan dynasty is regarded as one of the worst dynasties of China They used a cast system dependent on race
@Mflo786 4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for your videos! Very entertaining.
@valentinakraiselburd6343 5 жыл бұрын
Another great video from this absolute legend of a man 👏👏
@jumpingjoy20 5 жыл бұрын
I get how idolatry sounds to modern ears, but did marco have access to the word pantheism? I don't think it's meant to be insulting, but descriptive. They do not worship one god, they have a lot of figurines that they seem to worship. What other word would he use?
@brianwhite8465 4 жыл бұрын
It's also a 100% accurate description. If you are worshiping anything (including money) other than the God of the Bible, that would be idolatry. It doesn't just have to be statues.
@yaldabaoth2 5 жыл бұрын
Erd-Ap-Fel not Erda-pfel, just some German nitpicking.
@mylesmwalkerjr 5 жыл бұрын
Its about time you made a new video
@featherpuke 5 жыл бұрын
Yay ! I get to see a video as it’s posted !!! This is exciting
@featherpuke 5 жыл бұрын
Wait, there are comments from a day ago, I feel like I’ve done this before when getting a notification for a video
@featherpuke 5 жыл бұрын
WAS THIS VIDEO UNLISTED UNTIL NOW ?
@ziljin 5 жыл бұрын
Wait what's wrong with putting soda can in the freezer? You can leave it there for like a couple minutes to cool the beverage Just don't wait too long
@lordmango545 5 жыл бұрын
Honestly I’m impressed with this channel I learn something new every time I click on a video
@amanbytheway 5 жыл бұрын
So enjoyable to watch and learn. Thanks for your work.
@profoundpronoun4712 2 жыл бұрын
Love this one KB!
@xxdewxx9 5 жыл бұрын
>when the KB notification pops up 😩💦❤️
@knockhello2604 5 жыл бұрын
Pause
@citavalo 4 жыл бұрын
xxdewxx9 huh
@fedrikrose2277 4 жыл бұрын
4:19 people back in the day were easier to impress 4:58 due to him telling this decades after the actual travel and the writer not being a traveler himself. Considering also they had to communicate in "French" which wasn't their mother tongue, it is highly probable that Marco Polo meant another region of China. 5:30 even considering how easy people could have been impressed, he could have not being impressed by a wall made of dirt and mud and probably it was impossible to him to realize how big it was. Also, the Polo family was formed of merchant. 7:00 remember that Rustichello was a writer and probably he could have modified the story making it more heroic and adventurous 7:36 probably he was referring to the tibetan mastiff. 7:48 he might have mistaken Sri Lanka fot Madagascar 8:17 again Rustichello. Marco Polo has never traveled to Japan and considering how weak was the Mongol navy, he might have been told so by a Chinese or a Mongol. In conclusion, Marco Polo did travel to China, however I think the book was too much over the edge between reality and fiction, due to Marco Polo being a merchant unable to speak Mongol and Chinese with a little understanding of the situation and Rustichello being a writer.
@ttofu6201 5 жыл бұрын
I love when you upload!
@mikejerome5216 5 жыл бұрын
The back and forth with the other youtuber was great. You two had great chemistry ;)
@caolanfeely4317 5 жыл бұрын
Mike Jerome Yeah accept the little ac Odessey incident
@kawsarhussain5448 4 жыл бұрын
I feel like George R R Martin was inspired by Marco Polo in how the world in his book is described
@lyokianhitchhiker 10 ай бұрын
Apparently, Westeros was based on his childhood fantasies of the more rural parts of New York City
@x_8643 5 жыл бұрын
"OK there are like 3 other books that can say that"
@toddkobell162 3 жыл бұрын
My mind immediately went to the Bible and the communist manifesto but idk what the third would be
@toddkobell162 3 жыл бұрын
@Let's Travel yeah there’s a few big ones, prob more than 3...
@octyedesign8408 3 жыл бұрын
Bible, Quran, Torah
@octyedesign8408 3 жыл бұрын
Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf
@cheeseonyomama 2 жыл бұрын
Keep doing your shit man! I casually watched your videos but things like 8:30 to :10:00 -ish are why I'm happy I subscribed.
@MrGoo514 5 жыл бұрын
Awesome video and videos!
@Hwyadylaw 4 жыл бұрын
10:45 Coincidentally I can see a bunch of different islands just from my office window here in Sweden
@watchdealer11 4 жыл бұрын
0:18 "It's not that hard; in fact, children have been doing it in swimming pools for decades" r/nocontext
@andresfukazawa 5 жыл бұрын
Great video again, thank you!
@SarahWilk100 5 жыл бұрын
Active Marine here, you remind me alot of a crew chief I used to talk to, I might constantly want to debate/have an intellectual discussion with you but overall keep up the good work!
@nickd.9955 4 жыл бұрын
"Kids have been doing this in pools for decades." ...peeing?
@Tolstoy111 Жыл бұрын
Colonialism has been around since ancient times.
@filippoformoso9690 5 жыл бұрын
One of the best educational channels out there, keep up with the good work! Talking about historical books full of dubious claims, have you thought about Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Lawrence of Arabia?
@erwinmurry9602 5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the video!!!
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