Aug 01, 2017 Marco polo is a great game to play during the summer. It's a fun game for people of all ages, and it requires no tools! You just need a group of fun family and friends and a body of water, most typically a pool. The game is based on the famous explorer, Marco Polo. Marco Polo is historically known as one of the first and most famous European explorers to venture to Asia during the late 1200s. Choose to play from over 10 different countries in this addicting water polo game. Try one player mode and see how far you can make it through the tournament, but can you beat the last level?
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JoinPolo, game played on horseback between two teams of four players each who use mallets with long, flexible handles to drive a wooden ball down a grass field and between two goal posts. It is the oldest of equestrian sports.
History.
A game of Central Asian origin, polo was first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 6th century bc to the 1st century ad. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribesmen, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle.
In time polo became a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parvīz and his courtiers in the 6th century ad.
From Persia the game spread to Arabia, then to Tibet (the English word polo is the Balti word meaning 'ball'), to China, and to Japan. In China (910) the death of a favoured relative in a game prompted Emperor A-pao-chi to order the beheading of all surviving players.
Polo was introduced into India by the Muslim conquerors in the 13th century; but, although the game had been described in Sir Anthony Sherley's Travels to Persia (1613), the first Europeans to play the game were British tea planters in Assam, who formed the first European polo club in 1859 at Silchar. The Calcutta Polo Club was formed in the early 1860s. Polo spread rapidly after a captain in the 10th Hussars stationed in India saw a match early in 1866 and immediately formed a team from among his fellow officers. Before the year ended, informal matches were held between British cavalry units stationed in India. In 1869 a challenge round was held between the 10th Hussars and the 9th Lancers in England. At this time there were eight men to a side and almost no rules. Polo grew rapidly in England, with matches at Richmond Park and Hurlingham attracting more than 10,000 spectators by 1875. After it had been introduced by the military, the sport of polo remained popular with them but also spread to the universities and was popular with the nobility and royalty.
In 1876, the sportsman and newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett saw his first polo game and introduced it in the United States. Later that year informal games were being played in New York City and by 1877 at Jerome Park racetrack in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Westchester Polo Club was founded in this latter year. In 1881 the Meadow Brook Club was formed in Long Island, N.Y., by such early outstanding players as Thomas Hitchcock, Sr., August Belmont, and Benjamin Nicoll. The size of the team was reduced to five and then, in 1881 in the United States and in 1883 in England, to four, the present number. Though the rules of the Hurlingham Club of England (which was founded in 1886) were at first used in the United States, in 1888 a system of handicapping players was devised to equalize tournament play. The Polo Association (later the United States Polo Association) was founded in 1890 and standardized the rules. Polo spread throughout the country, although the game long remained one for the rich because of the expense of acquiring and maintaining a stable of polo ponies. Outside the United States, the game's governing body is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which maintains relations with many national bodies.
International competition.
The first international competition took place in 1886 when the United States unsuccessfully challenged the English, then the undisputed world leaders in polo, for the Westchester Cup. England defended the Cup successfully in 1902, but the United States won in 1909. The Cup was contested nine additional times (the last in 1939), with the Americans winning each time except in 1914. The next international meeting was in 1971, when the United States defeated England for the Coronation Cup, a single-game rather than a three-game match, thereafter held annually.
After 1909 the style of the game changed from the relatively slow English form of play characterized by short, controlled hitting. American polo players used a long-hitting, fast-moving, wide-open style that revolutionized the sport. The rules of the two countries were eventually assimilated, the United States adopting the English rule permitting a player to hook an opponent's stick with his mallet, while the English abandoned their offside rule that forbade players preceding the ball.
From 1909 to 1950 the United States was supreme in polo. Through the 1920s and '30s polo became increasingly popular in Argentina, and in 1928 the first Copa de las Americas (Cup of the Americas) was contested between the United States and Argentina. Since then Argentina has become the uncontested master of international polo. Polo became the Argentine national game, and crowds exceeded 60,000. International matches commercially sponsored (mainly at Boca Raton, Fla.) were held in the 1970s, and European championships were inaugurated in 1980.
Although in the 20th century it is far from common, British and American women also play polo. In the United States, women compete against women on the collegiate level, and there is a women's National Handicap competition. Occasionally a woman also acts as the fourth member of an otherwise all-male team.
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Home • Marco Polo
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Marco Polo, (born c. 1254, Venice [Italy]—died January 8, 1324, Venice), Venetian merchant and adventurer who traveled from Europe to Asia in 1271–95, remaining in China for 17 of those years, and whose Il milione ('The Million'), known in English as the Travels of Marco Polo, is a classic of travel literature.
How To Play Marco Polo: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - WikiHow
What was Marco Polo's family like?
The Polos were likely shrewd, alert, and courageous; they traded with the Middle East and acquired considerable wealth and prestige. Marco Polo's father, Niccolò, and uncle, Maffeo, continued this legacy. Traveling east as far as Mongol emperor Kublai Khan's summer residence, Shangdu, they established friendly relations with him before returning to Europe as his ambassadors.
What did Marco Polo do?
Marco Polo was 17 or 18 when he began his journey from Venice to the farthest reaches of the Mongol empire. Living among the emperor's dominions, with his father and uncle, as an advisor and emissary for 16 or 17 years, he returned to Venice by way of Hormuz (aboard ship) and Constantinople (overland).
Why was Marco Polo so influential?
Marco Polo's account in Il milione opened new vistas to the European mind, and, as Western horizons expanded, Polo's legacy grew as well. The wealth of new geographic information recorded by Polo was widely used in the late 15th and the 16th centuries, during the age of the great European voyages of discovery and conquest.
What were Marco Polo's other accomplishments in Asia?
Kublai Khan sent Marco Polo on fact-finding missions to distant parts of the empire, including visits to Yunnan (and possibly Myanmar [Burma]) and through southeastern China to 'Quinsay' (now Hangzhou). He escorted a Mongol princess, with his father and uncle, by sea to Hormuz, and by land to Khorasan, during his return voyage to Venice.
Travels of the Polo family
Polo's way was paved by the pioneering efforts of his ancestors, especially his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. The family had traded with the Middle East for a long time, acquiring considerable wealth and prestige. Although it is uncertain if the Polos were of the nobility, the matter was of little importance in Venice, a city of republican and mercantile traditions.
The family appears to have been shrewd, alert, and courageous; about 1260 they foresaw a political change in Constantinople (e.g., the overthrow of the Crusaders who had ruled since 1204 by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261), liquidated their property there, invested their capital in jewels, and set off for the Volga River, where Berke Khan, sovereign of the western territories in the Mongol Empire, held court at Sarai or Bulgar. The Polos apparently managed their affairs well at Berke's court, where they doubled their assets. When political events prevented their return to Venice, they traveled eastward to Bukhara (Bokhara) and ended their journey in 1265, probably at the grand khan's summer residence, Shangdu (immortalized as Xanadu by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge). Establishing friendly relations with the great Kublai Khan, they eventually returned to Europe as his ambassadors, carrying letters asking the pope to send Kublai 100 intelligent men 'acquainted with the Seven Arts'; they also bore gifts and were asked to bring back oil from the lamp burning at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Polo's journey to Asia
Little is known about Marco's early years except that he probably grew up in Venice. He was age 15 or 16 when his father and uncle returned to meet him and learned that the pope, Clement IV, had recently died. Niccolò and Maffeo remained in Venice anticipating the election of a new pope, but in 1271, after two years of waiting, they departed with Marco for the Mongol court. In Acre (now in Israel) the papal legate, Teobaldo of Piacenza, gave them letters for the Mongol emperor. The Polos had been on the road for only a few days when they heard that their friend Teobaldo had been elected pope as Gregory X. Returning to Acre, they were given proper credentials, and two friars were assigned to accompany them, though they abandoned the Polos shortly after the expedition resumed.
How To Play Marco Polo | Considerable
Polo, game played on horseback between two teams of four players each who use mallets with long, flexible handles to drive a wooden ball down a grass field and between two goal posts. It is the oldest of equestrian sports.
History.
A game of Central Asian origin, polo was first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 6th century bc to the 1st century ad. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops. To the warlike tribesmen, who played it with as many as 100 to a side, it was a miniature battle.
In time polo became a Persian national sport played extensively by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parvīz and his courtiers in the 6th century ad.
From Persia the game spread to Arabia, then to Tibet (the English word polo is the Balti word meaning 'ball'), to China, and to Japan. In China (910) the death of a favoured relative in a game prompted Emperor A-pao-chi to order the beheading of all surviving players.
Polo was introduced into India by the Muslim conquerors in the 13th century; but, although the game had been described in Sir Anthony Sherley's Travels to Persia (1613), the first Europeans to play the game were British tea planters in Assam, who formed the first European polo club in 1859 at Silchar. The Calcutta Polo Club was formed in the early 1860s. Polo spread rapidly after a captain in the 10th Hussars stationed in India saw a match early in 1866 and immediately formed a team from among his fellow officers. Before the year ended, informal matches were held between British cavalry units stationed in India. In 1869 a challenge round was held between the 10th Hussars and the 9th Lancers in England. At this time there were eight men to a side and almost no rules. Polo grew rapidly in England, with matches at Richmond Park and Hurlingham attracting more than 10,000 spectators by 1875. After it had been introduced by the military, the sport of polo remained popular with them but also spread to the universities and was popular with the nobility and royalty.
In 1876, the sportsman and newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett saw his first polo game and introduced it in the United States. Later that year informal games were being played in New York City and by 1877 at Jerome Park racetrack in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Westchester Polo Club was founded in this latter year. In 1881 the Meadow Brook Club was formed in Long Island, N.Y., by such early outstanding players as Thomas Hitchcock, Sr., August Belmont, and Benjamin Nicoll. The size of the team was reduced to five and then, in 1881 in the United States and in 1883 in England, to four, the present number. Though the rules of the Hurlingham Club of England (which was founded in 1886) were at first used in the United States, in 1888 a system of handicapping players was devised to equalize tournament play. The Polo Association (later the United States Polo Association) was founded in 1890 and standardized the rules. Polo spread throughout the country, although the game long remained one for the rich because of the expense of acquiring and maintaining a stable of polo ponies. Outside the United States, the game's governing body is the Hurlingham Polo Association, which maintains relations with many national bodies.
International competition.
The first international competition took place in 1886 when the United States unsuccessfully challenged the English, then the undisputed world leaders in polo, for the Westchester Cup. England defended the Cup successfully in 1902, but the United States won in 1909. The Cup was contested nine additional times (the last in 1939), with the Americans winning each time except in 1914. The next international meeting was in 1971, when the United States defeated England for the Coronation Cup, a single-game rather than a three-game match, thereafter held annually.
After 1909 the style of the game changed from the relatively slow English form of play characterized by short, controlled hitting. American polo players used a long-hitting, fast-moving, wide-open style that revolutionized the sport. The rules of the two countries were eventually assimilated, the United States adopting the English rule permitting a player to hook an opponent's stick with his mallet, while the English abandoned their offside rule that forbade players preceding the ball.
From 1909 to 1950 the United States was supreme in polo. Through the 1920s and '30s polo became increasingly popular in Argentina, and in 1928 the first Copa de las Americas (Cup of the Americas) was contested between the United States and Argentina. Since then Argentina has become the uncontested master of international polo. Polo became the Argentine national game, and crowds exceeded 60,000. International matches commercially sponsored (mainly at Boca Raton, Fla.) were held in the 1970s, and European championships were inaugurated in 1980.
Although in the 20th century it is far from common, British and American women also play polo. In the United States, women compete against women on the collegiate level, and there is a women's National Handicap competition. Occasionally a woman also acts as the fourth member of an otherwise all-male team.
- key people
- related topics
Home • Marco Polo
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!Marco Polo, (born c. 1254, Venice [Italy]—died January 8, 1324, Venice), Venetian merchant and adventurer who traveled from Europe to Asia in 1271–95, remaining in China for 17 of those years, and whose Il milione ('The Million'), known in English as the Travels of Marco Polo, is a classic of travel literature.
How To Play Marco Polo: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - WikiHow
What was Marco Polo's family like?
The Polos were likely shrewd, alert, and courageous; they traded with the Middle East and acquired considerable wealth and prestige. Marco Polo's father, Niccolò, and uncle, Maffeo, continued this legacy. Traveling east as far as Mongol emperor Kublai Khan's summer residence, Shangdu, they established friendly relations with him before returning to Europe as his ambassadors.
What did Marco Polo do?
Marco Polo was 17 or 18 when he began his journey from Venice to the farthest reaches of the Mongol empire. Living among the emperor's dominions, with his father and uncle, as an advisor and emissary for 16 or 17 years, he returned to Venice by way of Hormuz (aboard ship) and Constantinople (overland).
Why was Marco Polo so influential?
Marco Polo's account in Il milione opened new vistas to the European mind, and, as Western horizons expanded, Polo's legacy grew as well. The wealth of new geographic information recorded by Polo was widely used in the late 15th and the 16th centuries, during the age of the great European voyages of discovery and conquest.
What were Marco Polo's other accomplishments in Asia?
Kublai Khan sent Marco Polo on fact-finding missions to distant parts of the empire, including visits to Yunnan (and possibly Myanmar [Burma]) and through southeastern China to 'Quinsay' (now Hangzhou). He escorted a Mongol princess, with his father and uncle, by sea to Hormuz, and by land to Khorasan, during his return voyage to Venice.
Travels of the Polo family
Polo's way was paved by the pioneering efforts of his ancestors, especially his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo. The family had traded with the Middle East for a long time, acquiring considerable wealth and prestige. Although it is uncertain if the Polos were of the nobility, the matter was of little importance in Venice, a city of republican and mercantile traditions.
The family appears to have been shrewd, alert, and courageous; about 1260 they foresaw a political change in Constantinople (e.g., the overthrow of the Crusaders who had ruled since 1204 by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261), liquidated their property there, invested their capital in jewels, and set off for the Volga River, where Berke Khan, sovereign of the western territories in the Mongol Empire, held court at Sarai or Bulgar. The Polos apparently managed their affairs well at Berke's court, where they doubled their assets. When political events prevented their return to Venice, they traveled eastward to Bukhara (Bokhara) and ended their journey in 1265, probably at the grand khan's summer residence, Shangdu (immortalized as Xanadu by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge). Establishing friendly relations with the great Kublai Khan, they eventually returned to Europe as his ambassadors, carrying letters asking the pope to send Kublai 100 intelligent men 'acquainted with the Seven Arts'; they also bore gifts and were asked to bring back oil from the lamp burning at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Polo's journey to Asia
Little is known about Marco's early years except that he probably grew up in Venice. He was age 15 or 16 when his father and uncle returned to meet him and learned that the pope, Clement IV, had recently died. Niccolò and Maffeo remained in Venice anticipating the election of a new pope, but in 1271, after two years of waiting, they departed with Marco for the Mongol court. In Acre (now in Israel) the papal legate, Teobaldo of Piacenza, gave them letters for the Mongol emperor. The Polos had been on the road for only a few days when they heard that their friend Teobaldo had been elected pope as Gregory X. Returning to Acre, they were given proper credentials, and two friars were assigned to accompany them, though they abandoned the Polos shortly after the expedition resumed.
How To Play Marco Polo | Considerable
From Acre the travelers proceeded to Ayas ('Laiazzo' in Marco's writings, now Yumurtalik, on the Gulf of İskenderun, also called the Gulf of Alexandretta, in southeastern Turkey). During the early part of 1272, they probably passed through Erzurum, in what is now eastern Turkey, and Tabrīz, in what is now northern Iran, later crossing inhospitable deserts infested with brigands before reaching Hormuz on the Persian Gulf. There the Polos decided not to risk a sea passage to India and beyond but to proceed overland to the Mongol capital.
They next traveled through deserts of 'surpassing aridity' toward the Khorasan region in what is now eastern Iran. Turning gradually to the northeast, they reached more hospitable lands; Badakhshān ('Balascian'), in Afghanistan, in particular, pleased the travelers. Marco suggests that they remained there for a year; detained, perhaps, by illness (possibly malaria) that was cured by the benign climate of the district. It is also believed that Marco visited territories to the south (other parts of Afghanistan, Kafiristan in the Hindu Kush, Chitral in what is now Pakistan, and perhaps Kashmir) during this period. It is, however, difficult to establish which districts he traversed and which he may have described from information gathered en route.
Leaving Badakhshān, the Polos proceeded toward the Pamirs, but the route they followed to cross these Central Asian highlands remains uncertain. Descending on the northeastern side of the chain, they reached Kashi ('Cascar') in what is now the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China. By this point the Polos were on the main Silk Road, and they probably followed along the oases to the south and east of the Takla Makan Desert—Yarkant ('Yarcan'), Hotan ('Cotan'), Che'erchen ('Ciarcian'), and Lop Nur (Lop Lake). These stepping-stones led to Shazhou ('Saciu') on the borders of China, a place now called Dunhuang.
Marco Polo Game online, free
Before reaching Shazhou, the Polos had traveled primarily among Muslim peoples, though they also encountered Nestorian Christians, Buddhists, Manichaeans, and Zoroastrians. In the vast province of Gansu (called 'Tangut' by Marco), an entirely different civilization—mainly Buddhist in religion but partly Chinese in culture—prevailed. The travelers probably stopped in Suzhou ('Sukchu'; now Jiuquan) and Ganzhou ('Campiciu'; now Zhangye) before entering the Ningxia area. It is not clear whether they reached the Mongol summer capital of Shangdu ('Ciandu') directly or after a detour; in any event, sometime in 1275 (1274, according to the research of Japanese scholar Matsuo Otagi) the Polos were again at the Mongol court, presenting the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron, Kublai Khan.
- born
- c. 1254
Venice?, Italy
- died
- January 8, 1324
Venice, Italy