Mobility and long-distance travel grew from the eleventh century onwards. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem increased, overland via Hungary, the Balkans, and Byzantine Asia Minor, and soon across the sea from Italy. Travel to European shrines was also becoming popular. It is important to point out that there was no sharp distinction between the different categories of travellers and their motivation: trade or mission equally led to discoveries and the expansion of knowledge by Europeans.
Missionaries travelled as far as Persia and China. The mendicant orders, founded in the thirteenth century, made it one of their main aims to proselytize among pagans, Muslims, and other non-believers. After the conversion of Scandinavia and central Europe, missionaries became active in northern (Baltic) and eastern Europe. The Dominican Julian of Hungary in 1236-7 travelled from Hungary towards Siberia in the hope of finding the still pagan remnants of Hungarian tribes. Missionaries also wished to convert Muslims in the Levant, including Egypt and Damascus, and proselytized among indigenous Christians under Muslim rule. Soon the Mongols, and areas under Mongol control, became their primary target. Mission and diplomacy, including spying, were intertwined in the travels of John of
Plano Carpini, sent as an envoy to the Mongols by Pope Innocent IV in 1245, and William of Rubruck, supported by Louis IX of France in 1253. Their aim was to convert the Mongols, and find out as much as they could about Mongol customs and military strength; William of Rubruck was also to try to forge an alliance against Muslims. They produced fascinating accounts of their travels to Karakorum, the Mongol capital, and of the knowledge they gained about the Mongols. The consolidation of Mongol rule encouraged missionaries and merchants to travel to Asia from the mid-thirteenth century on. In the second half of the century missionaries penetrated western Asia (Iran, Mesopotamia), then under the rule of Mongol Il-khans*. There were persistent rumours in Europe that the Il-khans were preparing to accept baptism, fostered by their tolerant treatment of Eastern Christians (especially Nestorians) living under their rule. At the end of the century, the Dominican Ricold of Montecroce tried to preach in Muslim Baghdad, and the Franciscan John of Monte Cor-vino travelled to China to establish a missionary base there. The Chinese missions continued in the first half of the fourteenth century; and following a brief visit to India in the 1290s, friars started to proselytize there. In the late thirteenth century mendicant missionaries were also active in North Africa, trying to convert Muslims. Language schools were set up, and training for missionaries developed to make them more knowledgeable in the local beliefs and languages of their audience. More contact did not necessarily mean more realistic knowledge throughout Europe; stereotypes of Muslims as cruel, effeminate, idolatrous, sexual perverts continued to exist, while new ones of the chivalrous, brave Muslim soldiers emerged.
European discoveries about the rest of the world had unspectacular origins in attempts to have direct links to gold - and spice-producing areas. Expansion in the Atlantic first started as the extension of Mediterranean exploration. Navigation techniques developed through experience and the observation of the stars, the sun, and coastlines. The antecedents of later conquests were the Catalan exploration and conquest of the Balearics in the Mediterranean; the establishment of trading posts in North Africa; and the installation of Italian merchant colonies. Italian, especially Venetian and Genoese, involvement in the southern and eastern Mediterranean was already significant during the eleventh century, even leading to an attack against Mahdiya (Tunisia) in 1087. These Italians provided shipping for the crusader
States in return for trading privileges. Venetians installed merchant quarters around the Mediterranean, including Constantinople and Crete. The Genoese established trading colonies across the Mediterranean and beyond, including Antioch, Acre, Chios, Cyprus, Pera (across from Constantinople), and Caffa on the Black Sea. Between 1262 and 1269, the Venetians Niccolo and Maffeo Polo travelled to China; they were the first Westerners to reach it since antiquity. Marco Polo, who initially went to China as part of a Venetian merchant venture, ended up living at the court of the Great Khan Kublai at Shangtu, Khanbalik (Peking), and other Chinese cities, probably employed on official business. He dictated an account of his life there to a fellow prisoner in Genoa in 1298, which became very popular.
Over the three centuries, the formation of new polities and the peaceful or forced incorporation of new areas radically changed the territory of Latin Christendom. Different solutions were found to attract settlers and to ensure the coexistence of locals and newcomers, be they immigrants or conquerors. Although some of this expansion was checked or reversed, Europe no longer consisted of western Europe alone. The expansion of Latin Christendom resulted in the integration of northern and central Europe and Iberia, and shaped European history for centuries to come.
World History
