Overview

For European explorers, merchants, and adventurers, the Orient presented a considerable challenge and exerted a powerful draw. Many of the products that revolutionized late-medieval Europe were originally imported from Asia. Paper, stirrups, and gunpowder were all products that European merchants eagerly desired to distribute in their homelands. Indeed, acquisition of these products, combined with the mastery and control of trade routes necessary to secure them, played an important role in preparing Europe for the Renaissance.

However, despite the clear advantages gained by Europeans through the acquisition of Eastern products and technologies, early travelers and adventurers who traded with the East often encountered a world that seemed diametrically opposed to their own.

Background

Though Western Europe gained much in terms of technological knowledge from interaction with Asia, the European view...