China is a great and longstanding empire. Now acclaimed historian and author of Emperor of the Seas describes Kublai Khan and the part he played in its maritime mastery.
How Kublai Khan made China the first Maritime Superpower Two dominant impressions came to mind when I began to write a book on Kublai Khan. One was the opium-inspired poem Kubla by Samuel Taylor Coleridge describing the Mongol emperors summer capital of Xanadu. The...