Original sentence: One is the city of Korčula (Curzola) on an Adriatic island bearing the same name, then part of the off-shore territory of the Venetian Republic, and the other is its capitol, Venice.Strong arguments have been brought forth supporting both possibilities with historians divided nearly evenly on the issue.The birthplace, and, by asociation, the ethnicity of Marco Polo is as yet unknown.The strong possibility of Korčula being Polo's birthplace  has raised the issue of wether he was an Italian (Venetian) or Croat, since the town (and, indeed, the entire Dalmatian region) was predominantly Croat  (in modern times Dalmatia, including Korčula, is part of Croatia).There are two locations historians consider his possible birthplace
Edited sentence: As a consequence in Croatia, Polo is often presented as Croatian.Because a 'Depolo' family is present on the Island, local authorities began to claim that Marco Polo was born in Korčula, and he was an ethnic Croat.Even Croatia's former president Franjo Tuđman several times claimed Polo as a Croatian, sometimes on official occasions.Even without reliable evidence, this theory's popularity has grown in Croatia over recent years - as a result of the political situation.Furthermore, Venice is clearly indicated as Polo's birthplace in  The Travels of Marco Polo.He has also pointed out that, even if Polo was born in Korčula, this should be meaningless, because in that time the island was inhabited by people speaking a romance dialect (Dalmatian first, Venitian after).In the main town an Italian dialect was spoken  until 1920.The Venitian historian Alvise Zorzi had denied the theory, with accurate proofs.The island was in Polo's time, part of the Republic of Venice, but today is part of Croatia.The legend is based on the fact that Marco Polo was captured by Genoese during the Battle of Curzola, between the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice, in September, 8, 1298.The tourism authorities of Korčula  advertise it as the home of Marco Polo, based on a later legend that places the Polo family in the Dalmatian town of Šibenik, later moving to Korčula) and then to Venice