Download The Mongols

The Mongols
Genghis to Kublai
The Steppe
Steppe Culture
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Loyalty to kin/clan
Courage culture
Horsemanship
Mobile
(pastoralists &
hunters)
• Animists
• Lots of raiding
between tribes
• Traded with
sedentary
peoples for
manufactured
goods
Mongols
• Declared themselves to be
descendents of Huns who founded
the 1st steppe empire in late
Classical era.
• Called “Tartars” especially by
Westerners (“people from hell”),
though a misnomer: Mongols
conquered steppe tribe Tartars, but
b/c so many Tartars rose to
prominence in the Mongol Empire,
the name became synonymous
w/Mongols.
Genghis Khan
• Valued individual merit & loyalty
• Fighting wasn’t honorable; winning was.
So, used any means necessary to win
(trickery, etc.)
• Conscripted peasants: Mongols just didn’t
understand peasants who seemed like
grazing animals rather than real humans
who ate meat. “They used same terms,
precision, & emotion in rounding up yaks
as peasants.” --ouch!
• Refugees preceded Mongol attack as
people from outlying areas fled to cities for
protection but overwhelmed the cities &
spread fear
• LOVED negative PR: allowed &
encouraged true or false stories to be
circulated in order instill fear.
• Fought on the move: didn’t care if chased
or fled (unlike sedentary soldier-farmer),
just wanted to kill the enemy.
Genghis Khan --innovations
• Relied on speed & surprise and perfected
siege warfare (not relied on defensive
fortifications)
• Used resources of land instead of relying
on supply train
• Allocated fallen soldiers’ share of loot to
widow/children (ensured support)
• Reorganized army so each unit had a mix
of tribal/ethnic peoples and they had to
live & fight together ---transcend kinship,
ethnicity, & religion.
• Religious tolerance 
• Instituted postal system for
communication
• Ordered writing system created
• Abolished torture & insisted on rule of law
(to which even the khan was accountable)
Genghis Khan - other legacy
• In 25 years, subjugated more land & people than the
Romans did in 400 years.
• Destroyed LOTS of ‘less important’ cities often along less
accessible trade routes to funnel commerce into routes
that his army could more easily supervise and control.
To compare…
Imagine if… “the U.S., instead of being created by
a group of educated merchants & wealthy
planters, had been founded by one of its illiterate
slaves, who, by the sheer force of personality,
charisma, & determination, liberated America
from foreign rule, united the people,… invented
a new system of warfare, marched an army from
Canada to Brazil, and opened roads of
commerce in a free-trade zone that stretched
across the continents.” --J. Weatherford in
Genghis Khan
Map
Death of Genghis Khan
• Even prior to his death, lots of fighting among his
sons.
• He kept pursuing new lands because he worried
that factionalism within his family would tear apart
the empire & also because his peoples had grown
dependent on a steady flow of goods --and his
empire depended upon constant conquest.
• Died in 1227 without conquering China.
• His son established Karakorum which became a
focal point for merchants, pilgrims, & craftsmen.
Division of the Mongol Empire
• After several decades of power struggles among Genghis
Khan’s sons, nephews, daughters-in-law, & grandsons,
Kublai Khan (Genghis’ grandson) became leader of the
eastern portion of the Mongol Empire which ruled China
as the Yuan Dynasty & declared himself as the grand
khan.
• Around 1300, the empire would be split into four sections
(khanates) with each ruled by various descendents of
Genghis Khan:
– Kublai Khan ruled China (Yuan Dynasty), Tibet, Manchuria,
Korea, & eastern Mongolia
– The Golden Horde ruled the Slavic countries of eastern Europe
– The Ilkhanate (‘vassal empire) ruled Afghanistan to Turkey
– The Moghulistan ruled the central steppe including Kazakhstan,
Siberia & Turkmenistan.
Mongol Empire 13th c. --the khanates
Not part of
Mongol
empire
Kublai Khan
How does this
look sinicized?
• Well-educated
• Preferred buildings & cities --not
yurts
• Infatuated with Chinese
civilization. He wanted to appear
more Chinese than the Chinese,
so he sought to sinicize his
image.
• Has lots of Chinese & foreign
advisors, including Marco Polo at
his court; but the military was all
under Mongol control
• …while in private, he & his family
continued to act as Mongols in
speech, dress, food,
entertainment, etc.
Chabi, his
favorite wife
Yuan Dynasty --what was the extent of its
influence geographically?
Kublai’s Yuan Dynasty
• Defeated Song dynasty
• Encouraged the movement of paper money
(and not just goods) so a standardized unit
of account could be used throughout empire
• Promotion of commerce raised merchants’
status
• Kept lots of lower level Chinese officials, but
eliminated the civil service exams until
1315.
• Distrusted Confucian scholar-officials who
weren’t eligible for some top government
positions
• Supported the peasants & peasant economy,
believing that the success of the peasant
economy would ultimately benefit the Mongols
themselves. The Mongols created relief
measures like reducing some taxes & increasing
granaries. BUT, the Mongols used forced labor
without pay on public works projects, like
rebuilding Grand Canal.
Cultural Changes under the Yuan
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To protect Mongol identity, they were forbidden to marry Chinese. Chinese were
forbidden to learn the Mongol language.
The Mongols classified the population into a hierarchy of 4 groups — with the native
Chinese at the bottom. The Mongols, of course, were at the top; then came the nonHan, mostly Islamic population; and last the northern & then southern Chinese.
Though the Chinese were discriminated against & forbidden to possess arms, but
Mongol rule of China was SLOWLY & ultimately very much sinicized.
Fostered closer relations with Christian Europe & many leaders were Christian;
however, Mongols ultimately abandoned Christianity in favor of Buddhism & Islam.
– Supported Islam & built mosques. Also recruited & employed Islamic financial
administrators.
– Particularly liked the Tibetan form of Buddhism & recruited a number of Tibetan monks to
help them rule China and promote the interests of Buddhism.
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Mongol women looked REALLY strange to the Chinese:
– They rode horses, shot arrows from their bows and commanded
both men and women. They rejected foot binding, yet, quickly
after settling down in their newly conquered lands, Mongol women
lost public power. Only in Mongolia did they continue to rule & to fight.
Mongol
Passport
Pax Mongolica
Marco Polo traveling the Silk Roads
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By the mid 13th c, the family of Genghis
Khan controls Asia from China to the
Black Sea creating a period of stability
during which trade flourishes to new
heights along the Silk Routes. Before lots
of fighting in East Asia and fighting
between Muslims & Christians in the SW
Asia, but now stability brings trade in
more volume & people who now travel the
entire distance.
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Encouraged great commercial, religious,
intellectual exchange between the East &
West.
“The Mongols made culture portable: it
was not enough to merely exchange
goods, because whole systems of
knowledge had to also be transported
in order to use many of the new
products” (e.g. drugs weren’t
profitable trade items unless
possessed medical knowledge for
their use, so moved Arab doctors to
China & vice versa)
Pax Mongolica: look at all these routes!
But..
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No technological breakthroughs
No new religion
Wrote few books
No new crops or methods of agriculture
No permanent structures (under Genghis) other
than bridges; no architectural achievements
• ….but as their army conquered culture after
culture, they collected and passed all these skills
from one civilization to the next. --a conduit [not
a creator] of civilization
Lasting Effects?
• Initial destruction & shock of conquest
yielded quickly to an unprecedented rise in
cultural communication, expanded trade, &
improved civilization.
Regional Effects: Europe
• Mongols defeated Germans, Poles, Bulgars, & Hungarians
(whose land was most desired b/c of grassy plains).
• Eastern Europe was poor compared to Chinese & Muslim
areas, so the Mongols turned away from several areas
leaving Europe to suffer the least from the Mongol attacks
• Europe gained SO much from the advantages of the contact
through merchants & exchange of diplomatic & religious
envoys.
• Clerics looked to Bible for answer & thought the Mongols
were a missing Hebrew tribe that was acting in collusion
with European Jews. Unable to defeat the Mongols, the
Europeans could defeat the Jews (their imagined enemies
at home) and began attacking Jewish quarters in cities
throughout Europe: setting fire to homes, massacring
residents, forcing Jews to flee as refugees thru Europe
…prompting the Catholic Church to order Jews to wear
distinctive clothes & emblems in order to identify newly
arrived Jews in communities.
Invasions of Eastern Europe
More Effects on Europe
• Disappointed with loot from European
invasions, Mongols allowed Italian
merchants in Crimea to take many of
their European prisoners to sell as
slaves (esp. to Egypt) in exchange for
large amounts of trade goods.
• This began a long & profitable
relationship between Mongols &
merchants of Venice & Genoa who
set up trading posts in Black Sea:
Italians supplied Mongols with
manufactured goods in return for the
right to sell the Slavs as slaves in the
Mediterranean market …slaves who
would ultimately defeat the Mongols
as the Mamluks in Egypt.
• Silk routes opened … & then spread
PLAGUE to Europe.
Regional Effects: Russia “the
Golden Horde
• In Russia…After the initial attack of Eastern Europe in 1221, Mongol
forces successfully attacked Russia in 1224 by defeating Kiev Rus.
• Destroyed most cities & demanded high tribute.
• However, the Mongols left Russia largely to its own devices & few
Mongol officials were there (INDIRECT rule). Russia had lots of
independent principalities, each required to send tribute …or else.
• New places --like Moscow (Muscovy) to the north --began to grow with
the Mongol’s implementation of a postal system, financial structures, &
census. Moscow & it’s ruling prince (Ivan) became a cultural & economic
center.
• Armenians, Georgians, & Russians thought Mongols were a punishment
from God who “fetched the Tartars against us for our sins.”
• Limited Russia’s interaction with Western Europe (e.g. Russia was
isolated from the cultural effects of the Renaissance) --a period of
cultural decay except in northern Russia.
• Lasted the longest of the all the khanates (until 1480)
Regional Effects: East Asia
• Failed to invade Japan twice
(kamikaze)
• Korea: conquered Koryo
dynasty; burdened economy &
peasants (ordered to build
ships for Japanese invasion);
left existing Koryo ruling family
in place but forcibility
arranged marriages to
legitimize rule as well as
Mongolize it.
• Conquered & directly ruled
China; abolished exams,
patronized popular culture &
identified with masses.
Regional Effects: SE Asia
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After failed invasion of Japan, Mongols turned toward SE Asia & went back
to land conquests: success in Burma & Laos, which became tribute areas
(not directly administered by Mongols).
Conquests results in gradual increase in trade volume & value.
Kublai Khan launched 3 failed invasions of Vietnam in the late 13th c. &
sacked the capital each time but it had already been evacuated. Disease,
supply shortages, the climate, and the Vietnamese strategy of harassment
and scorched earth tactics stopped the first two invasions. The 3rd invasion,
of 300,000 men & a vast fleet, was also defeated by luring the Mongols
across a riverbed nested with iron-tipped stakes --resulting in the sinking,
capture, and/or burning of the 400 ships ...after which the army retreated to
China.
Didn’t conquer Java (Indonesia islands) --couldn’t translate successfully
land campaigns to sea ones despite the newly built massive navy.
Less Indian influence in region as a result of conquests: Mongols
encouraged Chinese to emigrate to SE Asia & establish trading stations in
foreign ports (in order to expand trade into new areas)
Vietnam defeats Mongols
Regional Effects: SW Asia
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Muslim societies had highest levels of commerce
& had renowned civilization -- likewise, Mongol
invasion did most damage here.
They sacked Baghdad --the heart of the Muslim
world -- using pontoon boats along rivers, more
powerful gunpowder, & exploiting religious
differences among people.
No other non-Muslim troops would conquer
Baghdad until 2003 & not since the birth of Islam
had so much of the Muslim world by ruled by nonbelievers. While the Crusaders had only
managed to seize a few ports, the Mongols had
then conquered every Muslim kingdom & city from
the Indus River to the Mediterranean. --Only the
Arabian Peninsula & North Africa were outside
their control.
Finally, in 1260 the Mamluks slave warriors of
Egypt led by Babar defeated the Mongols near the
Sea of Galilee, marking the western border of the
Mongol Empire.
Under the Ilkhanate of Persia, Persian culture
reemerged from centuries of Arab domination.
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Decline after Kublai & in
Timurlame’s wake
In 1294 Kublai Khan died in China, and Mongol power began to decline in Asia
& elsewhere. The Yuan suffered from financial woes from the failed invasions of
Japan & Java. In 1368 the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Ming.
In the 1370's Tamerlane (“Timur the lame”) --a Turkish-Mongol warrior claiming
descent from Genghis Khan --fought his way to leadership of the Mongol states
of Central Asia and tried to restore the Mongol Empire. He swept into Russia &
Persia fighting mainly other Muslims. In 1398 he sacked Delhi & murdered
100,000 people, and then died in 1405 while marching on China. He preferred
capturing wealth and lots of slaughtering, without pausing to install stable
governments. Because of this, the huge realm inherited by his sons fell apart
quickly after his death.
Prompt
Compare and contrast the political and
economic effects of Mongol rule on TWO
of the following:
China
Middle East
Russia
Sample thesis
Because Kublai Khan established the Yuan
dynasty and ruled China directly, politically,
Mongol rule had more effect on China that it did
on Russia, which the Mongols ruled only
indirectly as a tribute state. However,
economically both China and Russia were aided
by the increased trade associated with pax
mongolica, but Russia was more removed and
so benefited less than China, which was more
directly connected to the Silk Roads.