Download The Historian`s Apprentice The Mongol Impact on China, Europe

The
Historian’s
Apprentice
Learning the Historian’s Craft
by Practicing the Historian’s Craft.
The Mongol Impact
on China, Europe, and the Middle East
by Jonathan Burack
Each unit in The Historian’s Apprentice series deals with an important historical topic. It
introduces students to a five-step set of practices designed to simulate the experience of a
historian and make explicit all key phases of the historian’s craft.
The Historian’s Apprentice: A Five-Step Process
1. Reflect on Your Prior Knowledge of the Topic
Students discuss what they already know and how their prior
knowledge may shape or distort the way they view the topic.
2. Apply Habits of Historical Thinking to the Topic
Students build background knowledge on the basis of five habits of
thinking that historians use in constructing accounts of the past.
3. Interpret the Relevant Primary Sources
Students apply a set of rules for interpreting sources and assessing
their relevance and usefulness.
4. Assess the Interpretations of Other Historians
Students learn to read secondary sources actively, with the goal of
deciding among competing interpretations based on evidence in
the sources.
5. Interpret, Debate, and Write About the Topic Yourself
Students apply what they have learned by constructing evidencebased interpretations of their own in a variety of ways.
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Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-57596-355-6
Product Code: HS777
Teacher
Teacher Introduction
Introduction
Teaching the Historian’s Craft
The goal of The Historian’s Apprentice units
is to expose students in a manageable
way to the complex processes by which
historians practice their craft. By modeling
what historians do, students will practice the
full range of skills that make history the unique
and uniquely valuable challenge that it is.
Modeling the historian’s craft is not the
same as being a historian—something few
students will become. Therefore a scaffolding
is provided here to help students master
historical content in a way that will be
manageable and useful to them.
Historical thinking is not a simple matter of
reciting one fact after another, or even of
mastering a single, authoritative account.
It is disciplined by evidence, and it is a
quest for truth. Yet historians usually try to
clarify complex realities and make tentative
judgments, not to draw final conclusions. In
doing so, they wrestle with imperfect sets of
evidence (the primary sources), detect multiple
meanings embedded in those sources, and
take into account varying interpretations by
other historians. They also recognize how
huge a divide separates our present from
earlier times. Hence, they work hard to avoid
present-mindedness and achieve empathy
with people who were vastly different from us.
In their actual practice, historians are masters
of the cautious, qualified conclusion. Yet they
engage, use their imaginations, and debate
with vigor. It is this spirit and these habits of
craft that The Historian’s Apprentice seeks to
instill in students.
The Historian’s Apprentice: Five-Steps in Four Parts
The Historian’s Apprentice is a five-step process. However, the materials presented here are
organized into four parts. Part I deals with the first two of the five steps of the process. Each
of the other three parts then deals with one step in the process. Here is a summary of the
four parts into which the materials are organized:
Teacher introduction. Includes suggested day-by-day sequences for using these
materials, including options for using the PowerPoint presentations. One sequence is
designed for younger students and includes a page of vocabulary definitions.
Part 1. A student warm-up activity, an introductory essay, a handout detailing a set of
habits of historical thinking, and two PowerPoint presentations (Five Habits of Historical
Thinking and The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East). Part 1 (including
the PowerPoints) deals with Historian’s Apprentice Steps 1 and 2.
Part 2. A checklist for analyzing primary sources, several primary sources and
worksheets for analyzing them. Part 2 deals with Historian’s Apprentice Step 3.
Part 3. Two secondary source passages and two student activities analyzing those
passages. Part 3 deals with Historian’s Apprentice Step 4.
Part 4. Two optional follow-up activities enabling students to write about and/or debate
their own interpretations of the topic. Part 4 deals with Historian’s Apprentice Step 5.
All pages in this booklet may be photocopied for classroom use.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Teacher
Introduction
Suggested Five-Day Sequence
Below is one possible way to use this Historian’s Apprentice unit. Tasks are listed day by day in a
sequence taking five class periods, with some homework and some optional follow-up activities.
PowerPoint Presentation: Five Habits of Historical Thinking. This presentation comes with each
Historian’s Apprentice unit. If you have used it before with other units, you need not do so again. If
you decide to use it, incorporate it into the Day 1 activities. In either case, give students the “Five
Habits of Historical Thinking” handout for future reference. Those Five Habits are as follows:
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History Is Not the Past Itself
The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation
Time, Change, and Continuity
Cause and Effect
As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View
Warm-Up Activity: Homework assignment: Students do the “Warm-Up Activity.” This activity
explores student memories and personal experiences shaping their understanding of the topic.
Day 1: Discuss the “Warm-Up Activity.” Then either have students read or review the “Five Habits of
Historical Thinking” handout, or use the Five Habits PowerPoint presentation.
Homework assignment: Students read the background essay “The Impact of the Mongols.”
Day 2: Use the second PowerPoint presentation, The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the
Middle East to overview the topic for this lesson. The presentation applies the Five Habits of
Historical Thinking to this topic. Do the two activities embedded in the presentation.
Homework assignment: Students read the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist.” The checklist
teaches a systematic way to handle sources:
• Sourcing
• Contextualizing
• Interpreting meanings
• Point of view
• Corroborating sources
Day 3: In class, students study some of the ten primary source documents and complete “Source
Analysis” worksheets on them. They use their notes to discuss these sources. (Worksheet
questions are all based on the concepts on the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist.”)
Day 4: In class, students complete the remaining “Source Analysis” worksheets and use their notes
to discuss these sources. Take some time to discuss briefly the two secondary source passages
students will analyze next.
Homework assignment: Students read these two secondary source passages.
Day 5: In class, students do the two “Secondary Sources” activities and discuss them. These
activities ask them to analyze the two secondary source passages using four criteria:
• Clear focus on a problem or question
• Position or point of view
• Use of evidence or sources
• Awareness of alternative explanations
Follow-Up Activities (optional, at teacher discretion):
Do as preferred: the DBQ Essay Assignment and/or the Structured Debate.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Teacher
Suggested Three-Day Sequence
Introduction
If you have less time to devote to this lesson, here is a suggested shorter sequence. The
sequence does not include the PowerPoint presentation Five Habits of Historical Thinking. This
presentation is included with each Historian’s Apprentice unit. If you have never used it with your
class, you may want to do so before following this three-day sequence.
The three-day sequence leaves out a few activities from the five-day sequence. It also suggests
that you use only six key primary sources. Yet it still walks students through the steps in the
Historian’s Apprentice approach: Clarifying background knowledge, analyzing primary sources,
comparing secondary sources, and debating or writing about the topic.
Warm-Up Activity. Homework assignment: Ask students to read or review the “Five Habits of
Historical Thinking” handout and read the background essay “The Impact of the Mongols.”
Day 1: Use the PowerPoint presentation The Industrial Revolution in Daily Life. It overviews
the topic for this lesson by applying the Five Habits of Historical Thinking to it. Do the two
activities embedded in the presentation.
Homework assignment: Students read or review the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist.”
The checklist teaches a systematic way to handle sources.
Day 2: In class, students study some of the ten primary source documents and complete
“Source Analysis” worksheets on them. They use their notes to discuss these sources. We
suggest using Documents 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
You may wish to make your own choices of primary sources. Use your judgment in deciding
how many of them your students can effectively analyze in a single class period.
Homework assignment: Students read the two secondary source passages.
Day 3: In class, students do the two “Secondary Sources” activities and discuss them. These
activities ask them to analyze the two secondary source passages using four criteria.
Follow-Up Activities (optional, at teacher discretion):
Do as preferred: the DBQ Essay Assignment and/or the Structured Debate.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Teacher
Introduction
Suggestions for Use With Younger Students
For younger students, parts of this lesson may prove challenging. If you feel your students need a
somewhat more manageable path through the material, see the suggested sequence below.
If you want to use the Five Habits of Historical Thinking PowerPoint presentation, this sequence takes
four class periods. If you do not use this PowerPoint, you can combine DAY 1 and DAY 2 and keep
the sequence to just three days. We suggest using six primary sources only. The ones listed for DAY
3 are less demanding in terms of vocabulary and conceptual complexity. For DAY 4, we provide some
simpler DBQs for the follow-up activities.
Vocabulary: A list of vocabulary terms in the sources and the introductory essay is provided on
page 7 of this booklet. You may wish to hand this sheet out as a reading reference, you could make
flashcards out of some of the terms, or you might ask each of several small groups to use the
vocabulary sheet to explain terms in one source to the rest of the class.
SUGGESTED FOUR-DAY SEQUENCE
Warm-Up Activity. Homework assignment: Students do the “Warm-Up Activity.” This activity
explores student memories and personal experiences shaping their understanding of the topic.
Day 1: Discuss the “Warm-Up Activity.” Show the Five Habits of Historical Thinking PowerPoint
presentation (unless you have used it before and/or you do not think it is needed now). If you
do not use this PowerPoint presentation, give students the “Five Habits of Historical Thinking”
handout and discuss it with them.
Homework assignment: Ask students to read the background essay “The Impact of
the Mongols.”
Day 2: Use the PowerPoint presentation The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle
East. This introduces the topic for the lesson by applying the Five Habits of Historical Thinking
to it. Do the two activities embedded in the presentation.
Homework assignment: Students read or review the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist.”
The checklist teaches a systematic way to handle sources.
Day 3: Discuss the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist” and talk through one primary source
document in order to illustrate the meaning of the concepts on the checklist. Then have
students complete “Source Analysis” worksheets after studying primary source documents 2,
3, 4, 6, 7, and 9.
Homework assignment: Students read the two secondary source passages.
Day 4: Students do only “Secondary Sources: Activity 2” and discuss it. This activity asks them to
choose from among the sources the two that best back up each secondary source passage.
Follow-Up Activities (optional, at teacher discretion):
Do as preferred: the DBQ Essay Assignment and/or the Structured Debate.
Here are some alternate DBQs tailored to the six primary sources recommended here:
In what main ways did the Mongol Empire differ from the settled societies
near it? How did those differences help them to control those societies for a
century or more?
“The Mongols were cruel and ruthless. They do not deserve the praise some
historians give them.” Explain why you do or do not agree with statement.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Vocabulary
Vocabulary: The Introductory Essay
catapult: An ancient military device used to hurl stones, other heavy objects, and explosives
nomads: People who have no permanent home but who move continually, usually in a regular pattern
siege: In this case, the effort to surround a fortified place and force it to surrender
steppe: An extensive grassy plain without trees
Vocabulary: The Primary Sources
arraign: In this case, to accuse, charge, or criticize
dragoman: A guide or interpreter
ply: To carry on or pursue some effort
precepts: A rule or maxim guiding moral action
Vocabulary: The Secondary Sources
ideological: A body of ideas, beliefs, or myths that guides a group in its social actions and plans
imams: A Muslim leader or person in charge of a mosque
insinuate: To instill an idea or suggest it subtly
mandarin: In the Chinese Empire, a member of the higher ranks of public officials
persistent: Able to endure or keep going in the face of opposition or obstacles
pragmatic: Practical
predilections: Inclined toward something, leaning in favor of it
tenuous: Vague, unclear, or poorly understood
universal: Something that applies to or is used by all
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Teacher
Introduction
Part 1: The Mongol Impact—Providing the Context
Note to the teacher: The next pages provide materials meant to help students better understand and
evaluate this topic. The materials also seek to teach students the Five Habits of Historical Thinking.
This section includes the following:
• PowerPoint presentation: The Five Habits of Historical Thinking
This presentation illustrates five habits of thought or modes of analysis that guide historians as
they construct their secondary accounts of a topic. These five habits are not about skills used
in analyzing primary sources (those are dealt with more explicitly in another handout in the next
section). The Five Habits are meant to help students see history as a way of thinking, not as
the memorizing of disparate facts and predigested conclusions. The PowerPoint uses several
historical episodes as examples to illustrate the Five Habits. In two places, it pauses to ask
students to do a simple activity applying one of the habits to some of their own life experiences.
If you have used this PowerPoint with other Historian’s Apprentice units, you may not need to
use it again here.
• Handout: “The Five Habits of Historical Thinking”
This handout supplements the PowerPoint presentation. It is meant as a reference for students
to use as needed. If you have used other Historian’s Apprentice units, your students may only
need to review this handout quickly.
• Warm-Up Activity
A simple exercise designed to help you see what students know about the topic, what confuses
them, or what ideas they may have absorbed about it from popular culture, friends and family,
etc. The goal is to alert them to their need to gain a clearer idea of the past and be critical of
what they think they already know.
• Introductory essay: “The Impact of the Mongols”
The essay provides enough basic background information on the topic to enable students to
assess primary sources and conflicting secondary source interpretations. At the end of the
essay, students get some points to keep in mind about the nature of the sources they will
examine and the conflicting secondary source interpretations they will debate.
• PowerPoint presentation: The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
This PowerPoint presentation reviews the topic for the lesson and shows how the Five Habits
of Historical Thinking can be applied to a clearer understanding of it. At two points, the
presentation calls for a pause and students are prompted to discuss some aspects of their prior
knowledge of the topic. Our proposed sequences suggest using this PowerPoint presentation
after assigning the introductory essay, but you may prefer to reverse this order.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Warm-Up Activity
What Do You Know About the Mongol Empire?
This lesson deals with impact of the Mongols on
world history. Whenever you start to learn something
about a time in history, it helps to think first of what
you already know about it, or think you know. You
probably have impressions. Or you may have read or
heard things about it already. Some of what you know
may be accurate. You need to be ready to alter your
fixed ideas about this time as you learn more about it.
This is what any historian would do. To do this, study
this map and take a few notes in response to the
questions below it. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
What part of the world does this map
show? Can you name some of the nations
today inside both the white and the darker
shaded areas on the map?
Together, those two areas made up the
largest empire in history. It arose in the
1200s and was nearly all gone by 1400. It
was controlled by a group known as the
Mongols. What do you know about them?
In the past, accounts of the Mongols often
referred to them as the “Mongol Hordes.”
What image of them does this call up in
your mind? Do you think the image is a fair
one? How was it that the Mongols were
able to unite so many powerful civilizations
into the largest empire in history?
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Introductory Essay
•
The Impact of the Mongols
The story of the Mongols of the 13th and 14th
centuries is one that many people find fascinating,
horrifying, and often difficult to believe or fully
understand.
It is fascinating for being full of dramatic, colorful,
swiftly moving events and amazing personalities—
and also for its exotic setting. For the Mongols
were nomads of the steppes of Central Asia,
herders who mastered the art of horse riding. Of
course, nomadic societies on the Eurasian steppes
had been doing that for centuries. However, the
Mongols put their horse-riding skills to the test
within a military machine of truly formidable power.
No other society at the time had warriors as skilled
at shooting arrows from a galloping horse, nor were
others as smart in cavalry tactics of attacking and of
engaging in deceptive retreats as well. In time, the
Mongols also learned from the Chinese how to use
catapults and gunpowder explosives in the siege
of cities.
As for Mongol personalities, none is more amazing
than Temujin, destined to rise from the head of a
family of seven abandoned by its clan to become
Chinggis Khan (often spelled Genghis Khan), ruler of
a great united federation of Mongol tribes. As a part
of his efforts to unify the Mongol tribes and clans, he
seems to have created entirely new arrangements
to overcome the purely tribal organization in military
and other affairs. These efforts helped achieve much
greater unity and discipline than what nomadic tribal
societies had attained.
Along with being fascinating, the story of the
Mongols is also horrifying. It is horrifying to many
because of the ruthless form of warfare by which
a small army of horse-riding Mongol warriors was
able to sow terror among and subdue whole
civilizations vastly more populous and wealthier
than the Mongols themselves. In attacking a city, for
example, the Mongols learned to let residents know
that if they surrendered, they would be allowed to
live. If they did not surrender, the Mongols would
massacre them—men, women, and children—sell
any survivors into slavery, and level the city. They
carried out this threat often enough that it had the
desired effect in many cases.
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Finally, the Mongol story is hard to believe or
fully understand. This is in part because we are
used to thinking of nomadic herders of the open,
rolling steppes as far less advanced than the huge
agricultural and city-based civilizations such as
ancient Egypt, Rome, China, or Persia. Yet in less
than a century after Temujin united the Mongol
tribes in 1206, his armies of about a hundred
thousand had conquered two of the civilizations
mentioned above (China and Persia), civilizations
which contained tens of millions of people. The
Mongol Empire soon split into four main parts, or
khanates, when Chinggis divided the empire among
four of his sons. Overall, these four regions together
made up the largest empire in history. The question
of how the Mongols did all this is a challenging
matter that of course interests historians.
Another issue that interests them, however, is what
sort of lasting impact, if any, the Mongols had on
history in general. For as swiftly as the Mongol
Empire arose, it lasted only about a century in
most places and then disappeared completely as
an organized political entity. For some, the Mongol
impact is seen almost entirely as a negative one.
Mongol warriors laid waste to many regions—parts
of China and Russia, present-day Iraq and Iran,
Poland and Hungary, areas of northern India, and
many other places. In the Middle East, they put
an end to the Muslim world’s Abbasid Caliphate
and may well have cut short the creative energy
of Muslim civilization in certain places, such as
Baghdad, which was subject to a devastating siege
and slaughter in 1258. Everywhere they conquered,
the Mongols brought terror and often destruction.
Yet historians also speak of a Pax Mongolia—a
“Mongolian Peace” in which a widespread
lawfulness replaced the warring of small states
and tribal societies throughout the parts of Asia
the Mongols conquered. In China, by the time of
Chinggis’s grandson Khubilai Khan, the Mongols
were adopting many Chinese practices and acting
to strengthen and protect that ancient civilization.
The Yuan Dynasty established by Khubilai brought
a degree of unity to China greater than had existed
Debating the Documents | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Handout
previously. There and elsewhere, Mongol leaders
also seem to have taken a tolerant attitude toward
the religious diversity in many of the lands they
now controlled.
Economic life thrived in many parts of the Mongol
Empire. The Pax Mongolia made it far easier for
merchants to trade along the many routes that
made up the so-called Silk Road across Central
Asia. Safe travel was guaranteed to them, and way
stations were provided. Not only trade goods, but
ideas, religions, and other cultural traditions could
be carried much more easily from one part of the
Mongol Empire to another. Europeans, for example,
likely benefited from various transfers of technology
from China, such as gunpowder, paper money,
the compass, and many other materials, tools
and methods.
According to some historians, these accomplishments explain why Europeans and others closer in
time to the Mongols often admired them, rather than
saw them as a bloodthirsty horde, as many people
did later on. Hence in the late 1300s, Geoffrey
Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales could speak of “this
noble king, the Tartar Genghis Khan.” Obviously not
all historians agree with this assessment, nor need
for you accept it either. Yet you do need to consider
all the evidence on either side of this controversy.
The sources for this unit should help you decide
for yourself which view of the Mongols you think is
most accurate.
Points to Keep in Mind
Historians’ Questions
The Primary Source Evidence
As the Mongol Empire was expanding, those in its
path naturally regarded it with fear and loathing.
However, after it faded from history, the Mongols
were often admired by historians and other writers
who looked back on their achievements. Much
later, during the Enlightenment in Europe, the
Mongols again began to reclaim their reputation
as a bloodthirsty horde of barbarians bent only on
destruction.
For this lesson, you will study ten primary source
documents. Some of them deal with the nature
of the nomadic life the Mongols lived on the
steppes of Central Asia. Other sources are from
various accounts by Europeans or other nonMongol visitors to the Mongol lands. Together,
these sources should give you a better sense of
who the Mongols were and what they were like,
as well as an understanding of what their impact
was on surrounding societies and how they were
perceived by those societies.
Today, historians take a more balanced view of the
Mongols, yet debates still take the form of trying to
decide whether their overall impact was a creative
one in the long run, or purely destructive. To some
extent, which side a historian takes in this debate
depends on the sources used and the time and
place on which that historian focuses.
A very positive take on the Mongols has been
offered by Jack Weatherford in his book, Genghis
Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Not
everyone agrees with his views, and so they will
form the basis for the contrasting secondary source
interpretations provided in that section of this
“Historian’s Apprentice” unit.
Secondary Source Interpretations
After studying and discussing the primary sources,
you will read two short passages by two different
historians. The historians who wrote these passages
differ somewhat in their views about the Mongols
and their impact on world history. You will use
your own background knowledge and your ideas
about the primary sources as you think about and
answer some questions about the views of these
two historians.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Student Handout
Five Habits of Historical Thinking
History is not just a chronicle of one fact after another. It is a meaningful story, or an
account of what happened and why. It is written to address questions or problems
historians pose. This checklist describes key habits of thinking that historians adopt as
they interpret primary sources and create their own accounts of the past.
History Is Not the Past Itself
When we learn history, we learn a story about the past, not the past itself. No matter how certain
an account of the past seems, it is only one account, not the entire story. The “entire story” is
gone; that is, the past itself no longer exists. Only some records of events remain, and they are
never complete. Therefore it is important to see all judgments and conclusions about the past as
tentative or uncertain. Avoid looking for hard-and-fast “lessons” from the past. The value of history
is in a way the opposite of such a search for quick answers; that is, its value is in teaching us to
live with uncertainty and see even our present as complex, unfinished, open-ended.
The Detective Model: Problem, Evidence, Interpretation
Historians can’t observe the past directly. They must use evidence, just as a detective tries to
reconstruct a crime based on clues left behind. In the historian’s case, primary sources are the
evidence—letters, official documents, maps, photos, newspaper articles, artifacts, and all other
traces from past times. Like a detective, a historian defines a very specific problem to solve, one
for which evidence does exist. Asking clear, meaningful questions is a key to writing good history.
Evidence is always incomplete. It’s not always easy to separate fact from opinion in it, or tell what
is important from what is not. Historians try to do this, but they must stay cautious about their
conclusions and open to other interpretations of the same evidence.
Time, Change, and Continuity
History is about the flow of events over time, yet is not just one fact after another. It seeks to
understand this flow of events as a pattern. In that pattern, some things change while others hold
steady over time. You need to see history as a dynamic interplay of both change and continuity
together. Only by doing this can you see how the past has evolved into the present—and why the
present carries with it many traces of or links to the past.
Cause and Effect
Along with seeing patterns of change and continuity over time, historians seek to explain that
change. In doing this, they know that no single factor causes change. Many factors interact.
Unique, remarkable, and creative individual actions and plans are one factor, but individual plans
have unintended outcomes, and these shape events in unexpected ways. Moreover, individuals
do not always act rationally or with full knowledge of what they are doing. Finally, geography,
technology, economics, cultural traditions, and ideas all affect what groups and individuals do.
As They Saw It: Grasping Past Points of View
Above all, thinking like a historian means trying hard to see how people in the past thought and
felt. This is not easy. As one historian put it, the past is “another country,” in which people felt and
thought differently, often very differently, from the way we do now. Avoiding “present-mindedness”
is therefore a key task for historians. Also, since the past includes various groups in conflict,
historians must learn to empathize with many diverse cultures and subgroups to see how they
differ and what they share in common.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
The Primary Sources
Part 2: Analyzing the Primary Sources
Note to the teacher: The next pages provide the primary sources for this lesson. We suggest you give
these to students after they read the background essay, after they review the “Five Habits of Historical
Thinking” handout, and after they watch and discuss the PowerPoint presentation for the lesson.
This section includes the following:
• Handout: “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist
Give copies of this handout to students and ask them to refer to it when analyzing any
primary source.
• Ten Primary Source Documents
The Documents are as follows:
Document 1. A woman standing on a carpet at the entrance to a yurt
Document 2. A woman and four men on horseback in front of a yurt
Document 3. William of Rubruck on how nomads adapted to the steppes
Document 4. Ata Malik Juvaini on Chinggis Khan’s address to conquered Muslims
Document 5. The Great Khan’s reply regarding attacks on Christians
Document 6. William of Rubruck on his travels to the Mongol capital
Document 7. Marco Polo on Khubilai Khan’s views on religions
Document 8. Ata Malik Juvaini on the Mongol destruction of the Assassins
Document 9. Passage from Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’s Merchant Handbook
Document 10. An illustration of Jews being burned during the Black Death
• Ten “Source Analysis” Worksheets for Analyzing the Primary Sources
Each worksheet asks student to take notes on one source. The prompts along the side match
the five categories in the “Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist.” Not every category is used in
each worksheet, only those that seem most relevant to a full analysis of that source.
You may want students to analyze all of the sources. However, if time does not allow this, use
those that seem most useful for your own instructional purposes.
Students can use the notes on the “Source Analysis” worksheets in discussions, as a help in
analyzing the two secondary sources in the next part of this lesson, and in follow-up debates,
DBQs, and other activities.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
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Student Handout
Interpreting Primary Sources Checklist
Primary sources are the evidence historians use to reach conclusions and write their
accounts of the past. Sources rarely have one obvious, easily grasped meaning. To
interpret them fully, historians use several strategies. This checklist describes some of
the most important of those strategies. Read the checklist through and use it to guide
you whenever you need to analyze and interpret a primary source.
Sourcing
Think about a primary source’s author or creator, how and why the primary source document was
created, and where it appeared. Also think about the audience it was intended for and what its
purpose was. You may not always find much information about these things, but whatever you
can learn will help you better understand the source. In particular, it may suggest the source’s
point of view or bias, since the author’s background and intended audience often shape his or her
ideas and way of expressing them.
Contextualizing
“Context” refers to the time and place of which the primary source is a part. In history, facts do
not exist separately from one another. They get their meaning from the way they fit into a broader
pattern. The more you know about that broader pattern, or context, the more you will be able to
understand about the source and its significance.
Interpreting Meanings
It is rare for a source’s full meaning to be completely obvious. You must read a written source
closely, paying attention to its language and tone, as well as to what it implies or merely hints at.
With a visual source, all kinds of meaning may be suggested by the way it is designed, by such
things as shading, camera angle, use of emotional symbols or scenes, etc. The more you pay
attention to all the details, the more you can learn from a source.
Point of View
Every source is written or created by someone with a purpose, an intended audience, and a point
of view or bias. Even a dry table of numbers was created for some reason, to stress some things
and not others, to make a point of some sort. At times, you can tell a point of view simply by
sourcing the document. Knowing an author was a Democrat or a Republican, for example, will
alert you to a likely point of view. In the end, however, only a close reading of the text will make
you aware of point of view. Keep in mind, even a heavily biased source can still give you useful
evidence of what some people in a past time thought. But you need to take the bias into account
in judging how reliable the source’s own claims really are.
Corroborating Sources
No one source tells the whole story. Moreover, no one source is completely reliable. To make
reasonable judgments about an event in the past, you must compare sources to find points of
agreement and disagreement. Even when there are big differences, both sources may be useful.
However, the differences will also tell you something, and they may be important in helping you
understand each source.
14
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
The Primary Sources
The Primary Sources for the Lesson
Document 1
Information on the source: This photo is of a
woman, possibly Turkman or Kyrgyz, standing on a carpet
at the entrance to a yurt, dressed in traditional clothing
and jewelry. The photo was taken in the early 1900s, but it
depicts a scene on the steppes of Central Asia that is not
that different from what would have been common there
during the time of the Mongol Empire.
Document 2
Information on the source: An 1870s photo
of a woman and four men on horseback in front of a
yurt. The photo helps call attention to the central role of
the horse in the various cultures that gave birth to the
Mongols and other federations of steppe nomads of
the past.
Information on the source:
Document 3
The Franciscan monk William of Rubruck traveled
to the Mongol capital of Karakorum in 1253–55. He wrote a detailed account of the his
time with the Mongols. The passage here is from The Journey of William of Rubruck to
the eastern parts of the world, 1253–55, as narrated by himself, with two accounts of the
earlier journey of John of Pian de Carpine, translated from the Latin and edited, with an
introductory notice, by William Woodville Rockhill (London: Hakluyt Society, 1900).
Nowhere have they fixed dwellingplaces, nor do they know where their
next will be… For in winter they go
down to warmer regions in the south:
in summer they go up to cooler
towards the north. The pasture
lands without water they graze over
in winter when there is snow there,
for the snow serveth them as water.
They set up the dwelling in which
they sleep on a circular frame of
interlaced sticks converging into a
little round hoop on the top, from
which projects above a collar as a
chimney, and this they cover over
with white felt…
And they make these houses so
large that they are sometimes thirty
feet in width. I myself once measured
the width between the wheel-tracks
of a cart twenty feet, and when the
house was on the cart it projected
beyond the wheels on either side five
feet at least. I have myself counted
to one cart twenty-two oxen drawing
one house, eleven abreast across
the width of the cart, and the other
eleven before them.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
15
The Primary Sources
Document 4
Information on the source:
In one of
his wars of conquest, Chinggis Khan fought the
Khwarezmid Empire in Central Asia and what is now
Iran and part of Iraq. After his Mongol army took
over the city of Bukhara, he spoke to the Muslim
population at a mosque. These words from that
speech are reproduced from Ata Malik Juvaini,
Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror,
translated by J. A. Boyle, (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1997), p. 105. Juvaini was a
native of an area the Mongols conquered in what is
now the northeastern part of Iran.
Document 5
Information on the source: In 1243, Pope
Innocent IV sent Franciscan friar John Plano Carpini
to Karakoram to meet with the Kuyuk Khan, the third
Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, to ask him to stop
his attacks on Christians. After a wait, Carpini was
given a reply, part of which is reproduced here.
And when you say: “I am a Christian. I pray to
God. I arraign and despise others,” how do you
know who is pleasing to God and to whom He
allots His grace? How can you know it, that you
speak such words?
Thanks to the power of the Eternal Heaven, all
lands have been given to us from sunrise to sunset.
How could anyone act other than in accordance
with the commands of Heaven? Now your own
upright heart must tell you: “We [the Pope and
monarchs of Europe] will become subject to you,
and will place our powers at your disposal.” You
in person, at the head of the monarchs, all of
you, without exception, must come to tender us
service and pay us homage, then only will we
recognize your submission. But if you do not obey
the commands of Heaven, and run counter to our
orders, we shall know that you are our foe.
16
O people, know that you have committed great
sins, and that the great ones among you have
committed these sins. If you ask me what proof
I have for these words, I say it is because I am
the punishment of God. If you had not committed
great sins, God would not have sent a punishment
like me upon you.
Document 6
Information on the source: Another
passage from William of Rubruck’s account of his
travels to the Mongol capital, Karakorum.
The next day (the Chan) sent his secretaries to
me, who said: “Our lord sends us to you to say
that you are here Christians, Saracens [Muslims]
and Tuins [Buddhists]. And each of you says that
his doctrine is the best, and his writings—that is,
books—the truest. So he wishes that you shall all
meet together, and make a comparison, each one
writing down his precepts, so that he himself may
be able to know the truth.” Then I said: “Blessed
be God, who put this in the Chan’s heart. But our
Scriptures tell us, the servant of God should not
dispute, but should show mildness to all; so I am
ready, without disputation or contention, to give
reason for the faith and hope of the Christians,
to the best of my ability.” They wrote down my
words, and carried them back to him. Then it
was told the Nestorians that they should look to
themselves, and write down what they wished
to say, and likewise to the Saracens, and in the
same way to the Tuins.
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
The Primary Sources
Document 7
Information on the source: Perhaps the most famous European visitor to China under Mongol rule
was Marco Polo. He left Venice in 1271 and did not return until 1295. His account was treated with some
doubts at first, though over time many Europeans had their views of China shaped by it. This passage deals
with Khubilai Khan, a grandson of Chinggis Khan who became the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire
and the founder of China’s Yuan Dynasty. Here Marco deals with Khubilai’s views on Christianity and other
religions. From The Travels of Marco Polo, translated and with an introduction by Ronald Latham (London:
Penguin Books, 1958).
It was in the month of November that Kubilai returned
to Khanbalik. And there he stayed until February
and March, the season of our Easter. Learning that
this was one of our principal feasts, he sent for all
the Christians and desired them to bring him the
book containing the four Gospels. After treating the
book to repeated applications of incense with great
ceremony, he kissed it devoutly and desired all his
barons and lords there present to do the same. This
usage he regularly observes on the principle feasts of
the Christians, such as Easter and Christmas. And he
does likewise on the principle feasts of the Saracens,
Jews, and idolaters. Being asked why he did so, he
replied: ‘There are four prophets who are worshiped
and to whom all the world does reverences. The
Christians say that their God was Jesus Christ,
the Saracens Mahomet, the Jews Moses, and the
idolators Sakyamuni Burkhan [Buddha] who was the
first to be represented as God in the form of an idol.
And I do honour and reverence to all four, so that
I may be sure of doing it to him who is greatest in
heaven and truest; and to him I pray for aid. But on
the Great Khan’s own showing he regards as truest
and best the faith of the Christians, because he
declares that it commands nothing that is not full of
all goodness and holiness. He will not on any account
allow the Christians to carry the cross before them,
and this because on it suffered and died such a great
man as Christ.
Document 8
Information on the source: The Mongol Ilkhanate was
founded in the 1200s by Chinngis Khan’s grandson Hulagu
in what is now mainly Iran and Iraq and nearby parts of
Central Asia. It arose at first during Mongol wars against the
Khwarezmid Empire. At first the Ilkhanate was sympathetic
to Buddhism and Christianity. After 1295, its rulers embraced
Islam. This passage is by Persian chronicler Ata Malik Juvaini,
who worked for the Mongols. In it, he describes the results
of the Mongol destruction of a Shi’a group known as the
Assassins. From Ata Malik Juvaini, Genghis Khan: The History
of the World Conqueror, translated by J. A. Boyle, (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 1997).
So was the world cleansed which had
been polluted by their evil. Wayfarers now
ply to and fro without fear or dread or the
inconvenience of paying a toll and pray for
the fortune of the happy King who uprooted
their foundations and left no trace of
anyone of them.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
17
The Primary Sources
Document 9
Information on the source: Pegolotti’s Merchant Handbook offers insight
into trade across Central Asia in the 1300s, when the “Golden Horde” was in
control of much of the area. The Golden Horde was the name used for the group
of Mongols who took control of what is now Russia and other nearby lands.
Francesco Balducci Pegolotti worked for a merchant firm in the Italian city-state
of Florence. The passages here are from the partial translation in Henry Yule
and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of
Medieval Notices of China, Vol. III (London, 1916).
The road you travel from Tana to Cathay is
perfectly safe [Tana is Azov, at the mouth of
the Don River in Russia, Cathay is China],
whether by day or by night, according
to what the merchants say who have
used it…
You may calculate that a merchant with
a dragoman, and with two men servants,
and with goods to the value of twenty-five
thousand golden florins, should spend
on his way to Cathay from sixty to eighty
sommi of silver, and not more if he manage
well; and for all the road back again from
Cathay to Tana, including the expenses of
living and the pay of servants, and all other
charges, the cost will be about five sommi
per head of pack animals, or something
less. And you may reckon the sommi to be
worth five golden florins…
Whatever silver the merchants may carry
with them as far as Cathay the lord of
Cathay will take from them and put into
his treasury. And to merchants who thus
bring silver they give that paper money of
theirs in exchange. This is of yellow paper,
stamped with the seal of the lord aforesaid.
And this money is called balishi; and with
this money you can readily buy silk and all
other merchandise that you have a desire
to buy. And all the people of the country
are bound to receive it. And yet you shall
not pay a higher price for your goods
because your money is of paper.
Document 10
Information on the source: One unintended
result of the more open trade on the Central Asian
routes during Mongol times was the ease with which
diseases passed from one region to another. In
the 1340s, merchants helped spread the terrifying
Black Death throughout Europe. Perhaps a third of
Europe’s population was destroyed by it. Since no
one really understood how the disease spread, many
blamed outsiders or people who were different in
some way. This illustration from a book published in
1493 depicts Jews being burned alive for “spreading
the Black Death.” The photo of this work of art is
courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
18
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 1
Photo of a woman standing on a carpet at the entrance to a yurt
Contextualizing _____________________________________________________________________
What aspects of the physical environment
on the Central Asian steppes might
explain why nomadic groups there
preferred this form of housing? What
aspects of their nomadic lifestyles also
might lead them to build such dwellings?
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
Just from this photo alone, explain
what you think the advantages and
disadvantages of living in a home like this
yurt would be.
Some might call this a “primitive” sort of
housing, compared to dwellings in settled
cities and villages. Others say that is a
biased way of looking at it, that this form
of housing is perfectly sensible for the
groups that used it. With which view do
you agree more? Why?
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
19
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 2
An 1870s photo of a woman and four men on horseback in front of a yurt
Contextualizing _____________________________________________________________________
The first societies to tame the horse were
probably those located on the Eurasian
steppes where the Mongols lived. Why
might that environment lead societies to
stress the raising of horses?
What gave the Mongols their advantage in
warfare was not just the use of the horse.
More settled societies also had cavalry
forces. What else do you know about the
way the Mongols used their horses to
gain advantage over most other armies
from more settled societies?
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
How does this photo help in
understanding why horses would have
been so important to steppe nomads like
the Mongols?
20
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 3
William of Rubruck on how nomads adapt to conditions on the steppes
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
Nomads are often described simply as
groups that move from time to time rather
than living in settled communities. What
does this account add to that view—that
is, how would you describe the pattern of
movements made by Mongol tribes? Were
they random, short or long in distance,
one-way or back and forth, etc.? What
explains the way these groups moved?
What does the second paragraph in this
passage suggest about the complexity
and technical levels achieved by these
Mongol communities?
Corroborating sources ______________________________________________________________
In what ways do Primary Source
Documents 1 and 2 back up the ideas
expressed in this passage? What does
this passage add or help you notice better
about those first two sources?
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
21
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 4
Ata Malik Juvaini reports the words of Chinngis Khan to Muslims he has conquered.
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
What do you think Chinggis Khan meant
by referring to himself as “the punishment
of God”? What would have made him
seem punishing to the Muslims in the
mosque at which he was speaking?
Consider the fact that his audience was
Muslim. Might that fact alone explain the
choice of words Chinggis Khan uses to
describe himself here? Or do you think he
really does think of himself literally as the
punishment of God?
Point of view________________________________________________________________________
Ata Malik Juvaini worked for the Mongols
and wrote a chronicle about them. He
was also a native of Khorasan, an area
of northeastern Iran conquered by the
Mongols. How might this background
explain the way he depicts Chinggis Khan
here? Do you think he might be altering
what Chinggis Khan said in some way or
reporting it fairly and accurately? Explain
your answer.
22
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 5
The Great Khan’s reply to Franciscan friar John Plano Carpini, regarding attacks
on Christians
Contextualizing _____________________________________________________________________
Notice that the date of this source is
1243. What do you know about recent
events then involving Mongols and
Europeans? How might those events
explain the haughty tone the Khan
seems to have taken here in dealing with
the pope?
Considering that the Mongols invaded
Hungary and Poland in 1241, do you think
the Khan was justified in making the sort
of demand he makes here of all European
monarchs and the pope?
From what you know about the pope
and the Catholic Church’s leadership
in the 1200s in Europe, why might the
pope have felt justified in telling the Khan
about his power in relation to the monarchs
of Europe?
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
What can you reasonably conclude
about the Khan’s actual feelings about
Christianity from his brief remarks here?
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
23
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 6
Another passage from William of Rubruck on his travels to the Mongol capital
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
What can you conclude from this passage
about the cultural life of Karakorum, the
Mongol capital, in 1253–55 when William
of Rubruck was there?
Why do you think the Mongol Khan
wanted to have all the representatives
of these religions meet and compare
their ideas?
What do you think of the reasons William
of Rubruck gives for refusing to take part
in what he calls a”disputation”?
Corroborating sources ______________________________________________________________
Compare this source with others that
deal with Mongol views about religions
other than their own. What similarities
and differences do you notice among
these sources?
24
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 7
Marco Polo on Khubilai Khan’s views on Christianity and other religions
Corroborating sources ______________________________________________________________
In what ways does Marco Polo’s account
here of Khubilai Khan’s views about
religion seem similar to that of William of
Rubruck in Primary Source Document 6?
What differences can you see?
Given the similarities, do you think these
two sources show accurately how the
Mongols viewed the religious ideas of the
various cultures they encountered?
Point of view________________________________________________________________________
In what way might Marco Polo’s account
reflect his own attitudes about Christianity
as much as it describes Khubilai Khan’s?
How reliable do you think his account is?
Explain your answer.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
25
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 8
Ata Malik Juvaini on the Mongol destruction of a Shi’a group, the Assassins.
Contextualizing _____________________________________________________________________
This passage refers to the Mongol efforts
to eliminate a Shi’a sect known as the
Assassins. What do you know about
Shi’a Islam and about this particular sect?
Based on what you know, explain how
this passage does not illustrate general
Mongol attitudes toward all of Islam.
Given the fact that the Mongols came to
control the routes known as the Silk Road,
what does this passage suggest their role
was in fostering worldwide trade?
Corroborating sources ______________________________________________________________
How would you compare this source’s
evidence with the Mongols’ tolerant views
about religion as described in Primary
Source Documents 6 and 7?
26
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 9
Francesco Balducci Pegolotti’s Merchant Handbook, on trade across Central Asia in
the 1300s.
Interpreting meanings_ ______________________________________________________________
What sorts of things can you learn from
this source about merchants and the
nature of trading along the Silk Road
routes of Central Asia?
Aside from making the routes safe, in
what other ways does this source suggest
Mongol rule benefited merchants trading
across these routes?
This source does not provide details about
the exact value of florins and the other
currencies it mentions. However, it is very
confident that those values will stay stable
and dependable in relation to one another.
What does this confidence suggest about
Mongol rule over these trade routes?
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
27
Student Activity
Source Analysis: Primary Source Document 10
A medieval work of art showing Jews being burned at the stake during the
Black Death
Contextualizing _____________________________________________________________________
The Black Death was most likely the
bubonic plague. It probably first arose
in Central Asia and spread west.
What do you know about how it was
actually spread?
What about Europe in the Middle Ages
helps explain why people there might
have blamed Jews in particular for this
mysterious plague?
Point of view________________________________________________________________________
Do you think this illustration expresses any
attitude toward the Jews being burned
at the stake here, or is the image purely
neutral in tone? Explain your answer.
28
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
The Secondary Sources
Part 3: Analyzing the Secondary Sources
Note to the teacher: This next section includes passages from two secondary source accounts dealing
with the Mongols’ impact, along with two activities on these sources. We suggest you first discuss the brief
comment “Analyzing Secondary Sources” just above the first of the two secondary sources. Discuss the
four criteria the first activity asks students to use in analyzing each secondary source. These criteria focus
students on the nature of historical accounts as 1) problem-centered, 2) based on evidence, 3) influenced
by point of view and not purely neutral, and 4) tentative or aware of alternative explanations.
Specifically, this section includes the following:
• Two secondary source passages
Give copies of these passages to students to read, either in class or as homework. The
two passages are from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack
Weatherford (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004), p. 233–4, and from Timothy May’s
review of Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, in
World History Connected, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2005. The review can be accessed at http://
worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/2.2/br_may.html
• Two student activities
Activity 1
Students analyze the two passage taking notes on the following questions:
• How clearly does the account focus on a problem or question?
• Does it reveal a position or express a point of view?
• How well does it base its case on primary source evidence?
• How aware is it of alternative explanations or points of view?
Activity 2
In pairs, students select two of the primary sources for the lesson that best support each
author’s claims in the secondary source passages. Students discuss their choices with
the class.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
29
The Secondary Sources
The Secondary Sources for the Lesson
Analyzing Secondary Sources
Historians write secondary source accounts of the past after studying primary source documents like the
ones you have studied on the Mongols’ impact. However, They normally select documents from among
a great many others, and they stress some aspects of the story but not others. In doing this, historians
are guided by the questions they ask about the topic. Their selection of sources and their focus are also
influenced by their own aims, bias or point of view. No account of the past is perfectly neutral. In reading
a secondary source, you should pay to what it includes, what it leaves out, what conclusions it reaches,
and how aware it is of alternative interpretations.
*
*
*
*
Secondary Source 1
Information on the source:
The passage in the box below is an excerpt from Genghis Khan
and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004),
p. 233–4.
Whether their policy of religious
tolerance, devising a universal alphabet,
maintaining relay stations, playing
games, or printing almanacs, money,
or astronomy charts, the rulers of the
Mongol Empire displayed a persistent
universalism. Because they had no
system of their own to impose upon
their subjects, they were willing to adopt
and combine systems from everywhere.
Without deep cultural preferences in
these areas, the Mongols implemented
pragmatic rather than ideological
solutions. They searched for what
worked best; and when they found it,
they spread it to other countries. They
30
did not have to worry whether their
astronomy agreed with the precepts
of the Bible, that their standards of
writing followed the classical principles
taught by the mandarins of China, or
that Muslim imams disapproved of their
printing and painting. The Mongols
had the power, at least temporarily, to
impose new international systems of
technology, agriculture, and knowledge
that superseded the predilections or
prejudices of any single civilization; and
in so doing they broke the monopoly on
thought exercised by local elites.
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
The Secondary Sources
The Secondary Sources for the Lesson
Secondary Source 2
Information on the source: The passage in the box below is an excerpt from Timothy May’s
review of Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, in World History
Connected, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2005.
It is quite clear that Weatherford is a
brilliant writer, blending anthropological
insight and incredible enthusiasm with
a captivating narrative. It is easy to see
why many reviewers and readers have
been enthusiastic about it. Yet despite all
of Genghis Khan and the Making of the
Modern World’s acclaim, it is very clear that
Weatherford is not a historian.
In the general narrative, Weatherford is
sufficiently accurate. However, in the details,
Weatherford is wrestling with material that
he clearly does not fully appreciate. For
instance, one of the most troublesome
aspects is that Weatherford places far too
much emphasis on the Mongols’ use of
gunpowder in warfare, going so far as to
insinuate that they used cannons at the
siege of Baghdad in 1258 (p. 182). There
is no indication of this in the Arabic, Syriac,
or Persian sources of this practice, nor of
the Mongols using any device like a cannon
at other sieges. To be sure, the Mongols
did use grenades thrown from catapults
occasionally, but gunpowder weapons of any
form were not a major component of their
arsenal as Weatherford portrays it…
Weatherford overstates his case in his
enthusiasm for the Mongols, making
connections that are often tenuous. Did the
Mongols contribute to the modern world?
Definitely yes, the evidence (even considering
the errors) assembled makes this very clear.
It is too much to say that the Renaissance
would not have happened without the
Mongols. Indeed, eventually artists would
have had contact with Chinese paintings
and Chinese technology would have crept
into Europe at any rate via the Middle East,
albeit at a slower rate. One could make
the argument that the Renaissance would
not have happened without the Crusades
as well.
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East | The Historian’s Apprentice
31
Student Activity
The Secondary Sources: Activity 1
In this exercise, you read two short passages from longer secondary sources dealing with the impact of the
Mongols on world history. For each secondary source, take notes on the following four questions (you may
want to underline phrases or sentences in the passages that you think back up your notes):
1. How clearly does this account focus on a problem or question. What do you think that problem or
question is? Sum it up in your own words here.
Genghis Khan, Weatherford Review of Weatherford’s Genghis Khan, May
2. Does the secondary source take a position or express a point of view about the impact of the Mongols
on world history? If so, briefly state that point of view or quote an example of it.
Genghis Khan, Weatherford Review of Weatherford’s Genghis Khan, May
3. How well does the secondary source seem to base its case on primary source evidence? Take notes
about any specific examples, if you can identify them.
Genghis Khan, Weatherford Review of Weatherford’s Genghis Khan, May
4. Does the secondary source seem aware of alternative explanations or points of view about this topic?
Underline points in the passage where you see this.
Genghis Khan, Weatherford Review of Weatherford’s Genghis Khan, May
In pairs, discuss your notes for this activity.
32
The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Student Activity
The Secondary Sources: Activity 2
This activity is based on the passages from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack
Weatherford, and from Timothy May’s review of Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the
Modern World, in World History Connected. From the primary sources for this lesson, choose two that
you think best support each source’s point of view about the impact of the Mongols on world history. With
the rest of the class, discuss the two secondary source passages and defend the choice of sources you
have made.
1. From this lesson, choose two primary sources that best back up the interpretation in Weatherford’s
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. List those sources here and briefly explain why you
chose them.
2. From this lesson, choose two primary sources that best back up the interpretation in May’s review of
Weatherford’s book. List those sources here and briefly explain why you chose them.
3. Does your textbook include a passage describing the impact of the Mongols on world history? If so, with
which of the two secondary source passages (Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World or the
review of that book) does it seem to agree most? What one or two primary sources from this lesson would
you add to this textbook passage to improve it?
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Follow-Up Activities
Part 4: Follow-Up Options
Note to the teacher: At this point, students have completed the key tasks of The Historian’s Apprentice
program. They have examined their own prior understandings and acquired background knowledge on the
topic. They have analyzed and debated a set of primary sources. They have considered secondary source
accounts of the topic. This section includes two suggested follow-up activities. Neither of these is a required
part of the lesson. They do not have to be undertaken right away. However, we do strongly recommend
that you find some way to do what these options provide for. They give students a way to write or debate in
order to express their ideas and arrive at their own interpretations of the topic.
Two suggested follow-up activities are included here:
• Document-Based Questions
Four document-based questions are provided. Choose one and follow the guidelines
provided for writing a typical DBQ essay.
• A Structured Debate
The aim of this debate format is not so much to teach students to win a debate, but to learn
to listen and learn, as well as speak up and defend a position. A more interactive and more
civil debating process is the goal.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Follow-Up Activities
Document-Based Questions
Document-Based Questions (DBQs) are essay questions you must answer by using your own background
knowledge and a set of primary sources on that topic. Below are four DBQs on the impact of the Mongols
on world history. Use the sources for this lesson and everything you have learned from it to write a short
essay answer to one of these questions.
Suggested DBQs
Using the documents for this lesson, describe the key ways that the Mongol
Empire differed in its social patterns and cultural attitudes from the settled
societies around it.
“The Mongols were just lucky. They benefitted from the more advanced societies
around them without really understanding them.” Assess the validity of this
statement (that is, explain why you do or do not agree with it).
“The Mongols may have been ruthless warriors, but so were warriors everywhere
then. What was unusual was their openness and tolerance in peacetime.” Assess
the validity of this statement (that is, explain why you do or do not agree with it).
How accurately can we understand the Mongols when so many available sources
are accounts by non-Mongols? Discuss this with reference to the sources for
this lesson.
Suggested Guidelines for Writing a DBQ Essay
Planning and Thinking Through the Essay
Consider the question carefully. Think about how to answer it so as to address each part of it.
Do not ignore any detail in the question. Pay attention to the question’s form (cause-and-effect,
compare-and-contrast, assess the validity, etc.). This form will often give you clues as to how best to
organize each part of your essay.
Thesis Statement and Introductory Paragraph
The thesis statement is a clear statement of what you hope to prove in your essay. It must address
all parts of the DBQ, it must make a claim you can back up with the sources, and it should be
specific enough to help you organize the rest of your essay.
Using Evidence Effectively
Use the notes on your Source Analysis activity sheets to organize your thoughts about these primary
sources. In citing a source, use it to support key points or illustrate major themes. Do not simply list
a source in order to get it into the essay somehow. If any sources do not support your thesis, you
should still try to use them. Your essay may be more convincing if you qualify your thesis so as to
account for these other sources.
Linking ideas explicitly
After your introduction, your internal paragraphs should make your argument in a logical or clear
way. Each paragraph should be built around one key supporting idea and details that back up that
idea. Use transition phrase such as “before,” “next,” “then,” or “on the one hand..., but on the other
hand,” to help readers follow the thread of your argument.
Wrapping it up
Don’t add new details about sources in your final paragraph. State a conclusion that refers back to
your thesis statement by showing how the evidence has backed it up. If possible, look for nice turns
of phrase to end on a dramatic note.
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Follow-Up Activities
A Structured Debate
Small-group activity: Using a version of the Structured Academic Controversy model, debate alternate
interpretations of this lesson’s topic. The goal of this method is not so much to win a debate as to learn
to collaborate in clarifying your interpretations to one another. In doing this, your goal should be to see
that it is possibly for reasonable people to hold differing views, even when finding the “one right answer” is
not possible.
Use all their notes from previous activities in this lesson. Here are the rules for this debate.
1. Organize a team of four or six students. Choose a debate topic based on the lesson
The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East.
(You may wish to use one of the DBQs suggested for the “Document-Based
Questions” activity for this lesson. Or you may want to define the debate topic in a
different way.)
2. Split your team into two subgroups. Each subgroup should study the materials for
this lesson and rehearse its case. One subgroup then present its case to the other.
That other subgroup must repeat the case back to the first subgroup’s satisfaction.
3. Then the two subgroups switch roles and repeat step 2.
4. Your team either reaches a consensus which it explains to the entire class, or it
explains where the key differences between the subgroups lie.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Answers
Answers to “Source Analysis” Activities
Source Analysis: Document 1
Contextualizing: Lack of timber or stone for more solid buildings, need to be able to move
regularly, etc.
Interpreting meanings: Answers will vary and should be discussed.
There is no one right answer, but students should at least see how well adapted to the environment
this sort of housing is.
Source Analysis: Document 2
Contextualizing: Horses thrived on these open grasslands. They were better able than other animals to
survive harsh winters and forage beneath the snow, etc.
All Mongols trained to ride early. Each warrior had several horses. They used them in large formations,
but rarely in individual combat, etc.
Interpreting meanings: Answers will vary, but the open steppe lands are clear in the photo and these
were an ideal setting for horses and horse riding.
Source Analysis: Document 3
Interpreting meanings: The pattern is a cyclic and regular one over a fairly short distance, tied to
seasonal changes.
Such large vehicles and houses suggest a high level of building skills, larger populations of skilled
workers, etc.
Corroborating sources: Answers will vary and should be discussed.
Source Analysis: Document 4
Interpreting meanings: He had just taken over their city and defeated the empire of which it was a part.
Answers will vary. It is worth considering that Chinggis Khan may have been speaking in terms he
knew would have the most impact on his subject audience.
Point of view: Answers will vary depending on how critical they think Juvaini might have been of the
Mongol takeover of his society.
Source Analysis: Document 5
Contextualizing: The Mongols had just inflicted huge losses on armies in Poland and Hungary.
As devastating as the Mongols had been in Poland and Hungary, students may feel the Khan was
overestimating his power over the rest of Europe, or simply trying to appear more powerful than
he was.
The papacy was at the height of its power in the 1200s and could influence political events in
many places.
Interpreting meanings: Answers will vary and should be discussed.
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Answers
Source Analysis: Document 6
Interpreting meanings: It was a diverse city with several major religions represented.
Answers will vary: He could have simply wanted to manage possible conflict, he might actually have
hoped to learn more or see a way to get these groups to understand each other better, etc.
Answers will vary. Some may see this as a sincere wish to avoid conflict. Others may see it as
an excuse.
Corroborating sources: Answers will vary and should be discussed.
Source Analysis: Document 7
Corroborating sources: Answers will vary, but if Marco Polo was accurate, Khubilai Khan seems much
more knowledgeable than the Mongol ruler in Primary Source 6 and more concerned to respect these
various traditions.
Answers will vary, but the similarities should be seen as evidence that the sources are fairly accurate.
Point of view: There is no easy way to answer this question, but given Marco Polo’s origins, his view
that the Khan favored Christianity should be seen with some skepticism, especially as the Mongols in
China did not in fact embrace Christianity.
Source Analysis: Document 8
Contextualizing: Shi’a Islam was a minority version of Islam in most Muslim societies, and the Assassins
were one small group within that sect.
It shows their commitment to maintaining the routes and keeping them open and safe for merchants.
Corroborating sources: Answers will vary. Some may see a somewhat less tolerant attitude, at least
with respect to extreme religiously motivated groups.
Source Analysis: Document 9
Interpreting meanings: The central role of money, either in coin or paper; the need for teams of horses
and skilled servants; the need for careful planning, etc.
It maintained stable values for good and money so that merchants could plan and take risks more
confidently, etc.
That Mongol rule was strong and steady and also perhaps that it sought to ensure some elemental
sense of fairness, etc.
Source Analysis: Document 10
Contextualizing: There is still some debate about what disease(s) the Black Death was, but assuming it
was bubonic plague, it was a bacterium spread by fleas carried by rats onboard ships.
Jews were a despised minority, they were often involved in trade in cities where the plague spread
most rapidly, etc.
Point of view: Answers will vary and should be discussed.
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The Historian’s Apprentice | The Mongol Impact on China, Europe, and the Middle East
Answers
Evaluating Secondary Sources: Activity 1
These are not definitive answers to the questions. They are suggested points to look for in
student responses.
1. How clearly does this account focus on a problem or question. What do you think that problem or
question is? Sum it up in your own words here?
Weatherford in Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World focuses on the question of how
the Mongols reacted to and adopted various beneficial accomplishments of the more settled societies
they conquered and controlled.
May in his review of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World focuses on Weatherford’s
strong claim that the Mongols shaped the modern world in fundamental ways. In this passage, May
looks at some of the evidence Weatherford uses to make his case and assesses how accurate he is
in doing this.
2. Does the secondary source take a position or express a point of view about the impact of the Mongols
on world history? If so, briefly state that point of view or quote an example of it.
Weatherford in this passage sums up his thesis by using the phrase “persistent universalism” to
get at the way the Mongols accepted and passed on to others all kinds of technological, cultural,
and intellectual achievements of the societies they came to control. In other words, they were very
practical, he says, in seeing each of these achievements as having universal value—that is, value
beyond the boundaries of the society that originated that achievement.
May in his review does not dispute the general notion that the Mongols had the sort of universalizing
effect Weatherford claims. What he does is indicate some factual mistakes that he says call some of
Weatherford’s claims into question and that exaggerate the influence of the Mongols on some of the
later historical trends discussed.
3. How well does the secondary source seem to base its case on primary source evidence? Take notes
about any specific examples, if you can identify them.
Weatherford does not refer directly to primary sources because this passage is more of a summary of
the overall Mongol influence as he sees it. May does refer to other sources, but does not quote any or
site them specifically.
4. Does the secondary source seem aware of alternative explanations or points of view about this topic?
Underline points in the passage where you see this.
Both Weatherford and May are responsive to alternative views. Weatherford does not refer to any here
directly, but his whole book is explicitly defined as a corrective to purely negative views of the Mongols
and their influence. May is directly responding to Weatherford’s view and appears to accept some but
not all of it.
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