Chapter 13 The World the Mongols Made Review

Chapter 13 The World the Mongols Made

Review Questions n n n WHY WERE the Mongols able to conquer such a vast empire? WHAT WERE the positive and negative effects of the Mongol conquests? WHY DID the Mongols fail to conquer Egypt, India, and Japan? HOW DID Kubilai Khan’s reign blend Mongol and Chinese traditions? WHAT TECHNOLOGIES did the West develop in the thirteenth century and what were the consequences? WHY DID nothing comparable to the Mongol Empire develop in Africa or the Americas?

Rise of the Mongols n Nomadism: Mongols, Xiongnu (Huns), Turks n n Environmental factors: n Grasslands of Central Asia unsuitable for settled agriculture n Nomadic pastoralism (herding) as a way of life n Diet: animal products--goats, sheep, horses as food sources Self-sufficiency Conflict between nomadic groups, continual raiding Plurality of religious practice n Shamanism n Buddhists, (Nestorian) Christians, Muslims n Idea of a Great Khan

Mongol Conquests (1206 -1258) n Temujin or Genghis Khan (r. 1206 -1227) n n Unites Mongol tribes Conquest from Korea to Hungary, Moscow to Baghdad n New technologies, adaptation n Horse and the bow n Siege technology n Use of Terror n Khanates n n n Use of local elites Tax farming Mongol rulers tended to focus on feasting, hunting, and internal disputes rather than day-to-day governing.

Effects on Overland Trade n Silk Road n n Marco Polo (1253 -1324) n n n Traveled to the East and back (1271 -1295) Influence on European attitudes towards the East William of Rubruck n n Patrols and passports Mission to learn and convert, 1253 -1255 New Ideas n Paper and paper money, gunpowder, coal, movable type, passports, higher mathematics, etc.

Il-Khan Empire n Collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate, 1260 n n Religious conflicts in the Mongol Empire Attempted interference by the West The choice for Islam, 1295 Rise of Mamluk power in Egypt

Mongol Conquests in Russia n n Fall of Kiev, 1240 Batu (r. 1240 -1255) establishes “Golden Horde” rule n n Use of the Russian Orthodox Church n n n Church becomes central to Russian culture. Center of resistance to Mongol rule and domination Rise of Novgorod and Moscow n n Mongol capital at Sarai Alexander Nevskii (lived around 1220 -1263) argued for cooperation with Mongols rather than resistance. Mongol “yoke” or oppressive Russian nobility? Knights Templar and the battle at Lake Chud, 1242 Serfdom introduced in Eastern Europe; slave trade decreases in Eastern Europe.

Yuan Dynasty in China, 1272 -1368 n Kubilai Khan, r. 1265 -1294 n n New capital at Beijing (1265) Styles himself as a Chinese emperor Introduces Mongols and Muslims into Chinese government. Mongol domination caused various effects in East Asia. n n n Recentralization of China, trade, and government Prosperity in the cities, poverty in the countryside Extraction of wealth for benefit of Mongol khans

Mongol Empire Impact on Eurasia n Movement of peoples, trade, ideas across Eurasia accelerates n New innovations and ideas reach Europe; increased interest by Europe in the East raised by works of Polo, Rubruck, and others. n Brought new peoples to power: rise of Turkic dominance in the Muslim world (Ottomans, Delhi Sultanate, Mamluks), new elites in the Russian world n Ended political rule by Arabs, checked expansion of Germanic peoples into Slavic lands, first (and only) foreign dynasty in China

Today’s Discussion Question A new world order? Consider n n The 13 th-century Eurasian dominance of the Mongols is reminiscent of 1989 global U. S. dominance, which President George H. W. Bush dubbed “a new world order. ” But the debacle in Iraq and the rising economic might of China call the reach, durability, and effectiveness of American world leadership into question. Are fundamental American values more in line with the aspirations of many of the world’s people than Mongol values? Can the U. S. lead a realignment of the world’s political and cultural landscape with anything similar to the lasting consequences that the Mongols had on Eurasia?