The Mongols

Genghis to Kublai

The Steppe

Steppe Culture• 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• 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

How does this look sinicized?

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• 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 non-Han, 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.

• 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 womenlost public power. Only in Mongolia did they continue to rule & to fight.

Pax Mongolica• 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.

• 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)

Mongol Passport

Marco Polo traveling the Silk Roads

Pax Mongolica: look at all these routes!

But..

• 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• 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• 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 non-believers. 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.

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.