CHAPTER 8 SECTION 2THE MONGOLS AND CHINA

DUE IN PART TO THEIR MILITARY POWER, THE MONGOLS ROSE TO POWER IN ASIA QUICKLY.

THEY BROUGHT MUCH OF EURASIA UNDER SINGLE RULE, CREATING THE LARGEST LAND EMPIRE IN HISTORY.

Benchmark! Benchmark! Benchmark!

- 1231 attacked Persia- 1258 defeated the Abbasids- 1260s attacked Song dynasty- Vietnam, Java, Sumatra, Japan

- THE MONGOLS HAD GREAT SUCCESS RULING CHINA. OVER TIME, THEY WON THE SUPPORT OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY BROUGHT STABILITY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

THE CAPITAL OF KHANBALIK REFLECTED MONGOL PROSPERITY – IT WAS MAGNIFICENT.

MARCO POLO WROTE STORIES ABOUT GLORIOUS CHINA – MOST EUROPEANS THOUGHT HIS STORIES OF GLORIOUS CHINA WERE UNBELIEVABLE.

SAD NEWS! THE MONGOL DYNASTY EVENTUALLY FELL VICTIM TO

- wasteful spending on foreign conquests- corruption- growing internal instability

IN 1368 ZHU YUANZHANG, THE SON OF A PEASANT, PUT TOGETHER AN ARMY AND ENDED THE MONGOL DYNASTY. HE SET UP THE “MING DYNASTY”.