Unit 9: Post-Classical Regional and Trans-regional Interactions: The Mongols

(1206-1368 CE)Unit Period: The Global Tapestry (1200-1450)Unit Essential Question: How do trade and conquest affect the development of culture?

Textbook Chapter 8: Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilization to South and Southeast Asia- pages 191-192.Textbook Chapter 15: The Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to

Timur- pages 331- 349Important Vocabulary:1. Battle of Kulikova: Russian army victory over the forces of the Golden Horde;

helped break Mongol hold over Russia. 2. Batu: Ruler of Golden Horde; one of Chinggis Khan’s grandsons; responsible or

invasion of Russia beginning in 1236.3. Berke: 1257-1266, A ruler of the Golden Horde; converted to Islam; his threat to

Hulegu combined with the growing power of Mamluks in Egypt forestalled further Mongol conquests in the Middle East.

4. Chabi: Influential wife of Kublai Khan; promoted interests of Buddhists in China; indicative of refusal of Mongol women to adopt restrictive social conventions of Chinese, died. Circa 1281.

5. Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan): Born Temujin in 1170s; elected khagan of all Mongol tribes in 1206; responsible for conquest of northern kingdoms of China, territories as far west as Abbasid regions; died in 1227, prior to conquest of most of the Islamic world.

6. Dadu: Present-day Beijing; so-called when Kublai Khan ruled China. 7. Golden Horde: One of the four subdivisions of the Mongol empire after Chinggis

Khan’s death, originally ruled by his grandson Batu; territory covered much of what is today south central Russia.

8. Hulegu: 1217-1265. Ruler of Ikkan khanate; grandson of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan; responsible for capture and destruction of Baghdad in 1257.

9. Karakorum: Capital of the Mongol empire under Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, 1162 to 1227.

World Themes: Theme 1: Humans and the Environment Theme 2: Cultural Developments Theme 3: Governance

Historical Reasoning Processes Targeted in this Unit:

Comparison: Compare diverse perspectives; compare different historical individuals, events, developments, and/or processes analyzing broader similarities and differences.

Continuity and Change over Time: Identify patterns of continuity and change, explain the significance of such patterns, and explain how these patterns relate to larger historical processes or themes.

Cause and Effect: Identify causation and results; explain and analyze the significance of the event, development and/or process and how it relates to larger processes or themes.

Theme 4: Economic Systems Theme 5: Social interactions and

Organizations Theme 6: Technology and Innovation

10. Khagan: Title of supreme ruler of the Mongol tribes. 11. Khanates: Four regional Mongol kingdoms that arose following the death of Chinggis

Khan. 12. Kublai Khan: 11215-1294, Grandson of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan; commander of

Mongol forces responsible for conquest of China; became khagan in 1260; established Sinicized Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1271.

13. Kuritai: Meeting of all Mongol chieftains at which the supreme ruler of all tribes was selected.

14. Mamluks: Muslim slave warriors; established a dynasty in Egypt; defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260 and halted Mongol advance.

15. Ming Dynasty: Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.

16. Mongols: Central Asian nomadic peoples; smash Turko-Persian kingdoms; captured Baghdad in 1258 and killed last Abbasid caliph.

17. Ogedei: 1186-1241; Third son of Chinggis Khan; succeeded Chinggis Khan as khagan of the Mongols following his father’s death.

18. Prester John: In legends popular from 12th to 17th century, a mythical Christian monarch whose kingdom was cut off from Europe by Muslim conquests; Chinggis Khan was originally believed to be this mythical ruler.

19. Romance of the West Chamber: Chinese drama written during the Yuan period; indicative of the continued literary vitality of China during Mongol rule.

20. Tamerlane (Timur lame): Leader of Turkic nomads; beginning in 1360s from base at Samarkand, launched series of attacks in Persia, the Fertile Crescent, Indian, and souther Russia; empire disintegrated after his death in 1405.

21. Tumens: Basic fighting units of the Mongol forces; consisted of 10,000 cavalrymen; each unit was further divided into units of 1000, 100, and 10.

22. White Lotus Society: Secret religious society dedicated to overthrow of Yuan dynasty in China; typical of peasant resistance to Mongol rule.

Name: _____________________________________________

CrashCourse: Wait For it…The Mongols

1. What is the classic stereotype of the Mongols?

2. What aspects of the Mongol Legacy are more contemporary historians focusing on?

3. What important traits should we remember about herders?

4. Based off of John Green's explanation, what does egalitarian mean?

5. What characteristics of the Mongols made them unlikely to become the most powerful nomadic group from Central Asia?

6. Genghis Khan biography:

a. Two interesting details from his early life?

b. What two innovations led to Khan’s victory in the civil war?

c. Why did promoting people by merit and bringing peasants into his tribe over the wealthy help Genghis Khan unify the nomadic tribes?

d. What title was Genghis Khan given in 1206? What does that title mean?

e. How far did the Mongol Empire stretch at the time of Genghis Khan's death? (From where to where?)

f. How many direct descendants of Genghis Khan are alive today?

7. What happened to Genghis Khan's empire after his death? (Name the four Khanates)

8. Why were neither the Mongols nor Alexander the Great ever able to conquer India?

9. Why were the Mongols successful in conquering land and creating a unified empire? (4)

10. Complete the table:

5 Reasons the Mongols are AWESOME!

5 Reasons the Mongols are NOT so awesome

11. How did the Mongols intentionally spread the plague, according to one story?

12. Why is the Mongol legacy still debated today?

The BIG Ideas: They created one of history’s biggest empires. It was built with amazing speed and great success in conquests. They conquered more land in 25 years than the Romans did in 400; controlling more than 11 million contiguous square miles, an area roughly the size of Africa. According to one historian, they “smashed the feudal system” and created international law. Renowned for their religious tolerance, they created the first great free trade zone. Who is it? According to John Green, they are the exception to every rule. Wait for it...The Mongols! TASK: Draw and color in the Mongol Empire at its height in the year 1294 CE; 1. What historical regions were conquered by the Mongol Empire? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. What regions were not conquered by the Mongol Empire? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What Was It Like to Live on the Eurasian Steppe?

Eurasian Steppe: A vast, temperate grasslands, and shrub-lands, stretching from Eastern Europe through Ukraine, Russian, Kazakhstan, Eastern China, Mongolia, to Manchuria. Since the Paleolithic Age it has connected Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China, South Asia, and the Middle East economically, politically, and culturally

through overland trade routes. John of Plano Carpini, an Italian friar who traveled to Mongolia in the 1240s described the Mongol homeland as follows:

“In some parts the country is extremely mountainous, in others it is at...in some districts there are small woods, but otherwise it is completely bare of trees...Not one hundredth part of the land is fertile, nor can it bear....unless it be irrigated by running water, and brooks and streams are few there and rivers very rare...Although the land is otherwise barren, it is fit for grazing cattle; even if not very good, at least sufficiently so.

The weather there is astonishingly irregular, for in the middle of the summer...there is fierce thunder and lightning which cause the death of many men, and at the same time there are very heavy falls of snow. There are also…bitterly cold winds, so violent that at times men can ride on horseback only with great effort. [Sometimes one can] scarcely see owing to the great clouds of dust. Very heavy hail also often falls there. Then also in summer there is suddenly great heat, and suddenly extreme cold (Qtd. in Dawson 5-6).”

The Mongol Movement: How Did Genghis (Genghis Khan) Turn a Pastoral Nomadic Society Into an Efficient War Machine?IMPORTANT INDIVIDUALS

Genghis Khan (1162 - 1227) – founder of the Mongol empire; born Temu ̈jin. He took the name Genghis Khan (“ruler of all”) in 1206 after uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes. When he died, his empire extended from China to the Black Sea.

Before Genghis Khan (Temujin), the Mongols were organized into tribes that fought and raided each other for plunder, for women (no marriages were allowed between members of the same tribe), and to avenge insults. Largely self-sufficient, they often raided, traded with, and extracted tribute from neighboring settled agricultural communities.

In most tribes, there were no specialists other than shamans and blacksmiths. Women and men both contributed to the economy, and the division of labor by gender was not rigid. Those men who could afford it married more than one wife, each of whom had her separate household, owned property outright, and had considerable freedom of action. Women rode, shot with bow and arrow, and hunted. They gave political advice and could rise to the rank of chief, though rarely. The senior wife had special status and respect, and her children were often favored as heirs. On campaigns, wives, children, and flocks often went with the army. Women and even children could be drafted to ride on the fringes of battle to simulate larger numbers. It is unclear whether they ever took an active part in combat. The tribes

According to Carpini: Describe the Mongolian homeland:

What was the significance of horses to the Mongol lifestyle?

Who are shamans?

Compare and Contrast: How were experiences different for Mongolian women compared to women in Tang/Song China? Medieval Europe?

were divided into nobles and commoners, and only members of noble lineages could become chiefs, though class differences were not strongly marked.All Mongols were fighters, but Genghis made a reorganized army the core of the society and the carrier of many of his reforms. Under him and his successors, the Mongol army had the following characteristics, many designed by Genghis himself:

All males 15-70 served in the army, all as cavalry (mounted on horseback). Absolute obedience to orders from superiors was enforced. Officers had tight control over their troops’ actions (plunder only with permission, no one allowed to transfer out of their unit). Officers and men were bound to each other by mutual loyalty and two-way responsibilities. No one in the army was paid, though all shared to varying degrees of items stolen in war (booty). All contributed to a fund to take care

of those too old, sick, or hurt to fight. During three months every year, large-scale hunting expeditions served as intensive military training simulations. Cavalry troops had to supply their own bows and other military equipment, which had to meet officers’ standards. Gathering intelligence had high priority. Scouts were sent out, local knowledge sought, and traveling merchants rewarded for

information. Foreign experts and advisors were extensively used, notably Chinese and Persian engineers skilled at making and using siege weapons

such as catapults and battering rams.

The highest level of government was Genghis Khan and his family, especially his sons by his senior wife and their descendants, known as the “Golden Family.” From among their members the Great Khans, and after Genghis Khan’s death the khans ruling the four successor empires, were selected by agreement of the Kuriltai, the council made up of Genghis’s family members and those others they invited.

Lack of clear-cut rules of succession opened the way for power struggles after the death of each ruler. Some earlier pastoral nomadic empires did not long survive the death of the leader who founded them. The Mongol state was unusual in surviving for as long as it did, even though it divided into four separate kingdoms, or khanates after about 1260. Genghis Khan’s administrators were picked because they demonstrated high performance regardless of their wealth or social class. Among Genghis’s closest advisors were people from both allied and conquered non-Mongol backgrounds, notably literate scholars and scribes from China, Persia, and the Inner Eurasian oasis towns.

The Mongols’ religion was shamanism. They combined this with belief in Tengri, the Eternal Sky, as the supreme supernatural power. They also believed in an earth and fertility goddess and in nature spirits. The major religions, including Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam, were seen as having access to other spiritual beings who might, if properly approached, also be helpful. Shamans were considered go-betweens or bridges, joining the human and the spirit world. They could be women or men, and they were always people of prestige and importance. They communicated with the spirits in trances, exorcised evil, blessed flocks and herds, and made prophecies by examining cracks in the burnt shoulder-blades of sheep. Mongols had no temples, no hierarchy of religious specialists, no regular public worship,no sacred scriptures, and no required beliefs. Their religious concerns were practical aimed toward ensuring fertility, prosperity, health, and military success. As chiefs usually did, Genghis Khan and his descendants climbed to high places to pray to Heaven before a decisive battle. The Mongols also regarded vengeance for insult or injury as a moral duty, approved by Heaven. And the duty to avenge was handed down from generation to generation.

Compare and Contrast: How was the Mongol Empire similar or different to Alexander the Great’s Empire after the deaths of their founders?

It was only gradually that Genghis and his Mongols arrived at an ideology of conquest. Eventually, he, or at least the sons and grandsons who followed him, came to believe that the Mongols had a mission from Heaven to conquer the world and establish a universal empire. In this, Mongol leaders were almost certainly influenced by contact with the Chinese ideology of the Mandate of Heaven, the belief that the emperor ruled because the Supreme Being wanted him to. Some Mongol tribes may have been influenced by Christian missionaries as well.

The Mongol view of Heaven’s attitude towards their conquests developed slowly but surely. Genghis Khan’s early campaigns were clearly not part of a larger plan for universal conquest. In 1206, he was named Great Khan primarily because of his military and political successes. However, it helped that one of his followers saw a vision: “A white ox harnessing itself to a wagon and pulling it behind Genghis, bellowing: ‘Heaven and Earth agree, let [Genghis] be the nation’s master! Bearing the nation, I am bringing it to him’” (Onon, 45)!

His first invasion of northern China in 1211 followed the usual pattern of nomad raids. Genghis made no attempt to occupy or to keep this northern Chinese region, which was then under a family that had come originally from Manchuria far north of the Yellow River valley. The Mongols returned, however, and in 1215 took the Jin capital of Beijing. Chinese officers deserted to Genghis in large numbers, some bringing with them tens of thousands of troops.

Determined to crush all resistance, Genghis discussed with his generals what to do with the land once it was conquered. According to some accounts, they considered exterminating the north Chinese farming population in occupied territories and turning the country into pasture for the Mongols’ horses. They were dissuaded when one of Genghis’s valued Chinese advisors pointed out that taxes from a live population were worth more to the conquerors than a depopulated land occupied by horses.

Evidence suggests that Genghis originally had no intention of invading the Qara-Khitai and Khwarizm empires, which lay to the west of Mongolia. The populations of these empires varied from highly sophisticated urban Persians to illiterate nomads. Most were unhappy with their own rulers. Genghis conquered the huge Inner Eurasian territory of the Qara-Khitai without much trouble. He then attacked Khwarizm, which included northern Persia, in revenge for its ruler unwisely killing some Mongol envoys. Genghis announced that “Heaven has granted me all the Earth, from sunrise to sunset” (Juvaini, Qtd. in Ratchnevsky 159). This was a claim to universal empire. He would stick by it for the rest of his life, and his descendants would echo the claim.

From this time on, he consistently considered those opposing him not as enemies but as rebels. That made resistance to Mongol takeover treasonous, meriting wholesale executions as punishment. By the 1240s, it was reported throughout Medieval Europe that “The Mongols do not make peace with anyone who has not submitted to them, because of the instruction of Genghis Khan that they should seek to bring all peoples under their yoke” (John of Plano Carpini, qtd. in Ratchnevsky 159). There were other reasons for conquest besides religious ideology:

Enemies and continual conquests were needed to keep the Mongol forces united and not slipping into the old ways of tribal squabbling and feuding.

The army was financed by pillaging riches. Followers needed rewards in plunder, lands, and slave captives to keep them loyal. The Mongol elite’s newly-honed taste for luxuries could not be satisfied from the old nomad economy. Each conquest put the Mongols in contact with new enemies and new threats.

Genghis’s ideology of ruling those he conquered was simple. His rule was intended solely to benefit the Mongols.

Compare and Contrast: How were Mongol religious beliefs similar and different to Song China? Medieval Europe? The Abbasids?

Pax Mongolica: A Mongol Golden Age?

    Through their conquests and strong-handed rule, Genghis Khan and his sons and grandsons who followed him created stability and in the Mongol Empire in the 1200s and 1300s. Historians now refer to this period of order as the Pax Mongolica, or “Mongol Peace.” You may recall that the years between 27 BCE and 180 CE of the Roman Empire are known as the Pax Romana, or the “Roman Peace” because of the prosperity in the Roman Empire that resulted from a strong centralized government and few wars. The same was true for the Pax Mongolica.      The political stability during the hundred years of the Pax Mongolica led to more and safer trade on the Silk Roads. Under the protection of the Mongols, goods and ideas moved between China and the Middle East once again. Most importantly, the innovations that started in the Golden Ages of the Tang and Song Dynasties in China, spread to the rest of Eurasia. Chinese techniques for making paper, printmaking, the compass, new agricultural techniques, and the use of gunpowder were then used and improved upon by people in Central Asia, India, the Middle East, North Africa, and eventually Europe.     These innovations spurred historical events for centuries to come including the European Age of Exploration, during which European sailors using compasses for navigation travelled to the Western Hemisphere; The

“Under the reign of Genghis Khan, all the countries . . . enjoyed such peace that a man might have journeyed from the land of the sunrise to the land of sunset with a golden platter upon his head without suffering the least violence from anyone.” Source: Ghazi, Muslim chronicler, 1270.

Analyze one similarity and one difference comparing the Pax Mongolica to another Golden Age that we have learned about.

Compare and Contrast: How were Mongol religious beliefs similar and different to Song China? Medieval Europe? The Abbasids?

Reformation, a religious movement fueled by the writings of a monk named Martin Luther whose ideas circulated in paper pamphlets rapidly produced by printing presses; and

Evaluate: Based on the descriptions and what you have learned about the Mongols, does this time period reflect the title of “Golden Age”? Explain your response.

The Mongols’ Legacy: History’s Heroes or Villains?Directions: Annotate as you read, looking for areas where you can expand on the significance of heroic or villainous acts. The impact of the Mongol conquest on the conquered peoples included:

Death Destruction Extortion of wealth

Disease Displacement

But, it also included: the intensification of activity on the trade routes connecting East Asia

with the Mediterranean lands and Europe. the further spread of Islam in Asia the advancement of Tibetan Buddhism in China.

Death: The Mongols inflicted it on a large scale. In battle, their powerful bows caused heavy enemy casualties. Moreover, mass slaughter of defeated enemy soldiers and civilians was used as a deliberate policy of terror in order to:

decrease the enemy’s will to fight. induce cities to surrender without fighting, thus avoiding long sieges,

which the Mongol army could not afford because it needed to keep moving to find grazing land for its horses.

avoid the risk of leaving enemies behind that might be capable of renewing resistance.

reduce the size of the occupying detachments needing to be left behind.

The total death toll directly inflicted by the Mongols during the period of their conquests, spanning nearly two centuries, may have been several millions. This includes the deaths by hunger and disease that were by-products of Mongol military operations and rule.

…But: More urban populations were spared than were massacred. Often spared were artisans, clerics of all religions, scribes, scholars, merchants, young women, and often officers, nobles, and administrators.

Mass slaughter was not a Mongol monopoly either in their own time or later. In taking a little Song Chinese town in 1218, the Jin (dynasty in Manchuria and northern China) general had 15,000 of the inhabitants put to the sword. In 1291, King Edward of England slew nearly 10,000 people of Berwick. In 1303, 30,000 Hindus died in a battle at Chitor.

By the time of Mongke’s rule, the Great Khan insisted that destruction be limited to a minimum and civilians be left alone. To show he was serious, he had a senior Mongol commander of 10,000 publicly executed for killing a Persian civilian. Khubilai’s revision of the Chinese law code reduced the number of offenses that carried the death penalty to half what it had been under the previous dynasties.

Destruction: The Mongols often destroyed the towns they attacked, usually as a by-product of the battle, sometimes deliberately after their conquest. Mongols traditionally had no use for towns. Destroying them was a practical measure to prevent their use for resistance.

Irrigation channels, without which agriculture in regions with fragile ecosystems was impossible, were in many areas seriously damaged or neglected. Gradually they silted up and became unusable, with serious long-term ecological consequences that resulted in a set-back for agriculture over wide areas for centuries. This problem was especially acute in Persia and Iraq. Destruction was a by-product of the Mongols’ conquests, rather than policy. They were unaware of or uninterested in the damage; while the local population, reduced by flight, massacre, famine, disease, could not spare the labor to restore and maintain the irrigation channels.

…But: There was a great deal of construction initiated and supported by the Mongols. Many of the towns the Mongols destroyed rose again a few years later with Mongol help. Courier services were expanded and many additional way stations were built along trade routes, where both troops and civilian travelers could get food, drink, lodging, and a change of horses. In China under Khubilai Khan, the postal relay system came to include 1400 way stations 14-40 miles apart. Roads and bridges built originally to service the Mongol military became trade and travel routes. The extension of the Grand

Canal to Beijing by the Mongols allowed cheap transport of rice from southern to northern China.

Extortion of wealth: After first plundering the conquered, the conquerors were for a while satisfied with tribute in the form of demand of silk, grain, precious metals, and sophisticated war machinery. Unpredictable and capricious demands were gradually replaced with regular though intermittently extortionate taxes, sometimes made worse by demands that greedy Mongol princes and officials made for extra payments.

…But: Some of the wealth that flowed to the Mongols was redistributed. Only part made its way to Mongolia. Much went back to those conquered areas where Mongols settled as occupying troops, administrators, and governors. From about 1250, the Mongols undertook reforms. The Great Khan Mongke commanded: “Make the agricultural population safe from unjustified harassment, and bring despoiled provinces back to a habitable condition.” He introduced the very modern graduated income tax; repaid debts of previous rulers said to be owing to merchants; and made it more difficult for princes and high officials to practice extortion.

The lot of some segments of the conquered population actually improved, owing to profits from the trade promoted and supported by the Mongols, to their enforcement of law and order within their territories, and to their opening of careers to merit, not only birth or wealth. The poorest classes received something like government welfare assistance: food, clothes, and money. Disease: The association of disease and warfare is commonplace. Troops live under more unsanitary conditions than is normal. Unburied corpses often contaminated water supplies. Among the overcrowded and underfed in besieged cities and in close quartered armies, an infectious illness could spread quickly. The existing food supply must be stretched to feed the invading army, leaving little for the local population and thereby reducing its immune system.

The frequent long-distance travel of military personnel, merchants, and others promoted the wider spread of diseases. Of these the Black Death

(bubonic plague) was the best known and most severe. This disease may have been carried by soldiers from Inner Eurasia to the Black Sea, and from there to West Asia, North Africa, and Europe. This infection killed about one third of the total population of Europe.

Displacement: During the Mongol campaigns of conquest and later, there was large-scale enslavement and forced movement of populations.

Many fled in terror when news reached them of an approaching Mongol army.

Within the army, peoples of different backgrounds were deliberately mixed in all groupings from 10 men to 10,000. They and their families, who often accompanied Mongol armies, moved long distances on campaigns and spent long periods in far-away places as occupying armies.

In conquered territories, the Mongols usually rounded up the craftspeople, and assigned them to Mongol princes and commanders. These captives, who could number tens of thousands in a single city, were carried off to Mongolia or other parts of the growing empire. This gave rise to considerable population exchanges between Russia, Central Asia, Persia/Afghanistan, Mongolia, and China.

…But: Although captive artisans and young women (destined to be slaves, concubines, prostitutes, and entertainers) often remained in their masters’ hands for the rest of their lives, some gained their freedom and married locally, some eventually returned to their homelands. Moreover, artisans often gained privileges. The movement of peoples resulted in exchanges of goods, ideas and styles and in frequent and widespread contact between peoples of widely different cultural, ethnic, religious, and language backgrounds.

Thousands of people traveled from western and central parts of Eurasia to serve the Mongol regime in China. Marco Polo, the Venetian merchant who traveled to China with his father and uncle in 1271 and remained there for seventeen years, was just one of these foreigners seeking opportunity in Mongol administration.

Genoese (an Italian city-state) merchants, who traded extensively in the Muslim lands and Inner Eurasia in the Mongol era sold Chinese silk and “Tatar cloth” at the fairs of Northern France.

Chinese artisans designed ceramics especially to appeal to Muslim tastes.

The Chinese exported copper and iron goods, porcelain, silks, linens, books, sugar, and rice to Japan and Southeast Asia in return for spices

and exotic items like rhino horns. At the time of his death in Italy, Marco Polo had among his possessions

a Mongol slave, Tartar bedding, brocades from China, and a Buddhist rosary.

Khubilai Khan had Persian copies of the works of Euclid and Ptolemy translated into Chinese.

Egyptian experts were called in to improve Chinese sugar-refining techniques.

Muslim medical and astronomical sciences became known in China. Chinese medical works were translated into Persian.

Buddhist monks built Chinese style pagodas in Persia. Persian miniatures show Chinese-style mountains and dragons. A Mongol version of the traditional stories about Alexander the Great

was produced. Diplomatic contact with Western Europe intensified. Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s book, and on his first voyage

he took with him a letter from the Spanish king to the Great Khan. Islam’s spread among the peoples of the Mongol empire was also helped by the movement of peoples.

Many of the Turkic groups that allied with the Mongols had earlier converted to Islam. A significant number of them were literate, and employed by the Mongols as clerks, administrators, and translators as well as soldiers. They carried the Qur’an and their beliefs to new potential converts.

Persia and Iraq were overwhelmingly Muslim when the Mongols swept in. Persian became one of the official languages of the Mongol empire, used even in China. And Persian culture, along with Islam, spread into Central and Eastern Asia.

The Mongol Great Khans’ preferred Muslims for senior positions in China. They thought that foreign Muslims could be more impartial than local Chinese. The foreign recruits could be blamed in case of Chinese dissatisfaction. Scholars from Persia were especially admired for their scientific and cultural achievements.

Starting in the thirteenth century, the Mongol khans of the Golden Horde and of Persia converted to Islam and threw their governments’ power behind the Muslim faith.

Buddhism advanced in China owing partly to direct support from the Great Khans, starting with Khubilai. Tibetan lamas (monks), who had frequently held secular as well as religious power at home, began to move to China. Khubilai, whose wife Chabi was an ardent Buddhist, found the political experience of the lamas useful to him. He put a number of them in positions

of power and influence. He also made large donations to Buddhist temples, gave tax-exemption to Buddhist monks, and supported them in their arguments with Chinese Daoists.

Christianity lost out in the long run in Asia, though not through any action of the Mongols. Several Popes, that is, the head of the Latin, or Roman Catholic Church, sent several envoys and missionaries from Western Europe to Mongolia and China. European leaders had hopes of allying with Mongol leaders against the Muslim powers that challenged European political and commercial interests in the eastern Mediterranean. Neither the political overtures nor missionary labors resulted in much success for the Latin, Catholic Church in Asia.

Christianity suffered partly because it did not speak with a single voice: believers in Latin Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other Christian doctrines engaged in heated disputes with one another and competed for converts. Latin Christianity never caught on in any of the Mongol lands, and, with the advance of Islam, Christian communities in China and inner Eurasia gradually shrank.

Judging the Mongols: History’s Heroes or Villains?Point Counterpoint

Death

Destruction

Extortion of Wealth

Disease

Displacement

Islam

Buddhism

Christianity

Swarming like locusts over the face of the earth, they [the Mongols] have brought terrible devastation to the eastern parts [of Europe], laying it waste with fire and

carnage. After having passed through the land of the Saracens [Muslims], they have razed cities, cut down forests, overthrown fortresses, pulled up vines, destroyed

gardens, killed townspeople and peasants.”

-Matthew Paris, from Chronica Majora (1240). TASK: In the 13th century CE the Mongols created the largest connected land mass empire in the history of the world. For centuries they have been remembered as a brutal tribe of nomadic barbarians who were a serious threat to people and civilizations throughout Asia and Europe. But is there more to the story? How barbaric were the barbarians? Your task is to use the background materials and the documents to judge the Mongol’s impact on the 13th and 14th century world. Introduction

Eight hundred years ago, during the 13th Century, a small tribe from the grasslands or steppes of central Asia conquered much of the known world. Operating from the backs of horses, Mongol warriors swept across much of Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Their reach extended from Korea to Poland, and from Vietnam to Syria. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Nothing quite like it has been seen since.

The reputation of the Mongols is not pretty. Much of the world called them “barbarians.” For the ancient Greeks, “barbaros” simply meant foreigner. By the 1200s, “barbarian” was a much more negative term referring to people who lived beyond the reach of civilization, people who were savage, evil.

Beginnings

From the start, the Mongols lived in round, moveable houses they called yurts. They had few material possessions. They knew little about mining and cared nothing about farming. They were nomadic people who lived off the meat, milk, and hide of horses, and the meat and wool of sheep.

Then in 1167 a boy child was born on the Mongolian plains. His name was Temuchin. Temuchin did not have an easy childhood. His father was poisoned by a local enemy and the boy spent much of his teenage years fighting clan rivals. For an additional twenty years Temuchin fought to bring the Mongol clans of the region under one leadership. In 1206 Temuchin won that leadership and was given the title Genghis Khan. At this point, Genghis’ aspirations began to grow larger.

The First Wave:

North China and Ancient Persia Genghis Khan’s first serious target was the Jin armies of north China in 1211. An army of 200,000 rode east. Numerous Chinese cities felt Mongol brutality. Slaughter was so great that the streets of the Chinese capital were greasy with human fat and flesh. With north China under his control, Genghis next attacked his neighbors

to the west – the Uighurs, the Kara-Khi tai, the Merkits, the Kipchaks. The Mongol empire was suddenly not so little.

Still further to the west was the ancient Persian empire of Khwarazm which included the modern nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. Initially Genghis Khan and the Shah of Khwarazm worked out a peaceful trade agreement, but then a Mongol caravan of 150 traders entering Khwarazm from Mongolia was murdered by one of the Shah’s governors. This turned out to be a bad mistake. What followed was a Mongol onslaught that raked over the land of the Khwarazm Shah. Cities fell; Persian casualties were extraordinarily high.

The Second Wave:

Genghis Khan died while fighting south of the Gobi Desert in 1227. His chosen successor was his third, and reportedly favorite, son Ogedei, who was formally elected emperor by the Mongolian chiefs in 1229. Ogedei worked to bring a more efficient bureaucracy to the Mongolian Empire, and invested in the greater development of the capital, Karakorum, wanting to build a permanent city with buildings rather than the traditional Mongol yurts. Ogedei’s skills as a military leader could not compare with his legendary father, but under his leadership the Mongol Empire continued to expand. After long debate with his brothers and generals, the decision was made to invade Russia and Eastern Europe. Ogedei predicted the campaign would take a long eighteen years. An army of 50,000 horse soldiers, Persian and Chinese engineers, and 20,000 draftees were made ready to march. By the winter of 1237 this army stood poised on the frozen banks of the Volga; Russia and Europe lay before them.

The next five years were to shake the Western world. The first city to fall was Riazan on the eastern Russian frontier. The great Mongol general Batu sought to make an example of Riazan that would cause other Russian cities to submit. The city was destroyed. Men, women, and children were slain. A few survivors were allowed to escape to carry the warning: The Mongols are coming – submit or die. The initial period of

sympathy for the Mongols, based on religious toleration and promotion of trade, evaporated as Western Europe saw the Golden Horde conquer a Christian Russia. Kiev and other cities in Russia; Lublin, Krakow in Poland; Liegnitz in Silesia; Buda and Pest in Hungary – the Mongols swept their way west. By May, 1242, Mongol intelligence patrols were just 60 miles from Vienna in central Europe.

And then the unexpected – the Mongols turned back! Word had apparently reached the front lines that the Great Khan Ogedei had died back in the Mongol capital Karakorum. Not understanding what had happened, Western Europe held its breath and waited. Batu called off the attacks, and returned home to attend the funeral and to see to issues of succession. By the time Batu returned to Europe, he had apparently lost interest in conquering Western Europe.

The Mongols ruled northern Russia by working through existing Russian rulers, who sent regular tributes. The Mongols chose this form of indirect rule because they did not want to live in the northern Russian forests. The rulers of the city-state Moscow began collecting additional tributes, which they set aside to develop an army to resist the Mongols, and began building an anti-Mongol coalition among the Russian city-states. This coalition, under Moscow’s leadership, rose up against the Golden Horde and defeated it in 1380. After this battle, Mongol influence began to decline.

The Third Wave:

The Middle East Ogedei was succeeded by Genghis’ grandson Mongke. Mongke set his sights on still further conquest. Two targets were chosen, the Middle East and southern China.

Again, a huge Mongol army was assembled on the steppes – thousands upon thousands of horses, numerous siege machines, and one thousand Chinese engineering teams for building roads and bridges. The massive army advanced into Persia on January 1, 1256.

First the Mongols annihilated a troublesome sect known as the Assassins. Next they advanced 500 miles west to the walls of Baghdad, capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. There, in February, 1258, this spiritual and cultural center of Islam fell. The caliph, along with 200,000 residents of the city were killed. Mongol armies proceeded into Syria and Palestine where they were joined by Christian troops from Armenia and Georgia. It was a time of shifting alliances and these eastern Christians saw the Mongol attack on the Middle East as a “new” crusade against Islam. Then, suddenly, history repeated itself. Just as the death of a Great Khan had stopped the Mongols as they approached Vienna in 1242, now the death of Mongke Khan in 1259 caused the Mongols to pull back from the walls of Jerusalem. What became known as the Il-Khanate in Central Asia, stretched from Byzantium to modern day Afghanistan.

Pax Mongolica and Kublai Khan in China

By this time the Mongol Empire consisted of four parts or khanates – the Russian khanate called the Golden Horde, the Persian Il-Khanate, the central Asian khanate, and a fourth khanate which included Mongolia and China. The next Great Khan was the famous Kublai, a grandson of Genghis, who ruled in China. Kublai maintained enough ties with the other khanates to achieve a measure of security across much of Asia. Historians have called this time Pax Mongolica or “the Mongolian peace.”

Kublai was probably the most cultured of the Great Khans. He expanded his holdings in China by defeating the Song Dynasty in southern China and established a new dynasty he called the Yuan. By claiming the Mandate of Heaven, Kublai Khan chose to adopt Chinese tradition rather than enforce Mongolian practices of leadership and control. For the first time, China was under foreign rule.

Kublai Khan proved to be skilled at governing a large, diverse territory. Like his grandfather, he instituted a policy of religious tolerance, which inspired loyalty in formerly oppressed groups such as Buddhists and Daoists, who were out of favor under the previous Song Dynasty. Among Buddhists, his legitimacy was bolstered when monks declared him to the reincarnation of a Bodhisattva, or Buddhist saint. His policies were also tolerant toward Muslims and Christians. He worked to keep Mongol backing by acting traditionally in at least some ways, and protecting Mongols’ privileged position in the empire. He drew his advisors from many ethnic, language, and religious backgrounds.

With these and other reforms and the protection of the Mongolian armies, most Chinese initially enjoyed the rule of the Great Khan; he brought prosperity to China because of cultural exchanges and improved trade with other regions, including in Europe. Chinese arts and literature enjoyed a golden period during the Yuan Dynasty.

Kublai Khan’s government had a welfare program. It paid for assistance to the old, infirm, and poor out of taxes. Villages that suffered natural disasters were sent grain, clothes, cash, and had their taxes cancelled.

Kublai founded the Office for Stimulation of Agriculture; forbade nomad animals from roaming on farmland; arranged for the teaching of advanced agricultural techniques to the population around the old Mongol capital of Karakorum; and forgave taxes for those who chose to become settled farmers. He moved the Mongol capital to a newly-built city near modern Beijing in China, its site chosen according to the Chinese ideas of “feng shui”.

At about this time, in the 1240s, a small number of European visitors began to visit Mongolia and Mongol-controlled China, men like the John of Plano Carpini, Friar William of Rubruck, and, several years later, the famous Marco Polo. These men joined the Persians and Chinese who were already visitors at the Mongol court in Karakorum or in China. Thanks to the writings of these travelers we have some firsthand accounts of Mongol life.

In his later years Kublai weakened his empire with unsuccessful attempts to conquer Japan and Java (Indonesia). These defeats suggested to the Chinese population that the Mongols were not as fearsome as they once had been. After Kublai’s death the Mongols began to lose their grip across the entire empire. Despite Kublai Khan’s adoption of many Chinese customs, Mongolian leaders eventually alienated many Chinese. They hired foreigners for the government rather than native-born Chinese through the civil

service system. By promoting Buddhists and Daoists and dismantling the civil service exam system, the Mongols distressed the Chinese scholar-gentry class who were mainly Confucians. In the 1350s, the secret White Lotus Society began quietly organizing to put an end to the Yuan Dynasty. In China the last Mongol emperor was removed in 1368. In Persia Mongol authority ended in 1335. In Russia the Golden Horde breathed its final official breath in 1502. The Mongol era was over.

The Question: What should we make of the Mongols? There is no debate among historians that the Mongols had their brutal side. But when the day of historical judgment comes and the Mongol good and bad are placed side by side on the balance scale, which way does the scale tip? Use the documents that follow and make your judgment.

Judging the Mongols: Debate

Notes around the Documents (4 points per document):Complete BRIEF notes around the documents in the following format:

DOCUMENT 1A (YOU DO NOT NEED TO COMPLETE POINT OF VIEW FOR THIS

DOCUMENT)

Document should be highlighted/underlined

Right Side Notes:Consider the document’s origin, purpose, audience, values, and/or limitations for Point of View analysis

Bottom Side Notes:Write down any evidence beyond the documents/ missing perspectives that can further the argument made by this

document/author.

Left Side Notes:Indicate how this

document helps supports your answer to the essay

question

Top Side Notes:Write down a potential grouping for the document

DOCUMENT 1B (YOU DO NOT NEED TO COMPLETE POINT OF VIEW FOR THIS DOCUMENT)

DOCUMENT 2 (YOU DO NOT NEED TO COMPLETE POINT OF VIEW FOR THIS DOCUMENT)

DOCUMENT 3

Source: Morris Rossabi, “All the Khan’s Horses,” Natural History, October 1994 from NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, June 2013.… The Mongols had developed a composite bow made out of sinew and horn and were skilled at shooting it while riding, which gave them the upper hand against ordinary foot soldiers. With a range of more than 350 yards, the bow was superior to the contemporaneous [co-existing] English longbow, whose range was only 250 yards. A wood-and-leather saddle, which was rubbed with sheep’s fat to prevent cracking and shrinkage, allowed the horses to bear the weight of their riders for long periods and also permitted the riders to retain a firm seat. Their saddlebags contained cooking pots, dried meat, yogurt, water bottles, and other essentials for lengthy expeditions. Finally, a sturdy stirrup enabled horsemen to be steadier and thus more accurate in shooting when mounted. A Chinese chronicler recognized the horse’s value to the Mongols, observing that “by nature they [the Mongols] are good at riding and shooting. Therefore they took possession of the world through this advantage of bow and horse.”…

DOCUMENT 4

Source: Bar Hebraeus, Chronicon Syriacum, qtd. in Spuler 40-41 If it is necessary to write to rebels or send messages to them they shall not be intimidated by an excessive display of confidence on our part or by the size of our army, but they shall merely be told: if you submit you will find peace and benevolence [goodness]. But if you continue to resist—what then do we know [about your future]? Only God knows what then shall become of you…” - Genghis Khan

DOCUMENT 5

Source: Prentice Hall World History (2007), Ellis and Esler, p 377.Once conquest was completed, the Mongols were not oppressive rulers. Often, they allowed conquered people to live much as they had before-as long as they regularly paid tribute [a tax paid to prevent invasion and ensure protection] to the Mongols. Genghis Khan had set an example for his successors by ruling conquered lands with toleration and justice. Although the Mongol warrior had no use for city life, he respected scholars, artists, and artisans. he listened to the ideas of Confucians, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Zoroastrians.

DOCUMENT 6

Source: The Indian historian Juzjani wrote in 1256 in the Sultanate of Delhi and had been an eyewitness of Genghis Khan’s raid on India in 1221. A man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on his face scanty and turned white, with cat’s eyes, possessed of great energy, discernment [judgment],

genius and understanding, awe inspiring, a butcher, just, resolute, an over thrower of enemies, intrepid [fearless], sanguinary [bloodthirsty] and cruel (Qtd. in Saunders 63).

DOCUMENT 7

Source: A description by Matthew Paris, English chronicler, in the 1270’s.They are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with plates of iron . . . thickset, strong, invincible, indefatigable . . . They are without human laws, know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears . . . They know no other language than their own, which no one else knows; for until now there has been no access to them….so that there could be no knowledge of their customs or persons . . . They wander about with their flocks and their wives, who are taught to fight like men.

DOCUMENT 8

Source: Excerpts from the laws that by tradition, were set up by Genghis Khan: If it is necessary to write to rebels or send messages to them they shall not be

intimidated by an excessive display of confidence on our part or by the size of our army, but they shall merely be told: if you submit you will find peace and benevolence. But if you continue to resist—what then do we know [about your future]? Only God knows what then shall become of you.

Whoever gives food or clothing to a captive without the permission of his captor is to be put to death. [Leaders are to] personally examine the troops and their armament before going to battle, even to needle and thread; to supply the troops with everything they need; and to punish those lacking any necessary equipment. Women accompanying the troops [are] to do the work and perform the duties of men, while the latter are absent fighting. All religions are to be respected and no preference is to be shown to any of them.

DOCUMENT 9

Russia after the Mongol Conquest: An Eyewitness AccountSource: Italian Archbishop Plano Carpini, 1245“The Mongols went against Russia and enacted a great massacre in the Russian land, they destroyed towns and fortresses and killed people, they besieged Kiev which had been the capital of Russia, and after a long siege they took it and killed the inhabitants; for this reason, when we passed through that land, we found lying in the field countless skulls and bones of dead people; for this city had been extremely large and very populous, whereas now it has been reduced to nothing; barely two hundred houses stand there, and those people are held in the harshest slavery.”

DOCUMENT 10

Source: Dorothy Hoobler et al., China, Globe Book from NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, January 2005.

. . .Kublai Khan [ruler of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol run empire in China] was a vigorous and capable ruler. He carried on large warlike hunts to show that he kept Mongol tradition, but he also showed some appreciation for Chinese culture. He acted to restore some of the devastation in North China. He began a vast renovation of the Grand Canal, which was so important to the wealth and unity of the country. He directed the building of water-control projects, such as dams and dikes, along the Yellow River. . . .

What was the Long-Term Legacy of the Mongols?

TASK: After reading each description, evaluate its significance by ranking it on a scale of 1 to 8. Give a brief description supporting your evaluation. Politically:Mongols conquered a larger area than the Romans and their bloody reputation was usually well-earned.

The Mongols ruled successful due to their understanding of centralized power, a capacity that would transfer in many cases to the occupied civilizations. The Mongols devised and used a single international law for all their conquered territories. Thus, after the Mongols declined In power, the kingdoms and states of Europe, Asia, and Southeast Asia continued or copies the process of centralizing power.

Economically:During the period known as the Pax

Mongolica, Mongols revitalized interregional trade between Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The Mongols built a system of roads and continued to maintain and guard the trade routes.

The Mongol conquests helped to transmit the fleas that carried the bubonic plague, termed the Black Death, from southern China to Central Asia, and from there to Southeast Asia and Europe. It followed familiar paths of trade and military conquest. The Black Death had a significant impact on Europe, killing one-third of the population there in a few years, and had similar effects on other areas, including China and Central Asia. SociallyMongol women led more independent lives than women in other societies of the tome. In their nomadic culture, women tended flocks of sheep and goats In addition to raising children and providing meals for the family. Since they rode horses like Mongol men, the women wore the same kind of leather trousers. Mongol women could remarry after being widowed and could initiate divorces. Mongol fighting techniques led to the end of Western Europe’s use of knight in armor. The heavily clad knights could not react in time to the Mongols’ use of speed and surprise.

The era of the walled city in Europe also came to an end, as walls proved useless against the Mongols’ siege technology. The cannon is

considered by some a Mongol invention, using Chinese gunpowder, Muslim flamethrowers, and European bell-casting techniques.

Males in Western Europe replaced their tunics and robes with the Mongol-style pants and jacket combination.