All The Pretty Mongols

AP World History Notes Chapter 14

*Taken from Mr. Metcalf, Colleyville Heritage High School, Colleyville, TX

The Big Picture

• The Mongols interrupted the big post-classical empires. • Extended the world network through re-defining long

distance trade routes. • Chinggis Khan and his successors brought under their

control: – Central Asia – China – Persia and Iraq – Tibet – Asia Minor and southern Russia

• Last Nomadic group to be a formidable challenge to settled civilizations.

• Relied on raising livestock instead of growing food – Used every part of the animal:

milk, blood, wool, hides, and meat

– Animals also used for transportation & the military

– Less productive economy overall • Smaller populations • Lived in small encampments

with related kinfolk

Review of Pastoralists (Pastoralism vs. Agriculture)

• Pastoralists offered women a higher status in society – Fewer restrictions – Greater role in public life – Involved in productive labor

• Mongol women: – Could initiate divorce – Could remarry if widowed – Served as political advisors – Active in the military

Review of Pastoralists (Pastoralism vs. Agriculture)

Prominent Mongol Woman

• Pastoralists = nomadic • Traveled in systematic

patterns based on seasonal changes and environmental conditions

• Not homeless took their homes and belongings with them

Review of Pastoralists

Mongolian Yurt

• One major contribution = facilitated worldwide networks of exchange and communication

• No real cultural impact – Did not spread any major

religion – Did not spread their

language or culture

The Mongol Empire

• United and led the Mongols – Capitalized on shifting tribal

alliances and betrayals – Enemies were indecisive – Incorporated warriors from

defeated tribes into his own forces

Temujin (1162-1227)

• Two major reasons for Mongol expansion under Genghis Khan: – The newly united Mongols

needed a common task or else they would fragment and fall apart

– He needed external resources with which to reward his followers

• 1st goal = China

Mongol Expansion

• 1209 = marks the beginning of Mongol conquests

• Conquests continued for about 50 years under Genghis Khan and his grandsons = Ogodei, Mongke, and Kublai

• Final empire contained: China, Korea, Central Asia, Russia, much of the Islamic Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe

Mongol Expansion

• Genghis Khan reorganized the entire social structure of the Mongols into military units – Of 10, 100, 1,000, and

10,000 warriors – Allowed for effective

control and command • Conquered tribes =

broken up and dispersed throughout these units

The Mongol Military

• Displayed incredible discipline and loyalty – People that deserted their

unit in battle = put to death

– Unit leaders fought alongside their men

– ALL Mongols benefited from the wealth that flowed into the Mongol Empire from conquered civilizations

The Mongol Military

• Brutal and ruthless military tactics – All who resisted Mongol rule =

slaughtered along with their wives, children, and dependents

– Cities destroyed • Their brutality worked as

psychological warfare also many of those that heard about the Mongols were afraid and voluntarily surrendered

The Mongol Military

• Mobilized human and material resources • Detailed census taking

– Knew how many people they controlled and what resources were available to them

– Allowed them to effectively tax the people • Set up an effective system of relay stations

– Provided for rapid communication – Fostered trade

• Centralized government – Various government offices – Scribes translated laws into the various languages

people spoke throughout the empire

Mongol Efficiency

The Mongol Empire • Mongol rule was generally

tolerant – Religious toleration – Administrators drawn from

Islamic and Chinese worlds – Intellectuals taken from

conquered kingdoms

• Trade and cultural exchange flourished – Pax Mongolica – Protect merchants

• Wanted to foster trade • Allowed merchants free use of their relay stations • Often offered merchants 10% more than their

asking price

Mongolian Economic Policies

China and the Mongols

• Goal = extract wealth from China • In order to do so must accommodate the

Chinese • Accommodations included:

– Use of Chinese administrative practices, taxation systems, and postal system

– Took a Chinese dynastic title = the Yuan – Transferred capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to

Beijing in China

Kublai Khan • Mongol ruler of the Yuan

dynasty (1271-1294) • Improved roads • Built canals • Lowered some taxes • Supported scholars and artists • Limited the death penalty and

torture • Supported peasant agriculture

China and the Mongols

• Mongol rule in China was still harsh, exploitative, foreign and resented

• Mongols did NOT become Chinese and they did not accommodate EVERY aspect of Chinese culture

Mongols Being Mongols

• Many still lived, ate, slept, and gave birth in yurts they put up everywhere

• Planted steppe grass within the capital and let animals roam freely

• Didn’t use civil service exams

• Didn’t learn Chinese

China and the Mongols • Mongol rule in China

declined in the mid-1300s

• Many factors caused this decline: – Division among the

Mongols – Rising prices (inflation) – Epidemics of the plague – Growing peasant

rebellions

1368 = all Mongols forced out of China and returned home to the

steppe

• Merchant from Venice, Italy

• Traveled throughout the Mongol Empire for almost 3 decades

• Kept a diary of everything he encountered and experienced

• Primary way in which Europeans learned about the east

Marco Polo

Gender Roles • Mongol women had a

strong role originally • They remained aloof from

Confucian Chinese women

• Refused to adopt foot binding

• Retained right to property and control in the household

• Freedom of movement

Reaction by Confucianists • Thought of the Mongols as

“uncouth barbarians” • Refusal to reinstate the exam

system was resented • The bolstering of artisans and

merchants bothered them • Mongols liked popular

entertainment raising the status of actors and actresses which went against the earlier hierarchy

Chinese lower class reaction • Kubila’s policies favored

peasantry, protecting the agricultural land from Mongol cavalry men turning it into pasture

• Famine relief measures were introduced

• Tax and labor burdens were reduced

Persia and the Mongols

• Conquest of Persia = much quicker and more violent than that of China

• 1258 = capital of Baghdad sacked – End of Abbasid dynasty – More than 200,000

people massacred

Devastation to Persia

• Peasants pushed off their land due to heavy taxation

• Nomadic Mongols with their herds of animals turned agricultural land into pasture, wasteland, and desert

• Irrigation channels = neglected

Persia and the Mongols

• Many Mongols in Persia were heavily influenced by the Persians there: – Adopted Islam – Left government

operation in Persian hands – Learned Persian – Some turned to farming

and abandoned nomadic ways

– Some married local people Mongol man and Persian woman

Russia and the Mongols

• Heavy devastation to Russia perhaps more than in Persia

• Mongol conquest of Russia = called the “Khanate of the Golden Horde”

• Mongols defeated the Russians, but did NOT occupy Russia – Russia had little to offer – Less developed economy – Not located along any major

trade routes Painting of the fall of Kievan Rus

Exploitation of the Russians

• Russian princes required to send tribute to the Mongols

• Variety of heavy taxes on Russian people

• Continuing border raids • Tens of thousands of

Russians sent into slavery

Influence on the Russians

• Although the Mongols weren’t influenced much by the Russians, the Russians were influenced by the Mongols: – Adopted Mongols’ weapons, court practices,

diplomatic rituals, taxation system, and military draft

End of Mongol Rule in Russia • Mongol rule in Russia

started to decline by the end of the 1400s

• Major causes of this decline: – Divisions among Mongols – Growing strength of

Russian state now centered on the city of Moscow

Decline of the Mongols • Mongols too few in number, settled

populations massive • Any interaction resulted in

acculturation • Mongol rule resented by conquered

populations • Settled populations began to use

firearms