The Mongols

1
The Mongols

• CH 12

2
Beginnings

• Pastoral nomads in Mongolia
• Organized in clans and tribes, fighting part of
  daily life, superior horseback warriors
• Unified by Temujin in 1206, takes title of
  Genghis Khan
• Shamanism, Buddhism

3

• Genghis
• Khan

4
The Mongol Empire under Genghis

• Conquest of Tangut empire in Central Asia
• Conquest of Northern China (Jin-Empire)
• If a city resists, everybody is slain, only
  artisans and scholars are spared
• If town surrenders only tribute has to be paid
• Capital Karakorum

5
The Mongol War Machine

• Use of heavy and light cavalry, spies, later
  siege engines and cannons
• Feigning defeat and ambushing enemy
• Very well organized, used flags in battle to give
  commands
• Very mobile, covered up to 90 miles a day
• Composite bows with range of 300 yards
• Multi-ethnic army, Chinese, Persians, Turks also
  included

6
Siege Warfare
7
Fighting on Horseback
8
The Empire after Genghis

• Genghis sons fight campaigns in Russia, the
  Middle East, Central Asia, and China
• Russia Golden Horde
• Middle East Ilkhan Empire
• China Yuan dynasty
• Central Asia Djagatai Empire

9
(No Transcript)
10

• Kubilai Khan

11
Mongol Impact on China

• All of China conquered by Kublai Khan, Yuan
  dynasty (1271-1368)
• Tried to conquer Japan twice, Mongol fleet
  destroyed by typhoon (kamikaze), rest of Mongol
  army defeated by samurai
• New capital Bejing (Tatu)

12
Impact on China

• Keep Chinese system of tax collecting, governing,
  but foreigners (first Mongols, then other Central
  Asians) have highest position in government,
  Chinese only at local and regional level
• Chinese barred from learning Mongolian,
  intermarriage outlawed
• scholar gentry resents Mongols

13
Mongol Impact on China

• Improvements in transportation, widespread use of
  paper money
• Increase in foreign trade (Pax Mongolica)
• economic boom under early Yuan
• later plague, corruption, factionalism,
  xenophobia lead to fall of Yuan
• 1368 Ming dynasty, rules to 1643
• Chinese cultural practices remained unbroken
  (revival of Neoconfucianism, civil service
  examination)

14
Mongol Impact on Middle East

• Seljuks defeated
• Turkic groups pushed into Anatolia (Ottomans)
• 1258 Baghdad destroyed, last Caliph killed,
  200.000 people killed (according to Hulagu Khan)
• Widespread destruction
• Iraq ceases to be center of Islamic world
• Mongol onslaught stopped by Mamluk dynasty in
  Egypt
• Mamluks build strong centralized state based on
  fear of Mongols

15
Mongol Impact on Middle East

• Mongols found dynasty (Ilkhan) that rules Middle
  East, center in Persia
• Heavy taxes, farmland turned into pastures
• Only wine and silk industry flourish
• Ilkhan rulers convert to Islam (Shiite), Persian
  became more influential
• Mongols intermix with Persian and Turkic
  population
• No Mongol cultural traces

16
Mongol Impact on Russia

• Mongols destroy Kievan Rus
• Russia isolated from Europe, trade declines
• Only loose control by Mongols
• yearly tributes, collected by Moscow
• Mongols and their Turkic allies become Muslim
• No intermixing with Russian population

17
Mongol impact on Russia

• Moscow becomes stronger, centralizes government,
  first to collect tribute then to organize fight
  against Mongols
• Renounces Tatar overlordship by 1480, pushes
  Mongols to the East
• Peasants have to pay twice, to Boyars (Russian
  nobles) and to Mongols
• Serfdom increases
• Orthodox Church strengthened (tax exempt)

18
(No Transcript)
19
Global Impact

• Exchange of ideas gunpowder, paper, papermoney
• awareness of other cultures, global trade grew
  (Marco Polo reports about paper money, use of
  coal, safe and wealthy China under Mongol rule)
• International diplomacy on the rise (letters
  exchanged between pope and great Khan, Ilkhan
  offer alliance to crusaders in 1287)
• Spread of disease
• - plague spread along silk road, with Mongol
  armies
• Killed about 30 of Chinese and European
  population in mid 1300s

20
(No Transcript)