How Barbaric were the Barbarians? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Who were they?

A small tribe from the grasslands of central Asia

Created one of history’s largest empires

Conquered 4,860,000 square miles in total

Genghis Khan

How barbaric were they?

In total killed around 40 MILLION people throughout Empire’s rule

estimate that they killed a full three-fourths of the Khwarezmid Empire’s population

Genghis Khan was ruthless and used extreme battle tactics

Document 3 – Carpini on Battle Tactics

Used children and women to give enemy the idea that their numbers were larger

Used captive men as front line

Surrounded fortresses, letting no one enter or leave

Never stopped fighting, divided up forces and took turns fighting, this would wear their enemies down with sleep deprivation

Burned human fat as Greek fire (Napalm) and catapulted it onto enemy

Document 4

Plundered Persian city

Killed everyone

Placed served heads in piles

Document 5

However…

Along with their barbaric ways, the Mongols were

- very influential in spread culture and interacting with others

-cultured society

-open to religion

-booming international trade, the empire thrived

You be the judge!

How barbaric do you think the Mongolians were?

Write a few sentences..

-summarizing the brutality of the Mongols

-Do you think that for a total empire take over these brutal acts were justified?

- Did they do more bad than good?

- What about their cultural influences and tolerance?