Mongols

“The Mongols made no technological

breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few

books or dramas”

Why historically significant?

To compare…

Imagine if… “the U.S., instead of being created by a group of educated merchants & wealthy planters, had been founded by one of its illiterate slaves, who, by the sheer force of personality, charisma, & determination, liberated America from foreign rule, united the people,… invented a new system of warfare, marched an army from Canada to Brazil, and opened roads of commerce in a free-trade zone that stretched across the continents.” – Jack Weatherford in Genghis Khan

A Quick Background…

• Nomads

• Genghis Khan was

the chosen leader

• Need for water leads

to conquest - Central

Asia lacked rain for

agriculture

• Greatest Opportunity

was trade – horses!

What were the key factors that allowed

fewer than 125,000 nomadic warriors to

build the largest empire in world history?

• Military Power

• Adapting to conquered lands

cultures/talents

• Timing: conquering lands one by one

(think of puzzle pieces being put together)

Impact of the Mongols

• “The Mongols created a single economic, cultural, and epidemiological world system”

– Mongol Exchange

– New methods of warfare

– Trade from Venice to Beijing and beyond

– Demographic change via the plague and major population shifts

– Altered the political histories of Russia, China, Europe

– Unparalleled cultural diffusion

Strong Equestrians and Archers• The Mongols were oriented

around extreme mobility. They

carried their houses with them,

drank their own horse's blood

to stay alive, and could travel

up to 62 miles per day.

• They had an elaborate priority-

mail-system which allowed

orders to be transmitted

rapidly across Eurasia.

• Mongol archers were very

deadly and accurate

– Their arrows could kill enemies

at 200 meters (656 feet)

Mongol War Equipment

• The warrior carried a protective shield made of light leather armor

– which was impregnated with a lacquer-like substance in order to make it more impervious to penetration by arrows, swords and knives, and also to protect it against humid weather

• The Mongol warrior used to wear Chinese silk underwear, if it could be obtained, because it was a very tough substance

– If arrows are shot from a long distance, it would not penetrate the silk

– It would also prevent poison from entering the bloodstream

• During winter they wore several layers of wool as well as heavy leather boots with felt socks on their feet.

• The legs were often protected by overlapping iron plates resembling fish scales, which were sewn into the boots.

• Each warrior carried a battle axe, a curved sword known as scimitar; a lance, and two versions of their most famous weapon: the Mongol re-curved bow.

– One of the bows was light and could be fired rapidly from horseback, the other one was heavier and designed for long-range use from a ground position

Psychological Warfare

• Genghis Khan used combined fake retreats with accurate

Horse Archers to pick off his European enemies.

• Genghis Khan slaughtered a few cities, in an attempt to scare

all other cities to surrender without a fight. He, being a

practical leader, also valued smarts more than bravery

• If enemies surrendered without resistance, the Mongolsusually

spared their lives, and they provided generous treatment for

artisans, craft workers, and those with military skills

• In the event of resistance, the Mongols ruthlessly slaughtered

whole populations, sparing only a few, whom they sometimes

drove ahead of their armies as human shields during future

conflicts

Genghis Khan

• In 25 years, subjugated more land & people than the Romans did in 400 years.

• Destroyed LOTS of ‘less important’ cities – often along less accessible trade routes – to funnel commerce into routes that his army could more easily supervise and control.

Genghis Khan • Valued individual merit & loyalty

• Fighting wasn’t honorable; winning was. So, used any means necessary to win (trickery, etc.)

• Conscripted peasants: Mongols just didn’t understand peasants who seemed like grazing animals rather than real humanswho ate meat. “They used same terms, precision, & emotion in rounding up yaks as peasants.”

• Refugees preceded Mongol attack as people from outlying areas fled to cities for protection but overwhelmed the cities & spread fear

• LOVED negative PR: allowed & encouraged true or false stories to be circulated in order instill fear.

• Fought on the move: didn’t care if chased or fled (unlike sedentary soldier-farmer), just wanted to kill the enemy.

Genghis Khan – innovations

• Relied on speed & surprise and perfected siege warfare (not relied on defensive fortifications)

• Used resources of land instead of relying on supply train

• Allocated fallen soldiers’ share of loot to widow/children (ensured support)

• Reorganized army so each unit had a mix of tribal/ethnic peoples and they had to live & fight together ---transcend kinship, ethnicity, & religion.

• Religious tolerance

• Instituted postal system for communication

• Ordered writing system created

• Abolished torture & insisted on rule of law (to which even the khan was accountable)

Rule in conquered territories

Ruthless annihilation of resistance (terror tactics).

General benevolence when no resistance.

Cities generally left under native governors.

Religious tolerance important in consolidating rule, gain support of minorities oppressed by Muslims.

• Administration commonly more benign, less corrupt than pre-Mongol government.

Overland Trade and Plague

–1. Mongol conquests opened overland trade

routes and brought commercial integration of

Eurasia.

–2. Disease including the bubonic plague

spread among the world.

“Pax Mongolica”

• Under the Mongols, there was unprecedented long-distance trade

• Mongols encouraged the exchange of people, technology, and information across their empire

• Weatherford: the Mongols were “civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers…”

Marco Polo en route to China

Pax Mongolica• By the mid 13th c, the family of Genghis

Khan controls Asia from China to the Black Sea creating a period of stability during which trade flourishes to new heights along the Silk Routes. Before lots of fighting in East Asia and fighting between Muslims & Christians in the SW Asia, but now stability brings trade in more volume & people who now travel the entire distance.

• Encouraged great commercial, religious, intellectual exchange between the East & West.“The Mongols made culture portable: it

was not enough to merely exchange goods, because whole systems of knowledge had to also be transported in order to use many of the new products”(e.g. drugs weren’t profitable trade items unless one possessed medical knowledge for their use, so moved Arab doctors to China & vice versa)

Mongol

Passport

Marco Polo traveling the Silk Roads

Pax Mongolica: look at all these routes!

Exchanges During the Mongol EraFrom

Europe

From

Southwest Asia

From

South Asia

From

East Asia

Honey

Horses

Glassware

Slaves

Textiles

Rugs

Incense

Finished iron products

Finished gold products

Spices

Gems

Perfumes

Textiles

Gunpowder

Firearms

Rockets

Magnetic compass

Porcelain

Silk

Maritime Technology

Paper Making

Printing

Tea

Christian missionaries

Italian merchants

European diplomats

Muslim merchants

Nestorian merchants

Muslim diplomats

Indian merchants

Indian diplomats

Buddhist religious objects

Chinese bureaucrats

Chinese artists, artisans

East Asian diplomats

Sugar cane Black Death

Intellectual Exchanges of Ideas, Art, Architecture, Knowledge was constant

War with Persia 1218-1222

War started after Persians put Mongol

military leaders to death.

War of annihilation on both sides.

Following conquest of Persia, Mongol

troop circled Caspian.

The Mongol Drive to the West- Russia and Europe were added to the Mongols’

agenda for world conquest, and subjugating these regions became the project of the armies of the Golden Horde, which drove westward .

- Kiev was in decline by the 13th century, and Russia was unable to unite before the Mongols (called Tatars by Russians)

- Chinggis Khan’s grandson, Batu, defeated the Russian armies one by one, resisting armies were razed

- Kiev was taken by 1240 …very few towns survived (only Novgorod and Moscow because they submitted)

Regional Effects: Russia under the “Golden Horde”

• In Russia…Mongol forces successfully attacked Russia in 1224 by defeating Kiev Rus.

• Destroyed most cities & demanded high tribute.

• However, the Mongols left Russia largely to its own devices & few Mongol officials were there (INDIRECT rule). Russia had lots of independent principalities, each required to send tribute …or else.

• New places --like Moscow (Muscovy) to the north --began to grow with the Mongols’ implementation of a postal system, financial structures, & census. Moscow became a cultural & economic center.

• Armenians, Georgians, & Russians thought Mongols were a punishment from God who “fetched the Tartars against us for our sins.”

• Limited Russia’s interaction with Western Europe (e.g. Russia was isolated from the cultural effects of the Renaissance) --a period of cultural decay except in northern Russia.

• Lasted the longest of the all the khanates (until 1480)

Another description:

The Mongols were “terrible to look at and

indescribable, with large heads like

buffaloes’, narrow eyes like a fledgling’s, a

snub nose like a cat’s, projecting snouts

like a dog’s, narrow loins like an ant’s,

short legs like a hog’s, and by nature with

no beards at all…”

An Armenian observer

More Effects on Europe• Disappointed with loot from European

invasions, Mongols allowed Italian merchants in Crimea to take many of their European prisoners to sell as slaves (esp. to Egypt) in exchange for large amounts of trade goods.

• This began a long & profitable relationship between Mongols & merchants of Venice & Genoa who set up trading posts in Black Sea: Italians supplied Mongols with manufactured goods in return for the right to sell the Slavs as slaves in the Mediterranean market …slaves who would ultimately defeat the Mongols as the Mamluks in Egypt.

• Silk routes opened … & then spread PLAGUE to Europe.

And according to one

Chinese observer:

“They smell so heavily that one

cannot approach them. They

wash themselves in urine…”

The Mongols

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

THE GOOD (accomplishments &

contributions)• Military Strategy &

Innovation – Cavalry, Horse Archers, surprise attacks, sieges - Genghis first needed to disband tribal loyalties

• Religious Tolerance (converted to all faiths in region except Hinduism)

• Common Legal Code

• Utilized skills of conquered peoples –artisans, soldiers

THE GOOD (accomplishments &

contributions)

Discipline, obedience to own laws

Sense of honor and loyalty, respect for

these qualities in others, even opponents

High status of women

• These qualities attested to even by

European observers who generally

detested the Mongols

THE GOOD, cont…

• Golden Horde was the

only group to successfully

conquer Russia

• Created largest

continental empire in

history

• TRADE – source of

diffusion – goods, ideas &

people - under Mongol

rule it was less risky

Pax Mongolica

The Mongol Empire at its height

THE BAD – (failures & struggles)

• Constant in-fighting for power – “Khan”

• Genghis never setup centralized rule, Kublai struggled with it (Yuan Dynasty)

• Kublai failed to conquer Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia & Japan

• Inability to control China without considerable force

• Over-spending

Shortly after Chinggis Khan’s death, his empire split into four Khanates

THE BAD, cont…

• THE PLAGUE!!!

• Over-extension – loss of control in Persia

• Struggle between nomadic lifestyle and need

to settle (centralized government)

THE UGLY – (What!?! Those

Mongols were CRAZY!!)

• Surrender or Die

• Looting & Destruction of

Cities

• Massacres (1.6 Million in

1 Afghan city, as many as

18.4 Million total killed)

• Use of organized tactical

terror

• All exemplified by the

Ilkhanate’s conquering of

Middle East (Persia)

THE UGLY, cont…

• Lots of Babies - as many as .5% of the Earth’s current male population can trace genetic lineage back to Genghis (500 wives)

• Plague victim catapults

• Strange diet, hairstyles and odor

• Cannibalism

Fall of the Mongols

• The large amounts of money spent on public works projects greatly weakened the economy of the Mongol Empire. A failed conquest of Japan also weakened the military presence of the Mongols in China. This left the empire in a state that was ripe for rebellion. Following the death of Kublai Khan, power struggles emerged throughout the Mongol Empire regarding who would rule. Because of the empire's large size, centralized leadership was hard to maintain.

Fall of the Mongol Empire

• In China, a series of floods and increases

in taxes in the early 1300s further stressed

the Chinese, and rebellions broke out

against the Yuan Dynasty. In 1368, Zhu

Yuanzhang led Chinese forces against

the Yuan Dynasty and overthrew the

Mongol emperor. The Mongols fled to

Mongolia and foreign rule of China came

to an end.

Question

How did the Mongol conquests

bring an end to the civilizations in

Eastern Europe, Western

Europe, and Islam?

Answer

•Russia – end of Kievan dominance

power shifts to Moscow

•Byzantium – Ottoman dominance

and fall of Constantinople (1453).

•Western Europe – limited direct

impact but Black Death has later

effect. Trade increases with East.

The Impact of the Mongols

POLITICAL

• Mongol conquest left Russia more divided culturally & less developed than Western European nations

• Descendants of Genghis Khan & Timur established the Mughal Empire in India

• Introduced new military techniques & organization to Turks & Europeans – such as small organized units, the use of cavalry & the effective use of gunpowder

• Mongol defeat of the Seljuk Turks in 1243 CE allowed for the later rise of the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East

The Impact of the Mongols

ECONOMIC

• Global trade expanded dramatically under Mongol control – Italians were the primary beneficiaries in Europe; security, use of paper currency, control & management of Silk Road all increased trade in the Eastern Hemisphere

• Europeans were exposed to a much greater number of Chinese goods on a large scale – gunpowder & printing being among the most influential

• The global trade network became more intertwined

• Mongol decline made land travel more dangerous & a shift to seafaring occurred in Europe & China after 1400 CE

• Mongol conquest likely spread the Black Plague to the Europe which would have devastating economic effects

The Impact of the Mongols

SOCIAL

• Mongols practiced religious toleration in the Middle East & Europe and often converted to local religions – allowed Islam & Orthodox Christianity to continue to thrive

• Russia became isolated from European trends like the Renaissance – continued the split between Eastern & Western Europe started w/ the Byzantine Empire

• The Black Plague devastated Europe in the 14th C

• Mongol expansion & control of the Silk Road allowed for cultural diffusion & exploration on an unprecedented scale – including the journey of Marco Polo

Global Connections – The Mongol Linkages

• Mongols brought the Muslim and European worlds

new military knowledge, especially the use of

gunpowder

• Trade and cultural contact between different

civilizations throughout Eurasia became much easier

• Trading empires established in their dominions by

Venetians and Genoese provided experiences for later

European expansion

• An unintended consequence was the transmitting of

the fleas carrying the bubonic plague (black death) from

China to central Asia to the Middle East to Europe