Transcript Slide 1
The Mongols CH 12 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 • Genghis • Khan 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 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 Siege Warfare Fighting on Horseback 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 •Kubilai Khan 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) 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 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) 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 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 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 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) 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