The Mongol Empire WHAP/Napp

“Every shrewd emperor of China saw advantages in enticing the nomads to fight amongst themselves. In the 12th century they were as divided as they were to be united in the following century. In 1206, however, Genghis Khan, the chieftain of the Mongols, miraculously united these riders of the steppes. All clans or groups gave him loyalty: he had already killed or cowed those most likely to be disloyal. A magnetic leader, he was said by some to possess the mystical powers of the shaman, a kind of soothsayer revered by the pagan Mongols. With a mounted army of close to 130,000 men, his own genius in strategy and tactics, and a network of spies in enemy territory, he began to conquer. Thousands of his cavalrymen rode with a spare horse or two by their side so they could replace a tired horse if a long journey lay ahead.

Genghis Khan moved so quickly that surprise was often his weapon. He occasionally used the new invention of gunpowder if he had to besiege a fortified town. Often he offered a city the change to surrender. The price of surrender was one in every ten of the city’s people and one-tenth of its wealth; and so his slaves and conscripted soldiers and wealth multiplied. Cities that did not surrender were besieged or stormed. Massacre and butchery were the Mongols’ trademark. They became so feared that they often found themselves pursuing the backs of the enemy.

Ruthless but intelligent vandalism was another of their weapons. They would destroy the irrigation systems that were the lifeline of many farmlands or lay waste to the land surrounding a besieged city so that its roadsides and fields were strewn with corpses. When advancing towards the walls of a well-defended city the Mongols would sometimescompel their prisoners of war to go ahead of them and form a human shield. And yet the Mongol leaders also enforced a strict discipline among their own people.

Enlisting more allies, recruiting or conscripting foreign soldiers, they more than replaced the men they lost through death, wounds or disease. The momentum of the simultaneous advance across Asia, both to east and to west, was terrifying to the people of cities who, thinking the Mongols were far away, suddenly saw them appear on the nearby hilltops.”

~ A Short History of the World

1-Using the document, prove that Chinese emperorswere shrewd. ______

2-Who was Genghis Khan and what was he able to do? ______

3-Why was Genghis Khan successful in his conquests? ______

4-Why did Mongol cavalrymen ride with a spare horse or two by their side? ______

5-How were inhabitants of cities besieged by the Mongols encouraged to surrender? ______

6-Why were the Mongols often pursuing the backs of their enemies? ______

7-How did the Mongols use vandalism in their conquests? ______

8-How were the Mongols able to replace the men they lost through death or disease? ______

9-Why do historians refer to Mongol warfare as “psychological warfare”? ______

Notes:
  1. China and the Mongols
  1. Mongol conquest of China lasted some seventy years, from 1209 to 1279
  2. Began in northern Chinacharacterized by destruction and plunder
  3. In Southern China, under Song dynasty, Mongols were far less violent
  4. Mongols unified Chinamany believed granted Mandate of Heaven
  5. To extract wealthsome accommodation to Chinese culture
  6. Gave themselves Chinese dynastic title, Yuan, meaning “great beginnings”
  7. Transferred capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to what is now Beijing
  1. Khubilai Khan, grandson of Chinggis Khan, China’s Mongol ruler (1271 to 1294)
  1. Improved roads, built canals, lowered some taxes, patronized scholars, supported agriculture, prohibited Mongols from grazing animals on peasants’ farmland
  2. But Mongol rule was still harshMarco Polo observed hostility
  3. Largely ignored Chinese examination system and relied on foreignerskept top decision-making posts to themselves
  4. Mongol women never adopted foot binding and mixed freely with men
  5. Mongols also honored and supported merchants and artisans
  6. But brief ruleby 1368, Mongols returned to steppesfactionalism, rapidly rising prices, epidemics of the plague, and growing peasant rebellion
  1. Persia and the Mongols
  1. Far more abrupt than the extended process of conquest in China
  2. First invasion (1219-1221) by Chinggis Khanfollowed thirty years later by grandson Hulegu, who became the first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia
  3. Were infidels in Muslim eyesmade Mongol conquest a profound shock
  4. Sacking of Baghdad in 1258 (an end to the Abbasid caliphate) accompanied by massacre of more than 200,000 people, according to Hulegu
  5. Heavy taxes, sometimes collected twenty or thirty times a year and often under torture or whipping, pushed large numbers of peasants off their land
  6. Much agricultural land into pasture and sometimes desertMongol herds
  7. Yet wine production increased because Mongols were fond of alcohol and Persian silk industry benefited from close contact with China
  8. But Mongols in Persia were transformed far more than in China
  9. Made extensive use of the sophisticated Persian bureaucracy, leaving the greater part of government operations in Persian hands
  10. And the Mongols who conquered Persia became Muslims, following Ghazan
(1295-1304), Mongol ruler converted to Islam in 1295
  1. The Mongols and Russia
  1. To the Mongols, Russia was Kipchak Khanate, named after the Kipchak Turkic-speaking peoples north of the Caspian and Black seas
  2. To the Russians, it was the “Khanate of the Golden Horde”
  3. From the Mongol point of view, Russia had little to offer
  4. Availability of extensive steppe lands for pasturing flocks north of Black and Caspian seas meant that could maintain preferred nomadic way
  1. Could dominate and exploit Russia from the steppes
  1. Russian princes received appointment from khan and required to send tribute
  2. Continuing border raids sent tens of thousands of Russians into slavery
  3. But some Russian princes benefited considerably because they were able to manipulate their role as tribute collectors to grow wealthy
  4. The Russian Orthodox Church likewise flourished under the Mongol policy of religious toleration, for it received exemption from many taxes
  5. Some cities, such as Kiev, resisted the Mongols and were devastated
  6. Moscow emerged as primary collector of tribute for Mongols and grew in power
  7. The impact of the Mongols on Russia was greater than on China and Persia
  8. Mongol policies facilitated rise of Moscow as the core of a new Russian state
  1. Mongols and World Economy
  1. Promoted international commerce, largely so they could tax it and extract wealth
  2. Provided secure environment for merchants making on Silk Roads
  3. Mongol-ruled China was fulcrum of vast system, connecting overland route with oceanic routes through South China Sea and Indian Ocean
  4. Mongol armies destroyed Polish, German, and Hungarian forces in 1241-1242 and seemed poised to march on Western Europe
  1. But death of Great Khan Ogodei required Mongol leaders to return to Mongolia, and Western Europe lacked adequate pasture for herds
  2. Europe was spared the trauma of conquest
  3. But Europeans benefitted from increased trade but also impacted by the “plague” or the “pestilence”  later called the Black Death
a)One-third to two-thirds of the population diedflagellants flogging themselves to atone for sinsattacks on Jewslabor shortagespeasant rebellions

Complete the Graphic Organizer Below:

Questions:

  • How did Mongol rule change China? In what ways were the Mongols changed by China?
  • How was Mongol rule in Persia different from that in China?
  • In what ways did the Mongol Empire contribute to the globalization of the Eurasian world?
  • Disease changes societies. How might this argument apply to the plague?
  • How was the Russian experience of Mongol domination different from that of Persia or China?

  1. The reign of Khubilai Khan in China was marked by all but one of the following:
(A)Economic strength
(B)Effective bureaucracy
(C)Economic malaise
(D)Renewed trade with the West
(E)The repairing of roads and canals
  1. What were some examples of the Mongols’ cultural borrowing during the Pax Mongolica?
  1. The adoption of advanced law codes
  2. The adoption of a written language
  3. The adoption of new religious practices
  4. The adoption of nomadism
(A)II and II only
(B)II and III only
(C)I, II, and III
(D)II, III, and IV
(E)None of the above
  1. Which of the following territories did the Mongols NOT conquer?
(A)Russia
(B)Ukraine
(C)Bulgaria
(D)Romania
(E)France /
  1. Why were the Mongols successful at conquest?
I. They had the largest army of all time.
II. They adopted advanced technology quickly.
III. They organized their armies efficiently.
IV. They were talented cavalrymen.
(A)I, II, and III
(B)II, III, and IV
(C)I and III only
(D)I only
(E)All of the above
  1. Which Mongol leader won the civil war of the 1260s and went on to conquer China?
(A)Ögödei
(B)Batu
(C)Subudei
(D)Genghis
(E)Khubilai
  1. Why did the Mongol Empire break up?
(A)The Mongols wanted to revert to pastoralism again.
(B)They failed to administer such a large territory effectively.
(C)After Genghis Khan died, his successors were too incompetent to rule.
(D)Russia conquered Mongolia.
(E)None of the above.

Thesis Practice: Compare and contrast the political and economic effects of Mongol rule on TWO of the following regions: China, Middle East, and/or Russia