Name:______Date:______Hour:______
Chapter 12, Section 2: The Mongol Conquests
Setting the Stage
The Mongols were a group of people in northern China that lived a ______life. They prided themselves on their ______, ______, ______, and ______. They went after the ______and ______that came with conquering empires that would span over Asia and Europe.
Nomads of the Asian Steppe
•A vast belt of dry grassland, called the ______, stretches across the landmass of Eurasia
•Useful because:
•It served as a ______route connecting East and West
•Home to nomadic people who frequently swept down on their neighbors to plunder and conquer
Geography of the Steppe
•Dry plain supports short, hardy ______
•Seasonal temperatures are dramatic: range from ______in the winter to ______in the summer
•Very little rain: more in the west than the east so movements of people have tended to be toward the ______and ______
The Nomadic Way of Life
•They were ______: herded domesticated animals
•Always on the move searching for ______to feed their herds
•Movements followed a ______and always returned to same campsites
•Constant battles among these groups over grassland and ______
•Depended on their animals for ______(Diet consisted of meat and mare’s milk), ______(made of skins and wool) and ______(portable felt tent called yurts)
•Traveled in kinship groups called ______in which members claimed to be descended from a common ancestor
Steppe Nomads and Settled Societies
•Different nomadic clans interacted
•In ______[i.e. trade horses for items they lack like grain, metal, cloth and tea]
•Raided for items they wanted
The Rise of the Mongols: Genghis Khan
•1200: Mongol clan leader named ______sought to unify the Mongols under his leadership around ______
- Slowly Temujin defeated his enemies (and friends) one by one
- In 1206 he accepted the title of ______or “______” of the Mongol clans
- Genghis Khan conquered much of Asia and had goal of invading China
- He invaded northern ______in 1211
- Attention changed to Islamic region west of Mongolia because he was angered the murder of Mongol traders and an ambassador at the hands of Muslim
- Led a campaign of terror against ______
- By 1225 Central Asia was under Mongol control
Genghis the Conqueror: Why did he succeed?
The Mongol Empire
•Genghis Khan died in ______- his successors continued to expand his empire and campaign for conquest
•In less than 50 years the Mongols conquered territory from China to Poland and they created the largest unified land empire in history
•They went south, east, and west out of inner Asia- took ______, invaded Korea, took Russian city of Kiev, reached banks of the ______, and set attention to Persia
•They divided their huge empire into four regions, or ______
•A descendent of Genghis ruled each khanate
The Mongols as Rulers
•Many of the areas invaded by the Mongols never recovered
•______
•Destroyed ______so the land could no longer make food and support resettlement
•Rarely imposed their ______on those they conquered
The Mongol Peace
•______to ______Mongols imposed ______and ______across much of Eurasia
•Called ______: or ______
•Guaranteed safe passage for ______, ______, and ______from one end of the empire to another
•Idea and innovations traveled along with trade goods
•One theory says that the epidemic of the ______that devastated Europe during the 1300 was first spread by the Mongols