1. The Mongols
World History 9

2. Presentation Outline Rise of the Mongols Mongol Conquests
Mongol Administration
Silk Road
5) Mongols and Islam
6) Mongol Domination in China
7) Mongol Effects on Early Ming China

3. 1) The Rise of the Mongols, 1200-1600
Nomadism in Central and Inner Asia
Mongols lived in the steppes of Central Asia as pastoral nomads
Mongols were strongly hierarchical.
Mongols had complex federations tied to together by marriage alliances.

4. The harsh steppes of Central Asia

5. The Yurt- could be moved easily as Mongols were nomadic

6. Their seasonal movements brought them into contact with all types of religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions
They accepted religious pluralism.
Mongol khans (chiefs) were thought to represent the Sky God.
The Mongols themselves believed in shamanism or natural spirits and ancestor worship

7. Genghis Khan – Founder of the Mongol empire.
Genghis Khan rose as chief of a powerful Mongol clan and united all the Mongols under his leadership in 1206
was elected the Great Khan
of the Mongols
Genghis used a divide and conquer strategy to defeat his rivals
Genghis Khan – Founder of the Mongol empire.

8. 2) The Mongol Conquests, 1215-1283
Genghis Khan conquered Northern China.
The khanates of the Golden Horde, Jagadai, and the Il- Khans all swore allegiance to Genghis.
When Kublai Khan took over, the Jagadai Khan refused to accept him.
Kublai established the Yuan empire and in 1279 he conquered the Southern Song.

9. The Mongols were able to conquer a vast amount of territory because of their superior horsemanship, better bows, technique of following a volley of arrows with a cavalry charge, using non-Mongol soldiers, reputation for slaughtering those who would not surrender, and their ability to take advantage of rivalries among their enemies.

11. Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created (from Korea to Poland)

12. Khubilai Khan (Grandson of Genghis) finished the conquest of China, created the Yuan dynasty, claimed the title of Great Khan, assumed supremacy over the other Mongol khanates.

13. Mongols fighting the Russians at the Battle of the Kalka River
Mongols fighting the Russians at the Battle of the Kalka River. Ended Kievan Russia rule of modern day Russia.

14. After the death of Genghis, the empire splits into the four different Khanates – Great Khan, Golden Khan, Il-Khan, Jagadai

15. Mongols carried 5 dozen arrows into battle and rarely used them all.

16. Most Mongols were expert horse archers
Most Mongols were expert horse archers. Asian bow was more superior – could shoot 1/3 farther than their enemies’ bows.

17. Mongols fighting the Teutonic Knights in Germany
Mongols fighting the Teutonic Knights in Germany. Ogodei (Genghis Khan’s successor) dies and the Mongols return to China to elect a new Khan.

18. 3) Mongol Administration
The Mongol conquered large tracts of territory in little time
Nevertheless, the Mongol Empire was rather short-lived, lasting less than 100 years, though a much reduced version continued under Tamerlane after the 1300s.
The Pax Mongolica was the stability and peace on the Eurasian continent which followed the Mongol conquests
But at what price? Historians estimate that more than 1 million people died during the Mongol conquests

19. The Mongols didn’t pay their soldiers, rather the soldiers collected their own pay (booty, plunder)
After the conquests, the Mongols had to create a professional army and relied mostly on Persian and Chinese soldiers for their infantry troops

20. The Mongols didn’t have a legal code but instead used the legal systems of the people whom they conquered
Mongols were generally quite open to letting conquered peoples “rule themselves” provided this didn’t affect Mongol military supremacy
Mongol rulers imposed heavy taxes on conquered peoples
The Mongols devised an extensive communications system or Mongol post called the Yam- which carried messages and decrees from different parts of the empire

21. Men on horseback were used to carry messages on the Yam network.

22. 4) Silk Road
Overland trade flourished under the Mongols as they protected caravans and encouraged though taxed commerce
Inventions from Song China such as the mechanical clock, gunpowder, moveable type were brought to Europe by merchants
Persian artwork began incorporating Chinese symbolism
Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam all spread through missionaries and merchants

24. However, trade exposed people to increased contact and risk of disease, later leading to the rapid spread of the Bubonic Plague which wiped out a quarter of Europe’s population in the 14th century
This would be the last time that there would be peaceful exchange on the Silk Road- after the fall of the Mongol Empire the Silk Road would no longer be used which forced Europeans to look for maritime trade routes

25. Illustration of the spread of the Bubonic Plague which originated in southwestern China. Mongols and flea infested rats carried it along trade routes.

26. The effects of the Bubonic Plague.

27. 4) The Mongols and Islam, 1260-1500
Mongol Rivalry
In the 1260s the Il-Khan Mongols murdered the Abbasid Caliph because of religious differences.
Batu Khan of the Golden Horde in Russia, converted to Islam and vowed to attack the Il-Khan region.
Europeans attempted to help the non-Muslim Il- Khans repel the Golden Horde Mongols, but the Il- Khan ruler Ghazan became a Muslim in 1295.

28. The Il-Khan ruler Ghazan studying the Quran.

29. Islam and the State
The goal of the Il-Khan state was to collect as much tax revenue as possible.
The tax farming system was able to deliver large taxes, but over taxation led to inflation and a severe economic crisis.
Attempts to solve this crisis involved using paper money, but depression lasted until 1349 when the Golden Horde destroyed the Il-Khan empire.
As the Golden Horde and the Il-Khan empires declined in the 14th century, Timur continued the Jagadai Khanate and his descendents, the Timurids, ruled the Middle East for several generations.

30. Il-Khan gold coin during the time of Ghazan.

31. The Jagadai Khanate rose in the 14th century with the decline of the Golden Horde and the Il-Khan. (modern day Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan)

32. Timur (Tamerlane) built the Jagadai Khanate
Timur (Tamerlane) built the Jagadai Khanate. Ethnically he was a Turk, not a Mongol, so he could not be Khan.

33. Timur’s Jagadai Khanate (1365 - 1405)

34. Culture and Science in Islamic Eurasia
Juvaini wrote the first comprehensive work of the rise of the Mongols under Genghis Khan.
Rashid al-Din published a history of the world.
Muslims under Mongol leadership made great strides in astronomy, calendar making, and the predication of eclipses.
Devised decimal fractions, calculated the value of pi, and had a significant effect on the development of European science and mathematics.

35. Mongols were not only great conquers, they allowed their subjects to pursue intellectual interests.

36. Muslim historian, Rashid al-Din’s, history of the world – Included history of Europe and China.

37. Under Mongol leadership, the Muslim scholar Nasir al-Din made great strides in astronomy – small circles rotating within a large circle.

38. 6) Mongol Domination in China, 1271-1368
The Yuan Dynasty,
Kublai Khan practiced Chinese traditions of government and retained the scholar gentry but ended the civil service examinations
Unified the Tanggut, Jin, and Southern Song empires.
Made innovations of tax farming, Western Asian Muslims as officials, legally defined status groups, status of merchants and doctors was elevated, and Confucians lowered.
China’s cities and ports prospered, trade recovered, and merchants flourished.
However, Chinese population dropped as much as 40%, probably because of the spread of disease, warfare, infanticide, and the flooding of the Yellow River.

39. Mongols unified the Tanggut, Jin, and Song empires into the Yuan dynasty. (unified China as we know it)

40. Example of early weaponry using of gunpowder.

41. Cultural and Scientific Exchange
China imported Il-Khan science and technology.
Il-Khans imported Chinese scholars and texts.
Iranian astronomical knowledge, algebra, trigonometry, Islamic and Persian medical texts, seeds, and formulas were brought to China.

42. The Fall of the Yuan Empire
Chinese leader Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols and established the Ming Dynasty
The Mongols still held Central Eurasia and were able to disrupt overland trade to threaten the Ming.
The Ming were also threatened by the Jurchens (another nomadic people)
Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols and established the Ming Empire.

43. Ming dynasty began after the Yuan fell and the Mongols were expelled.

44. 7) Mongol Effects on Early Ming Dynasty,1368-1500
Ming China on a Mongol Foundation
Zhu Yuanzhang made great efforts to reject the culture of the Mongols, close off trade relations with Central Asia and the Middle East and reestablish Confucian ideology and civil service examinations
The Ming still used hereditary professional categories, the Mongol calendar, and Beijing as the capital.
Mongols continued to serve in the army.

45. Bibliography
Morgan, David. The Mongols. Oxford: Blackwell, Print.