1. Mongols 3 case studies

2. Mongols in China Yuan Dynasty: 1280-1365
-decided not to make Northern China into pasture (!)
-harsh in Northern China, less harsh in Southern China

3. Yuan Dynasty
-peasants given tax breaks/food in famines but also forced into hard labor
-merchants better off financially
-Confucian scholars needed for admin but Mongols didn’t trust-
brought in Muslim and Christian advisers to keep an eye on them

4. Khubilai Khan and Yuan Accommodated Did not accommodate
Ancestor worship
Confucian rituals
Built roads/canals/limited torture
Prevented ponies from grazing on farmland (!)
No intermarriage with Chinese
Scholars forbidden from learning Mongolian script
Steppe grass and wondering animals in Forbidden city in Capital
Yurts preferred
When dynasty fell- 1000s of Mongols kicked back out to steppe

5. Two views of women:
Mongol v. Chinese

6. Mongols in Persia Harsher than in China (especially Southern China)
Destroyed agriculture
Ponies/sheep grazed
Knocked out irrigation

7. Qanats: Irrigation system
Quanat pictures today

8. Mongols in Persia Mongol accommodation Intermarried Converted to Islam
(somewhat paradoxically) increased wine output
Some turned to farming
Learned some Persian
When empire fell, no one went back to the steppe-

9. Mongols in Russia
Golden Horde: ) (golden tent or central camp)
harshest conquest
Longest lasting

10. Mongols in Russia
Mongols saw Russia as lower value compared to China and Persia
Lived in the steppe close by- remained nomadic
took slaves and huge ransoms
Took artisans and used them throughout empire

11. Mongols in Russia
Put local princes in power and had them do the tax collection
Russian princes adopted Mongol dress and traditions
Eastern Orthodox Church expanded under Mongol religious tolerance

12. Mongols in Russia
Mongols intermarried with the Turkic peoples who were on the steppe– by the time Mongol rule ended in Russia, they had lost much of Mongol identity