1. Why historically significant?
Mongols
“The Mongols made no technological breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few books or dramas”
Why historically significant?
a conduit [not a creator] of civilization

2. A Quick Background… Nomads Genghis Khan chosen leader
Need for water leads to conquest - Central Asia lacked rain for agriculture
Greatest Opportunity was trade – horses!

3. Mongols
Declared themselves to be descendents of Huns who founded the 1st steppe empire in late Classical era.
Called “Tartars” especially by Westerners (“people from hell”), though a misnomer: Mongols conquered steppe tribe Tartars, but because so many Tartars rose to prominence in the Mongol Empire, the name became synonymous with Mongols.

4. Adaptation of local societies / talents
What were the key factors that allowed fewer than 125,000 nomadic warriors to build the largest empire in world history?
Military prowess
Adaptation of local societies / talents
Timing: fragmentation of postclassical states 4

5. Impact of the Mongols
“The Mongols created a single economic, cultural, and epidemiological world system”
Mongol Exchange
New methods of warfare
Trade from Venice to Beijing and beyond
Demographic change via the plague and major population shifts
Altered the political histories of Russia, China, Europe
Unparalleled cultural diffusion

6. Chronology of the Mongol Empire
Reign of Chinggis Khan
Conquest of northern China
Conquest of Persia
Conquest of Russia
1258 Capture of Baghdad
Conquest of southern China

7. Strong Equestrians and Archers
The Mongols were oriented around extreme mobility. They carried their houses with them, drank their own horse's blood to stay alive, and could travel up to 62 miles per day.
They had an elaborate priority-mail-system which allowed orders to be transmitted rapidly across Eurasia.
Mongol archers were very deadly and accurate
Their arrows could kill enemies at 200 meters (656 feet)

8. Psychological Warfare
Genghis Khan used combined fake retreats with accurate Horse Archers to pick off his European enemies.
Genghis Khan slaughtered a few cities, in an attempt to scare all other cities to surrender without a fight. He, being a practical leader, also valued smarts more than bravery
If enemies surrendered without resistance, the Mongols usually spared their lives, and they provided generous treatment for artisans, craft workers, and those with military skills
In the event of resistance, the Mongols ruthlessly slaughtered whole populations, sparing only a few, whom they sometimes drove ahead of their armies as human shields during future conflicts

9. Genghis Khan
In 25 years, subjugated more land & people than the Romans did in 400 years.
Destroyed LOTS of ‘less important’ cities – often along less accessible trade routes – to funnel commerce into routes that his army could more easily supervise and control.

10. Genghis Khan Valued individual merit & loyalty
Fighting wasn’t honorable; winning was. So, used any means necessary to win (trickery, etc.)
Conscripted peasants: Mongols just didn’t understand peasants who seemed like grazing animals rather than real humans who ate meat. “They used same terms, precision, & emotion in rounding up yaks as peasants.”
Refugees preceded Mongol attack as people from outlying areas fled to cities for protection but overwhelmed the cities & spread fear
LOVED negative PR: allowed & encouraged true or false stories to be circulated in order instill fear.
Fought on the move: didn’t care if chased or fled (unlike sedentary soldier-farmer), just wanted to kill the enemy.

11. Genghis Khan – innovations
Relied on speed & surprise and perfected siege warfare (not relied on defensive fortifications)
Used resources of land instead of relying on supply train
Allocated fallen soldiers’ share of loot to widow/children (ensured support)
Reorganized army so each unit had a mix of tribal/ethnic peoples and they had to live & fight together ---transcend kinship, ethnicity, & religion.
Religious tolerance
Instituted postal system for communication
Ordered writing system created
Abolished torture & insisted on rule of law (to which even the khan was accountable)

13. Rule in conquered territories
Ruthless annihilation of resistance (terror tactics).
General benevolence when no resistance.
Cities generally left under native governors.
Religious tolerance important in consolidating rule, gain support of minorities oppressed by Muslims.
Administration commonly more benign, less corrupt than pre-Mongol government.

14. “Pax Mongolica?”
Under the Mongols, there was unprecedented long-distance trade
Mongols encouraged the exchange of people, technology, and information across their empire
Weatherford: the Mongols were “civilization’s unrivaled cultural carriers…”
Marco Polo en route to China

15. Pax Mongolica
Mongol Passport
By the mid 13th c, the family of Genghis Khan controls Asia from China to the Black Sea creating a period of stability during which trade flourishes to new heights along the Silk Routes. Before  lots of fighting in East Asia and fighting between Muslims & Christians in the SW Asia, but now  stability brings trade in more volume & people who now travel the entire distance.
Encouraged great commercial, religious, intellectual exchange between the East & West.
“The Mongols made culture portable: it was not enough to merely exchange goods, because whole systems of knowledge had to also be transported in order to use many of the new products” (e.g. drugs weren’t profitable trade items unless one possessed medical knowledge for their use, so moved Arab doctors to China & vice versa)
Marco Polo traveling the Silk Roads

16. Pax Mongolica: look at all these routes!

17. Exchanges During the Mongol Era
From
Europe
Southwest Asia
South Asia
East Asia
Honey
Horses
Glassware
Slaves
Textiles
Rugs
Incense
Finished iron products
Finished gold products
Spices
Gems
Perfumes
Gunpowder
Firearms
Rockets
Magnetic compass
Porcelain
Silk
Maritime Technology
Paper Making
Printing
Tea
Christian missionaries
Italian merchants
European diplomats
Muslim merchants
Nestorian merchants
Muslim diplomats
Indian merchants
Indian diplomats
Buddhist religious objects
Chinese bureaucrats
Chinese artists, artisans
East Asian diplomats
Sugar cane
Black Death
Intellectual Exchanges of Ideas, Art, Architecture, Knowledge was constant 18

19. War with Persia
War started after Persians put Mongol emissaries to death.
War of annihilation on both sides.
Mongol detachment sent to pursue Shah across his own empire.
Following conquest of Persia, Mongol troop circled Caspian.

22. Shortly after Chinggis Khan’s death, his empire split
into four Khanates

23. Invasions of Eastern Europe

24. The Mongol Drive to the West
Russia and Europe were added to the Mongols’ agenda for world conquest, and subjugating these regions became the project of the armies of the Golden Horde, which drove westward .
Kiev was in decline by the 13th century, and Russia was unable to unite before the Mongols (called Tatars by Russians)
Chinggis Khan’s grandson, Batu, defeated the Russian armies one by one, resisting armies were razed
Kiev was taken by 1240 …very few towns survived (only Novgorod and Moscow because they submitted)

25. Russia in Bondage
The Russians became vassals of the khan of the Golden Horde, a domination which lasted for 250 years
Peasants had to meet the demands from both their own princes and the Mongols, and many sought protection by becoming serfs, changing the Russian social structure until the 19th century
Some cities like Moscow benefited from Mongol rule by increased trade, but when the Golden Horde’s power weakened, it led the resistance
Although Mongols remained active in the region through much of the 15th century, Moscow became the center of political power in Russia
The Mongols influenced Russian military and political organization, but most significantly isolated them from developments in Western Europe  did not experience the Renaissance or Reformation

26. Regional Effects: Russia under the “Golden Horde”
In Russia…Mongol forces successfully attacked Russia in 1224 by defeating Kiev Rus.
Destroyed most cities & demanded high tribute.
However, the Mongols left Russia largely to its own devices & few Mongol officials were there (INDIRECT rule). Russia had lots of independent principalities, each required to send tribute …or else.
New places --like Moscow (Muscovy) to the north --began to grow with the Mongols’ implementation of a postal system, financial structures, & census. Moscow became a cultural & economic center.
Armenians, Georgians, & Russians thought Mongols were a punishment from God who “fetched the Tartars against us for our sins.”
Limited Russia’s interaction with Western Europe (e.g. Russia was isolated from the cultural effects of the Renaissance) --a period of cultural decay except in northern Russia.
Lasted the longest of the all the khanates (until 1480)

27. Centralization politically
Mongols in Russia
Good:
Centralization politically
Protected Russia from attacks (Teutonic Knights)
Bad:
Russia cut off from political, economic, and intellectual development

28. New States in Eastern Europe and Anatolia
Mongol armies drove to the outskirts of Vienna, but withdrew in 1241 because they needed to elect a successor to the deceased Great Khan Ogodei.
Europeans then initiated a variety of diplomatic and trade overtures toward the Mongols.
Mongol invasions and the bubonic plague caused Europeans to question their religious beliefs.
After Mongol power began to wane in the 13th and 14th centuries, strong centralized states such as Lithuania and the Balkan Kingdoms began to assert their control over their neighbors.
Anatolia functioned as a route by which Islamic culture spread to Europe

30. The Mongol Empire at its height

31. Question
How did the Mongol conquests bring an end to the post-classical civilizations in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Islam?

32. After-Shock: Timur-i Lang (Timur the Lame) (Tamerlane)
Just as the world was recovering from the Mongols, another group of invaders, the Turks of Central Asia, under the leadership of Timur, began raids on the Middle East, India and southern Russia
Unlike the Mongols, Timur’s invasions represented ABSOLUTE BARBARISM…little tolerance for anything in his path
Pyramids of skulls, wanton slaughter of innocent people…he did spare artisans and scientists from Muslim lands though and took them back to his capital at Samarkand
For a brief period there was no increase in commercial trade…a halt to cultural exchange…internal peace subsided
His death in 1405 signified the end of the great nomadic challenges to Eurasian civilizations as the Turks under future leaders (Mehmed II) sought a sedentary empire

33. TIMUR’S WORLD 34

34. The Impact of the Mongols
POLITICAL
Mongol conquest left Russia more divided culturally & less developed than Western European nations
Descendants of Genghis Khan & Timur established the Mughal Empire in India
Introduced new military techniques & organization to Turks & Europeans – such as small organized units, the use of cavalry & the effective use of gunpowder
Mongol defeat of the Seljuk Turks in 1243 CE allowed for the later rise of the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East

35. The Impact of the Mongols
ECONOMIC
Global trade expanded dramatically under Mongol control – Italians were the primary beneficiaries in Europe; security, use of paper currency, control & management of Silk Road all increased trade in the Eastern Hemisphere
Europeans were exposed to a much greater number of Chinese goods on a large scale – gunpowder & printing being among the most influential
The global trade network became more intertwined
Mongol decline made land travel more dangerous & a shift to seafaring occurred in Europe & China after 1400 CE
Mongol conquest likely spread the Black Plague to the Europe which would have devastating economic effects

36. The Impact of the Mongols
SOCIAL
Mongols practiced religious toleration in the Middle East & Europe and often converted to local religions – allowed Islam & Orthodox Christianity to continue to thrive
Russia became isolated from European trends like the Renaissance – continued the split between Eastern & Western Europe started w/ the Byzantine Empire
The Black Plague devastated Europe in the 14th C
Mongol expansion & control of the Silk Road allowed for cultural diffusion & exploration on an unprecedented scale – including the journey of Marco Polo

37. Global Connections – The Mongol Linkages
Mongols brought the Muslim and European worlds new military knowledge, especially the use of gunpowder
Trade and cultural contact between different civilizations throughout Eurasia became much easier
Trading empires established in their dominions by Venetians and Genoese provided experiences for later European expansion
An unintended consequence was the transmitting of the fleas carrying the bubonic plague (black death) from China to central Asia to the Middle East to Europe