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Mongol Empire

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   Expansion of the Mongol Empire
   Enlarge
   Expansion of the Mongol Empire

   The Mongol Empire ( Mongolian: Их Монгол Улс, meaning "Great (Их)
   Mongol Nation (Улс)") ( 1206– 1405) after persian, the world largest
   empire in world history, covering over 33 million km² at its peak, with
   an estimated population of over 100 million people founded by Genghis
   Khan in 1206. At its height, it encompassed the majority of the
   territories from southeast Asia to central Europe.

   After unifying the Mongol– Turkic tribes, the Empire expanded through
   numerous conquests throughout continental Eurasia starting with the
   conquests of Western Xia in north China and Khwarezmid Empire in
   Persia. Modern estimates suggest that as many as 30 million people died
   during the Mongol conquests.

   During its existence, the Pax Mongolica facilitated cultural exchange
   and trade between the East, West, and the Middle East in the period of
   the 13th and 14th centuries.

   The Mongol Empire was ruled by the Khagan. After the death of Genghis
   Khan, it split into four parts ( Yuan Dynasty, Il-Khanate, Chagatai
   Khanate and Golden Horde), each of which was ruled by its own Khan.

Overview

   Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire and Mongol Nation.
   Enlarge
   Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire and Mongol Nation.

   Among the Western accounts, historian R. J. Rummel estimated that 30
   million people were killed under the rule of the Mongol Empire, and the
   population of China fell by half in fifty years of Mongol rule. David
   Nicole states in The Mongol Warlords, "terror and mass extermination of
   anyone opposing them was a well tested Mongol tactic."

   One of the more successful tactics employed by the Mongols was to wipe
   out urban populations that had refused to surrender; in the invasion of
   Kievan Rus', almost all major cities were destroyed; but if they chose
   to submit, the people were spared and treated leniently. In addition to
   intimidation tactics, the rapid expansion of the Empire was facilitated
   by military hardiness (especially during bitterly cold winters),
   military skill, meritocracy, and discipline. Subotai, in particular,
   among the Mongol Commanders, viewed winter as the best time for war —
   while less hardy people hid from the elements, the Mongols were able to
   use frozen lakes and rivers as highways for their horsemen, a strategy
   he used with great effect in Russia.

   The Mongol Empire had a lasting impact, unifying large regions, some of
   which (such as eastern and western Russia and the western parts of
   China) remain unified today, albeit under different rulership. The
   Mongols themselves were assimilated into local populations after the
   fall of the empire, and many of these descendants adopted local
   religions — for example, the western Khanates adopted Islam, largely
   under Sufi influence. In fact, initially very tolerant of other
   religions, the infighting and weakness of tribal governance were one of
   the principal causes of their fall.

   The influence of the Mongol Empire may prove to be even more direct —
   Zerjal et al [2003] identify a Y-chromosomal lineage present in about
   8% of the men in a large region of Asia (or about 0.5% of the men in
   the world). The paper suggests that the pattern of variation within the
   lineage is consistent with a hypothesis that it originated in Mongolia
   about 1,000 years ago. Such a spread would be too rapid to have
   occurred by diffusion, and must therefore be the result of selection.
   The authors propose that the lineage is carried by likely male line
   descendants of Genghis Khan, and that it has spread through social
   selection. In addition to the Khanates and other descendants, the
   Mughal royal family of India are also descended from Genghis Khan:
   Babur's mother was a descendant — whereas his father was directly
   descended from Timur (Tamerlane).

   At the time of Genghis Khan's death in 1227, the empire was divided
   among his four sons, with his third son as the supreme Khan, and by the
   1350s, the khanates were in a state of fracture and had lost the order
   brought to them by Genghis Khan. Eventually the separate khanates
   drifted away from each other, becoming the Ilkhanate Dynasty based in
   Persia, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Yuan Dynasty in
   China, and what would become the Golden Horde in present-day Russia.

Formation

   Eurasia on the eve of the Mongol invasions, c. 1200 AD.
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   Eurasia on the eve of the Mongol invasions, c. 1200 AD.

   Genghis Khan, through political manipulation and military might, united
   the nomadic, previously ever-rivalling Mongol- Turkic tribes under his
   rule by 1206. He quickly came into conflict with the Jin empire of the
   Jurchen and the Western Xia in northern China. Under the provocation of
   the Muslim Khwarezmid Empire, he moved into Central Asia as well,
   devastating Transoxiana and eastern Persia, then raiding into Kievan
   Rus' (a predecessor state of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine) and the
   Caucasus. While engaged in a final war against the Western Xia, Genghis
   fell ill and died. Before dying, Genghis Khan divided his empire among
   his sons and immediate family, but as custom made clear, it remained
   the joint property of the entire imperial family who, along with the
   Mongol aristocracy, constituted the ruling class.

Major events in the Early Mongol Empire

     * 1206: By this year, Temujin from the Orkhon Valley dominated
       Mongolia and received the title Genghis Khan, thought to mean
       Oceanic Ruler or Firm, Resolute Ruler
     * 1207: The Mongols began operations against the Western Xia, which
       comprised much of northwestern China and parts of Tibet. This
       campaign lasted until 1210 with the Western Xia ruler submitting to
       Genghis Khan. During this period, the Uyghur Turks also submitted
       peacefully to the Mongols and became valued administrators
       throughout the empire.
     * 1211: After a great quriltai or meeting, Genghis Khan led his
       armies against the Jin Dynasty that ruled northern China.
     * 1218: The Mongols capture Semirechye and the Tarim Basin, occupying
       Kashgar.
     * 1218: The execution of Mongol envoys by the Khwarezmian Shah
       Muhammad sets in motion the first Mongol westward thrust.
     * 1219: The Mongols cross the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya) and begin
       their invasion of Transoxiana.
     * 1219–1221: While the campaign in northern China was still in
       progress, the Mongols waged a war in central Asia and destroyed the
       Khwarazmian Empire, killing around 1.5 million of its inhabitants.
       One notable feature was that the campaign was launched from several
       directions at once. In addition, it was notable for special units
       assigned by Ghenghis Khan personally to find and kill Ala al-Din
       Muhammad II, the Khwarazmshah who fled from them, and ultimately
       ended up hiding on an island in the Caspian Sea.
     * 1223: The Mongols gain a decisive vistory at the Battle of the
       Kalka River, the first engagement between the Mongols and the East
       Slavic warriors.
     * 1226: Invasion of the Western Xia, being the second battle with the
       Western Xia.
     * 1237: Under the leadership of Batu Khan, the Mongols return to the
       West and begin their campaign to subjugate Kievan Rus'.

Organization

Military setup

   The Mongol- Turkic military organization was simple, but effective. It
   was based on an old tradition of the steppe, which was a decimal system
   (known in Iranian cultures since Achaemenid Persia, and later imitated
   e.g. in Mughal India ): the army was built up from squads of ten men
   each, called an arban; ten arbans constituted a company of a hundred,
   called a jaghun; ten jaghuns made a regiment of a thousand called
   mingghan and ten mingghans would then constitute a regiment of ten
   thousand (tumen), which is the equivalent of a modern division.

   The army's discipline distinguished Mongol soldiers from their peers.
   The forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were generally
   tailored for mobility and speed. To maximize mobility, Mongol soldiers
   were relatively lightly armored compared to many of the armies they
   faced. In addition, soldiers of the Mongol army functioned
   independently of supply lines, considerably speeding up army movement.
   Discipline was inculcated in nerge (traditional hunts), as reported by
   Juvayni.

   All military campaigns were preceded by careful planning,
   reconnaissance and gathering of sensitive information relating to the
   enemy territories and forces. The success, organization and mobility of
   the Mongol armies permitted them to fight on several fronts at once.
   All males aged from 15 to 60 and capable of undergoing rigorous
   training were eligible for conscription into the army, the source of
   honour in the tribal warrior tradition.

   Unlike other mobile fighters, such as the Huns or the Vikings, the
   Mongols were very comfortable in the art of the siege. They were very
   careful to recruit artisans from the cities they plundered, and along
   with a group of experienced Chinese engineers, they were experts in
   building the trebuchet and other siege machines. These were mostly
   built on the spot using nearby trees.

   Another advantage of the Mongols was their ability to traverse large
   distances even in debilitatingly cold winters; in particular, frozen
   rivers led them like highways to large urban conurbations on their
   banks. In addition to siege engineering, the Mongols were also adept at
   river-work, crossing the river Sajó in spring flood conditions with
   thirty thousand cavalry in a single night during the battle of Mohi
   (April, 1241), defeating the Hungarian king Bela IV. Similarly, in the
   attack against the Muslim Khwarezmshah, a flotilla of barges was used
   to prevent escape on the river.

Law and governance

   The Mongol Empire was governed by a code of law devised by Genghis,
   called Yassa, meaning "order" or "decree". A particular canon of this
   code was that the nobility shared much of the same hardship as the
   common man. It also imposed severe penalties, e.g. the death penalty
   was decreed if the mounted soldier following another did not pick up
   something dropped from the mount in front. At the same time,
   meritocracy prevailed, and Subutai, one of the most successful Mongol
   generals, started life as a blacksmith's son. On the whole, the tight
   discipline made the Mongol Empire extremely safe and well-run; European
   travelers were amazed by the organization and strict discipline of the
   people within the Mongol Empire.

   Under Yassa, chiefs and generals were selected based on merit,
   religious tolerance was guaranteed, and thievery and vandalizing of
   civilian property was strictly forbidden. According to legend, a woman
   carrying a sack of gold could travel safely from one end of the Empire
   to another.

   The empire was governed by a non-democratic parliamentary-style central
   assembly, called Kurultai, in which the Mongol chiefs met with the
   Great Khan to discuss domestic and foreign policies.

   Genghis also demonstrated a rather liberal and tolerant attitude to the
   beliefs of others, and never persecuted people on religious grounds.
   This proved to be good military strategy, as when he was at war with
   Sultan Muhammad of Khwarezm, other Islamic leaders did not join the
   fight against Genghis — it was instead seen as a non-holy war between
   two individuals.

   Throughout the empire, trade routes and an extensive postal system
   (yam) were created. Many merchants, messengers and travelers from
   China, the Middle East and Europe used the system. Genghis Khan also
   created a national seal, encouraged the use of a written alphabet in
   Mongolia, and exempted teachers, lawyers, and artists from taxes,
   although taxes were heavy on all other subjects of the empire.

   At the same time, any resistance to Mongol rule was met with massive
   collective punishment. Cities were destroyed and their inhabitants
   slaughtered if they defied Mongol orders.

Trade networks

   Mongols prized their commercial and trade relationships with
   neighboring economies and this policy they continued during the process
   of their conquests and during the expansion of their empire. All
   merchants and ambassadors, having proper documentation and
   authorization, traveling through their realms were protected. This
   greatly increased overland trade.

   During the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, European
   merchants, numbering hundreds, perhaps thousands, made their way from
   Europe to the distant land of China — Marco Polo is only one of the
   best known of these. Well-traveled and relatively well-maintained roads
   linked lands from the Mediterranean basin to China. The Mongol Empire
   had negligible influence on seaborne trade.

After Genghis Khan

   Mongol Empire in 1227 at Genghis' death
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   Mongol Empire in 1227 at Genghis' death

   At first, the Mongol Empire was ruled by Ogedei Khan, Genghis Khan's
   third son and designated heir, but after his death in 1241, the
   fractures which would ultimately crack the Empire began to show. Enmity
   between the grandchildren of Genghis Khan resulted in a five year
   regency by Ogedei's widow until she finally got her son Guyuk Khan
   confirmed as Great Khan. But he only ruled two years, and following his
   death --he was on his way to confront his cousin Batu Khan, who had
   never accepted his authority-- another regency followed, until finally
   a period of stability came with the reign of Monke Khan, from
   1251-1259. The last universally accepted Great Khan was his brother
   Kublai Khan, from 1260-1294. Despite his recognition as Great Khan, he
   was unable to keep his brother Hulagu and their cousin Berke from open
   warfare in 1263, and after Kublai's death, there was not an accepted
   Great Khan, so the Mongol Empire was fragmented for good.

   The following Khanates emerged since the regency following Ogedei
   Khan's death, up to the reign of Kublai Khan, and became formally
   independent after his death with Great Khan overseeing them and has
   ultimate reign over as a single entity until after death of Khublai
   Khan. Genghis Khan divided the empire into four Khanates, sub-rules,
   but as a single empire under the Great Khan ( Khan of Khans).
     * Blue Horde (under Batu Khan) and White Horde (under Orda Khan)
       would soon be combined into the Golden Horde, with Batu Khan
       emerging as Khan.
     * Il-Khanate - Hulegu Khan
     * Empire of the Great Khan (China) - Kublai Khan
     * Mongol homeland (present day Mongolia, including Kharakhorum) -
       Tolui Khan
     * Chagadai Khanate - Chagatai Khan

   Genghis Khan's son, Ögedei Khan
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   Genghis Khan's son, Ögedei Khan

   The empire's expansion continued for a generation or more after
   Genghis's death in 1227. Under Genghis's successor Ögedei Khan, the
   speed of expansion reached its peak. Mongol armies pushed into Persia,
   finished off the Xia and the remnants of the Khwarezmids, and came into
   conflict with the Song Dynasty of China, starting a war that would last
   until 1279 concluding with the Mongols' successful conquest of populous
   China, which constituted then the majority of the world's economic
   production.

   Then, in the late 1230s, the Mongols under Batu Khan invaded Russia and
   Volga Bulgaria, reducing most of its principalities to vassalage, and
   pressed on into Eastern Europe. In 1241 the Mongols may have been ready
   to invade western Europe as well, having defeated the last
   Polish-German and Hungarian armies at the Battle of Legnica and the
   Battle of Mohi. Batu Khan and Subutai were preparing to invade western
   Europe, starting with a winter campaign against Austria and Germany,
   and finishing with Italy. However news of Ögedei's death prevented any
   invasion as Batu had to turn his attentions to the election of the next
   great Khan. It is often speculated that this was one of the great
   turning points in history and that Europe may well have fallen to the
   Mongols had the invasion gone ahead.

   During the 1250s, Genghis's grandson Hulegu Khan, operating from the
   Mongol base in Persia, destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and
   destroyed the cult of the Assassins, moving into Palestine towards
   Egypt. The Great Khan Möngke having died, however, he hastened to
   return for the election, and the force that remained in Palestine was
   destroyed by the Mamluks under Baibars in 1261 at Ayn Jalut.

                             [USEMAP:28801.png]

Disintegration

   Mongol Empire in 1300-1400
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   Mongol Empire in 1300-1400

   When Genghis Khan died, a major potential weakness of the system he had
   set up manifested itself. It took many months to summon the kurultai,
   as many of its most important members were leading military campaigns
   thousands of miles from the Mongol heartland. And then it took months
   more for the kurultai to come to the decision that had been almost
   inevitable from the start — that Genghis's choice as successor, his
   third son Ögedei, should have became Great Khan. Ögedei was a rather
   passive ruler and personally self-indulgent, but he was intelligent,
   charming and a good decision-maker whose authority was respected
   throughout his reign by apparently stronger-willed relatives and
   generals whom he had inherited from Genghis.

   On Ögedei's death in 1241, however, the system started falling apart.
   Pending a kurultai to elect Ögedei's successor, his widow Toregene
   Khatun assumed power and proceeded to ensure the election of her son
   Guyuk by the kurultai. Batu was unwilling to accept Guyuk as Great
   Khan, but lacked the influence in the kurultai to procure his own
   election. Therefore, while moving no further west, he simultaneously
   insisted that the situation in Europe was too precarious for him to
   come east and that he could not accept the result of any kurultai held
   in his absence. The resulting stalemate lasted four years. In 1246 Batu
   eventually agreed to send a representative to the kurultai but never
   acknowledged the resulting election of Guyuk as Great Khan.

   Guyuk died in 1248, only two years after his election, on his way west,
   apparently to force Batu to acknowledge his authority, and his widow
   Oghul Ghaymish assumed the regency pending the meeting of the kurultai;
   unfortunately for her, she could not keep the power. Batu remained in
   the west but this time gave his support to his and Guyuk's cousin,
   Möngke, who was duly elected Great Khan in 1251.

   Möngke Khan unwittingly provided his brother Kublai with a chance to
   become Khan in 1260, assigning Kublai to a province in North China.
   Kublai expanded the Mongol empire and became a favorite of Möngke.
   Kublai's conquest of China is estimated by Holworth, based on census
   figures, to have killed over 18 million people.

   Later, though, when Kublai began to adopt many Chinese laws and
   customs, his brother was persuaded by his advisors that Kublai was
   becoming too Chinese and would become treasonous. Möngke kept a closer
   watch on Kublai from then on but died campaigning in the west. After
   his older brother's death, Kublai placed himself in the running for a
   new khan against his younger brother, and, although his younger brother
   won the election, Kublai defeated him in battle, and Kublai became the
   last true Great Khan.

   He proved to be a strong warrior, but his critics still accused him of
   being too closely tied to Chinese culture. When he moved his
   headquarters to Beijing, there was an uprising in the old capital that
   he barely staunched. He focused mostly on foreign alliances, and opened
   trade routes. He dined with a large court every day, and met with many
   ambassadors, foreign merchants, and even offered to convert to
   Christianity if this religion was proved to be correct by 100 priests.
   Grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan
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   Grandson of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan

   By the reign of Kublai Khan, the empire was already in the process of
   splitting into a number of smaller khanates. After Kublai died in 1294,
   his heirs failed to maintain the Pax Mongolica and the Silk Road
   closed. Inter-family rivalry (compounded by the complicated politics of
   succession, which twice paralyzed military operations as far off as
   Hungary and the borders of Egypt (crippling their chances of success),
   and the tendencies of some of the khans to drink themselves to death
   fairly young (causing the aforementioned succession crises), hastened
   the disintegration of the empire.

   Another factor which contributed to the disintegration was the decline
   of morale when the capital was moved from Karakorum to modern day
   Beijing by Kublai Khan, because Kublai Khan associated more with
   Chinese culture. Kublai concentrated on the war with the Song Dynasty,
   assuming the mantle of ruler of China, while the more Western khanates
   gradually drifted away.

   The four descendant empires were the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty in
   China, the Chagatai Khanate, the Golden Horde that controlled Central
   Asia and Russia, and the Ilkhans who ruled Persia from 1256 to 1353. Of
   the latter, their ruler Ilkhan Ghazan was converted to Islam in 1295
   and actively supported the expansion of this religion in his empire.

Silk Road

   Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan, c.1280.
   Enlarge
   Marco Polo at the court of Kublai Khan, c.1280.

   The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around 1215 to
   1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road
   vis-à-vis Karakorum. With rare exceptions such as Marco Polo or
   Christian ambassadors such as William of Rubruck, few Europeans
   traveled the entire length of the Silk Road. Instead traders moved
   products much like a bucket brigade, with luxury goods being traded
   from one middleman to another, from China to the West, and resulting in
   extravagant prices for the trade goods.

   The disintegration of the Mongol Empire led to the collapse of the Silk
   Road's political unity. Also falling victim were the cultural and
   economic aspects of its unity. Turkic tribes seized the western end of
   the Silk Road from the decaying Byzantine Empire, and sowed the seeds
   of a Turkic culture that would later crystalize into the Ottoman Empire
   under the Sunni faith. Turkic- Mongol military bands in Iran, after
   some years of chaos were united under the Saffavid tribe, under whom
   the modern Iranian nation took shape under the Shiite faith. Meanwhile
   Mongol princes in Central Asia were content with Sunni orthodoxy with
   decentralized princedoms of the Chagatay, Timurid and Uzbek houses. In
   the Kypchak- Tatar zone, Mongol khanates all but crumbled under the
   assaults of the Black Death and the rising power of Muscovy. In the
   east end, the Chinese Ming Dynasty overthrew the Mongol yoke and
   pursued a policy of economic isolationism. Yet another force, the
   Kalmyk-Oyrats pushed out of the Baikal area in central Siberia, but
   failed to deliver much impact beyond Turkestan. Some Kalmyk tribes did
   manage to migrate into the Volga-North Caucasus region, but their
   impact was limited.

   After the Mongol Empire, the great political powers along the Silk Road
   became economically and culturally separated. Accompanying the
   crystallization of regional states was the decline of nomad power,
   partly due to the devastation of the Black Death and partly due to the
   encroachment of sedentary civilizations equipped with gunpowder.

   Ironically, as a footnote, the effect of gunpowder and early modernity
   on Europe was the integration of territorial states and increasing
   mercantilism. Whereas along the Silk Road, it was quite the opposite:
   failure to maintain the level of integration of the Mongol Empire and
   decline in trade, partly due to European maritime trade. The Silk Road
   stopped serving as a shipping route for silk around 1400.

Legacy

   Mongolia today
   Enlarge
   Mongolia today

   The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in human history.
   The 13th and 14th century, when the empire came to power, is often
   called the "Age of the Mongols". The Mongol armies during that time
   were extremely well organized. The death toll (by battle, massacre,
   flooding, and famine) of the Mongol wars of conquest is placed at about
   40 million according to some sources.

   Non-military achievements of the Mongol Empire include the introduction
   of a writing system, based on the Uyghur script, that is still used in
   Inner Mongolia. The Empire unified all the tribes of Mongolia, which
   made possible the emergence of a Mongol nation and culture. Modern
   Mongolians are generally proud of the empire and the sense of identity
   that it gave to them.

   Some of the long-term consequences of the Mongol Empire include:
     * The Mongol empire is traditionally given credit for reuniting China
       and expanding its frontiers.
     * The Mongol empire (Western) unified much of the Central Asian
       Republics that formed part of the erstwhile USSR. Today, in a
       number of Central Asian nations, Tamerlane and other Mongol figures
       are viewed as important symbols of national identity rather than as
       "feudal oppressors".
     * Moscow rose to prominence during the Mongol- Tatar yoke, some time
       after Russian rulers were accorded the status of tax collectors for
       Mongols (which meant that the Mongols themselves would rarely visit
       the lands that they owned). The Russian ruler Ivan III overthrew
       the Mongols completely to form the Russian Tsardom, after the Great
       standing on the Ugra river proved the Mongols vulnerable, and led
       to the independence of the Grand Duke of Moscow. It is worth
       noting, however, that Russian historians have for centuries viewed
       the Mongol occupation as a period of arrested development for
       Russia, and the primary reason for its backwardness in the
       following centuries compared to the rest of Europe.
     * Persia became Iran with almost the same boundaries as the modern
       Iran. The Persian language gained ascendancy over Arabic in Iran.
     * The language Chagatai, widely spoken among a group of Turks, is
       named after a son of Genghis Khan. It was once widely spoken, and
       had a literature, but was since eliminated in Russia.
     * Some historians attribute the origins of the Emirate of Osman, the
       nucleus of the later Ottoman Empire, to the Mongol empire.
     * Europe’s knowledge of the known world was immensely expanded by the
       information brought back by ambassadors and merchants. When
       Columbus sailed in 1492, his missions were to reach Cathay, the
       land of the Genghis Khan. Some research studies indicate that the
       Black Death, which devastated Europe in the late 1340s, may have
       reached from China to Europe along the trade routes of the Mongol
       Empire.

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