Transcript Slide 1
The Mongols Mongol Origins The Rise of the Mongol Empire The Decline and Fall Mongol Origins • • • • • Nomadic horse people N. China Grasslands Raised horses, tended sheep Felt tents: Yerts Language: Altaic (Rel. To Turkic, Manchurian) • Practiced transhumance Organization • Families-->Clans-->Tribes--> • Tribes gathered during annual migration • Chiefs elected. Based on nobility, military ability, wisdom, leadership skills • Religion: Shamanism • Nature deities, but key god is the Sky God • Sacred color: blue Temujin: Ghengis Khan • b. 1167, son of tribal chief • Father poisoned…fled as youth • Returned as adult, avenged father, Eventually chief – By age forty had unified all Mongol tribes – Battles, alliances, ability to survive – Elected as the Great Khan – Amazing talents along with sons and grandsons Mongol Army Tactics • Organized army in “Myriads” (10,000’s) • Units within each of 1000, 100, and 10 • Elaborate signals: every part can move in concert in battle. Flags, hand signals • Tactics: retreat, turn, flank, destroy – Armaments: horsemanship, compound bow – Reputation created paralyzing fear – By 1241: reached Poland and Hungary Conquest • Every man carried their own supplies and had 2 horses. Ate horse blood and milk • Thousands of vassals took loyalty oaths: became commanders, ran army, ran government – Took walled cities by using Chinese siege technology – Brought Chinese engineers with them – Conquered most of Asia, Middle East, Russia Two forms of ladders for scaling walls Catapult Folding Bridge Flame Thrower Flying Cloud Thunderclap Eruptor Kiev as it would have looked when conquered by the Mongols Genghis Khan • “Man’s highest joy is victory: to conqueror one’s enemies, to pursue them, to deprive them of their possessions, to make their beloved weep, and to embrace their wives and daughters.” The Conquest of China • Genghis Khan wanted the riches of China • First secured his back: conquered Tibetan State of NW China, Manchu State (N) • Took land all the way to Peking by 1227 • Ghengis Khan died 1227 • Successors reached the Yellow River 1234 • Took all of China by 1241 Divisions at Genghis Khan’s Death • Four Khanates • Kipchak Khanate (Golden Hoarde): Russia • IlKhanate: Persia • Chagatai Khanate: Mongolia • Great Khanate: China, Outer Mongolia, Border States, to which the others owed allegiance. Later became the Yuan Dynasty Territory of the Mongols Kublai Khan Kublai Khan • Grandson of Genghis Khan • Moved capital to Peking 1261 • N. enough to stay in contact with other Khanates • S. enough to control most of China • Conquered the S. Sung by 1279 Building Projects • Too far from prosperous south to easily collect taxes – Built the Grand Canal to Peking – Palace of the Khan: designed by Arab architects. – Summer palace: Shangtu (Xanadu) – Where a Mongol can be a Mongol – Developed hereditary succession Mongol Rule of China: Yuan Dynasty • • • • Originally, plundered and robbed Learned the art of taxation Mongols ruling elite: Highly centralized Emperor-->Secretariat--> Roving Secretariat • Ruling minority segregated • Majority ranked according to ethnicity Ethnic Ranking • Mongols: Top military, civilian posts • Persians, Turks, Non-Chinese nomad stock: High civil posts • N. Chinese, border people, Manchurians: Next highest posts • S. Chinese: Lowest civil posts • All records and proceedings in Uighur Turkic, than translated word by word into Chinese (sounded barbaric) Foreign Contact – Large, multi-ethnic empire facilitated diffusion – Subject states: Persian, Arab, Russian, Turkic – Goods, art, technology and ideas spread – Chinese communities found as far west as Moscow – Printing, gunpowder, medicine diffuse west – Marco Polo Religion: Christianity • Policy of toleration • Kublai Khan’s mother was a Nestorian Christian • Papal Mission created Peking Archbishop and cathedral, complete with Mongol and Turkic sermon and Mongol choir boys • Wanted 100 learned Catholics to be sent by the Pope Buddhism and Islam – Tibetan Buddhism gained 500,000 converts – Islam gained many converts. A mosque was built in a new Islamic quarter of Peking and others built in SW China – Confucianism survived… Considered a tax free religion. No real influence at court – Most of China in the South remained unchanged Decline and Fall • Yuan Dynasty: Shortest lived major Chinese dynasty (1264-1368) • By the death of Kublai Khan’s son, series of weak rulers • The Khanates lose cohesion due to religious and cultural differences • Yuan Dynasty becomes more isolated The End • Chinese never really accepted as legitimate • Succession wars between heirs and generals – High Taxes, Corrupt officials – Paper money controversy – Yellow River changed course and flooded Grand Canal among other natural disasters – Decentralization: Rise of Warlords – Last Khan fled to Mongolia in 1368