Chapter 12Mongol Eurasia and Its

Aftermath,

1200-1500

AP World History

"It is not sufficient that I may

succeed-all others must fail."

Genghis Khan

I. The Rise of the Mongols, 1200-1600A. Nomadism in Central and Inner Asia

• Pastoral

• Mongols were strongly hierarchical.

• Mongols had complex federations tied to together by marriage alliances.

• Their seasonal movements brought them into contact with all types of religions.

– They accepted religious pluralism.

• Mongol khans were thought to represent the Sky God.

Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created

(from Korea to Poland)

Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created (from

Korea to Poland)

Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created

(from Korea to Poland)

• B. Mongol Characteristics

• Purely cavalry

– Mounted archers that carried 5 dozen arrows

– Excellent riders

– Bows shoot 1/3 farther

– Quick movement made it difficult for people to adjust

• Adapted well when faced with new problems

– Would take engineers and pows to gain knowledge

C. The Mongol Conquests, 1215-1283

• Genghis Khan (born Timijun, aka Chingus) conquered Northern China.

– Used meritocracy– Appealed to peasants

• The khanates of the Golden Horde, Jagadai, and the Il-Khans all swore allegiance to Genghis.

• Once Genghis dies, which we do not know where he was buried, his empire splits into four khanates.

– Similar to what happened to Alexander the Great

• Ogodei, Genghis’ son, expands into Russia ending Kievan rule and dies drinking

– stops advancement into Western Europe

Genghis Khan – Founder of the Mongol

empire.

• 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.

• 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.

• Allowed religious toleration

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.

Mongols fighting the Russians at the Battle of the Kalka River.

Ended Kievan Russia rule of modern day Russia.

After the death of Genghis, the empire splits

into the four different Khanates –

Great Khan, Golden Khan, Il-Khan, Jagadai

Mongols fighting the Teutonic Knights in Germany. Ogodei dies

and the Mongols return to China to elect a new Khan.

D. Overland Trade

and Plague• Mongol conquests

opened overland trade

routes and brought

commercial integration

of Eurasia.

– Brought the Silk Road

back to its greatness

» Safe to travel

• Disease including the

bubonic plague spread

among the world.

• Marco Polo stimulates

European desire for

Asian goods

Route of Marco Polo along the reopened Silk Road.

He stimulated the European desire to explore the east.

After the death of Genghis, the empire splits

into the four different Khanates –

Great Khan, Golden Khan, Il-Khan, Jagadai

II. The Mongols and Islam,1260-1500

A. 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.

The Il-Khan ruler Ghazan

studying the Quran.

B. 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

– sale of tax-collecting contracts to small corporations.

• 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 built the Jagadai Khanate and his descendents, the Timurids, ruled the Middle East for several generations.

Il-Khan gold coin during the time of

Ghazan.

Timur built the Jagadai Khanate.

Ethnically he was a Turk,

not a Mongol, so he could not be

Khan.

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)

C. 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.

• Since Mongols allowed people to keep their customs and beliefs it did not slow down production and thought

– Interesting that ruthless conquerors would bring peoples together

Muslim historian, Rashid al-Din’s, history of

the world – Included history of Europe and

China.

III. Regional Responses in Western Eurasia

A. Russia and Rule from Afar• The Golden Horde used

Russian princes to tax the people and kept the Orthodox Church in place.

– Allowed for missionaries

• Favored Prince Alexander of Novogorod because he had aided in the Mongol conquest of Russia.

• Moscow emerged as the new center of the Russian civilization.

• Structure of government did not change under Mongol rule.

• In 1480 Ivan III, the prince of Moscow, ended Mongol rule and adopted the title of Tsar.

Prince Alexander Nevskii of Novogorod

allied with the Mongols because Russia

would be destroyed if he resisted,

essentially saving Russia. (right - example

of Russian man at arms)

Depiction of Russian Prince Alexander Nevskii preparing for

battle against the German Teutonics in the 1930s

Russian film of the same name. (Propaganda)

Christian church in Moscow.

B. New States in Eastern Europe and Anatolia

• Europe was divided and the states of Hungary and Poland faced Mongol attacks alone.

• Mongol armies drove to the outskirts of Vienna, but withdrew in 1241 because they needed to elect a successor to the deceased Khan Ogodei.

• Europeans then initiated a variety of diplomatic and trade overtures toward the Mongols.

– Had sent monks to provide religion to captured troops but never found but recorded Mongol activities

• 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.

• The Ottomans were kept in check by the Timurids, but expanded eastward and conquered Constantinople in 1453

– Timur was ruthless Mongol ruler who defeated Sultanate in India but did not stay

Ottoman Turks under Mehmet II on his way to

conquer the Byzantine empire. (notice the 2-

ton cannon)

Columbian Exchange

• Friday

November 22

• Bring something

edible

associated with

the Columbian

Exchange

• Signup sheet

Tuesday

IV. Mongol Domination in China,1271-1368

A. The Yuan Empire, 1279-1368

• Kublai Khan practiced Chinese traditions of government.

• 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.

• Chinese population dropped as much as 40%, probably because of the spread of disease, warfare, infanticide, and the flooding of the Yellow River.

• Chinese were not allowed to learn Mongol or adopt Mongol ways

– This allowed for easy transition back to Chinese ways when China was no longer under Mongol rule but under the Ming Dynasty

Mongols unified the Tanggut, Jin, and Song

empires into the Yuan dynasty. (unified China

as we know it)

B. 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.

C. The Fall of the

Yuan Empire• Chinese leader Zhu

Yuanzhang (Hongwu)

overthrew the Mongols

and established the Ming

Empire.

• 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

Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols

and established the Ming Empire.

Crash Course: Wait For It, The Mongols

V. The Early Ming Empire,1368-1500

A. 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.

– Hongwu, the son of a peasant, became the 1st Ming Emperor because he drove out the Mongols

• The Ming Dynasty ruled from 1368-1644. They expected Europeans to pay tribute for trade

• The Ming still used hereditary professional categories, the Mongol calendar, and Beijing as the capital.

• Mongols continued to serve in the army.

B. Hongwu continued

• Hongwu restored

agricultural land for rice

and irrigation systems

• Dispersed relations with

the West

• He adopted Confucian

morals at first, but later

became paranoid and

killed officials he thought

were a threat to his power

• The Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He launched a series of expeditions to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to reestablish trade links and bring these areas under Chinese control or influence.

• However, no real trade relations were established and the voyages were non-profitable.

• The voyages were made more for the Yongle (Yonglo) Emperor to prove his worth.

• The Zheng He voyages were the last time that the state sponsored such voyages.

Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng

He launched a series of

expeditions to Southeast Asia

and the Indian Ocean.

Comparison of ships from Zheng He and Columbus.

Zheng He’s voyages.

China under the Powerful Ming Dynasty

Ming Relations with Foreign Countries• The Ming Government

said that only they were allowed to conduct trade, and only through three ports: Canton, Macao and Ningbo.– Got rid of voyages to focus

more on domestic problems like invasion

• Completes Great Wall

– Chinese Merchants ignored the rule

• Desire for Chinese goods, tea, rice, porcelain (China), silk

• Too much money to be made

B. Technology and Population

• Chinese lost the knowledge to make high-quality bronze and steel.

– Korea and Japan moved ahead of Ming China in technological innovation.

• However, the Ming period was a time of great wealth, consumerism, and cultural brilliance.

• The novels, Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, porcelain making, furniture, lacquered screens, and silk all contributed to this cultural brilliance.

Example of Ming furniture.

Example of Jade artwork

Example of Ming porcelain.

VI. Centralization & Militarism in East Asia,1200-1500

A. Korea from the Mongols to the Yi, 1231-1500

• The Korean King of Koryo joined the Mongols by marriage in 1258.

• Koryo collapsed when the Yuan dynasty fell apart and it was replaced by the Korean Yi dynasty.

• The Yi dynasty reestablished local identity and restored the status of Confucian scholarship while maintaining Mongol administrative practices and institutions.

• The Yi had technological innovations of moveable copper frames, meteorological science, local calendar, use of fertilizer, engineering of reservoirs, ships with canon, gunpowder arrow launchers, and armored ships.

Gunpowder arrow

launcher of the

Korean Yi dynasty.

Gunpowder arrow launcher of the Korean Yi dynasty.

B. Political Transformation in Japan; 1274-1500

• Two Mongol invasions of Japan failed because of the Kamikaze winds (divine winds) and strong defensive preparations along the coastline.

• The Kamakura shogunate was destroyed in a civil war and the Ashikaga shogunate was established in 1338.

– Shogun is a military leader» Most of Japanese history the emperor

has been simply a figurehead– Local leaders called daimyo– Similar to the feudal system in Europe– Samurai, warrior class, followed a strict

code similar to chivalry called bushido

• Black ink painting, sand gardens, and the tea ceremony were adopted by the Yoshimasa shogunate and they were influenced by Zen Buddhism.

• The Onin War of 1477 showed that the shogunate had no real power and the provincial lords fought each other for power.

Japanese samurai from the Kamakura shogunate.

C. The Emergence of Vietnam,

1200-1500• Vietnam was divided into two

states:– Chinese influenced

Annam in the north – Indian influenced Champa

in the south.• The Mongols extracted tribute

from both states.• The Ming ruled Annam for

almost thirty years in the early 15th century, but Annam overthrew them and they completely conquered Champa.

– Established a Chinese style government over all of Vietnam.

• The dominant faith of Annam was Mahayana Buddhismwhich distinguished them from other Southeast Asian groups who practiced TheravedaBuddhism.