# Topic 2.2 - Mongol Empire & the Modern World

## Essential Question
"How did Eurasia empires grow over time, and how did their expansion influence trade and communication?"

## The Mongols and Their Surroundings

They were hunter foragers that would expect everyone including women to be skilled horse riders, along with highly valuing courage in war. They would be surrounded by multiple tribes and would be located near the silk road for easier access to luxury goods.

## Genghis Khan

The mongol Leader Temujin would spend decades in his early life creating multiple series of tribal alliances and defeating groups that would neighbor them. Eventually his oldest son would be married to the daughter of a neighboring Khan.

> Khan - Other word for king.

- Assigning non family members to family members positions
- Killing his step brother.

Jemujin, more commonly known as Genghis Khan, thought that personal loyalty would be the best way to run his growing kingdom. Eventually in 1206 he would gather multiple Mongol Chieftains at a meeting where he would be elected as khan of the Mongolian Kingdom.

### The Beginning Of Conquest
In 1210 Genghis Khan and his troops would end up going east and attacking the Jin dynasty who were in China. They had been established almost a century earlier by the Jurchens and at the moment ruled by Manchuria, inner Mongolia, and Northern China.

> It's capital city would be Zhondu, which is in present day Beijing.

Genghis Khan would soon build up a reputation during his campaign by doing various things.
- Anyone that would stand up to him would be killed.
- Would wipe out various civilian populations after defeating their army.
- Conquering the Central Asian Kara Khaiti Empire.
- Conquering the Ilsamic Khwarazm Empire.

Due to this reputation a few leaders would surrender before an attack would happen. By the end of this Genghis Khan would have an empire that would stretch from the North China sea to Eastern Persia.

### Khan at war

Without the skilled and fearsome warriors that he would have, Khan's empire would not have been possible. They would be strong riders that would be very good with a short bow. Along with this they would have a very efficient command structure which would go on to allow for a messenger force.

Khan's messenger force would be a group of people who would go for days without stopping, even going to the extent of sleeping while their horses would ride.

Eventually the Mongolian army would have mapped out the entire terrain so they would be able to perform good attacks on other nations and have a good defense at the same time.

For example, when coming near an enemy settlement, if the enemy would not surrender most would be killed and those who knew how to read and write would be recruited for the Mongolian Empire.

#### Military
When going across conquered land they would exploit captured engineers to get various amounts of useful weapons such as:
- Siege Weapons
- Portable towers that could be used to attack walled fortifications
- Catapults
- Would be able to throw things over walls and do lots of damage.

### Khan At Peace
During the time between the 13th and 14th century.

> Commonly known as the Pax Mongolica - AKA Mongolian Peace

Khan would establish the capital of his empire at Karakorum, near the center of modern day Mongolia. He would end up talking with various scholars of Chinese and Islamic traditions while making the new government, this would allow for lots of things such as:
- Religious Tolerance(Very unusual in the 13th Century)
- Soldiers going to protect the silk road since they were freed from warfare
- Establishing new trade channels.

## Expansion of the Mongolian Empire
The three of Henghis Khan's grandsons would end up setting up their own khanates expanding the empire into Asia and Europe.

### Batu
The son of Khan's oldest son, would end up leading around 100,000 soldiers into Europe conquering small Russian kingdoms forcing them to pay tributes. Because of this Kiev would eventually be destroyed. A consequence of this would ne Western Europe getting more and more scared of the Mongols.

Batu was planning to move into europe but hit a roadblock, Ogodel Khan died and a new successor would have to be chosen. The Mongols would end up ruling northern Russia working through existing Russian rulers who would send them regular tributes. Eventually the rulers of Moscow would begin to collect additional tributes which would be used to set up an army to fight the Mongols.

Under Moscow's leadership they would eventually fight up against the Golden Horde(Current Name of the Mongol Military) and defeat them in 1380.

> Soon after this battle Mongol would begin to decline.

At this point Russia had defeated all of the descendants of Genshis Khan except the Crimen Taters which would not be defeated until the 18th Century. The Mongols would end up having a very large impact on Russia, because of all the devastation caused it would cause Russia to improve their Military and have more centralized leadership.

## Kublai Khan

Unlike the other descendants, Kublai would end up going to China which was under the Song Dynasty at the time. This would end up causing a much more formidable force compared to Russia. It would take 36(1235-1271) years of fighting and then 11 years after that they would finally defeat the chinese.

Instead of enforcing what the Mongols had Kublai would end up establishing the Yuan Dynasty, he would rebuild the capital at Zhongdu which had been destroyed in 1215 and would call it Dadu. He would institute a policy of religious tolerance and would bring prosperity to China.

## Impact of Mongolian Invasions
They would end up conquering a larger area than Europe and build up a fairly bloody reputation.

During the Pax Mongolica(1250-1350)they would revitalize interregional trade between Asia, The Middle East, Africa and Europe.
- Because of this scientific knowledge from Islam would lead itselft to China.

They would also end up carrying the Black Death from Southern China to Central Asia, then from there to Southeast Asia, and then finally europe.

The Mongols would end up having a very successful ruling due to their understanding of centralized power and fighting techniques that would lead to the end of knights since they would not react fast enough to the Mongols Speed.

## From Freemanpedia - Good To Know
- Move over Romans, Arabs, and Chinese...allow the Mongols to introduce themselves. Never has there been a more unlikely world conqueror.
- The Mongols unite the Steppe tribes under Genghis Khan and take their wrath out on any society nearby with plunder they might use.
- The Mongols conquer from Egypt to Austria to Russia to Vietnam and in the process establish the largest contiguous empire in the history of the planet
- The Mongols don’t bring much to the table culturally, However, they do create a quasi-unified area under which a plethora of ideas, diseases, beliefs, technologies, etc. can spread around this massive empire.
- The Mongols are awesome to study. And, although their impact is massive; they are not in charge of their empire for very long...in most places it's a little more than a century.

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###### tags: `AP World` `Unit 2`