Mongols


 * 1. ESPIRIT on Mongols**
 * E || * Herders
 * Gained tributes from conquered and neighboring lands
 * Slavery
 * Lucrative and far-reaching trade routes
 * Spared the artisans of other empires in order to vary their productions ||
 * S || * Adept horse riders
 * Critical to their lifestyle
 * Calvary archer was devastatingly powerful
 * Warrior society accustomed to inter-tribal warfare
 * Infighting and vendettas were overshadowed by loyalty to the khagan ||
 * P || * Kinship
 * Tribes and clans
 * Able to cooperate and form confederations when threatened
 * Able to last upward years
 * Usually dissolved once the threat passed
 * Elected leaders at all levels of government
 * Women could voice their opinions and take political positions
 * Men were the primary leaders
 * Loyalty was inspired by courage and strength of the leader
 * The **khagan**, supreme khan, was chosen by chieftains at the **kuriltai**, meeting of all chieftains
 * Temujin/Genghis was crowned in 1206
 * Basic unit, **tumens**, consisted of 10,000 warriors
 * Broken into smaller units: 1000, 10, 10
 * Commanders at each level
 * Heavy calvary, like a European knight unit, and light calvary, archer unit
 * Specialized scout units
 * Formal warrior (law) code
 * Courage was held in high esteem
 * Desertion from either side = death
 * **Jebe "the Arrow",** an enemy solider was given great power for standing his ground and shooting Genghis' horse from beneath him
 * Specialized messenger unit designed to transfer messages seamlessly
 * Specialized geographer and intelligence units
 * Conquering policy
 * Resistance
 * Scholars and artisans were spared
 * Peasants were massacred or sold into slavery
 * City/Empire reduced to rubble
 * Fate of Khwarazm during the early 13th century
 * Surrendering
 * Lofty tributes
 * Capital was **Karakorum**
 * Meeting place of the kuriltai
 * ** Mongolian script was used for administrative tasks **
 * Bureaucracy modeled after the Chinese and Muslims
 * Divided into four **khanates** after Genghis' death
 * **Ogedai**, the Khagan successor, controlled the Eastern Empire (China, Vietnam,Korea,Mongolia)
 * His grandson **Batu** controlled the Golden Horde Empire near Russia
 * Succeeded by **Berke**
 * Hulegu, another grandson, controlled the Ilkhan Empire
 * Djagatai Empire ||
 * I || * China
 * Controlled areas to the North during the 4th and 12th centuries
 * Conquered by Kublai Khan
 * Vassaled the Tangut kingdom Xi Xia
 * Conquered the Jurchen Jin Empire
 * Annexed the Kara Khitai Empire, Mongolian-speaking empire, by 1219
 * Islamic Empire
 * Ravaged Khwarazm (Muslim)
 * Sacked Baghdad in 1258
 * Repelled in 1260 by the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt led by **Baibars**
 * Controlled from Eastern Persia to the North China Sea by the end of Genghis in 1227
 * **Golden Horde** attacked Russia under **Batu** in 1236
 * 1236-1237 - Most of Russia was conquered
 * 1240 - Kiev was reduced to ruins
 * Novgorod survived due to surrender
 * Rise of Moscow in 1328
 * Trade flourished
 * Seat of the Orthodox church leaders
 * Defeated Golden Horde in 1380 at the **Battle of Kulikova**
 * Effects on Russia
 * Helped cities like Moscow flourish due to economics
 * Revolutionized Russian military organization
 * Promoted centralization that could have inspired Tzarist regimes or Stalinism
 * Isolated Russia from the changing Western Europe
 * Europe
 * Thought the Mongols were the forces led by **Prester John**
 * Golden Horde conquered Hungary in 1240
 * Pulled back since Ogedei died ||
 * R || * Tolerant of all religions
 * Genghis believed in shamanistic (focused on nature spirits) beliefs ||
 * I || * Used pincer war strategy and siege weapons
 * Similar to the strategy employed by William the Conqueror to defeat Harold of Essex
 * Adopted Chinese and Muslim bureaucracy
 * A mix of all the philosophies and innovations of the conquered ||
 * T || * Flaming and explosive projectiles
 * Arrows
 * Bamboo rockets
 * Catapult bombs
 * Bronze cannon
 * Battering ram
 * Catapult ||

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 * 2. Yuan Dynasty Notes**
 * 1) The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History
 * MI: **Kublai Khan** was the ruler of eastern faction of the empire and eventual khagan. Under his rule, the Mongol Imperium was renamed the Yuan Dynasty, emphasizing the importance of Chinese culture in the Mongolian Empire.
 * **Kublai Khan**, one of Genghis' grandson led campaigns against south China from 1235-1279, was elected khagan in 1260 and renamed the empire Yuan in 1271.
 * He passed laws to prevent the absorption of Mongolian culture by the Chinese culture.
 * Examples:
 * 1) Chinese scholars could not learn Mongol script (refer above for importance) and barred from high positions in the bureaucracy
 * 2) Interracial marriages were not permitted
 * He was greatly partaken with Chinese institutions.
 * His capital at **Tatu** was filled with Chinese advisors
 * Performed ancestral worship
 * Social hierarchy: Mongols > Asian nomads and Muslim allies > North Chinese > South Chinese and minorities
 * 1) Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture
 * MI: Women exercised great autonomy.
 * Mongolian women circumvented Confucianism
 * No foot-binding
 * Maintained property rights, power in the household, and freedom to wander throughout the land
 * Participated and led hunts
 * **Chabi** was one of Kublai's greatest advisors and his wife
 * Supported cosmopolitanism and balanced out her husband
 * 1) Mongol Tolerance and Foreign Cultural Influence
 * MI: In the Yuan Empire, religious tolerance and cultural synergy was the norm.
 * Muslims played an important role within the administration.
 * Second socio-political class
 * More efficient tax collection system
 * Muslims greatly influenced Mongolian intellectual institutions
 * More accurate astronomy
 * Detailed maps
 * Adaptations of Muslim medicine
 * Kublai welcomed all cultures in his domains.
 * Buddhist, Doaists, Nestorians, Muslims
 * Latin Christians like the **Polos**
 * 1) Social Policies and Scholar-Gentry Resistance
 * MI: Straying from Neo-Confucianism displeased and displaced the scholar-gentry who chafed under Mongol rule.
 * Favoritism of Mongols and alien groups in administration alienated gentry
 * Artisans, certain mean people, and merchants flourished in power weakening the gentry
 * Refusing to reinstate professionalization exams limited gentry's power
 * Mongols pursued intellectual endeavors
 * Aimed to support peasants in policies
 * Preventing razing of cultivated land by cavalrymen
 * Reduced peasant tax and forced-labor
 * Attempted to instate elementary education
 * 1) The Fall of the House of Yuan
 * MI:Due to poor leadership, social unrest, and a weakening of their image, the Yuan Empire fell.
 * Failed military campaigns in Vietnam, Java, and especially Japan (1274 and 1280) ruined the invincibility quota of the Mongols
 * The death of Chabi and his son softened Kublai and the successors
 * Weak successors that lacked leadership and the will to handle day-to-day administrative tasks
 * Corrupted bureaucrat officials
 * By the 1350s, banditry and piracy was widespread and unable to be stopped by the imperial forces
 * Gentry rallied unhappy peasants
 * Organizations like the **White Lotus Society** were established to overthrow the dynasty
 * Similar to the Yellow Turbans during the Han
 * Yuan was succeeded by the **Ming** Dynasty under **Ju Yuanzahng,** a peasant