The Mongols
History Channel: Barbarians
Themes: leadership qualities, role of kinship/tribe, geography/environment, (political) military tactics, religion, social structure/gender, economy
Opening:
Empire is twice the size of Rome; longer lasting than Napoleon’s empire and as good as Alexander the Great’s empire.
End of the twelfth century
Geography: Eurasian steppes; 90 degrees below zero
Tatars and Mongols were nomadic tribes
1175: Tatars feud with the Mongols; Chinese against the Mongols; Jin empire
Genghis Khan – Temuchin (Iron Worker)
Father poisoned by the Tatars
His mother: “Seek Revenge”
Son of a leading chieftan – he was abandoned (compare this to Muhammad – significance of clan; how fortunate Muhammad was not to be abandoned)
1196 Genghis Khan rose up and unified the tribe (compare again to Muhammad – consider leadership qualities)
1206 He was the Khan – “great leader”
At age 40 compared to Alexander the Great, and Hitler
Horse tactics: feigned retreat, enveloping the enemy
Reorganization of society (compare this to the Inca who also organized society into various groups by multiples of 10)
The Mongols were vastly outnumbered, but mobile; they created a disturbing presence and appeared ubiquitous as they overwhelmed their enemies.
Housing: yurts
Religion
Ground, river, heaven – sacred: social structure was based on this
Eternal god – heavenly destined lineage (compare this to the Mandate of Heaven, possibly why the Mongols were able to rule China through a dynasty)
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Review and fill in the chart
1206 Genghis Khan declared “universal leader” – rose from obscurity to become the khan.
Yurt Description (this provides detail on his background)
Hole at the top; doorway faces south, felts on the floor, walls; permeated with smoke; burned animal dung
Social structure/gender: women received shares in the wealth.
1211: The Mongols invaded China – the Song Dynasty saw them as crude and savage.
Copied Chinese seize technology; beat drums; carried prisoners and used them to breach the city walls; slaughtered every living thing (psychological warfare)
Yam – communication system; pony express – two messengers, horses at post stages every 25 miles, carried message rolls. (communication)
1218: annexed kingdoms – no resistance or no mercy
Kwarazm, Uzebekistan
Silk Road (economic connection – this is an important place to point out the positive effects of the Mongols.)
Sultan Muhammed – massacred Mongol envoy
Mongols retaliate
“The Mongol Catastrophe”
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1219: Take on the Kwarazm Empire
Mobility and surprise allow the Mongols to be successful (military tactics)
Otrar: 5 month siege; destroyed all in their path
Proverb: “return what people give you”
1220: Three-pronged attack – east, west, and north; Mongols retreated and would return
(military tactics – Feint/skirmishes) Constant hail of arrows.
Samarkand fell in 10 days
Environmental impact: Persia - destroyed fields by sowing salt and cut down
orchards.
Pax Mongolica – first sustained peace in 1000 years; allowed safe travel from Rome to China along the Silk Route. (economic impact)
1227: Died on the march to China – victim of a freak riding accident; buried in secrecy
Anyone met along the way was killed. His tomb has never been excavated.
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Legacy:
Golden Horde (took over southern Russia) (direct students to this on their charts)
Persia (Ilkhanate – conversion to Islam) (direct students to this on their charts)
There were not enough Mongols – perhaps 100, 000.
By the mid-fourteenth century the empire fell apart – this is the end of the Postclassical period and the end of the nomadic threats across Eurasia.
Tamerlane (Timur i Lang)
1300s – emir, master chess player. Of Turkish descent.
Legitimized his claims by marrying wives descended from Genghis Khan
Persian minatures (artwork of the area)
Samarakand – transported artisans to the area, gardens through irrigation, 50 foot
tall entryway
Timur was merciless; 1385 sacked Persia; 1398 leads into Northern India and destroys Delhi. He piled heads into heaps (psychological warfare) He spared the artisans and engineers.
1402 Ottoman Turks – Ankara
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1402 Ottoman Sultan Bayazid
Timur lays siege to Ankara
Bayazid retreats
Weary troops destroyed by Mongols – a whole regiment defects
Bayazid captured
Stopped Islam from taking Constantinople
Timur’s empire nearly matches Genghis Khan’s in size. He died in 1405 – laid to rest in an ornate tomb in Samarkand. Set a curse upon it.
June 22, 1941 – Soviets opened his grave. Hitler attacked Russia. 20 million Russians died.
Mongols fade away but their impact:
Opened China to the west
Spurred the age of discovery
Shattered China and Persia
Isolated Russia from Western developments