Pastoral Nomads, Invasions, and Empires

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
  1. Pastoral Nomads
  1. Arid margins of agricultural landsFarming was difficult or impossibleAround 4000 BCE, focused on the raising of livestock
  1. The need for large grazing areas meant that pastoralists supported far smaller populations than agricultural societies
  2. Differences emerged between wealthy aristocrats owning large flocks of animals and poor herders
  3. But women had higher status and experienced fewer restrictions
  4. Most characteristic feature of pastoral societies was their mobility
a)Shifted their herds in regular patterns but their movements were far from aimless wanderings
b)Often disdained agricultural life but deeply connected to, and often dependent on, their agricultural neighbors
  1. Fierce independence of pastoral clans and internal rivalries made any enduring political unity difficult to achieve
  1. But charismatic leaders were periodically able to weld together a series of tribal alliances that for a time became powerful states
  2. Often employed the device of “fictive kinship,” designating allies as blood relatives and treating them with a corresponding respect
  3. Also military advantages such as horseback-riding and hunting skills
  4. Ability to extract wealth, through raiding, trading, or extortion from agricultural civilizations
  1. Pastoral peoples of Inner Asian steppes learned the art of horseback riding, by roughly 1000 BCEcentrality of horse
  2. During the classical era, the Xiongnu from Mongolian steppes north of China created a huge military confederation
  1. Under the charismatic leadership of Modun (reigned 210-174 BCE)
  2. Created a model for future federations able to extract tribute
  1. Third-wave civilizations (500-1500 CE), nomadic peoples made their mark
  1. Arabs, Berbers, Turks, and Mongols
  2. Most expansive religious tradition of the era, Islam, derived from largely nomadic Arabs and carried to new regions by nomadic, Turks
  3. Development of a reliable camel saddle somewhere between 500 and 100 BCE, enabled Bedouin Arabs to fight effectively
  1. A major turning point in the history of the Turks occurred with their conversion to Islam between the tenth and fourteenth centuries
  1. Third major carrier of Islam
  2. Served as slave soldiers within Abbasid caliphate, and as caliphate declined, increasingly took political and military power

Summaries:
Cues: /
  1. In Seljuk Turkic Empire of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, centered in Persia and present-day Iraq, Turkic rulers began to claim the Muslim title of sultan rather than kaghan (traditional term)
  2. In East Africa, the nomadic cattle-keeping Masai and their settled agricultural neighbors found another way to bind their people together
  1. Adolescent boys from a variety of villages or lineages were initiated together in a ritual that often included circumcision
  2. This ceremony created an “age-set,” which then moved through a series of “age-grades” or ranks, from warrior through elder, during their lives
  3. But Masai believed that pastoralism was a vastly superior way of life
  4. Outsiders could become Masai by obtaining a herd of cattle, by joining a Masai age-set, by learning the language, or by giving a woman in marriage to a Masai man and receiving “bride-wealth” in cattle
I.Of all the pastoral peoples, the Mongols made the most stunning entry onto the world stage
  1. Eventually conquered the largest land-based empire
  2. Brought civilizations of Eurasia into far more direct contact
  3. But left a surprisingly modest cultural imprint on the world
  4. Never tried to spread their own faith among subject peoples
  5. Shamans, who might predict future, offer sacrifices, and communicate with spirit world, and particularly Tengri, the supreme sky god
  6. Offered majority of conquered peoples little more than status of defeated, exploited people, although people with skills were put to work
  7. “The last, spectacular bloom of pastoral power in Inner Eurasia”
  8. After decline of Mongol Empire, tide turned against the pastoralists of inner Eurasia, swallowed up in expanding Russian or Chinese empires
  1. Chinggis Khan
  1. Temujin (1162-1227), later known as Chinggis Khan (“universal ruler”) united the Mongols
  2. Father murderedwithout livestockfell to lowest level of nomad life
  3. But personal magnetism and courage and inclination to rely on trusted friends rather kinship allowed him to become more powerful
  4. Generous to friends and ruthless to enemies and incorporated warriors of defeated tribes into his own forces
  1. Mongol Empire eventually contained China, Korea, Central Asia, Russia, much of the Islamic Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe
  1. Setbackswithdrawal from Eastern Europe, failure to invade Japan
  2. Mongol success lay in its armyBetter led, organized, disciplined
  3. Conquered tribes broken up and members scattered among new units
  4. Discipline was reinforced by the provision that should one or two members of a unit desert in battle, all were subject to the death penalty
  5. Psychological warfare induced a number to surrender rather than resist
a)Resist and perish  submit and be spared
  1. Mongols held the highest decision-making posts but Chinese and Muslim officials held many advisoryand lower-level positions

Summaries:

Questions:

  • In what ways did pastoral societies differ from their agricultural counterparts?
  • In what ways did pastoral societies interact with their agricultural neighbors?
  • In what ways did the Xiongnu, Arabs, and Turks make an impact on world history?
  • Did the history and society of the East African Masai people parallel that of Asian nomads?
  • Identify the major steps in the rise of the Mongol Empire.
  • What accounts for the political and military success of the Mongols?

  1. The man who united all the Mongol tribes into a single confederation in 1206 was
(A) Khubilai Khan.
(B) Hülegü.
(C) Teghril Beg.
(D) Chinggis Khan.
(E) Mahmud of Ghazni.
  1. Which of the following did NOTcontribute to the failure of Khubilai’s ventures in Japan and Southeast Asia?
A. The Mongol forces did not adapt well to theenvironment of southeast Asia.
B. Bubonic plague erupted and took great tolls among the conquered populations.
C. The Mongol navies were destroyed by
Japanese kamikaze.
D. The Mongols were unable to combat theguerilla tactics of the defenders.
  1. During the 13th century, long-distance
trade in Eurasia increased primarily because
(A)The Mongols worked to secure trade routesand ensure the safety of merchants passingthrough their vast territories.
(B)Mongol rulers adopted the same papercurrency that could be used within all thefour regional empires.
(C)Mongol policies encouraged economicgrowth and specialization of production invarious regions.
(D)Mongol people settled down and begancreating surpluses.
(E)All of the above. /
  1. With regard to Mongols’ military
strategies, they
(A)Would travel more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) per day to surprise an enemy.
(B) Could shoot arrows behind them while riding at a gallop.
(C)Could shoot arrows and fell enemies within 200 meters (656 feet).
(D)Would spare their enemies if theysurrendered without resistance.
(E)All of the above.
  1. Nomadic peoples of Asia could wield
massive military power because of their
(A) Outstanding horsemanship.
(B) Accuracy with bows and arrows.
(C) Maneuverability as cavalry units.
(D) Ability to retreat quickly.
(E) All of the above.
  1. According to the eyewitness account of Marco Polo, the Mongols’ military tactics included
(A)Gathering up forces and meeting the enemy face-on.
(B) Refusing to ever retreat.
(C) Making even the lowest soldier report to theone high officer in charge of the battle.
(D) Carrying little by way of food supplies; they would rely on their horses’ blood if needed.
(E) All of the above.

Excerpt fromhistoryworld.net

Several different factors explain the devastating success of Genghis Khan and his armies, but superior weaponry is not one of them. The traditional riding skill of the nomads of the steppes plays, as ever, a large part. With stirrups now a standard part of cavalry equipment, the agility of the horsemen is greater than ever, in galloping close to the enemy, releasing a hail of arrows and wheeling away again.
Horsemanship also plays its part in the system of communication which enables Mongol armies to coordinate their strategies. Riders gallop between well-equipped staging posts across the steppes, enabling a message to travel more than 200 miles in a day. Pigeons, too, are trained for the purpose.
But the single most important element is a ruthless use of two psychological weapons, loyalty and fear. Genghis Khan makes a cunning distinction in his treatment of nomadic tribesmen and the settled inhabitants of cities and towns. A warrior from a rival tribe, who battles bravely against Genghis Khan but loses, will be rewarded for his valor and encouraged to join the Mongols against the rest of the world. Only cowardice or treachery in an opposing tribe is punished.
For sedentary folk in alien lands these rules are reversed. Here treachery is positively encouraged. Spies infiltrate the towns. Informers are sought out and bribed. The Mongols are coming. There is a choice to be made.
The choice is a simple one; to fight or to surrender. News of the consequences travels fast. If a town bravely resists, the inhabitants are massacred in a public display. They are herded outside the walls to confront Mongol troopers with battle-axes. Each trooper is given a quota to dispatch. A tally of ears is sometimes demanded as proof that the work is done.
Terror stalks ahead of a Mongol horde like an invisible ally. The spies in the town let it be known that a rapid surrender may well be rewarded with mercy. Usually the citizens need no persuading. The gates are opened. After sufficient plunder to keep the troops happy, the horde moves on…

By the middle of the 13th century the family of Genghis Khan controls Asia from the coast of China to the Black Sea. Not since the days of the Han and Roman empires, when the Silk Road is first opened, has there been such an opportunity for trade.

Thesis Statement: Continuity and Change: Pastoral Nomads from Classical to Present

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