17 - Nomadic Empires and Eurasian Integration

Question 1

What did the Mogols do that has a long-term significance in world history?

Answer 1

• Maintained courier network
• Nomadic people dependent on commerce with settled agricultural societies so worked to secure safety of trade routes and merchants
• Encouragement of travel and communication which facilitated trade, diplomatic travel, missionary efforts, tech diffusion, and movement of people to new lands
• Maintained courier network
• Lands as distant as China and western Europe became directly linked for the first time
• As nomadic people had limited skilled artisans and educated people but needed these for large empire; Often recruited from conquered peoples and allies and moved them where needed in empire

Question 2

How did the Mongols facilitate interregional trade and cross-cultural diffusion of technologies and culture?

Answer 2

Protection of trade routes and merchants
Also frequently hired foreigners as administrators, especially in China

Question 3

Why did the Mongol khanates, the Delhi sultanate, and Tamerlane have initial successes but fail to maintain their power?

Question 4

Describe the Pax Mogolica

Answer 4

• 4 khanates protected merchants and trade routes across much of Eurasia
• Peace led to tremendous transfer of culture and technology

Question 5

What earlier nomadic structures did post-classical nomadic peoples bring when they took over settled societies?

Answer 5

• Family- or clan-based and relatively egalitarian social structures
• Mongol rulers valued advice of wives as much as male advisors
• Sometimes kept living in yurts

Question 6

Describe the influence of nomadic peoples in post-classical Eurasia

Answer 6

• Between 11th and 15th century nomadic peoples became more prominant than ever
• Turkish peoples migrated to Persia, Anatolia, and India and established new states
• During 13th and 14th centuries Mongols cam to dominate central Asia steppes and then invaded settled societies in China, Persia, Russia and eastern Europe
• By early 14th century Mongols had largest empire world had every seen from Korea and China in the east to Russia and Hungary in the west

Question 7

Describe military campaigns of nomadic peoples

Answer 7

• Sometimes extraordinarily destructive
• Often demolished cities, slaughtered urban populations, and ravaged surrounding agricultural lands

Question 8

Why did women play such prominant social and economic roles in nomadic pastoral societies?

Answer 8

• Able-bodied men were frequently away on hunting expeditions or military campaigns
• Women were primarily responsible for tending to the animals

Question 9

Compare gender relations in nomadic pastoral societies to settled agricultural societies

Answer 9

• Adult males dominated in both
• Women’s status higher in nomadic pastoral
• Women responsible for animals because men away on hunting expeditions or miltary campaigns
• Excellent horse riders and skilled archers and sometimes fought in war
• Economic and sometimes military role meant had considerable influence - sometimes as advisors in family or clan matters and occasionally as rulers

Question 10

yurt

Answer 10

Tents used by nomadic Turkish and Mongol tribes

Question 11

kumiss

Answer 11

Alcoholic drink of the nomadic groups of central Asia made of fermented mare’s milk

Question 12

Turkish peoples

Answer 12

• Clans and tribes that often fought with each other
• Spoke related languages
• Nomads
• Expanded influence until dominated the steppes of central Asia and the settled societies in Persia, Anatolia and India

Question 13

Describe the nomadic pastoralist of central Asia

Answer 13

Central Asia does not have enough rain for large scale agriculture so kept herds of animals
Moved frequently to take advantage of local climactic conditions
Lived mostly off their animals
Lived in yurts
No large-scale craft production
Few and small human settlements that were often temporary

Question 14

Relationships between nomadic and settled peoples in central Asia

Answer 14

• Small scale trade because nomads had limited needs
• BUT because of mobility and familiarity with central Asia, nomadic peoples were suited to lead the caravans that cross central Asia and linked settled societies from China to the Mediterranean
• During the post-classical era and after, Turkish peoples were especially prominant on the caravan routes

Question 15

Social class in nomadic societies in central Asia

Answer 15

• 2 classes - elites and commoners
• Elite charismatic leaders had the prestige to organize clans and tribes into alliances
• Elite leaders did little governing except during times of war when they had absolute authority
• Nomadic nobility was a fluid class - heirs could lose status over generations and commoners could displace established leaders

Question 16

Religion in nomadic societies in central Asia

Answer 16

Between the 10th and 14th centuries most Turkish clans adopted Islam and carried the new religion with them when they expanded their political and military influence to new regions

Question 17

Military organization of nomadic peoples in central Asia

Answer 17

• Leaders organized big confederations of peoples subject to a khan (ruler)
• Khan ruled through the leaders of allied tribes
• Superior equestrian skills and were skilled archers - excellent accuracy even from galloping horses
• Very mobile and well disciplined - could attack and retreat faster than slower adversaries
• Allowed them to begin to build imperial states

Question 18

Abbasid

Answer 18

Cosmopolitan Arabic dynasty (750 - 1258)

Question 19

Seljq Turks and Abbasid empire

Answer 19

• By mid-10th century large numbers of Seljuq Turks served in Abbasid armies and lived in Abbasid realm
• By the mid-11th century Seljuq Turks were more powerful than Abbasid caliphs
• For final 2 centuries of Abbassid state the caliphs were figurehead and the Turkish sultans (rulers) were the actual governors

Question 20

Caliph

Answer 20

“Deputy”
Islamic leader after death of Muhammad

Question 21

Seljunk Turks and Byzantine Empire

Answer 21

• Turkish migrants thoroughly transformed Anatolia
• They displaced Byzantine authorities and set up own political and social institutions
• Suppressed Byzantine church and encouraged conversion to Islam
• By 1453 when Ottoman Turks captured the Byzantine capital at Constantinople, Byzantine and Christian Anatolia was largely Turkish and Islamic

Question 22

Ghaznavid Turks (of Afghanistan) and Sultanate of Delhi

Answer 22

• First raids were about plunder but then became interested in permanent rule
• By the 13th century the Turkish sultanate of Delhi claimed authority over all of northern India
• Repressed Bhddhism and Hinduism and encouraged conversion to Islam

Question 23

Summarize the Mongol empires

Answer 23

• Mongols lived on the high steppe lands of eastern central Asia
• Nomadic people whose social groups were families, clans and tribes and that made it hard to organize society on a larger scale
• Frequently allied with Turkish peoples but before 13th century rarely played a leading role
• In 13th century Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) brought the Mongol tribes into an alliance that built the largest empire the world had seen
• Soon dissolved into a series of smaller empires most of which disappeared within a century

Question 24

How did Chinggis Khan change Mongol political organization and what impact did that have?

Answer 24

• Did not rule through the leaders of allied tribes
• Broke up tribes and foced men of fighting age to join new military units with no tribal affiliations
• Chose military and political officials not on basis of kinship or tribal status but because of talent and loyalty to him
• Greatly strengthened Mongol people

Question 25

What motivated Turkish people to expand so far from their original homeland and why were they so successful at creating new states?

Question 26

Mongols population was relatively small. How did they conquer such a large territory?

Answer 26

• Excellent equestrians which meant they were very mobile and could surprise enemies
• Excellent archers
• If enemies resisted the Mongols slaughtered whole populations, sparing only a few, whom they sometimes used as human shields during future conflicts
• If enemies surrendered without resistence their lives were usually spared and those with craft or military skills were treated generously

Question 27

While building a massive empire, Mongols encountered many religions and cultural traditions. Why might they have shown interest in some traditions but not others?

Question 28

Describe Chingiss Khan’s empire

Answer 28

• Established Mongol supremacy in central Asia
• Extended Mongol control to northern China in the east and Persia in the west
• Did not establish a central government for the lands he conquered

Question 29

What happened to the Mongol empire after Chinggis Khan?

Answer 29

• Struggle for power among sons and grandsons
• Eventually heirs divided his realm into 4 regional empires ruled by the great khans - China, central Asia, Persia and Russia
• Tension and occasional conflict continued among 4 khans
• Struggled to adjust to becoming govenors rather than conquerers because no experience administering complex societies
• Most of conquests fell out of Mongol hands within a century

Question 30

Khubilai Khan

Answer 30

• Consolidated Mongol rule in China
• Attacked Song dynasy in southern China until fell
• Established Yuan dynasty which ruled all of China until 1368
• Unable to expand in Asia beyond China
• Ruthless attacks against enemies but also interested in cultural matters and worked to improve welfare of subjects
• Promoted Buddhism but also supported Daoists, Muslims and Christians
• Named great khan in 1260 and ruled over entire Mongol empire until death

Question 31

Golden Horde

Answer 31

• Overran Russia between 1237 and 1241 and then exploratory expeditions into Poland, Hungary, and eastern Germany in 1241 and 1242
• Kept large army on steppes north of Black Sea (pastureland for horses) from which mounted raids into Russia
• Did not occupy Russia but dominated and extracted tribute from Russia until mid-15th when a Russia state started to assert itself
• Mongol khans continued to rule Crimea and threaten Russia until late 18th century

Question 32

Mongol ilkhanate in Persia

Answer 32

• Established after toppled Abbasid empire
• Persian allowed to administer ilkhanate as long as delivered tax receipts and maintained order
• Initially tolerant of all religions but then converted to Islam and returned it to its privileged position in Persian society - signals absorption of Mongols into Muslim Persian society

Question 33

Mongols in China

Answer 33

Stood apart from Chinese who they did not respect
Brought foreign administrators rather than using Chinese
Ended priviledges for Confuscian scholars and dismantled Confuscian educational and examination system
Tolerated all cultural and religious traditions and even subsidized some
Continued to follow native shamist cults

Question 34

Collapse of Mongol empire

Answer 34

• Serious difficulties governing Persia and China
• Persia - financial problems and factional infighting; when last of Mongol rulers died without an heir the ilkhanate collapsed
• China - financial problems and factional infighting; China was richest of Mongol empires and attracted attention of ambitious warriers -> civil war
• Spread of bubonic plague which was facilitated by improved trade and communications -> depopulation and labor shortages in China
• Mongols left China and returned to steppes
• khanate of Chaghatai continued to prevail in central Asia and posed a threat to China until 18th century
• Golden Horde continue to threaten Russia until mid-16th century

Question 35

Review diffusion of technology between 1000 and 1500 CE

Answer 35

Gunpoweder invented by Chinese and Mongols quickly added to arsenal of weapons when introduced; Used in cannons to break sieges; Spread to all of Eurasia
Technologies that improved animal and maritime transportation - camels, horse collar which allowed faster horses to replace slower oxen; magnetic compass (Chinese), astrolabe both improved maritime navigation

Question 36

Did Mongol decline mean the end of nomadic people’s influence in Eurasia?

Answer 36

Turkish people resumed campaigns that Mongols had interrupted
During late 14th - early 15h century the Turkic-Mongol conquerer Tamerlane built a large central Asian empire
Foundered soon after death but greatly influence 3 surviving Turkish Muslim states - Moghal empire in India, Safavid empire in Persia, Ottoman empire based in Anatolia
Ming dynasty filled the vaccum in China

Question 37

Timurid empire

Answer 37

• By 1370 Tamerlane had extended his authority throughout central Asia khanate of Chaghati
• Moved on to region between Persia and Afghanistan, then the Golden Horde. Next came India, then southwest Asia and Anatolia.
• Note that Tamerlane temporarily delayed Ottoman expansion in Byzantine realm when crushed Ottoman army
• Tamerlane died when preparing to invade China
• Did not create an imperial administration; Instead ruled through tribal leaders who were his allies
• Appointed overlord in conquered territories but they relied on existing bureaucratic structures
• Heirs fought and the empire contracted and split into 4 main regions; last vestiges disappeared in early 16th century

Question 38

Compare conquest and governance of Turkish empires to that of Mongols

Question 39

Describe the foundation of the Ottoman empire

Answer 39

• After Mongol conquest of Persia many nomadic Turks migrated from central Asia to the ilkhanate and to the territories in Anatolia that the Seljuq Turks had seized from Byzantine empire
• There a charismatic leader, Osman, created a small state in northwest Anatolia in late 13th - early 14th century; declared independence from Seljuq sultan and began a campaign to build a state at the expense of the Byzantine empire; Every success drew more followers
• In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II capture Constantinople and ended more than 1,000 years of Byzantine rule
• By 1480 controleed all of Greece and Balkan area
• Expanded throughout most of 16th century, extending rule to southwest Asia, southeastern Europe, Egypt, and north Africa