Mongols Flashcards
Mongol time period
Started with Chinggis Khan in 1206, lasted until 1236
Chinggis Khan
-Born Temujin in 1162
-Descendent of Kabul Khan (united Mongols)
-Father died
-Kidnapped, escaped
-Grew into strong military leader
-Became khagan in 1206
Chinggis Khan conquering
-Tangut/Xi Xia (north China)
-Jin (Jurchens in China)
-Kara Khitai (central Asia)
-Khwarazm (persia area)
-Spared artisans’ lives and let them come to Karakorum
Khwarazm
-Empire led by Muhammad Shah
-Bukhara and Samarkand
-Taken by Mongols
Mongols as a nomadic society
-Lived in Central Asian steppe
-Goat+sheep herds (food, clothing, shelter)
-Rode horses for days at a time, relied on their for herding, war, and hunting
-Tribes/clans
-Confederations when needed
Kuriltai
-Meeting of all Mongol chieftains
-To select a supreme ruler (khagan)
Khagan
-Supreme ruler of Mongol tribes
Tumens
-Fighting forces of 10,000
-Units of 1000, 100, 10 underneath
-Each with their own commander
Mongol Tactics/Weapons
-Heavy and light cavalry, scouting parties, messengers
-Short bow
-Chinese helped develop siege weapons (battering ram, catapults)
-Fake retreating
Jebe
“The Arrow”
-Shot Chinggis Khan’s horse right out from under him
-Stood his ground when his army was being defeated
-Impressed Chinggis so much that he became a high up Mongol military post
-Demonstrates Chinggis Khan’s generosity to his bravest foes
What religion did Chinggis Khan practice?
Shamanism (nature spirits)
Pax Mongolica
-Empire held together
-Cultural exchange
-Trade
-Internal peace
-In towns, scholarship flourished along with the arts
-Secure trade routes led to prosperous merchants and wealthy cities
Karakorum
-Mongol capital
-Lavish tent-palace
-Scholars brought here
Who did the Mongol land pass down to when Chinggis Khan died?
-His three sons
-His grandson Batu (son of Chinggis Khan’s dead son)
Ogedei
-Chinggis’ third son
-Became the new Khagan after Chinggis Khan’s death
-Not super strong in military, but very clever and a great diplomatic force
Four Khanates
-Golden Horde (Russia)
-Ilkhan (Middle East)
-Chagatai (Central Asia)
-Great Khanate/Yuan Dynasty (China)
The Golden Horde
-One of the four khanates (subdivisions) of the empire after Chinggis Khan’s death
-Named for the golden tents of the western khans
-Led by Batu, invaded Russia
Batu
-Leader of the Golden Horde who led the invasion of Russia
-Grandson of Chinggis Khan
How was Russia organized in the 1200s, and how did this hurt their defense against the Mongols?
-Divided into kingdoms, each ruled by a prince
-The princes refused to collaborate with each other, making defense hard
What did the Russians call the Mongol invaders led by Batu?
Tatars /Tartars (people from hell)
Why did the Mongols only invade Russia in the winters?
-Horses could walk more easily on the frozen ground
-Rivers were frozen over, easier to access areas
Kiev
-Great walled trade city
-Mongols defeated it when they returned in the winter of 1240
-Spared St Sophia’s cathedral though)
Why was Novgorod spared?
-Their prince, Alexander Nevsky temporarily submitted to Mongol demands
-They wanted to move on to more western European conquest
Effects of Mongols in Russia
-Princes vassals of the khan and had to pay tribute
-Peasants had to give their labor and crops to not only their prince but to the Mongols, so they fled to remote areas or became serfs for protection
-Moscow rose (tribute collector, Orthodox Church)
-Became isolated (cut off from Renaissance)
Battle of Kulikova (1380)
Moscow and other vassals defeat the Golden Horde
Prester John
-Mythical Christian monarch could help defeat the Muslim enemy
-Europeans thought it was Chinggis Khan when he went after Muslim Khwarazm (until they went after Christian Russia)
Why did Batu suddenly stop the European conquest?
-When Ogedei (the khagan) died
-Had to go back to deal with succession
Hulegu
-Grandson of Chinggis Khan
-Ruler of the Ilkhan subdivision of the Mongol empire
-Destroyed Baghdad in 1258
-Had Abassid caliph killed
-Defeated Seljuk Turks (opened up Asia Minor to later Ottoman conquest)
Baibars
-Mamluk leader of Egypt
-Was a former Mongol slave
-Defeated Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260
Why did Hulegu end his Islamic conquest?
His cousin Berke (new khan of Golden Horde who was Muslim) allied with Baibars against him
Kublai Khan
-Grandson of Chinggis Khan
-Directed the Mongol forces in the campaigns against the Song
-Became khagan in 1260
-Founded Yuan Dynasty
Yuan Dynasty
-Mongol regime in China (1271-1368)
-Capital was Dadu (Beijing)
Kubilai seeks to keep distinction between Mongol and Chinese
-No civil service exam (prevented Chinese dominance in gov)
-Chinese scholars forbidden to learn Mongol script (used for official records and correspondence)
-Mongols forbidden to marry native Chinese
-Only nomadic women could marry the great khan
-Friendship between Mongols and Chinese was discouraged
-Military forces of Mongols and Chinese kept separate
-Mongol religious ceremonies and customs were retained
-Traditional tent encampment set up int the imperial city (Kubilai normally lived in a Chinese style palace though)
Yuan Era social structure
-Mongols at the top
-Central Asian nomads, Muslim allies, foreigners right behind
(These occupied most high positions in the bureaucracy)
-Ethnic Chinese
-Minority peoples of the south
(Could run Yuan bureaucracy at regional/local levels, but could only be advisors to the Mongols)
Mongol women
-Did not adopt a lot of Chinese practices
-Did not footbind
-Retained rights to property, control within the household, freedom to move about the town and countryside
-Fought in battle sometimes
-Pretty independent
-As time went on and Neo-Confucianism gained traction, freedoms decreased
Chabi
-Wife of Kubilai Khan
-One of his most important political and diplomatic advisors
-Promoted Buddhist interests
-Prevented a plan the would have turned cultivated lands into pasture lands for Mongol ponies
Muslim influence on Yuan Dynasty
-Designed and supervised the building of his imperial city
-New tax collection systems
-Astronomy instruments
-Corrected the Chinese calendar
-Made more accurate maps
-Muslim doctors ran the imperial hospitals and added translations of Muslim medical volumes into the imperial library
Marco Polo in Yuan
-Lived and served as administrator in Kubilai Khan’s court and empire
-Wrote an account of the Mongols and some of their customs and described their palaces and cities and wealth
-Made Europeans interested in Asia and made them want to find a route there, which inspired expeditions like Columbus’
Economic Effects of Mongols in China
-Merchants rose in status
-Silk road safety
-Paper money
-Navy stopped pirates
-Silk, tea, porcelain made it to Europe
Cultural Effects of Mongols in China
-Poetry and essay writing (traditional Chinese arts) decreased
-Dramas and musicals increased
-Romance of the West Chamber is the most famous Chinese dramatic work
-Actors despised by Confucian scholars but treated as celebrities in this period
Who benefited from Mongol rule in China and who opposed it?
-Peasants, merchants, artisans rose
-Reduced peasant tax, granaries filled, etc
-Scholar gentry were mad (no civil service exam, thought they were barbarians)
Failed attacks of Japan and Vietnam
-Damaged military reputation
-Showed Yuan weakness in its last years
White Lotus Society
-Secret religious sect,
-Encouraged peasants to overthrow the dynasty
-Said they had magic powers and would heal you
Zhu Yuanzhang
-Poor peasant man
-Founded the MIng Dynasty which would rule for the next 300 years after Yuan
Timur-i Lang (Tamerlane)
-Turkic/Mongol
-From a noble land-owning clan (not nomadic)
-Ruthless conquerer
-Like art, architecture and talking to scholars like Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun
Timurid Empire
-Led by Timur
-Capital was Samarkand (Uzbekistan)
-1360s-1400)
-Expanded to Persia, Fertile Crescent, India, and Southern Russia
-Pyramids of skulls of the people they killed
-Slaughtered thousands in Aleppo (Asia Minor) and Delhi (as a warning to not resist)
-Artisans and scientists spared
-Brought no increased trade, cultural exchange, or internal peace
-Empire pulled apart with Timur’s death in 1405
