AP World Mongols Unit III

1. Chapter 14
The Last Great Nomadic
Challenges
From Chinggis Khan to Timur

2.  A young leader unites the nomadic
Mongols of central Asia
 Overrun lands from China to Eastern
Europe – dubs himself “Genghis Khan” –
“world emperor”

3.  Take over N. China, central Asia, and
eastern Persia
 Genghis Khan’s sons and grandson’s will
help conquer the rest of China, Tibet,
Persia, Iraq, Southern Russia, and most of
Asia Minor
 Divide conquered land up into 4 khanates
(kingdoms)

6. http://home.tiscali.nl/~t543201/web-mongol/mongol-battles.htm

7.  Could cover 90 miles on horseback per day (the
“amazing” Roman military could travel 25)
 Bows launched arrows 400 yards (English
longbow limit 250yds)
 Scouts checked out next attack point before full
scale attack
 Ruthless – submit or die
 Villages that resisted were destroyed completely

8. Ghenggis Khan attacking Syria
and Palestine

9. Genghis Khan and his Mongolian Buddies…
fun facts, rumors, interesting bits
 Goal not to loot, but to destroy
 Upon capturing Baghdad in 1258, the last caliph
and his sons were trampled to death
– A fate reserved for rulers, goal? demoralize
 European rumor mill – Mongolians looked like
monkeys, barked like dogs, ate raw flesh, drank
horse urine, knew no laws, showed no mercy
 Water = weakness; could conquer through
mountains, rice paddies, rivers, etc, but not
seas/oceans (Java or Japan)

12. Russia according to the Russians

13. Reasons for Mongol Military
Success
Fernandez-Armesto, "The World, A History" p. 418

14. Impact Varied
 Pax Mongolica – after the initial shock of the attacks, a
peace comparable to the Roman empire, is established.
– Communication from E Asia and W Europe
– **At the end of Pax Mongolica the Silk Road is over.
 Il-Khans - Persia – Mongols assimilated and became
Muslim
– Poor caliph
– Il-Khans became protectors and advocates of Islam,
all Mongols within the Khanate are ordered to convert
– Timur/Tamerlane (from Jagadai) breaks the peace,
attacks from India to Russia
 Timur = Turkish
 Osman (one of his guys) becomes the founder of
the Ottoman Turks

15. Impact Varied
 Khanate of the Golden Horde – Russia - Batu - largely illiterate
clan – cut off Russia’s contact with the West, lasts 240+ years
– Meet great resistance, ruthless results “no eye remained to weep for the
dead”
– Kiev falls, Novgorod hangs on by a thread
– Perks? Russia benefits from trade; Protected from Teutonic Knights
who wanted to attack Orthodoxy and spread Catholicism
– Downsides? Miss the Renaissance
 Khanate of Jagadai - India – Timur Lang (Tamerlane) (Turk, in-law
of the Mongols)
– destroyed just about everything in sight
– destroys the sultanate
– occupation doesn’t last as long
– sultanate restores fairly quickly and Islam continues to grow in India under the
Mogul Empire as Hindus cling to their beliefs

16. Impact Varied
 Khanate of the Great Khan - China – Khublai
Khan
– Known as the Yuan Dynasty 1279-1368
– dismissed Confucian scholars; many had deep
Buddhist beliefs
– forbade marriage between Mongols and
Chinese
– inhibited Chinese from learning Mongol
language (which didn’t exist until GK)
– Chinese maintain their own identity
 never take Vietnam or Japan
– Japan is saved by typhoon winds “kamikaze” – divine wind
– Rebellion – poor rebellion Ju Yanzhang founds

17. Keep in Mind
 Anti-Mongolian Writing is written by literate
urbanites

18. Mongolian Superlatives
 Where was it least oppressive?
 Where did it create and establish an era of
peace?
 Where was it most harmful for the society
politically and culturally?