All The Pretty Mongols
AP World History Notes
Chapter 14
*Taken from Mr. Metcalf, Colleyville Heritage High School, Colleyville, TX
The Big Picture
• The Mongols interrupted the big post-classical empires.
• Extended the world network through re-defining long
distance trade routes.
• Chinggis Khan and his successors brought under their
control:
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Central Asia
China
Persia and Iraq
Tibet
Asia Minor and southern Russia
• Last Nomadic group to be a formidable challenge to
settled civilizations.
Review of Pastoralists
(Pastoralism vs. Agriculture)
• Relied on raising livestock
instead of growing food
– Used every part of the animal:
milk, blood, wool, hides, and
meat
– Animals also used for
transportation & the military
– Less productive economy overall
• Smaller populations
• Lived in small encampments
with related kinfolk
Review of Pastoralists
(Pastoralism vs. Agriculture)
• Pastoralists offered women
a higher status in society
– Fewer restrictions
– Greater role in public life
– Involved in productive labor
• Mongol women:
Prominent Mongol Woman
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Could initiate divorce
Could remarry if widowed
Served as political advisors
Active in the military
Review of Pastoralists
• Pastoralists = nomadic
• Traveled in systematic
patterns based on
seasonal changes and
environmental
conditions
• Not homeless  took
their homes and
belongings with them
Mongolian Yurt
The Mongol Empire
• One major contribution =
facilitated worldwide
networks of exchange
and communication
• No real cultural impact
– Did not spread any major
religion
– Did not spread their
language or culture
Temujin (1162-1227)
• United and led the Mongols
– Capitalized on shifting tribal
alliances and betrayals
– Enemies were indecisive
– Incorporated warriors from
defeated tribes into his own
forces
Mongol Expansion
• Two major reasons for
Mongol expansion under
Genghis Khan:
– The newly united Mongols
needed a common task or
else they would fragment
and fall apart
– He needed external
resources with which to
reward his followers
• 1st goal = China
Mongol Expansion
• 1209 = marks the
beginning of Mongol
conquests
• Conquests continued for
about 50 years under
Genghis Khan and his
grandsons = Ogodei,
Mongke, and Kublai
• Final empire contained:
China, Korea, Central Asia,
Russia, much of the Islamic
Middle East, and parts of
Eastern Europe
The Mongol Military
• Genghis Khan
reorganized the entire
social structure of the
Mongols into military
units
– Of 10, 100, 1,000, and
10,000 warriors
– Allowed for effective
control and command
• Conquered tribes =
broken up and dispersed
throughout these units
The Mongol Military
• Displayed incredible
discipline and loyalty
– People that deserted their
unit in battle = put to
death
– Unit leaders fought
alongside their men
– ALL Mongols benefited
from the wealth that
flowed into the Mongol
Empire from conquered
civilizations
The Mongol Military
• Brutal and ruthless military
tactics
– All who resisted Mongol rule =
slaughtered along with their
wives, children, and
dependents
– Cities destroyed
• Their brutality worked as
psychological warfare also 
many of those that heard
about the Mongols were
afraid and voluntarily
surrendered
Mongol Efficiency
• Mobilized human and material resources
• Detailed census taking
– Knew how many people they controlled and what
resources were available to them
– Allowed them to effectively tax the people
• Set up an effective system of relay stations
– Provided for rapid communication
– Fostered trade
• Centralized government
– Various government offices
– Scribes translated laws into the various languages
people spoke throughout the empire
The Mongol Empire
• Mongol rule was generally
tolerant
– Religious toleration
– Administrators drawn from
Islamic and Chinese worlds
– Intellectuals taken from
conquered kingdoms
• Trade and cultural
exchange flourished
– Pax Mongolica
– Protect merchants
Mongolian Economic Policies
• Wanted to foster trade
• Allowed merchants free use of their relay stations
• Often offered merchants 10% more than their
asking price
China and the Mongols
• Goal = extract wealth from China
• In order to do so  must accommodate the
Chinese
• Accommodations included:
– Use of Chinese administrative practices, taxation
systems, and postal system
– Took a Chinese dynastic title = the Yuan
– Transferred capital from Karakorum in Mongolia to
Beijing in China
Kublai Khan
• Mongol ruler of the Yuan
dynasty (1271-1294)
• Improved roads
• Built canals
• Lowered some taxes
• Supported scholars and artists
• Limited the death penalty and
torture
• Supported peasant agriculture
China and the Mongols
• Mongol rule in China was still harsh,
exploitative, foreign and resented
• Mongols did NOT become Chinese and they
did not accommodate EVERY aspect of
Chinese culture
Mongols Being Mongols
• Many still lived, ate, slept,
and gave birth in yurts
they put up everywhere
• Planted steppe grass
within the capital and let
animals roam freely
• Didn’t use civil service
exams
• Didn’t learn Chinese
China and the Mongols
• Mongol rule in China
declined in the mid1300s
• Many factors caused this
decline:
1368 = all Mongols forced out of
China and returned home to the
steppe
– Division among the
Mongols
– Rising prices (inflation)
– Epidemics of the plague
– Growing peasant
rebellions
Marco Polo
• Merchant from Venice,
Italy
• Traveled throughout the
Mongol Empire for almost
3 decades
• Kept a diary of everything
he encountered and
experienced
• Primary way in which
Europeans learned about
the east
Gender Roles
• Mongol women had a
strong role originally
• They remained aloof from
Confucian Chinese
women
• Refused to adopt foot
binding
• Retained right to property
and control in the
household
• Freedom of movement
Reaction by Confucianists
• Thought of the Mongols as
“uncouth barbarians”
• Refusal to reinstate the exam
system was resented
• The bolstering of artisans and
merchants bothered them
• Mongols liked popular
entertainment raising the
status of actors and actresses
which went against the
earlier hierarchy
Chinese lower class reaction
• Kubila’s policies favored
peasantry, protecting the
agricultural land from Mongol
cavalry men turning it into
pasture
• Famine relief measures were
introduced
• Tax and labor burdens were
reduced
Persia and the Mongols
• Conquest of Persia =
much quicker and
more violent than that
of China
• 1258 = capital of
Baghdad sacked
– End of Abbasid dynasty
– More than 200,000
people massacred
Devastation to Persia
• Peasants pushed off their land due to heavy
taxation
• Nomadic Mongols with their herds of animals
turned agricultural land into pasture,
wasteland, and desert
• Irrigation channels = neglected
Persia and the Mongols
• Many Mongols in Persia
were heavily influenced by
the Persians there:
Mongol man and Persian
woman
– Adopted Islam
– Left government
operation in Persian hands
– Learned Persian
– Some turned to farming
and abandoned nomadic
ways
– Some married local people
Russia and the Mongols
• Heavy devastation to Russia 
perhaps more than in Persia
• Mongol conquest of Russia =
called the “Khanate of the
Golden Horde”
• Mongols defeated the
Russians, but did NOT occupy
Russia
Painting of the fall of Kievan
Rus
– Russia had little to offer
– Less developed economy
– Not located along any major
trade routes
Exploitation of the Russians
• Russian princes required
to send tribute to the
Mongols
• Variety of heavy taxes on
Russian people
• Continuing border raids
• Tens of thousands of
Russians sent into
slavery
Influence on the Russians
• Although the Mongols weren’t influenced
much by the Russians, the Russians were
influenced by the Mongols:
– Adopted Mongols’ weapons, court practices,
diplomatic rituals, taxation system, and military
draft
End of Mongol Rule in Russia
• Mongol rule in Russia
started to decline by the
end of the 1400s
• Major causes of this
decline:
– Divisions among Mongols
– Growing strength of
Russian state  now
centered on the city of
Moscow
Decline of the Mongols
• Mongols too few in number, settled
populations massive
• Any interaction resulted in
acculturation
• Mongol rule resented by conquered
populations
• Settled populations began to use
firearms