Mongols and Silk Road Social - Political - Interactions with environment - Cultural - Nomadic lifestyles - At a young age, Mongols started mastering the art of horseback riding and archery - Conquered many territories → no concentrated population No culture - They were influenced by the territories that they conquered A women’s role included influence in family life and had the right to be heard in tribal councils, men however dominated leadership positions Many ideas, religions, diseases, tech was spread across the Silk Road Merchants were at the top of the Mongol’s social structure Mongols were divided into tribes, sub divided into kin related klans (clans did everything together: camp and herd) Mongols used steppe diplomacy - Alliances and elimination of enemies When in war time, clans and tribes formed together to make confederations- these would be led by one leader, depending on him, the confederation would survive or not On all organization levels, the leaders were elected by the free men of the group A women’s role included influence in family life and had the right to be heard in tribal councils, men however dominated leadership positions Spread of the plague- because of the Mongols, it was so fast and on a large global scale, the silk road brought everyone from everywhere on it trading, but at the same time spreading disease to the world’s four corners The Mongols delayed Russia’s Renaissance which made them fall behind compared to other civilizations The Mongol Peace enriched the exchange of ideas between the West and the East Mongols made trade safer and facilitated trade between Asia and Europe - Ideas spread faster Mongols allowed people to keep their religion and culture Mongols were very curious about other cultures, as a result when they conquered new land they were open to different cultures Mongols were religiously tolerant towards the people they conquered although they were mainly Muslim and animists→ tolerant ruler The Mongol’s extent of territory resulted them in being conduits of other cultures (from the people they conquered) Chinggis Khan established a new capital: Karakorum, there, se brought scholar-like minds and consulted with confucian scholars for advice on how to rule China during the Yuan dynasty - Muslim engineers for advice on battlefield technology and on how to improve trade with lands father west Doaist men in efforts to become immortal → these attempts to consult with multicultural people, shows the mongol’s interest in building new from old all while keeping the idgeneous people happy by adopting aspects of their own culture - The Mongols brought peace to all of Asia, this time was usually advantageous to different civilizations because when under such a large domain, there is no- one (almost) to fight with. This provided large periods of cultural development. - Central Asia trade on the silk road help spread buddhist religious objects from north northeast india - Central asian trade went all the way to Europe from which Economical - - - The Mongol Peace promoted the trade of products that increased the wealth of merchants In central Asia through the silk road, the Mongols provided safe passageway for merchants to travel→ prosperous trade Central Asia’s economy depended on: - China- gunpowder, firearms, porcelain, paper, silk, tea - Europe- Honey, glassware, slaves - Middle East- textiles, sugar cane, rugs - North asia- horses- this helped the Mongols gain so much land so fast, easy way of transportation - North india- spices, gems, perfume, textiles Mongols, because of their cultural acceptance, accepted muslims into their government, they introduced to the population under the Mongols, new systems for more efficient tax collections Collected tribute from occupied areas
