Mongols
“The Mongols made no technological
breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few
books or dramas”
Why historically significant?
a conduit [not a creator] of civilization
The Mongols and Eurasian Empire
• Built the largest
empire in history
stretching from
Poland to China
• 13.8 million square
miles
• 100 million people
Chinggis/Genghis Khan
The Mongol Empire at its height
To compare…
Imagine if… “the U.S., instead of being created by
a group of educated merchants & wealthy
planters, had been founded by one of its illiterate
slaves, who, by the sheer force of personality,
charisma, & determination, liberated America
from foreign rule, united the people,… invented
a new system of warfare, marched an army from
Canada to Brazil, and opened roads of
commerce in a free-trade zone that stretched
across the continents.” – Jack Weatherford in
Genghis Khan
A Quick Background…
• Nomads
• Genghis Khan chosen
leader
• Need for water leads
to conquest - Central
Asia lacked rain for
agriculture
• Greatest Opportunity
was trade – horses!
Mongols
• Declared themselves to be
descendents of Huns who
founded the 1st steppe empire
in late Classical era.
• Called “Tartars” especially by
Westerners (“people from
hell”), though a misnomer:
Mongols conquered steppe
tribe Tartars, but because so
many Tartars rose to
prominence in the Mongol
Empire, the name became
synonymous with Mongols.
What were the key factors that allowed
fewer than 125,000 nomadic warriors to
build the largest empire in world history?
• Military prowess
• Adaptation of local societies / talents
• Timing: void of a really strong
leader/empire
Impact of the Mongols
• “The Mongols created a single economic,
cultural, and epidemiological world system”
–
–
–
–
Mongol Exchange
New methods of warfare
Trade from Venice to Beijing and beyond
Demographic change via the plague and major
population shifts
– Altered the political histories of Russia, China,
Europe
– Unparalleled cultural diffusion
Russia
Western
Europe
Mongolia
Byzantine Empire
China
Persia
India
Africa
Why were the Mongol armies so successful?
• Simple, but effective
• All males, 15-60, were eligible for conscription
• army was only source of honor
• Trained using massive hunts
• Great discipline
• Equipped for mobility and speed: lightly armored, no supply lines;
couriers
• Careful planning, reconnaissance, intelligence
• Decimal system of organization: arbats (tens), zuuts (100s),
myanghan (1000s), tumen (10,000s = roughly a division)
• Very good at adapting to various conditions.
• Became adept at siege warfare; recruited well; built effective
catapults.
• Combined various types of armed force: mounted archers, lancers,
engineers, rockets, and smoke.
Strong Equestrians and Archers
• The Mongols were oriented
around extreme mobility. They
carried their houses with them,
drank their own horse's blood
to stay alive, and could travel
up to 62 miles per day.
• They had an elaborate prioritymail-system which allowed
orders to be transmitted
rapidly across Eurasia.
• Mongol archers were very
deadly and accurate
– Their arrows could kill enemies
at 200 meters (656 feet)
Psychological Warfare
• Genghis Khan used combined fake retreats with accurate
Horse Archers to pick off his European enemies.
• Genghis Khan slaughtered a few cities, in an attempt to scare
all other cities to surrender without a fight. He, being a
practical leader, also valued smarts more than bravery
• If enemies surrendered without resistance, the Mongols usually
spared their lives, and they provided generous treatment for
artisans, craft workers, and those with military skills
• In the event of resistance, the Mongols ruthlessly slaughtered
whole populations, sparing only a few, whom they sometimes
drove ahead of their armies as human shields during future
conflicts
Strategies to create an empire
 Harnessed the tribe’s tendency for war
 Organized the tribes
 Used tactics never before used in battle
 Used strategy (not just force) to win
Genghis Khan
• In 25 years, subjugated more land & people than the
Romans did in 400 years.
• Destroyed LOTS of ‘less important’ cities – often along
less accessible trade routes – to funnel commerce into
routes that his army could more easily supervise and
control.
Genghis Khan
• Valued individual merit & loyalty
• Fighting wasn’t honorable; winning was.
So, used any means necessary to win
(trickery, etc.)
• Conscripted peasants: Mongols just didn’t
understand peasants who seemed like
grazing animals rather than real humans
who ate meat. “They used same terms,
precision, & emotion in rounding up yaks
as peasants.”
• Refugees preceded Mongol attack as
people from outlying areas fled to cities for
protection but overwhelmed the cities &
spread fear
• LOVED negative PR: allowed &
encouraged true or false stories to be
circulated in order instill fear.
• Fought on the move: didn’t care if chased
or fled (unlike sedentary soldier-farmer),
just wanted to kill the enemy.
Genghis Khan – innovations
• Relied on speed & surprise and perfected
siege warfare (not relied on defensive
fortifications)
• Used resources of land instead of relying
on supply train
• Allocated fallen soldiers’ share of loot to
widow/children (ensured support)
• Reorganized army so each unit had a mix
of tribal/ethnic peoples and they had to
live & fight together ---transcend kinship,
ethnicity, & religion.
• Religious tolerance 
• Instituted postal system for
communication
• Ordered writing system created
• Abolished torture & insisted on rule of law
(to which even the khan was accountable)
Rule in conquered territories
 Ruthless annihilation of resistance (terror
tactics).
 People were treated well when no
resistance.
 Cities generally left under native governors.
 Religious tolerance important in
consolidating rule, gain support of minorities
oppressed by Muslims.
• Administration commonly more benign, less
corrupt than pre-Mongol government.
“Pax Mongolica?”
• Under the Mongols, there
was unprecedented longdistance trade
• Mongols encouraged the
exchange of people,
technology, and
information across their
empire
• Weatherford: the
Mongols were
“civilization’s unrivaled
cultural carriers…”
Marco Polo en route to China
Mongol
Passport
Pax Mongolica
Marco Polo traveling the Silk Roads
• By the mid 13th c, the family of Genghis
Khan controls Asia from China to the
Black Sea creating a period of stability
during which trade flourishes to new
heights along the Silk Routes. Before 
lots of fighting in East Asia and fighting
between Muslims & Christians in the SW
Asia, but now  stability brings trade in
more volume & people who now travel
the entire distance.
• Encouraged great commercial, religious,
intellectual exchange between the East &
West.
“The Mongols made culture portable: it
was not enough to merely exchange
goods, because whole systems of
knowledge had to also be transported in
order to use many of the new products”
(e.g. drugs weren’t profitable trade items
unless one possessed medical
knowledge for their use, so moved Arab
doctors to China & vice versa)
Pax Mongolica: look at all these routes!
Exchanges During the Mongol Era
From
Europe
From
Southwest Asia
From
South Asia
From
East Asia
Honey
Horses
Glassware
Slaves
Textiles
Rugs
Incense
Finished iron products
Finished gold products
Spices
Gems
Perfumes
Textiles
Gunpowder
Firearms
Rockets
Magnetic compass
Porcelain
Silk
Maritime Technology
Paper Making
Printing
Tea
Christian missionaries
Italian merchants
European diplomats
Muslim merchants
Nestorian merchants
Muslim diplomats
Indian merchants
Indian diplomats
Buddhist religious objects
Chinese bureaucrats
Chinese artists, artisans
East Asian diplomats
Sugar cane
Black Death
Intellectual Exchanges of Ideas, Art, Architecture, Knowledge was constant
The Mongol Drive to the West
- Russia and Europe were added to the Mongols’
agenda for world conquest, and subjugating
these regions became the project of the armies
of the Golden Horde, which drove westward .
- Kiev was in decline by the 13th century, and
Russia was unable to unite before the Mongols
(called Tatars by Russians)
- Chinggis Khan’s grandson, Batu, defeated the
Russian armies one by one, resisting armies
were razed
- Kiev was taken by 1240 …very few towns
survived (only Novgorod and Moscow because
they submitted)
Russia in Bondage
- The Russians became vassals of the khan of the Golden
Horde, a domination which lasted for 250 years
- Peasants had to meet the demands from both their own princes
and the Mongols, and many sought protection by becoming
serfs, changing the Russian social structure until the 19th
century
- Some cities like Moscow benefited from Mongol rule by
increased trade, but when the Golden Horde’s power
weakened, it led the resistance
- Although Mongols remained active in the region through much
of the 15th century, Moscow became the center of political
power in Russia
- The Mongols influenced Russian military and political
organization, but most significantly isolated them from
developments in Western Europe  did not experience the
Renaissance or Reformation
Regional Effects: Russia under the “Golden Horde”
• In Russia…Mongol forces successfully attacked Russia in 1224 by
defeating Kiev Rus.
• Destroyed most cities & demanded high tribute.
• However, the Mongols left Russia largely to its own devices & few
Mongol officials were there (INDIRECT rule). Russia had lots of
independent principalities, each required to send tribute …or else.
• New places --like Moscow (Muscovy) to the north --began to grow
with the Mongols’ implementation of a postal system, financial
structures, & census. Moscow became a cultural & economic
center.
• Armenians, Georgians, & Russians thought Mongols were a
punishment from God who “fetched the Tartars against us for our
sins.”
• Limited Russia’s interaction with Western Europe (e.g. Russia
was isolated from the cultural effects of the Renaissance) --a
period of cultural decay except in northern Russia.
• Lasted the longest of the all the khanates (until 1480)
Mongols in Russia
Good:
•Centralization politically
•Protected Russia from attacks
(Teutonic Knights)
Bad:
•Russia cut off from political,
economic, and intellectual
development
The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History
• Kubilai Khan, another grandson, moved against the
Song in China and by 1271 his dynasty became the
Yuan.
• Kubilai forbid the Chinese from learning Mongol script,
intermarriage was forbidden, and he refused to
reestablish exams for civil service.
• Despite restrictions, Kubilai was fascinated with
Chinese civilization and adopted much of their culture
into his court. He built his capital at Tatu in the north,
a site occupied by previous dynasties, put the empire
on the Chinese calendar, and introduced Chinese
rituals and music into his own court.
Mongol Tolerance and Foreign
Cultural Influence
• The Mongol rulers were open to outside ideas
and drew scholars, artists, and office seekers
from many regions
• Muslims were among the most favored, and
they brought much new knowledge into the
Chinese world
• Kubilai welcomed foreign visitors  most
famous was the Venetian Marco Polo
• He was interested in all religions  Buddhists,
and Latin Christians, Daoists and Muslims
were all present at court
And according to one
Chinese observer:
“They smell so heavily that one
cannot approach them. They
wash themselves in urine…”
The Mongols
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
THE GOOD (accomplishments &
contributions)
1. Military Strategy &
Innovation – Cavalry,
Horse Archers, surprise
attacks, sieges Genghis first needed to
disband tribal loyalties
2. eligious Tolerance
(converted to all faiths in
region except Hinduism)
3. Common Legal Code
4. Utilized skills of
conquered peoples –
artisans, soldiers
THE GOOD (accomplishments &
contributions)
5. Discipline, obedience to own laws
6. Mongols were the only group to
successfully conquer Russia
7. Created largest continental empire in
history
8. TRADE – source of diffusion – goods,
ideas & people - under Mongol rule it was
less risky  Pax Mongolica
The Mongol Empire at its height
THE BAD – (failures & struggles)
• Constant in-fighting for
power – “Khan”
• Genghis never setup
centralized rule, Kublai
struggled with it (Yuan
Dynasty)
• Kublai failed to conquer
Vietnam, Burma,
Cambodia & Japan
• Inability to control China
without considerable
force
• Over-spending
Shortly after Chinggis Khan’s death, his empire split
into four Khanates
THE BAD – failures & struggles
• THE PLAGUE!!!
• Over-extension
• Struggle between nomadic lifestyle and need
to settle (centralized government)
THE UGLY – (What!?! Those
Mongols were CRAZY!!)
• Looting & Destruction of
Cities
• Massacres (1.6 Million in
1 Afghan city, as many as
18.4 Million total killed)
• Use of organized tactical
terror
Khubilai Khan
• Genghis Khan’s grandson who ruled entire China and
established the Yuan Dynasty in 1279 AD
– first conquered north China under the Jurchen,
– Then conquered south China under the Southern Song/Sung,
• The conquest of China (Southern Song/Sung) began in
1268 and took 11 years to complete, highlighted by
– The battle of Xiangyang, which took 5 years (1268-1273)
– The battle of Yangzhou, 1 year (1275)
– The seize of Hangzhou, the capital city
• Song loyalists continued to fight against the Mongols army
in the far south until the last emperor perished at sea and
the last general lost his life
• Khubilai Khan was able to institute Mongolian rule
effectively, as evidenced by few major insurrections
occurring during his reign
Effects on Overland Trade
• Linked Christian, Muslim and Chinese worlds in one Pax
Mongolica
• Encouraged Silk Road trade
– Patrols and passports
– Paid high prices at Karakorum and financed caravans
• Marco Polo (1253-1324)
– Traveled with father and uncle to the East, made a
fortune, and went back (1271-1295)
– Great influence on European attitudes towards the
East
• New Ideas from China went west:
– Paper and paper money, gunpowder, coal, movable
type, passports, high-temperature furnaces, medicine,
etc.
Discussion Question: Do you think
that the modern image of Mongols
a. is warranted given their history?
b. is partially warranted given their history?
c. is misleading because they were little different
from other pastoralists in world history?
d. is the product of the peoples that they conquered
writing their history?
Discussion Question: For you, which of the
following was the most important contribution
of the Mongol Empire to world history?
a. They constructed the largest Eurasian empire to date.
b. They destroyed a series of well-established empires.
c. They fostered trade, the spread of disease, and the
exchange of crops and technology across Eurasia.
d. The disruption of trade caused by the collapse of their
empire provided an important incentive for Europeans
to take to the seas in an effort to secure sought-after
Asian goods.
Discussion Question: Regarded as a
whole, was the Mongol impact on world
history more positive or negative?
a. The Mongol impact on world history was
more positive than negative.
b. The Mongol impact on world history was
more negative than positive.