Chapter 12
Mongol Eurasia and Its
Aftermath,
1200-1500
AP World History
I. The Rise of the Mongols,
1200-1600
A. Nomadism in Central and Inner Asia
• Mongols were strongly hierarchical.
• Mongols had complex federations tied to together by
marriage alliances.
• Their seasonal movements brought them into contact
with all types of religions.
– They accepted religious pluralism.
• Mongol khans were thought to represent the Sky God.
Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created (from
Korea to Poland)
Mongol empire – Largest land empire ever created
(from Korea to Poland)
B. The Mongol Conquests, 1215-1283
• Genghis Khan conquered Northern China.
• The khanates of the Golden Horde, Jagadai, and
the Il-Khans all swore allegiance to Genghis.
• When Kublai Khan took over, the Jagadai Khan
refused to accept him.
• Kublai established the Yuan empire and in 1279
he conquered the Southern Song.
• The Mongols were able to conquer a vast amount
of territory because of their superior horsemanship,
better bows, technique of following a volley of
arrows with a cavalry charge, using non-Mongol
soldiers, reputation for slaughtering those who
would not surrender, and their ability to take
advantage of rivalries among their enemies.
Genghis Khan – Founder of the Mongol empire.
Khubilai Khan (Grandson of Genghis) finished the conquest of
China, created the Yuan dynasty, claimed the title of Great
Khan, assumed supremacy over the other Mongol khanates.
Mongols fighting the Russians at the Battle of the Kalka River.
Ended Kievan Russia rule of modern day Russia.
After the death of Genghis, the empire splits
into the four different Khanates –
Great Khan, Golden Khan, Il-Khan, Jagadai
Modern day reenactment of Mongol warriors.
There was no infantry.
Most Mongols were expert horse archers.
Asian bow was more superior –
could shoot 1/3 farther than their enemies’ bows.
Mongols carried 5 dozen arrows into battle and
rarely used them all.
Mongols fighting the Teutonic Knights in Germany. Ogodei dies
and the Mongols return to China to elect a new Khan.
C. Overland Trade and Plague
• Mongol conquests opened overland trade routes
and brought commercial integration of Eurasia.
• Disease including the bubonic plague spread
among the world.
Route of Marco Polo along the reopened Silk Road.
He stimulated the European desire to explore the east.
Illustration of the spread of the Bubonic Plague
which originated in southwestern China.
Mongols and flea infested rats carried it along trade routes.
The effects of the Bubonic Plague.
II. The Mongols and Islam, 12601500
A. Mongol Rivalry
• In the 1260s the Il-Khan Mongols murdered the
Abbasid Caliph because of religious differences.
• Batu Khan of the Golden Horde in Russia,
converted to Islam and vowed to attack the Il-Khan
region.
• Europeans attempted to help the non-Muslim IlKhans repel the Golden Horde Mongols, but the IlKhan ruler Ghazan became a Muslim in 1295.
The Il-Khan ruler Ghazan
studying the Quran.
B. Islam and the State
• The goal of the Il-Khan state was to collect as
much tax revenue as possible.
• The tax farming system was able to deliver large
taxes, but over taxation led to inflation and a
severe economic crisis.
• Attempts to solve this crisis involved using paper
money, but depression lasted until 1349 when the
Golden Horde destroyed the Il-Khan empire.
• As the Golden Horde and the Il-Khan empires
declined in the 14th century, Timur built the Jagadai
Khanate and his descendents, the Timurids, ruled
the Middle East for several generations.
Il-Khan gold coin during the time of Ghazan.
The Jagadai Khanate rose in the 14th century with the decline
of the Golden Horde and the Il-Khan.
(modern day Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan)
Timur built the Jagadai Khanate. Ethnically he was a Turk,
not a Mongol, so he could not be Khan.
Timur’s Jagadai Khanate (1365 - 1405)
C. Culture and Science in Islamic Eurasia
• Juvaini wrote the first comprehensive work of the
rise of the Mongols under Genghis Khan.
• Rashid al-Din published a history of the world.
• Muslims under Mongol leadership made great
strides in astronomy, calendar making, and the
predication of eclipses.
• Devised decimal fractions, calculated the value of
pi, and had a significant effect on the development
of European science and mathematics.
Mongols were not only great conquers, they allowed their
subjects to pursue intellectual interests.
Muslim historian, Rashid al-Din’s, history of the world –
Included history of Europe and China.
Under Mongol leadership, the Muslim scholar Nasir al-Din
made great strides in astronomy
– small circles rotating within a large circle.
III. Regional Responses in
Western Eurasia
A. Russia and Rule from Afar
• The Golden Horde used Russian princes to tax the
people and kept the Orthodox Church in place.
• Favored Prince Alexander of Novogorod because
he had aided in the Mongol conquest of Russia.
• Moscow emerged as the new center of the
Russian civilization.
• Structure of government did not change under
Mongol rule.
• In 1480 Ivan III, the prince of Moscow, ended
Mongol rule and adopted the title of Tsar.
Prince Alexander Nevskii of Novogorod allied with the Mongols
because Russia would be destroyed if he resisted, essentially
saving Russia. (right - example of Russian man at arms)
Depiction of Russian Prince Alexander Nevskii preparing for
battle against the German Teutonics in the 1930s
Russian film of the same name. (Propaganda)
Christian church in Moscow.
Ivan “the Terrible” – First Russian prince to fight the Golden
Horde. He adopted the title of Tsar.
B. New States in Eastern Europe and
Anatolia
• Europe was divided and the states of Hungary and
Poland faced Mongol attacks alone.
• Mongol armies drove to the outskirts of Vienna, but
withdrew in 1241 because they needed to elect a
successor to he deceased Khan Ogodei.
• Europeans then initiated a variety of diplomatic
and trade overtures toward the Mongols.
• Mongol invasions and the bubonic plague caused
Europeans to question their religious beliefs.
• After Mongol power began to wane in the 13th and
14th centuries, strong centralized states such as
Lithuania and the Balkan Kingdoms began to
assert their control over their neighbors.
• Anatolia functioned as a route by which Islamic
culture spread to Europe.
• The Ottomans were kept in check by the Timurids,
but expanded eastward and conquered
Constantinople in 1453.
Ottoman Turks under Mehmet II on his way to conquer the
Byzantine empire. (notice the 2-ton cannon)
Mehmet II enters Constantinople victorious.
IV. Mongol Domination in China,
1271-1368
A. The Yuan Empire, 1279-1368
• Kublai Khan practiced Chinese traditions of
government.
• Unified the Tanggut, Jin, and Southern Song
empires.
• Made innovations of tax farming, Western Asian
Muslims as officials, legally defined status groups,
status of merchants and doctors was elevated, and
Confucians lowered.
• China’s cities and ports prospered, trade
recovered, and merchants flourished.
• Chinese population dropped as much as 40%,
probably because of the spread of disease,
warfare, infanticide, and the flooding of the Yellow
River.
Mongols unified the Tanggut, Jin, and Song empires into the
Yuan dynasty. (unified China as we know it)
Example of early weaponry using of gunpowder.
B. Cultural and Scientific Exchange
• China imported Il-Khan science and technology.
• Il-Khans imported Chinese scholars and texts.
• Iranian astronomical knowledge, algebra,
trigonometry, Islamic and Persian medical texts,
seeds, and formulas were brought to China.
C. The Fall of the Yuan Empire
• Chinese leader Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the
Mongols and established the Ming Empire.
• The Mongols still held Central Eurasia and were
able to disrupt overland trade to threaten the Ming.
• The Ming were also threatened by the Jurchens
Ming dynasty began after the Yuan fell
and the Mongols were expelled.
Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols
and established the Ming Empire.
V.
The Early Ming Empire,
1368-1500
A. Ming China on a Mongol Foundation
• Zhu Yuanzhang made great efforts to reject the
culture of the Mongols, close off trade relations
with Central Asia and the Middle East and
reestablish Confucian ideology.
• The Ming still used hereditary professional
categories, the Mongol calendar, and Beijing as
the capital.
• Mongols continued to serve in the army.
• The Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He launched a
series of expeditions to Southeast Asia and the
Indian Ocean to reestablish trade links and bring
these areas under Chinese control or influence.
• However, no real trade relations were established
and the voyages were non-profitable.
• The voyages were made more for the Yongle
Emperor to prove his worth.
• The Zheng He voyages were the last time that the
state sponsored such voyages.
Muslim eunuch admiral Zheng He launched a series of
expeditions to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
Comparison of ships from Zheng He and Columbus.
Zheng He’s voyages.
B. Technology and Population
• Chinese lost the knowledge to make high-quality
bronze and steel.
– Korea and Japan moved ahead of Ming China
in technological innovation.
• However, the Ming period was a time of great
wealth, consumerism, and cultural brilliance.
• The novels, Water Margin and Romance of the
Three Kingdoms, porcelain making, furniture,
lacquered screens, and silk all contributed to this
cultural brilliance.
Example of Ming furniture.
Example of Ming jade artwork.
Example of Ming porcelain.
VI. Centralization and Militarism
in East Asia, 1200-1500
A. Korea from the Mongols to the Yi, 1231-1500
• The Korean King of Koryo joined the Mongols by
marriage in 1258.
• Koryo collapsed when the Yuan dynasty fell apart
and it was replaced by the Korean Yi dynasty.
• The Yi dynasty reestablished local identity and
restored the status of Confucian scholarship while
maintaining Mongol administrative practices and
institutions.
• The Yi had technological innovations of moveable
copper frames, meteorological science, local
calendar, use of fertilizer, engineering of
reservoirs, ships with canon, gunpowder arrow
launchers, and armored ships.
Gunpowder arrow launcher of the Korean Yi dynasty.
B. Political Transformation in Japan;
1274-1500
• Two Mongol invasions of Japan failed because of the
Kamikaze winds and strong defensive preparations.
• The Kamakura shogunate was destroyed in a civil war
and the Ashikaga shogunate was established in 1338.
• Black ink painting, sand gardens, and the tea ceremony
were adopted by the Yoshimasa shogunate and they
were influenced by Zen Buddhism.
• The Onin War of 1477 showed that the shogunate had
no real power and the provincial lords fought each
other for power.
Japanese samurai from the Kamakura shogunate.
C. The Emergence of Vietnam,
1200-1500
• Vietnam was divided into two states:
– Chinese influenced Annam in the north
– Indian influenced Champa in the south.
• The Mongols extracted tribute from both states.
• The Ming ruled Annam for almost thirty years in the
early 15th century, but Annam overthrew them and they
completely conquered Champa.
– Established a Chinese style government over all of
Vietnam.
• The dominant faith of Annam was Mahayana Buddhism
which distinguished them from other Southeast Asian
groups who practiced Theraveda Buddhism.