The+last+Great+nomadic+Challenges

The last Great Nomadic Challenges




 * ESPIRIT Chart on Mongols **


 * Econ **** omy **
 * MI: At first they were just nomad with no possession of any economic proficiency but as their empire grew they gained land and trade routes.**
 * The Mongols were nomadic herders of goats and sheep who lived off the products of their animals.
 * Traded with meat and grain products for weopons and luxury items.
 * The Mongol conquests brought peace to much of Asia. In urban centers, artisans and scholars freely worked. Commerce flourished along secure trade routes.
 * Political **
 * MI: The Mongols are often portrayed as barbarians and destructive conquerors, but generally in their vast possessions peoples lived in peace, enjoyed religious tolerance, and had a unified law code.**
 * The basic unit of social organization, the tribe, was divided into kin-related clans. Great confederations were organized for defensive and offensive operations.
 * His grandson, Chinggis Khan, originally named Temujin, was a member of one of the clans disputing Mongol leadership at the end of the twelfth century.
 * Temujin gained strength among the Mongols through alliances with more powerful groups.
 * After defeating his rivals, he was elected supreme ruler (khagan) of all Mongol tribes in 1206.
 * In these first campaigns, the Mongols developed new tactics for capturing fortified urban centers.
 * Cities that resisted were destroyed.
 * The death of Chinggis Khan in 1227, the Mongols ruled an empire stretching from Persia to the North China Sea.
 * He used the knowledge of Muslim and Chinese bureaucrats to build an administrative structure for the empire.
 * When Chinggis died in 1227, the vast territories of the Mongols were divided among three sons and a grandson.
 * His third son, Ogedei, a talented diplomat, was chosen as grand khan. He presided over further Mongol conquests for nearly a decade.
 * Social **
 * MI: Men held dominant leadership positions; women held considerable influence within the family. Leaders were elected by free men.**
 * They gained their positions through displays of courage and diplomatic skills and maintained power as long as they were successful.
 * Mongol males were trained from youth to ride, hunt, and fight.
 * Men and women were somewhat had equal roles and as the empire grew they adopted some of other cultural ideas such those in China. In addition the mongols were fearsome warriors who were pride of their heritage.
 * The speed and mobility of Mongol armies made them the world's best. The armies, divided into fighting units of 10,000 (tumens), included both heavy and light cavalry.
 * Enforced a formal code, harsh discipline.
 * The Mongols were both fearsome warriors and astute, tolerant rulers. Chinggis Khan, though illiterate, was open to new ideas and wanted to create a peaceful empire.
 * Peasants had to meet demands from both their own princes and the Mongols. Many sought protection by becoming serfs.
 * The Mongols were at the top; their nomadic and Islamic allies were directly below them. Both groups dominated the highest levels of the administration.
 * Beneath them came first the north Chinese, and then ethnic Chinese and peoples of the south.
 * The decision was a major change in rural social structure: serfdom endured until the middle of the nineteenth century.
 * Mongol women remained aloof from Confucian Chinese culture.
 * They refused to adopt foot binding and retained rights to property and control in the household, as well as freedom of movement.
 * Some Mongol women hunted and went to war. Chabi, wife of Kubilai, was an especially influential woman.
 * Intellectual **
 * MI: The openness of Mongol rulers to outside ideas, and their patronage, drew scholars, artists, artisans, and office seekers from many regions.**
 * Mongol patronage stimulated popular entertainment,
 * Especially musical drama, and awarded higher status to formerly despised actors and actresses. (education)
 * Interactions **
 * MI: The Mongolian empire was extended to a large extent and thet interacted with almost everyone in the world.**
 * They next attacked the Qin Empire established by the Jurchens.
 * In 1240, Kiev was taken and ravaged. Novgorod was spared when its ruler, Alexander Nevskii, peacefully submitted, at least temporarily.
 * Baghdad was destroyed in 1258. With the fall of the Abbasid dynasty, Islam had lost its central authority; consequently much of its civilization was devastated.
 * A major Mongol victory over the Seljuk Turks in 1243 opened Asia Minor to conquest by the Ottoman Turks.
 * Chinese were forbidden from learning the Mongol script and intermarriage was prohibited. Mongol religious ceremonies and customs were retained.
 * Kubilai refused to reestablish exams for the civil service.
 * Despite the measures protecting Mongol culture, Kubilai was fascinated by Chinese civilization. He adopted much from their culture into his court;
 * They brought much new knowledge into the Chinese world. Kubilai was interested in all religions.
 * Buddhists, Nestorian and Latin Christians, Daoists, and Muslims were all present at court. He welcomed foreign visitors. The most famous was the Venetian Marco Polo.
 * Religion **
 * MI: Chinggis followed shamanistic Mongol beliefs but tolerated all religions.**
 * Christian Western Europe initially had been pleased by Mongol successes against Islam. Many in the west thought the Mongol khan was Prester John.
 * The conversion of the khan of the Golden Horde to Islam, did not resume the campaign.
 * Technology **
 * Their powerful short bows, fired from horseback, were devastating weapons.
 * New weapons, including gunpowder and cannons, were used.
 * The Mongols developed a substantial navy that helped conquest and increased commerce. Urban life flourished.

Link to the discussion on ESPIRIT

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** Chapter 14: Yuan Notes ** ** The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History ** ** MI: ** In 1271, Kubilai's dynasty became the Yuan, gaining control of China. As his conquests continued, Kubilai attempted to preserve the distinction between Mongols and Chinese. ** Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture ** MI: Mongol women remained aloof from Confucian Chinese culture, refusing to adopt anything that would limit their freedom. ** Mongol Tolerance and Foreign Cultural Influence ** MI: The openness of Mongol rulers to outside ideas, and their patronage, drew scholars, artists, artisans, and office seekers from many regions into the Yuan court. ** Social Policies and Scholar-Gentry Resistance ** MI: The scholar-gentry regarded Mongols as uncouth barbarians with policies endangering Chinese traditions. The refusal to reinstate the examination system was especially resented. ** The fall of the House of Yuan ** MI: The Yuan Dynasty, which lasted from 1279-1368 A.D., a short life dynasty established by Mongols and by the time of Kubilai's death, the Yuan dynasty was weakening. Song loyalists in the south revolted. ** Aftershock: The Brief Ride of Timur ** MI: Just when the peoples of Eurasia began to recover from the effects of Mongol expansion, a new leader, the Turk Timur-i Lang, brought new expansion. ** Global affect ** MI: The legacy of the Mongol period was both complex and durable. The Mongols brought the Muslim and European worlds’ new military knowledge, especially the use of gunpowder.
 * Chinese were forbidden from learning the Mongol script and intermarriage was prohibited. Mongol religious ceremonies and customs were retained.
 * Despite the measures protecting Mongol culture, Kubilai was fascinated by Chinese civilization. He adopted much from their culture into his court; the capital at Tatu (Beijing) was in Chinese style.
 * A new social structure emerged in China. The Mongols were at the top; their nomadic and Islamic allies were directly below them, beneath the north Chinese and minority of south.
 * They refused to adopt foot binding and retained rights to property and control in the household, as well as freedom of movement.
 * Some Mongol women hunted and went to war. Chabi, wife of Kubilai, was an especially influential woman.
 * She convinced Kubilia that harsh treatment of the survivors of the Song imperial family would only anger people and makes them difficult to rule over showing women importance.
 * Muslim lands provided some of the most favored arrivals; they were included in the social order just below the Mongols.
 * They brought much new knowledge into the Chinese world. Kubilai was interested in all religions; Buddhists, Nestorian and Latin Christians, Daoists, and Muslims were all present at court.
 * He welcomed foreign visitors. The most famous was the Venetian Marco Polo, where he served as an administrator for 17 years and writing of travel of fantastic tales and descriptions of palaces and wealth.
 * The Mongols also bolstered the position of artisans and merchants who previously not had received high status. Both prospered as the Mongols improved transportation and expanded the supply of paper money.
 * The Mongols developed a substantial navy that helped conquest and increased commerce. Urban life flourished. Mongol patronage stimulated popular entertainment. ( Romance of the west Chamber was written Chinese dramatic works)
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tabstops: list .5in;">Kubilai’s policies initially favored the peasantry. Their land was protected from Mongol cavalrymen turning it into pasture, and famine relief measures were introduced.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tabstops: list .5in;">Tax and labor burdens were reduced. A revolutionary change was formulated but not enacted for establishing elementary education at the village level.
 * <span style="background: white; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tabstops: list .5in;">In a short time they became so weak that popular uprisings broke out and Chu, the leader of one of these popular uprisings, succeeded in uniting several other groups and the nobility and overthrew the Yuan.
 * <span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tabstops: list .5in;">Mongol expeditions of 1274 and 1280 against Japan failed. Other Mongol forces were defeated in Vietnam and Java.
 * Kubilai’s successors lacked talent, and the Yuan administration became corrupt.
 * The suffering peasantry was called upon by the scholar-gentry to drive out the barbarians. By the 1350s, the dynasty was too weak to control all of China.
 * Famines stimulated local risings. White Lotus Society, secret societies dedicated to overthrowing the dynasty formed. Rival rebels fought each other. Many Mongols returned to central Asia.
 * Finally, a peasant leader, Ju Yuanzhang, triumphed and founded the Ming dynasty.
 * Timur, a highly cultured individual from a noble, landowning clan, moved from his base at Samarkand to conquests in Persia, the Fertile Crescent, India, and southern Russia.
 * He was delighted to architecture, fine arts, and gardens at the same time ruthless conqueror indifferent to human suffering.
 * Timur is remembered for the barbaric destruction of conquered lands, his campaigns outdid even the Mongols in their ferocity. His rule did not increase commercial expansion, cross-cultural exchanges or internal peace. He slaughtered people, and built pyramids of skulls.
 * Internal peace. After his death in 1405, Timur's empire fell apart, and the last great challenge of the steppe nomads to Eurasian civilizations ended.
 * Trade and cultural contact between different civilizations throughout Eurasia became much easier.
 * The trading empires established in their dominions by Venetians and Genoese provided experience useful for later European expansion.
 * A consequence was the transmitting of the fleas carrying the bubonic plague—the Black Death—from China and central Asia to the Middle East and Europe.