MONGOLS

Their hoofbeats reverberate through history
	have been given a very bad press

nomads from the steppes of central and eastern asia
		Chinggis Khan himself united mongol tribes and brought central asia, northern china and eastern persia under his control
his grandchildren did in china, tibet, persia, iraq, asia minor, russia and eastern europe
the four khanates of his sons and grandsons, established in 1227, lasted long time

this was not just a savage assault by backward people
	they were ferocious warriors
	they did do mass slaughters and level cities
		they were a scourge on humanity, from the victim's point of view

but they did probably construct the largest empire ever
	they did live peacefully within its borders
		they did promote trade and the transmission of foods, technology and ideas

A.  Origins

had emerged as a herding, horse-riding nomads on the asian steppes
raised goats and sheep, got meat and milk, traded hides for weapons, wore sheepskins
rode from an early age, ponies essential to their lifestyle
tribes divided into clans that could combine every once in a while for defense into a great confederation
leaders elected by free males, i.e., based on courage in battle

B.  Chinggis Khan

in early 12th century, his grandfather Kabul Khan had one battles in China but then died
named Temujin when young, born in 1170s,
	his father was poisoned by a rival clan
		father's supporters refused to transfer allegiance to the young lad
1182 taken prisoner by another clan, but he escaped, joined up with a stronger clan and revenged himself, began a growing reputation as a warrior, which won him allies
Tumuchin adopted the tribe's name in 1200
in 1206 at a Kuriltai, meeting of chiefs, elected khaghan, supreme ruler of the Mongol tribes
	symbol of the black moon with nine white tails
	noyon (prince)

Chinggis brought discipline and org to the Mongols
saw himself as destined to rule the world and in 1207 he started out

organized armies, tumens, of 100,000 cavalry and then into sub-units
used scouting parties
also a separate messenger force
desertion in battle meant execution and with traitors also
these guys were natural warriors from birth, tough , mobile, used to hunting and warfare, used powerful short bows with a range up to 400 yards!  All cavalry so very fast marches and huge distances covered
first vs Xi-Xia in northwest china which paid tribute
	1215 Peking captured and huge slaughter
then Qin empire in manchuria, which also paid tribute
then overwhelmed KaraKhitai in west

Slowly Mongols figured out siege weapons to destroy cities,
whenever a town resisted, huge retribution, maybe spared artisans

Chinghiz wanted peaceful trade relations with west, that is why he came west
1218 Utrar incident when a caravan from Chinggis massacred by the Khwarazam governor after a trade agreement had been reached
when Chinggis sent an envoy to the Khwarazam shah asking for vengeance, envoy killed
		very stupid move, this made invasion imminent
1219 he moved west, towns that did not resist spared
1220 bukhara plundered and then burnt to ground, inhabitants driven from town as sacked
continued to move west, samarqand fell 
by 1221 chinggis had begun to reorg his territory
	sultan died of TB on an island in the caspian

Chinggis almost died in March 1223 when he fell from a horse and was attacked by a boar

this added turkic tribes to his empire and more horsemen

by August 1227 when Chinggis died, allegedly at age 72, during campaign against the Xi-Xia empire, which he had not conquered earlier, his empire stretched from Caspian sea to North China sea
	city of Karakorum, southwest of baikal, as capital

was a relatively tolerant ruler, as were his heirs
		studied peoples' arts and learning and summoned them to Karakorum
remained shamanistic, propitiation of nature spirits, though did investigate other religions such as christianity daoism, islam, buddhism
devised a mongolian script base don an Uighur alphabet
set up an admin legal code and secret police
	taxed farmers for military support
	brought peace to a huge area, trade and towns grew

C.  Succession and Expansion

empire divide between three sons (Jochi, Ugudei, jagatay) and grandson (Batu, son of the dead Jochi)

the third son Ogedei elected as the great khan, as chinggis had suggested, crafty diplomat

Ilkhan empire, khanate, to south in middle east; golden horde to west; China to east

	1.  Russia
		destruction of russia a side game
			petty princes tried to fight one by one instead of uniting vs threat
in 1236 Batu led 120,00 into russia
			called tartars
			in 1237, 1238 and 1240 invaded in a series of winter campaigns
			Riazan, Moscow, Vladimir burned to ground
			in 1240 kiev fell
the mongol yoke in russia lasted over a century to pay tribute
			moscow tribute collector
				Mongol yoke allowed orthodox church free reign
Russian population tended to move to northeast away from steppe
			huge negative impact on russia, did russia learn despotism?, as isolation from west

	2.  Europe
			Batu sent envoy to king bela in Hungary, but he refused to submit to mongols, big mistake, thought them just a group of nomads
in 1240 repeatedly hungarian and hungarian and german knights defeated; huge european losses
mongols now on the nice hungarian plain
but it was the death of ogedie and struggle for succession that forced batu to withdraw from europe
actually, I think they even reached northern france at one point, Chalons

	3.  Near East
Hulegu, another grandson of chinggis, ruler of ilkhan
in 1258 baghdad destroyed, abbasid caliph murdered, rolled in carpet and elephants trounced?
1243 destroyed seljuk turks in asia minor
		huge catastrophe
			irrigation things wrecked
			destroyed military strength and cities
in 1260 mameluk army under Baibar defeated them at Ain Jalut in the Palestine desert with some christian help from crusader states
				Hulegu was in central asia at time in another succession crisis

		did Mongols transmit black plague fleas west?

in west turks became a major part of the empire again because of the small numbers of mongols
			gradually became sunni muslim also

	4.  China
		Ogedei had led advance into China
China vulnerable because remember that neither buddhists or confucius left a very high place for soldiers
the song dynasty helped in attack on Qin in manchuria, by 1234 qin gone, then swept into song state to south
Kubilai Khan, another grandson, directed the campaign
1235-1279, long campaigns in china vs well-fortified chinese cities
			1260 kubilai became grand khan
1271 he sinicized his name to yuan and became emp of most of china
capital at tatu, beijing, very chinese type court and chinese lifestyle, but no exams
his moving his capital there meant that mongol empire had, in effect, divided into pieces
tried to preserve mongol separateness, no marriage to chinese, mongol religion stayed, no friendship with Chinese, mongols on top of the new social structure
his wife Chabi, promoted buddhism
			tried to make lenient treatment
eventually did adopt some chinese ways, especially since very small ruling class, such as the Chinese palace and bureaucracy
kubilai very curious, amazing palace and scholars, art etc, welcomed muslim scholars and scientists
			Marco Polo!
			but many in china never adapted, such as the scholar-gentry, who also resented his favoring of the artisans
Kubilai khan had a long reign, but only short mongol control of china
failure to control in japan in 1274 and 1280 and failures in vietnam undermined prestige
when Chabi died and then his son, Kubilai became dissolute in later years
later successors lacked leadership
			by 1350s risings, banditry, famines
out of this emerged Ju Yuanzhang to found the Ming dynasty

expansion of mongols turned in 1260, then 1280, then 1285 sultans of delhi repelled mongols