WhaG
The Mongols Mini-DBQ
Name:
Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of global history, answer the questions that
follow.
1. How many miles wide was the Mongol Empire?
2. Why do you think the Mongols divided their empire into four sections or Khanates?
Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission, London: Sheed and Ward,1955.
When ... they are going to join battle, they draw all the battle lines just as they are (about) to fight.
The chiefs or princes of the army do not take part in the fighting but take up their stand some
distance away facing the enemy, and they have beside them their children on horseback and their
womenfolk and horses; and sometimes they make figures of men and set them on horses. They do
this to give the impression that a great crowd of fighting men is assembled there.
They send a detachment of captives and men of other nationalities who are fighting with them
to meet the enemy head-on, and some of the Tartars (Mongols) may perhaps accompany them.
Other columns of stronger men they dispatch far off to the right and the left so that they are not
seen by the enemy and in this way they surround them and close in and so the fighting begins from
all sides. Sometimes when they are few in number they are thought by the enemy, who are
surrounded, to be many, especially when the latter catch sight of the children, women, horses and
dummy figures....
They reduce fortresses in the following manner. If the position of the fortress allows it, they
surround it, sometimes even fencing it round so that no one can enter or leave. They make a
strong attack with engines (catapults for slinging large stones) and arrows and they do not leave off
fighting by day or night, so that those inside the fortress get no sleep; the Tartars however get
some rest, for they divide up their forces and they take it in turns to fight so that they do not get too
tired. If they cannot capture it in this way they throw Greek fire (napalm); sometimes they even take
the fat of the people they kill and, melting it, throw (catapult) it on to the houses, and wherever the
fire falls on this fat it is almost inextinguishable.
While they are pitched before the fortification they speak enticing words to the inhabitants
making them many promises to induce them to surrender into their hands. If they do surrender to
them, they say: “Come out, so that we may count you according to our custom” and when they
come out to them they seek out the artificers (artisans) among them and keep these, but the
others, with the exception of those they wish to have as slaves, they kill with the axe....
3. Describe one example of the brilliance of the Mongol warfare tactics and strategy that made
them so successful.
4. Why do you think the numbers of reported deaths would be exaggerated by the chroniclers?
5. Why were there few or no survivors according to the Russian chroniclers?
. . . The wholesale looting and destruction of property and life in Russia during the Mongol invasion of
1237–40 was a staggering blow which left the Russian people stunned, and for a time disrupted the
normal course of economic and political life. It is hard to estimate the Russian casualties but they must
have been tremendous, and if we include the vast throngs of civilians, both men and women, who were
enslaved by the Mongols they can hardly have been less than 10 per cent of the total population.
The cities suffered most in the debacle [disastrous defeat]. Such old centers of Russian civilization as
Kiev, Chernigov, Pereiaslav, Riazan, Suzdal, and the somewhat younger Vladimirin- Suzdalia, as well
as a number of other towns, were thoroughly destroyed, and the first three named above lost their
former importance for several centuries. Only a few major cities in West and North Russia such as
Smolensk, Novgorod, Pskov, and Galich (Halicz) escaped devastation at that time. The Mongol policy
of conscripting [drafting] master craftsmen and skilled artisans for the khan’s service added a new
burden even for those cities which had been spared physical destruction during the first period of the
conquest. A quota of the best Russian jewelers and craftsmen was sent to the great khan. As we have
seen, Friar John of Plano Carpini met one of them, the goldsmith Kuzma, in Guyuk’s camp. Many
others were requisitioned by the khan of the Golden Horde for his personal service as well as to build
and embellish [decorate] his capital, Saray. Artisans of various kinds — smiths, armorers, saddlers,
and so on — were also assigned to the ordus [palaces] of the members of the house of Juchi as well as
to those of the major commanders of the Mongol armies in South Russia. .
6. According to this document, what are two ways the Mongol conquest changed Russia?
. . . The Mongol impact, assert the Eurasian historians, proved highly beneficial to the Russians. “The
Tatars [Mongols] defended Russia from Europe,” sparing it from conquest by the West. After the
conquest Mongols and the people of Rus [Russia] coexisted in harmony and peace. From their
conquerors the Rus adopted typical Turanian [Asian] character traits: steadiness, conviction, strength,
and religiosity, all of which promoted the development of the Muscovite state. The Mongols assured to
Rus secure commercial and cultural relations with the Orient; they enhanced the position of the
Orthodox church. In the mid-13th century Alexander Nevskii, prince of Novgorod, faced with a fateful
choice, wisely chose the East over the West: “Alexander saw in the Mongols a friendly force in a
cultural sense that could assist him to preserve and consolidate Russian cultural identity from the Latin
West.” . . .
Source: MacKenzie and Curran, A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond, Wadsworth/Thomson
Learning
7. Based on this document, state two changes that occurred in Russia as a result of Mongol rule.
. . . By the time of his death in 1227, Genghis Khan controlled most of northern China, but the swampy
lands to the south stopped his cavalry from further advances. His sons expanded Mongol control farther
by conquering lands to the east and west. They divided the empire into four large khanates, in Persia,
Central Asia, Russia, and East Asia. . . .
Kublai Khan was a vigorous and capable ruler. He carried on large warlike hunts to show that he kept
Mongol tradition, but he also showed some appreciation for Chinese culture. He acted to restore some of
the devastation in North China. He began a vast renovation of the Grand Canal, which was so important
to the wealth and unity of the country. He directed the building of water-control projects, such as dams
and dikes, along the Yellow River. . . .
During the Mongol rule, trade revived with Central Asia and the Middle East. Both of these areas were
ruled by relatives of the khan. The vast lands controlled by the Mongols experienced general peace,
called the Pax Mongolica. It was said that “a maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head could wander
safely throughout the realm.” Camel caravans once more carried Chinese products such as porcelain, tea,
medicines, silk, and playing cards to the Middle East and into Europe. . . .
Source: Dorothy Hoobler et al., China, Globe Book
8. Based on this document, identify at least two ways China was changed by Mongol rule.
Essential Question: The Mongol Empire is the largest contiguous land empire to ever exist in the world.
Using evidence from the documents, explain why it should be perceived as one of the greatest or one of the
worst empires.
9. Answer the essential question in the space below and on the back of this page. Consider all of the
information within these documents, and use evidence from the text to support your claim.