Mongols
“The Mongols made no technological
breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few
books or dramas”
Why historically significant?
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 was
the chosen leader
• Need for water leads
to conquest - Central
Asia lacked rain for
agriculture
• Greatest Opportunity
was trade – horses!
What were the key factors that allowed
fewer than 125,000 nomadic warriors to
build the largest empire in world history?
• Military Power
• Adapting to conquered lands
cultures/talents
• Timing: conquering lands one by one
(think of puzzle pieces being put together)
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
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)
Mongol War Equipment
• The warrior carried a
protective shield made of light
leather armor
– which was impregnated with a
lacquer-like substance in order to
make it more impervious to
penetration by arrows, swords
and knives, and also to protect it
against humid weather
• The Mongol warrior used to
wear Chinese silk underwear,
if it could be obtained,
because it was a very tough
substance
– If arrows are shot from a long
distance, it would not penetrate
the silk
– It would also prevent poison from
entering the bloodstream
•
•
•
During winter they wore several
layers of wool as well as heavy
leather boots with felt socks on
their feet.
The legs were often protected by
overlapping iron plates resembling
fish scales, which were sewn into
the boots.
Each warrior carried a battle axe, a
curved sword known as scimitar; a
lance, and two versions of their
most famous weapon: the Mongol
re-curved bow.
– One of the bows was light and
could be fired rapidly from
horseback, the other one was
heavier and designed for longrange use from a ground
position
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 Mongolsusually
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
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).
 General benevolence 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.
Overland Trade and Plague
– 1. Mongol conquests opened overland trade
routes and brought commercial integration of
Eurasia.
– 2. Disease including the bubonic plague
spread among the world.
“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
War with Persia 1218-1222
 War started after Persians put Mongol
military leaders to death.
 War of annihilation on both sides.
 Following conquest of Persia, Mongol
troop circled Caspian.
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)
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)
Another description:
The Mongols were “terrible to look at and
indescribable, with large heads like
buffaloes’, narrow eyes like a fledgling’s, a
snub nose like a cat’s, projecting snouts
like a dog’s, narrow loins like an ant’s,
short legs like a hog’s, and by nature with
no beards at all…”
An Armenian observer
More Effects on Europe
• Disappointed with loot from European
invasions, Mongols allowed Italian
merchants in Crimea to take many of
their European prisoners to sell as
slaves (esp. to Egypt) in exchange for
large amounts of trade goods.
• This began a long & profitable
relationship between Mongols &
merchants of Venice & Genoa who
set up trading posts in Black Sea:
Italians supplied Mongols with
manufactured goods in return for the
right to sell the Slavs as slaves in the
Mediterranean market …slaves who
would ultimately defeat the Mongols
as the Mamluks in Egypt.
• Silk routes opened … & then spread
PLAGUE to Europe.
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)
• Military Strategy &
Innovation – Cavalry,
Horse Archers, surprise
attacks, sieges - Genghis
first needed to disband
tribal loyalties
• Religious Tolerance
(converted to all faiths in
region except Hinduism)
• Common Legal Code
• Utilized skills of
conquered peoples –
artisans, soldiers
THE GOOD (accomplishments &
contributions)
 Discipline, obedience to own laws
 Sense of honor and loyalty, respect for
these qualities in others, even opponents
 High status of women
• These qualities attested to even by
European observers who generally
detested the Mongols
THE GOOD, cont…
• Golden Horde was the
only group to successfully
conquer Russia
• Created largest
continental empire in
history
• 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, cont…
• THE PLAGUE!!!
• Over-extension – loss of control in Persia
• Struggle between nomadic lifestyle and need
to settle (centralized government)
THE UGLY – (What!?! Those
Mongols were CRAZY!!)
• Surrender or Die
• 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
• All exemplified by the
Ilkhanate’s conquering of
Middle East (Persia)
THE UGLY, cont…
• Lots of Babies - as many as
.5% of the Earth’s current
male population can trace
genetic lineage back to
Genghis (500 wives)
• Plague victim catapults
• Strange diet, hairstyles and
odor
• Cannibalism
Fall of the Mongols
• The large amounts of money spent on public
works projects greatly weakened the
economy of the Mongol Empire. A failed
conquest of Japan also weakened the military
presence of the Mongols in China. This left
the empire in a state that was ripe for
rebellion. Following the death of Kublai Khan,
power struggles emerged throughout the
Mongol Empire regarding who would rule.
Because of the empire's large size,
centralized leadership was hard to maintain.
Fall of the Mongol Empire
• In China, a series of floods and increases
in taxes in the early 1300s further stressed
the Chinese, and rebellions broke out
against the Yuan Dynasty. In 1368, Zhu
Yuanzhang led Chinese forces against
the Yuan Dynasty and overthrew the
Mongol emperor. The Mongols fled to
Mongolia and foreign rule of China came
to an end.
Question
How did the Mongol conquests
bring an end to the civilizations in
Eastern Europe, Western
Europe, and Islam?
Answer
•Russia – end of Kievan dominance
 power shifts to Moscow
•Byzantium – Ottoman dominance
and fall of Constantinople (1453).
•Western Europe – limited direct
impact but Black Death has later
effect. Trade increases with East.
The Impact of the Mongols
POLITICAL
• Mongol conquest left Russia more divided
culturally & less developed than Western
European nations
• Descendants of Genghis Khan & Timur
established the Mughal Empire in India
• Introduced new military techniques &
organization to Turks & Europeans – such as
small organized units, the use of cavalry &
the effective use of gunpowder
• Mongol defeat of the Seljuk Turks in 1243 CE
allowed for the later rise of the Ottoman
Turks in the Middle East
The Impact of the Mongols
ECONOMIC
• Global trade expanded dramatically under Mongol
control – Italians were the primary beneficiaries in
Europe; security, use of paper currency, control &
management of Silk Road all increased trade in the
Eastern Hemisphere
• Europeans were exposed to a much greater number
of Chinese goods on a large scale – gunpowder &
printing being among the most influential
• The global trade network became more intertwined
• Mongol decline made land travel more dangerous &
a shift to seafaring occurred in Europe & China after
1400 CE
• Mongol conquest likely spread the Black Plague to
the Europe which would have devastating economic
effects
The Impact of the Mongols
SOCIAL
• Mongols practiced religious toleration in the Middle
East & Europe and often converted to local religions
– allowed Islam & Orthodox Christianity to continue
to thrive
• Russia became isolated from European trends like
the Renaissance – continued the split between
Eastern & Western Europe started w/ the Byzantine
Empire
• The Black Plague devastated Europe in the 14th C
• Mongol expansion & control of the Silk Road allowed
for cultural diffusion & exploration on an
unprecedented scale – including the journey of
Marco Polo
Global Connections – The Mongol Linkages
• Mongols brought the Muslim and European worlds
new military knowledge, especially the use of
gunpowder
• Trade and cultural contact between different
civilizations throughout Eurasia became much easier
• Trading empires established in their dominions by
Venetians and Genoese provided experiences for later
European expansion
• An unintended consequence was the transmitting of
the fleas carrying the bubonic plague (black death) from
China to central Asia to the Middle East to Europe