AP World HistoryPOD #8 – The

Middle KingdomThe Golden Horde

Class Discussion Notes

Bulliet et. al –

“The Rise of the Mongols, 1200-1260”, pp. 338-344

Mongol Leadership The Mongols moved regularly along with their flocks and herds

(families also moved along with warriors during times of war) required a strong, effective leadership organizational structure

A powerful council containing representatives from each family ratified the decisions of the khan (leader)

Those who disagreed with the decisions were free to strike off on their own

Slaves who were captured in war or sought to become a slave as a way to avoid starvation were used to conduct the menial tasks in camp

Powerful families were able to live almost entirely off tribute and were able to spend less time and resources on herding and more on warfare designed to gain even more tribute

Nomadism A way of life, forced by a scarcity of

resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water

Mongol Women Leading families combined resources and formed alliances

through arranged marriages Young children were used as diplomatic pawns Women from prestigious families could wield power in

negotiation and management, though they ran the risk of assassination or execution just like men

Wives and mothers of Mongol rulers traditionally managed state affairs during the interregnum between a ruler’s death and the selection of a successor and as such were dutifully obeyed

Women could not become khan, but often worked to secure the selection of a son or male relative to the position

The Khan “Families often included believers in two or more

religions, most commonly Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam. Virtually all Mongols observed the practices of traditional shamanism, rituals in which special individuals visited and influenced the supernatural world. Whatever their faith, the Mongols believed in world rulership by a khan who, with the aid of his shamans, could speak to and for and ultimate god, represented as Sky or Heaven. This universal ruler transcended particular cultures and dominated them all.” (Bulliet, pp. 338)

Mongol Conquest Genghis Khan – captured the Tanggut rulers of northwest

China, the Jin capital of Yanjing (Bejing), and Khwarezm east of the Caspian Sea and most of Iran

Ogedei (son of Genghis) – completed destruction of Tanggut and Jin and threatened the Southern Song

Batu (grandson of Genghis) – attacked Russia taking control of the Volga River towns as well as Kievan Russia, Moscow, Poland and Hungary (only his death which led to a 5 year suspension of the military campaign saved Europe)

Guyuk (grandson of Genghis) – sacked Baghadad and executed the last Abbasid caliph

Mongol Family Crisis “Genghis Khan’s objective had probably been collecting

tribute, but the success of the Mongol conquests created a new situation. Ogodei unquestionably sought to rule a united empire based at his capital, Karakorum, and until his death he controlled the subordinate Mongol domains: the Golden Horde in Russian and the Jagadai domains in Central Asia. After Ogodei’s death, however, family unity began to unravel; when Khubilai declared himself Great Khan in 1265, the descendants of Genghis’s son Jagadai and other branches of the family refused to accept him. As Karakorum was destroyed in the ensuing fighting. Khubilai transferred his court to the old Jin capital now renamed Beijing. In 1271 he declared himself founder of the Yuan Empire.” (Bulliet, pp. 339-340)

Mongol Warfare Seldom outnumbered their enemies Exceptional riders (infants learned to ride on goats) Superior bows using laminated wood, leather, and bone and

could shoot 1/3 farther (carried 5 dozen arrows in battle) Battle plans called for a volley of arrows aimed at enemy

marksmen followed by charging the enemy’s infantry with sword, lance, javelin and mace

Flaming arrows and projectiles were fired from catapults built on the Chinese model

Cities that resisted faced siege and annihilation – surrender was the only option

Mongol Trade & Disease “Commercial integration under Mongol rule affected all parts of the

empire. Like earlier nomad elites, Mongol nobles had the exclusive right to wear silk, almost all of which came from China. Trade brought new styles and huge quantities of silk westward to feed the luxury trade in the Middle East and Europe. Artistic motifs from Japan and Tibet reached as far as England and Morocco. Porcelain, another eastern luxury, became important in trade and strongly influenced later tastes in the Islamic world.” (Bulliet, p. 344)

Exchange also spread disease – the bubonic plague had festered since the early Tang period and the rats and fleas began to migrate and travel along these Mongol trade routes

Typhus, influenza and smallpox combined with bubonic plague to create the “great pandemic” of 1347-1352 bringing devastation to much of Asia and Europe.