THE MONGOLS: WE ARE
THE EXCEPTION?
In the period from 1180-1220, Mongolia experienced a drop in the mean annual
temperature, which meant that the growing season for grass was cut short. Less grass
meant a real danger to the Mongols' animals.
Mongolia's neighbors in north and northwest China attempted to reduce the amount of
trade with the Mongols. Since the Mongols depended on trade for goods that they
desperately needed — such as grain, craft, and manufactured articles — cessation of
trade, or at least the diminution of trade, could have been catastrophic for them…
Source: Morris Rosabi
(http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/conquests/conquests.htm) (adapted)
...Organization was the key to the success of the great Mongol armies. The cavalry, first
devised by Genghis Khan, consisted of 10 squadrons…Daily drills taught the warriors to
move as units and respond quickly. In combat, bowmen formed a front line to unleash a
hail of arrows at the enemy. The archers would then fall to the rear to allow well-armed
units to charge and overrun the enemy.
As Kublai Khan turned his sights on the heavily fortified Chinese empire, he drew on
another of Genghis’ strategies: siege warfare using catapults. The Mongols applied
these techniques with greater force and in greater numbers than ever before in history.
This approach would prove useful in overpowering the great Chinese cities in the years
ahead....
Source: Duane Damon, “From Genghis to Kublai,” Calliope, A Cobblestone Publication
…Genghis Khan had discovered that Chinese engineers knew how to build siege
machines that could batter city walls with massive stones from far away. The Chinese
had already developed a number of those devices: the catapult hurled stones, flaming
liquids, and other harmful substances at or across city walls; and the trebuchet, a
catapult powered by the drop of a heavy counterweight, threw objects even faster than
the torsion catapult. The ballista was a mechanical device that shot large arrows that
could damage buildings and structures and kill any person or animal in its path.
Although quite old in the military history of siege warfare, the weapons were new to the
Mongols, but they soon became a permanent part of the arsenal of Genghis Khan, who
appreciated the efficiency and ingenuity behind them…Genghis Khan made engineering
units a permanent part of the Mongol army, and with each new battle and each
conquest, his war machinery grew in complexity and efficiency.
Source: Jack Wetherford. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Three
Rivers Press, 2004
In 1206, the great Mongol warrior Temujin was named the Genghis Khan – Universal
ruler. His armies had defeated their foes in Mongolia, North China, Central Asia, Persia,
and Russia. Even the Great Wall of China did not keep out the Mongol cavalry. By the
time Genghis Khan died in 1227, the Mongol Empire extended from east China to the
Caspian Sea. His successors invaded Korea, Russia, Hungary, and Poland.
Genghis’ grandson, Kublai Khan, conquered South China (the Song Dynasty) in 1279.
Kublai began the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled all of China until 1368. At first, Kublai did
not trust the Chinese. But he later grew fond of Chinese culture and allowed Confucian
ceremonies. In fact, non-Mongol religious groups were spared from paying taxes.
Kublai understood that the Mongols needed help from the Chinese people to govern the
vast country. Therefore, he appointed many Chinese to all but the upper-level
government offices and organized his state [his government] along Chinese lines.
However, Kublai refused to permit civil service examinations…
…Kublai was eager to learn and sought the help of experts from all over the world. He
surrounded himself with Confucian scholars, Muslim financial experts, and Christian
advisers…
Source: Henry Abraham and Irwin Pfeffer. Enjoying Global History. Amsco School
Publications (2006)
In 1271 two Venetian [from the Italian city of Venice] merchants, Maffeo and Niccolo
Polo, together with [Niccolo’s] son Marco, age 17, started a journey eastward across
Asia to China. Marco was 21 when the Polo family finally reached Kublai Khan’s court…
…Marco Polo became one of the Khan’s most trusted advisors. He was sent to many
parts of the empire to study problems and report back to Kublai…As a spokesperson for
the khan, he traveled on missions to many countries: India, Japan, Sumatra, Myanmar,
Thailand, and beyond.
Kublai Khan found all three Polos so interesting and useful that he kept them in his
service for 17 years. Finally, in 1292 they were permitted to leave China…
…The Polos returned to Venice after an absence of 24 years…Marco Polo later wrote a
book about his journey and adventures in China and east Asia. The book told about the
lands and cultures of the east. Europeans were amazed. It became one of the most
celebrated and widely read books of the age.
Source: Henry Abraham and Irwin Pfeffer. Enjoying Global History. Amsco School
Publications (2006)
…All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they
were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials, whose duty it is,
have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief
officer deputed by the Kaan [Kublai Khan] smears the Seal entrusted to him with
vermilion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the Seal remains printed
upon it in red; the Money is then authentic.
Any one forging it [making their own copies] would be punished with death…
And nobody, however important he may think himself, dares to refuse them on
pain of death. And indeed everybody takes them readily, for wheresoever a person may
go throughout the Great Kaan's dominions he shall find these pieces of paper current,
and shall be able to transact all sales and purchases of goods by means of them just as
well as if they were coins of pure gold…Furthermore all merchants arriving from India or
other countries, and bringing with them gold or silver or gems and pearls, are prohibited
from selling to any one but the Emperor…in this way, nearly all the valuables in the
country come into the Kaan's possession…
Source: Marco Polo, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, The Venetian, Concerning The Kingdoms And Marvels Of The
East. Translated And Edited, With Notes, By Colonel Sir Henry Yule, R.E., C.B , K.C.S.I, Corr. Inst. France, 1903
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 (adapted)
The destruction of the Mongol state in China coincided with the spread of bubonic
plague, known in the west as the black death, throughout Eurasia from 1320 to the end
of the 1300s. It seems likely that the Mongols, without realizing it, supported the spread
of the disease. By pacifying vast regions and protecting overland travel throughout their
empire, the Mongols made it possible for humans and their animals to transport
microorganisms (like the bubonic plague) across long distances much more efficiently
than ever before. Wherever it traveled, the bubonic plague attacked its human victims in
sudden, dramatic, and lethal fashion. In China, the Middle East, and Europe, mortality
rates increased. Contemporaries [people from that time period] reported that half, two-
thirds, three-fourths, and in isolated cases even larger proportions of the population
died from the plague…
…the plague also interrupted the cross-cultural encounters that had flourished
during the Mongol Era. Long-distance trade probably did not disappear completely, but
its volume [amount] certainly declined during the late fourteenth century…
Source: Jerry H. Bentley. Old World Encounters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
(adapted)
