Mongols

• Mongol Source of Power

  Nomadic lifestyle - always on the move, hunting, expert archers/horseback riders

  Meritocracy - position based on performance/service

  Psychological Warfare

  Ambushes, surprise attacks (feigned retreat + golden circle)
• Mongol Origin

  Pastoral- nomadic people that moved seasonally. Engaged in raiding and trading with more settled neighbors.
• Mongol Effect (Trans-Continental Trade)


  Pax Mongolia (period of peace)— goods flow back and forth across Eurasia, offered incentives and security (goods spread efficiently + stable/secure environment)

  Relay/Yam stations - travelers find food, shelter, horses (long distance trade)

  Luxury goods - silver, spices, silk, incense, etc
• Cultural and Tech Diffusion


  Religiously tolerant - free to practice, cultural and tech diffusion pushed by adaptability

  Spare artisans, engineers, scientists, etc. (benefit their empire)

  Enslaved Chinese engineers (Chinese tech, culture, language)

  Enslaved Persian/Arabs (advanced math + astronomy)

  EE and Russians enslaved= high-quality steel, metalworking skills
• Destruction of Islamic Golden Age

  Defeated Muslim states, came upon Abbasid Dynasty

  Built new Islamic capital + House of Wisdom (largest uni)

  Baghdad - forced surrender, massacre, burn islamic knowledge, destroyed all contribution of Abbasid Caliphate = Muslims more conservative and less promoting of arts and knowledge
• Movement of Mongols and merchants

  Helps facilitate the movement of diseases
• Spread of Bubonic Plague

  1. Begins in Northwestern China in the old Chinese capital of Xi'an

  2. Spreads along the Silk Road with merchants and Mongol armies

  3. Hits Arabia and Persia first

  4. Moves outward into the Mediterranean (North Africa, Europe)
• In Europe and the Middle East, the death rate from the Bubonic Plague is upwards of 50%
• In large urban areas with cramped conditions, the death rate is upwards of 80%
• Entire cities and populations are exterminated by the Bubonic Plague
• Mongols


  Not the sole cause of the Bubonic Plague but responsible for taking a possible local/regional problem and creating a pandemic
• Gunpowder


  Arguably the most important invention to move from the East to the West
• Gunpowder discovery and development

  1. Discovered in China in the Sung Dynasty

  2. Never militarized, used for fireworks and celebrations

  3. Sung Dynasty began creating very rudimentary things (Nest of Bees, hand cannon, etc.)

  4. Remained isolated in China until the 11th/12th century

  5. Mongol conquest of China, obtained knowledge of gunpowder, spread due to Mongol movement through conquest and trade routes

  6. Once in Islamic/European world, heavily refined, able to make things like rockets in the Islamic world for the first time

  7. Europeans focus more on handheld weapons, able to put together cannons

  8. Gunpowder became a massive technical edge that Europeans were able to advance much more rapidly than the rest of the world
• Europe was politically fragmented at the time because of the physical limitations of the land
• Cannons built smaller and able to be transported onto sailing vessels


  Gave Europeans an advantage when it came to naval warfare
• Printing

  • Originated in China around 800 CE, used to print money, religious/scholarly texts, etc.
  • Diffused rapidly along the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean network
  • Reached India and the Islamic world around the 9th/10th century
  • When it made its way into the Mediterranean/European world it had massive effects
• The European world was emerging from a period of warfare, political fragmentation, religious superstitions, etc.
• In around 1100-1200 CE, Europe began to emerge from the "Dark ages" into the "High Middle Ages"
• High Middle Ages in Europe


  • Urban centers and cities began to grow
  • Technical knowledge began to diffuse
  • Religious power still held tightly by the RCC
  • People began to build infrastructure, universities, libraries, etc.
• Arrival of printing technology in and around the time of the cultural Renaissance in Europe


  New technical innovations, ideas, scientific methods, etc. were diffused by printing technology
• Books became more widespread and cheaper, and bigger parts of the population became more literate, the printing press was instrumental in the Protestant Reformation
• Gutenberg took the printing press and began using metal block type which can produce pages at a much larger rate
• Europe had fallen into a dark age, with infrastructure breakdown, smaller cities and populations, religious superstition, warfare between smaller states, which did not allow for the development of literature, scientific knowledge, mathematical knowledge, etc.
• Crusades and their impact

  1. Roman Catholics set out to reclaim the holy land from Islam and the Caliphate and wipe out resistance to Catholicism in Europe

  2. Caused cross-cultural interaction between Western European Christians and Muslims in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East

  3. Introduced Western European Christians to literature, and science, reintroduced to Greek and Roman technology/scientific knowledge and texts which had been buried and lost in Western Europe

  4. Over 120 years of Crusading, Western Europeans made contact with the Islamic world, Central Asia, etc.

  5. Influx of technical, and scientific knowledge, music, literature, art, etc. that had been missing since the fall of the Roman Empire
• Example - Tolerance

  Kublai Khan improved roads, lowered taxes, supported builiding Daoist temples, used Confucian rituals, attracted to buddhism
• Mongols in Persia

  ended Abbasid Caliphate

  mongols became Muslims - widespread conversion

  assimilated into society

  Ilkhanate - protection and financial support for temples/mosques
• Mongols in Russia

  city after city fell - catapults and battering rams (adopted from China/Islam)

  conquered but did NOT occupy

  princes supplied tribute and heavily taxed

  ROC flourished (exempt from taxes)