Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Mongol Eurasia and its Aftermath,

1200-1500

Chapter 12

Mongol Eurasia and its Aftermath,

1200-1500

I. The Rise of the Mongols, 1200-1260

The creation of the vast Mongol Empire facilitated communication across Eurasia and led to both the spread of deadly plagues and the transfer of technical and scientific knowledge. After the death of Chinggis in 1227, the empire was divided into four khanates, ruled by different lines of his successors. In the 1270s, the Mongols conquered southern China, but most of their subsequent campaigns did not lead to further territorial gains.

The Mongol Empire

A. Nomadism in C. & Inner Asia

1. Nomadic groups depended on scarce H2O & pasture resources; in times of scarcity, conflicts occurred, resulting in the extermination of smaller groups and in the formation of alliances & out-migration.

1. Around 1000, Mongol lands experienced unusually dry weather w/ its attendant effects on the availability of resources & pressures on the nomadic Mongol tribes.

2. Mongols were a strongly hierarchical organization headed by a single leader or khankhan.

1. But the khans had to ask that their decisions be ratified (accepted0 by a council of the leaders of powerful families.

Powerful Mongol groups demanded & received tributetribute goods & in slaves from those less powerful.

A. Nomadism in C. & Inner Asia

3. The various Mongol groups formed complex federations that were often tied together by marriage alliances.

• WomenWomen from prestigious families often played an important role in negotiating these alliances.

4. The seasonal movements of the Mongol tribes brought them into contact with:

• Manicheanism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam.Manicheanism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam.

Mongol khans were thought to represent the Sky God, who transcended all cultures and religions; khans were thus conceived of as universal rulersuniversal rulers who both transcended and used the various religions of their subjects.

5. Nomads strove for economic self-sufficiency, but they always relied on trade w/ settled peoples for certain goods, including iron, wood, cotton, grain, & silk.

1. When normal trade relations were interrupted, nomads tended to make war on settled agricultures.

B. The Mongol Conquests, 1215-1283

1. BTW 1206 & 1234, under the leadership of Genghis KhanGenghis Khan & his successors, the Mongols conquered all of N. China & were threatening the S. Song.

1. During this period & onward to about 1265 the Mongol realms were united as the khans of the Golden HordeGolden Horde, the Jagadai domains of C. Asia, & the Il-khans all recognized the authority of the Great Great KhanKhan in Mongolia.

2. When KhubilaiKhubilai declared himself Great Khan in 1265 the other Mongol khans refused to accept him; the Jagadai Khanate harbored a particular animosity toward Khubilai.


3. Khubilai founded the Yuan Empire w/ its capital @ Beijing in 1271;

1. 1279 he conquered the Southern Song.

2. After 1279, the Yuan attempted to extend its control to SE Asia.

3. Annam & Champa were forced to pay tribute to the Yuan, but an expedition to Java ended in failure.

Rashid-al-Din (ca. 1247-1318), a Jew from Persia, converted to Islam at the age of 30 and entered the service of the Mongol khan of Persia as a physician. He rose to government service and traveled widely. He later wrote a history of the world that was more comprehensive than any that had been previously written. This illustration, which accompanied one of his manuscripts, depicts the Mongol army attacking a walled city.

Mongol army attacking walled city


4. Historians have pointed to a # of factors that may have helped the Mongols’ ability to conquer such vast territories. These include:

~superior horsemanship,~better bows~technique of following a volley of arrows w/ a

deadly cavalry charge.Other reasons for success:

~ability to learn new military techniques, ~adopt new military technology,~& incorporate non-Mongol soldiers into their

armies;~their reputation for slaughtering all those who

would not surrender; & their ability to take advantage of rivalries among their enemies

C. Overland Trade & the Plague, 1215-1283

1. The Mongol conquests opened overland trade routes & brought about an unprecedented commercial integration of Eurasia.

1. The growth of long-distance trade under the Mongols led to significant transfer of military & scientific knowledge btw Europe, ME, china, Iran, and Japan.

2. Diseases including the bubonic plaguebubonic plague also spread over the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.

1. The plague that had lingered in Unnan (now SW China) was transferred to C. & N. China, to C. Asia, to KaffaKaffa, and from there to the Mediterranean world.


3. Some historians have had some startling assertions: That the Mongol army hurled plague-infected cadavers into the besieged Crimean city of Caffa (Kaffa), thereby transmitting the disease to the inhabitants; and that fleeing survivors of the siege spread plague from Caffa to the Mediterranean Basin.

NoteNote: If this is correct, Caffa should be recognized as the site of the most spectacular incident of biological warfare ever, with the Black Death as its disastrous consequence. Although this may be true I believe that the event was unimportant in the spread of the plague pandemic.

The CulpritsThe Culprits

The The SymptomsSymptoms

Bulbous

Septicemia Form:

almost 100% mortality rate.

The Disease The Disease CycleCycle

Flea drinks rat blood that carries the

bacteria.

Flea drinks rat blood that carries the

bacteria.

Flea’s gut cloggedwith bacteria.

Flea’s gut cloggedwith bacteria.

Bacteriamultiply inflea’s gut.

Bacteriamultiply inflea’s gut.

Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.

Flea bites human and regurgitates blood into human wound.

Human is infected!Human is infected!


4. There has never been any doubt that plague entered the Med. ~From the Crimea, following est. maritime trade routes.

~Rat infestations in the holds of cargo ships would have been highly susceptible to the rapid spread of plague, & even if most rats died during the voyage, they would have left abundant hungry fleas that would infect humans unpacking the holds.

~Shore rats foraging on board recently arrived ships would also become infected, transmitting plague to city rat populations.


5. Plague appears to have been spread in a stepwise fashion, on may ships rather on a few, taking over a year to reach Europe from the Crimea. ~This conclusion seems fairly firm, as the dates for the arrival of plague in Constantinople & more westerly cities are reasonably certain.


6. Furthermore, a number of other Crimean ports were under Mongol control, making it unlikely that Caffa was the only source of infected ships heading west. ~And the overland caravan route to the M.E. from Serai & Astrakhan insured that plague was also spreading south, whence it would have entered Europe in any case. The siege of Caffa & its gruesome finale thus are unlikely to have been seriously implicated in the transmission of plague from the Black Sea to Europe.


Despite its historical unimportance, the siege of Caffa is a powerful reminder of the horrific consequences when disease is successfully used as a weapon. The Japanese us of plague as a weapon in World War II and the huge Soviet stockpiles of Y. pestis prepared for use in an all-out war further remind us that plague remains a very real problem for modern arms control, six and a half centuries later.

The creation of the vast Mongol Empire facilitated communication across Eurasia and led to both the spread of deadly plagues and the transfer of technical and scientific knowledge. After the death of Chinggis in 1227, the empire was divided into four khanates, ruled by different lines of his successors. In the 1270s, the Mongols conquered southern China, but most of their subsequent campaigns did not lead to further territorial gains.

The Mongol Empire, 1294

Western Eurasia in the 1300s

This map of the Mongol domains in the Middle East demonstrates the delicate balance of power that was upset by Ghazan's conversion to Islam in 1295. During the conflict between the ll-khans and the Golden Horde in the 1260s, European leaders hoped to ally themselves with the ll-khans against Muslim defenders in Palestine. These hopes were abandoned after Ghazan's conversion to Islam in 1295, and the powerful alliance between the Mamluks and the Golden

Horde kept the ll-khans from advancing west.

II. Mongols and Islam, 1200-1260

A. Mongol Rivalry1. In the 1260s the Il-khan Mongol Empire controlled

parts of Armenia & all of Azerbaijan, Mesopotamia, & Iran.

1. Relations btw the Buddhist/shamanist Il-khan Mongols & their Muslim subjects were tense because the Mongols and murdered the last Abbasid caliph & because Mongol religious belief & customs were contrary to those of Islam.

2. @ the same time, Russia was under the domination fo the Golden HordeGolden Horde, led by Genghis Khan’s grandson BatuBatu, who had converted to Islam & announced his intention to avenge the last caliph.

1. This led to the first conflict btw Mongol domains.

3. During this conflict European leaders attempted to make an alliance w/ the Il-khan s to drive the Muslims out of Syria, Lebanon, & Palestine, while the Il-khans sought European help in driving the Golden Horde out of the Caucasus.

1. These plans for an alliance never came to fruition because the Il-khan ruler Ghazan became a Muslim in 1295.

B. Islam and the State1. The goal of the Il-khan State was to collect as much

tax revenue as possible, which it did through a tax farming system

2. In the short term, the tax farming system was able to deliver large amounts of grain, cash and silk.

1. In the long term, over-taxation led to increases in the price of grain, a shrinking tax base, and, by 1295, a severe economic crisis.

3. Attempts to end the economic crisis through tax reduction programs coupled w/ the intro. Of paper money failed to avert a depression that lasted until 1349.

1. Thus the Il-khan domains fragmented as Mongol nobles fought each other for resources.

2. And, Mongols from the Golden Horde attacked & dismembered the Il-khan empire.

B. Islam and the State

1. As the Il-khan Empire & the Golden Horde declined in the 14th century, Timur, the last C. Asian conqueror, built the Jagadai Khanate in central & western Eurasia.

1. Timur’s descendants, the Timurids, ruled the M.E. for several generations.

C. Culture & Science in Islamic Eurasia

1. In literature,

III. Regional Responses in Western Eurasia

Documents

Chapter 12