Mongol+Political

Mongols! The Last GreatThe Last Great Nomadic Challenges: From Chinggis Khan to Timur : Political By: Alida Mitau o Successors lacked Kubilai’s capacity for leadership and cared little for administrative tasks. o Peasant unrest o Banditry, piracy, famine, secret-religious sects, peasant resistance, chaos = signs of total decline. o Peace not restored until Ming Dynasty.
 * Mongol Background:**
 * Mongols epitomized nomadic society and culture.
 * The Basic unit of Mongol society was the tribe.
 * o The tribe was divided into kin-related clans whose members camped and herded together on a regular basis.
 * o Clans and tribes could unite and be combined into great confederations when threatened by external enemies or preparing for raids or invasions.
 * o Leaders were elected by the free men of the group (men dominated leadership positions).
 * o Courage in battle, bravery in the hunt, and the ability to forge alliances and attract dependents were all important leadership skills.
 * Chinggis Khan’s Early Life:**
 * Real name: Temujin, born in 1170s
 * Temujin’s father was a leader with a decent following, and he had arranged for Temujin to marry the daughter of a stronger Mongol chief.
 * o Temujin’s father was poisoned and the marriage never took place.
 * With the death of his father, Temujin was thrown into a leadership position, but most of his father’s following refused to follow him as he was only a boy.
 * o In the following months, Temujin’s camp was attacked by a rival clan and he was taken prisoner. He later escaped and rejoined what was left of his following.
 * o Temujin then joined the camp of a more powerful Mongol chieftain who owed it to Temujin’s father.
 * § With this new support, Temujin was able to avenge the insults of the clan that had enslaved him and another that had raided his camp.
 * Temujin’s new successes lead to his growing reputation as a warrior and military commander.
 * o In 1206 at the kuriltai (meeting of all the Mongol chieftains), Temujin was elected the khagan (supreme ruler), of the mongol tribes, and renamed Chinggis Khan.
 * Chinggis Khan’s Rule:**
 * Mongol men were natural warriors. They were physically tough, mobile, and accustomed to killing and death.
 * Chinggis Khan and his subordinate commanders brought organization, discipline, and unity of command to a people whose very lifestyle bred mobility, physical courage, and a love of combat.
 * The Mongol armies were entirely cavalry which meant that they moved extremely rapidly, and their advances alone could be demoralizing to enemy forces.
 * The old quarrels between clans and tribes were overridden by a loyalty to the Khagan.
 * o Energies once devoted to infighting were directed toward conquest and the exaction of tribute.
 * Mongol forces were divided into armies made up of tumens (basic fighting units). Tumens were further divided into warriors, that were also divided into heavy cavalry and light cavalry.
 * Chinggis Khan’s first campaigns were against the Tangut kingdom in NW china. Next the Mongol armies attacked the Jin empire.
 * o Mongols had little regard for the towns they invaded. When they met resistance, the Mongols adopted a policy of terrifying retribution. Towns that surrendered without a fight were usually spared this fate.
 * After establishing a hold in N China, the Mongols moved into the Islamic world, against the Kara Khitai Empire, and then the Khwarzarzm Empire.
 * o Used their favorite battle tactic: Cavalry feign defeat and retreat, then attacked them devastatingly.
 * The Death of Chinggis Khan and the Division of the Empire:**
 * Chinggis Khan was married to Borta, and they had 3 sons as well as Jochi who Borta had by another man when she was captured.
 * o Their 3 sons (in order of birth) were Chaghatai, Ogeidi, and Tolui.
 * Chinggis Khan was injured in a skirmish and later fell grievously ill and died in 1227 during a renewed campaign against China.
 * o The Mongols carried his body back to Mongolia for burial (custom for all Mongols to go back home when the khagan dies).
 * The vast empire of Chinggis Khan was now divided into his three remaining sons and Batu (a grandson, son of Jochi).
 * o Jochi and his line went West, Chaghatai went to India, Ogedei became khan after Chinggis Khan, and Tolui went to the Middle East.
 * Ogedei was elected great khan at the kuriltai that convened at Karakorum (the Mongol capital).
 * o He was not as capable a military leader as his relatives but he was a crafty diplomat and deft manipulator.
 * Mongols in the West:**
 * Conquering the regions of Russia and Europe was up to the armies of the Golden Horde.
 * o The territories made up one of the four great khanates into which the Mongol Empire was divided.
 * Under Batu, Mongol armies began an invasion of Russia.
 * o At invasion, the Russian princes refused to cooperate and prepared to fight back.
 * o Batu led a Mongol force into the Russian heartlands, and carried out the only successful winter invasions in Russian history.
 * o One after another, Mongol armies defeated the forces of nomadic groups and Russian princes, cities were destroyed, and inhabitants were slaughtered or led into slavery.
 * o A second campaign began in 1240, and the city of Kiev fell, the city of Novgorod was miraculously spared.
 * The crushing victories of Batu’s armies initiated nearly 2 and a half centuries of Mongol dominance in Russia.
 * o Some cities benefited from Mongol rule, such as Moscow.
 * § The city was rebuilt, it was the tribute collector for the Mongol khagans.
 * o As Moscow grew in strength, the power of the Golden Horde declined.
 * § Princes soon became powerful, defending Russia and aligning with others, they raised an army that defeated the forces of the Golden Horde.
 * Mongols in Russia led to changes in Russian military organization and tactics and in the political style of Russian rulers. It also isolated Russia from lands farther West.
 * Mongols then move onto Europe, invading Hungary and from the Adriatic Sea to Poland and Germany, hoping to conquest and pillage all of W. Europe.
 * Then, the Mongol forces retreated, as they had to return home due to Ogedei’s death.
 * Mongols in the Islamic World:**
 * The main project of Hulegu (grandson of Chinggis Khan) was the conquest of the Muslim empires of Mesopotamia and North Africa.
 * One of the key assaults on the Muslim heartlands was the capture and destruction of Baghdad and the murder of the Abbasid caliph, ending the dynasty that had ruled the Ilsamic world since the mid-8th century,
 * Also had a major victory over the Seljuk Turks.
 * Hulegu created and was the ruler of the Iklhan portions of the Mongol Empire.
 * Mongols devastated the focal points of Islamic civilization.
 * Mongols were finally defeated in 1260 by armies of the Mamluk, the slave dynasty of Egypt.
 * Mongols in China:**
 * In the campaigns against the Song dynasty, the Mongol forces were directed By Kubilai Khan.
 * o Grandson of Chinggis Khan, received the title of great Khan in 1260. His wife’s name was Chabi.
 * o Changed the name of his mongol regime to the Yuan dynasty. He ruled much of China and set about the task of establishing a more permanent control.
 * o Kubilai rearranged the social order in China, upping the status of merchants and artisans and alienating Confucians and the scholar-gentry. He discontinued the civil service exams.
 * o Chabi had an important influence and held much power in the Yuan dynasty.
 * By the end of Kubilai’s reign, the dynasty was weakening.
 * o Failures of expeditions against Japan, Vietnam, Java, tarnished Mongol "invincibility"
 * Kubilai's late years led to general softening of Mongol rulers