Mongol Conquest

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Mongol Conquest
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Nomads of the Asian Steppe

• Steppe-dry grassland
• Very little rain fell on the steppe
• Temperature changes are extreme
• -57 F in the winter to 96 F in the summer
• Nomadic people were called pastoralists
• Lived in kinship clans
• Descendants of common ancestors

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Mongol Conquests
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Rise of the Mongols

• 1200 a Mongol khan or clan leader named Temujin
  sought to unify the clans
• Defeated rivals one by one until 1206
• 1206, he accepted the title Genghis
  Khan
• universal ruler of the Mongol clans

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Rise Continued

• Over the next 21 years Genghis led the Mongols to
  conquer much of Asia
• First conquered China
• Then turned on the Islamic empire due to a murder
  of a Mongol trader
• By 1221 Central Asia was under his control

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Genghis the Conqueror

• Brilliant organizer
• 10,000 men armies, 1,000 man brigades, 100 man
  companies, and 10 man platoons
• Gifted strategist
• New weapons
• Cruelty as a weapon

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Mongol Empire

• Genghis Khan died in 1227 from an illness
• Following Genghis death, his son Ogadai became
  the Great Khan
• Ogadai died in 1241 and the conquest was halted
  to elect his successor

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Division of the Empire

• 1260, the Mongol Empire was divided into four
  large Khanates, each ruled by a descendant of
  Genghis
• Khanate of the Great Khan
• Khanate of Chagatai
• Ilkhanate
• Khanate of the Golden Horde

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Khanates
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Mongols as Rulers

• Areas invaded by the Mongols sometimes never
  recovered
• Often destroyed irrigation systems leaving the
  land barren
• Adoption of cultural practices drove the Khanates
  apart

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Mongol Peace

• Imposed law and stability across Eurasia
• Period between 1200s and 1300s was known as the
  Mongol Peace
• Allowed trade to prosper
• Bubonic plague may have been spread by the Mongols