Hist. 121 Fall 2014
Prof Zarinebaf
Cultural Transference via Mongol Means In the early 13th century many settled civilizations from Europe to Asia were shaken and sundered by a group of people who were previously unheard of. A group of people not unlike the nomad tribes of the Middle East led by the Prophet Muhammad, a group of people not unlike the Saxons and later Vikings of continental Europe who brought about the destruction of the Roman Empire many years prior. For like these other driven peoples in very different locales, the Mongols of the steppe plains north of China and south of the land that would become Russia were also nomadic in origin and highly driven to not only unite their own people, but to conquer their …show more content…
The formula of preservation was followed many times throughout the conquests of Genghis Khan in the Middle East and replicated further still by his successors later on. In regards to the successors Ogedei (R.1229-1241) who succeeded Genghis after his death in 1227 C.E. continued where his father left off in both expansion of empire and proliferation of culture. During his reign he made immense inroads for the Mongol Empire, both defeating completely the Western Xia and the Northern Jin dynasty of China. After which using the Silk road captured in his father’s time launched massive invasion of both Europe via the land of the Rus people, the area that would be known as Iraq in the Middle …show more content…
the Mongols went into a series of successors that were neither good nor long lasting. The next great Khan was Khublai (R. 1260-1294 C.E.) Who while acknowledged as great Khan which meant he controlled Mongolia and China. By this point however there were other Khanates throughout the empire which ruled as mini kingdoms under the umbrella of Khublai Khan which is to say the empire was beginning to fragment into spheres of influence to use a western term. Despite Khublai formerly establishing the Yuan dynasty of China By the time of his death in 1294 C.E. infighting was occurring regularly between the other Khans, and in a few subsequent years the Chinese would reassert themselves under the banner of the Ming effectively ending Mongol domination in mainland China. The other Khanates would fare with differing results, the Golden Horde of Russia would last until the 1500’s in some form, the Il-khanate territories would revert to Persian and Turkic rule though with heavily influenced Mongolia systems. Islam would become the official religion of the empire for the most part during this time though like the Moslems, all religions were tolerated by the Mongols as