Nomadic Empires & Mongols

Nomadic peoples impact Eurasia since Roman Empire - Xiongu

threaten - Han - Huns Gupta India - Turks - Tang

Kublai Khan Greets Polos

Large Battle

Khublai Khan & Advisors

Mongol Empire

Gengis Khan’s Empire 1227

Central Asian Steppes - Ancestral Homeland

Nomadic Societies of Central Asia

• Grasses and shrubs can’t support agriculture, but good for grazing. Live in portable yurts and drink kumiss.

Yurts and Kumiss

Nomads often led caravans

Their society generates two class - nobles and commoners• Nobles hereditary - but can lose status if

unsuccessful in battle.

Turkish peoples develop written script & during Abbasid Dynasty turn to Islam

• Saljuq Turks become true rulers of Abbasid (caliphs are figureheads)

• Spread to Anatolia the breadbasket of the Byzantine Empire.

• Decisive defeat of Byzantine at Manzikert 1071.

• Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople in 1453

Manzikert

In N. India the Turkish Delhi Sultanate (Muslim) squares off against Hindu

princes

Mongols

• Temujin - 1206 (Chinggis Khan - universal ruler)

• Capitol Karakorum

• Breaks up tribal affiliations replaces it with talent and loyalty based ones.

• About 1 million population - 10% cavalry

Karakorum

Equestrian, psychological & siege warfare abilities

• Attack Turks in China, Persia, central Asia

• 1220 defeat Southern Song

Crossbow

Illustration of Mongol Army Preparing to Besiege a Jin City

Using Chinese Engineers to Construct Heavy Catapults

After Chinggis

• China ruled by Great Khan - Kubilai who starts Yuan Dynasty

• Russia, Hungary, Poland - Golden Horde

• Persia - il Khan

Kubilai

• Promotes Buddhism but tolerates all religions (favorite wife, Chabi, was a Nestorian Christian)

• Looks down on Chinese - no intermarriage

• Ends privileges of Confucians - dismantles education and exam system

Decline in China

• Use Tang & Song paper money but don’t maintain proper bullion supply

• Hatred of foreign occupiers - 1340s peasant rebellions - 1368 end of Mongol rule in China.

• Bubonic Plague

Mongols keep Shamanistic beliefs

• Do form attraction to Lamist Buddhism of Tibet

• They recognize Mongols as legitimate rulers

Persia

• Hulegui 1258 topples Abbasid and sacks Baghdad• Eventually stopped by Muslim forces from Egypt

(Mamluks) at Ain Jalut• Rely on Persians to administer• Ghazan converts to Islam in 1295 & massacres

Christians and Jews.• Decline excessive spending, over exploitation of

peasants• Paper money fails • Collapses 1335

Mongols contribution

• Encourage travel & communication facilitates trade, movements of peoples, and missionary and diplomatic activity.

Tamerlane

• Turkish based in Samarkand

• Sacks Delhi

• Dies 1405

• Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman Empires reflect his legacy

Samarkand

Ottoman Turks

• Osman declares independence from Saljuq starts rise of Ottoman

• From NW Anatolia, get foothold at Gallipoli

• 1453 under Mehmed defeat Byzantine & conquer Constantinople.

Mehmed the Conqueror