The Decline of the Mongol Empire and the Birth of Russia

A Map of Muscovy Russian Expansion from 1533-1598 Under Ivan the Terrible

Episode 31: Conversion and Assimilation

Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)

Dr Kenneth Harl

Film Review

At its height the Mongol Empire consisted of four semi-independent states or hulas

• The eastern hula, consisting of the Yuan Empire, Tibet and the Mongol homeland
• The Chagatai Khanate on the central steppes
• The Golden Horde controlling the western steppes and the Russian principalities
• The Ilkhanate (Persia and Transoxiana)

The Yuan Dynasty was overthrow in a civil war in 1368. Mongol control over the other hulas began to decline even earlier (after 1254) as they converted to Islam.

Demise of the Yuan Dynasty

Concerned an entrenched bureaucratic state would undermine his power, the Yuan emperor Kublai Khan scrapped the civil service exam established by the Mandarin followers of Confucius. Appointing his own Mongol relatives to run the empire, he relocated the capitol further north to Xanadu (now Beijing) close to the steppes and the Mongol homeland. Likewise he refused to use Chinese script for official documents, adopting Tibetan script instead.

From the outset, this made him extremely unpopular with the Mandarin class. His successors were even more unpopular with the Chinese people for heavy taxes they imposed to fund military campaigns and construction initiatives. Owing to their failure to properly maintain the canal system, successive Yuan emperors were also blamed for a series of floods.

in 1351 a peasant named Chu Yuan-Chang launched an armed uprising. By 1356 he controlled south China, and in 1368 he marched his forces to Xanadu. After the Yuan emperor fled, Chu proclaimed himself the first Ming emperor. In 1403 the Ming Dynasty leveled Xanadu and rebuilt the city as Beijing. They also ordered total reconstruction (in masonry) of their border walls to ensure nomads never again ruled over China.

Ilkhanate

By 1334 the Ilkanate Empire had fragmented into multiple small kingdoms as Transoxiana was assimilated into the Chagatai hula. In 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, Ilkhan rule totally vanished as the Ottoman Sultanate (1299-1924) and the Safavid Dynasty of Iran absorbed the former Ilkhan kingdoms

Chagatai Empire

Beginning in the 14th century, the Chagatai Empire (which controlled the Tarim Basin Silk Road), split into smaller and smaller kingdoms until it was eventually absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. 

The Golden Horde

The Golden Horde continued to control the Russian principalities until the 15th century. Between 1325-49, they collaborated with Prince Ivan of Moscow, who collected tribute for them from the other Russian princes and Mongol cities on the western steppes. Also allying themselves with the Marmaluk Sultans in Egypt, the Golden Horde continued to provide them with Slavic slave via the Genoese colony of Kafia (on Black Sea) and later the Venetian colon of Tarnau (also on Black Sea).

In the 1380 Battle of Kurvo Yeti, a Russian army assembled by a coalition of princes defeated the Mongol army for the first time. However Mongol rule persisted, especially after Tamerlane came to the rescue of the Mongol khans.

Between 1453-70, the Golden Horde disintegrated into competing khanates (Muscoy, Crimea Khanate, Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate), all vassals of the Ottoman sultanate in Constantinople, which they supplied with slaves.

In 1480 Prince Ivan III (Ivan the Great) invaded the Kazan Khanate (comprised primarily of Turkish Tatars) for the first time. In 1568, Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) conquered both Khazan and Astrakhan and gained control of the Volga. Crimea would remain a vassal of the Ottoman Empire until the 17th century, when Cossack cavalry developed the skill and technology to defeat mounted Mongol archers.

As Russia expanded rapidly across the Eurasian tundra, taiga and steppes, they made treaties with the Chinese Manchu Empire about control of the steppes. The Russians assumed control of Transoxiana, and the Chinese the Tarim Basin, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5694984/5695053

Revival of the Silk Road Under Kublai Khan

Episode 30: Pax Mongolica and Cultural Exchange

Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)

Dr Kenneth Harl

Film Review

Following Kublai Khan’s conquest of China, the Mongols imposed a Pax Mongolica* across the steppes, which ended centuries-long warring between nomad tribes. The resulting peace led to a revival of the Silk Road and renewed prosperity of both states and nomads involved in the Silk Road trade. It also resulted in unprecedented cultural exchange. Exchanges between Persia and China about geography and map-making enabled both kingdoms to produce maps that were far better than those Columbus used to explore the New World. The Persians also shared their knowledge of medicine (from Hindu sources) with China, as well as citrus and grape cultivation. While the Chinese shared their knowledge of tea, black pepper and cinnamon with the Muslim world.

Under Kublai Khan, the Mongols built great cities and set up lavish courts in many of the regions they conquered. He used captive Muslims and Christians to administer cities in northern China and captive Chinese to administer the Ilkhanate Empire (comprising modern-day Iran and parts of Azerbaijan and Turkey).

Most of the Golden Horde (northwestern sector of Mongol Empire – see Mongol Invasion of China) converted to Islam in the 13th century. Although the Ilkhanate abandoned Sunni Islam for Shi’a Sufism, Buddhism was also an important religion there until the empire collapsed in 1335.

Kublai Khan’s conversion to Buddhism (although he was equally tolerant of Daoism and Islam) resulted in its spread across the eastern steppes. The Uighurs, however, abandoned Buddhism for Islam. Most of Transoxiana also became Muslim.

Thanks to improvements in Silk Road security, it now became possible for European Christians to send envoys to Muslim courts for the first time, while Chinese porcelain became widely traded across the Muslim world. There was a simultaneous expansion in sea routes connecting Europe.

China shared their knowledge of block printing (invented under the Song Dynasty) with the Ilkhans, who used it to produce paper money. Under Kublai Khan’s Yuan Dynasty, gunpowder technology (discovered under the Han Dynasty) also spread across the steppes and into Europe.

This would be the first major eastern technology to take hold in Europe, leading the English to invent the cannon in the mid-14th century and hand held small arms in the 17th century. It was thanks to these technologies that they conquered the world over the next two centuries.

---

*Russian historians refer to the Pax Mongolica as the Mongol Yoke, owing to the massive slaughter of civilians during their conquest of the Russian principalities. 500,000 total were either killed or died of exposure and starvation (after the Mongols destroyed their homes and crops).

**Harl briefly discusses the Venetian explorer Marco Polo who traveled to China via the Silk Road in 1271 and served 23 years in Kublai Khan’s court. Because there are no references to the explorer in Chinese sources, Harl believes he likely served as a minor civil servant and exaggerated his role in his writings. His book The Travels of Marco Polo inspired Columbus’s voyage to the new world.

The film can be viewed with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5694984/5695051

Mongol Invasion of China

Episode 29: Conquest of Song China

Barbarian Empires of the Steppes (2014)

Dr Kenneth Harl

Film Review

Harl regards Kublai Khan as the greatest of all the Mongol conquerors. His grandfather Genghis Khan was content to control large portions of the Chinese-dominated Silk Road. His uncle Ogedei settled with occupying the rump Jin Dynasty and securing a treaty relationship with the more powerful southern Song Dynasty.

Kublai Khan began his assault on China by moving his forces into Tibet (a  vassal state that paid to the Mongols), on the Song Empire’s western border. He proceeded  with an assault on Dali (currently Hunan), an independent kingdom inhabited by non-Chinese Bai people. Due to China’s large number of settled cities, the war on China proper was mainly one of sieges and logistics. Once he captured cities, Kublai Khan recruited large number of Chinese mercenaries to garrison them.

In 1259 the great khan Mongke died of cholera while Kublai Khan was besieging the fortresses on the Yangtze River. Mongke’s younger brother Verke had himself declared great khan while most of the Mongolian nobility was fighting in China. In 1260 during a brief civil war, Kublai Khan marched to Karakorum and deposed Verke (becoming great khan himself).

Under Kublai Khan, the Golden Horde Mongols on the western steppes were ruled by descendants of his cousin Batu. Kublai Khan’s nephew ruled the Ilkhanate on the central steppes, consisting of the modern day states of Iran, Iraq and. Under Kublai Khan, the Chagatai Khanate broke away from the Mongol Empire and was ruled independently by descendants of Genghis Khan’s second son Chagatai. By the 14th century, all three khanates had adopted the Turkish language and the Muslim religion.

In 1268 Kublai Khan reopened the war against the Song Dynasty. The Ilkhan sent Muslim engineers to assist Chinese engineers in building trebuchets, incendiaries and other siege technologies. The Mongols also deployed great paddled river flotillas to isolate Yangtze fortresses from the river. Eventually numerous Chinese generals defected to fight for Mongols.

Unlike western Mongol victories, Kublai Khan’s victories in China weren’t accompanied by massacres and atrocities. Instead he sought to win over the civilian population.

When the dowager Song empress surrendered on behalf of the child emperor in 1271, Kublai Khan became the new emperor, founding the Yuan Dynasty. For the most part, the bureaucratic Mandarin class generally supported the new regime.

This film can be rented free on Kanopy with a library card.

https://www.kanopy.com/pukeariki/product/5695049