(NOE) The Mongols, continued Lesson

The Mongols, continued Lesson

The Mongol Interlude in Chinese History

The Mongol advance into China resumed after Ogedei's election. Kublai Khan, another grandson of Chinggis Khan, during the middle of the thirteenth century led the Mongols against the Song. In 1271, Kublai's dynasty became the Yuan. As his conquests continued, Kublai attempted to preserve the distinction between Mongols and Chinese. Chinese were forbidden from learning the Mongol script and intermarriage was prohibited. Mongol religious ceremonies and customs were retained. Kublai refused to reestablish exams for the civil service. Despite the measures protecting Mongol culture, Kublai was fascinated by Chinese civilization. He adopted much from their culture into his court; the capital at Tatu (Beijing) was in Chinese style. A new social structure emerged in China. The Mongols were at the top; their nomadic and Islamic allies were directly below them. Both groups dominated the highest levels of the administration. Beneath them came first the north Chinese, and then ethnic Chinese and peoples of the south.

 

Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture

Mongol women remained aloof from Confucian Chinese culture. They refused to adopt foot binding and retained rights to property and control in the household, as well as freedom of movement. Some Mongol women hunted and went to war. Chabi, wife of Kublai, was an especially influential woman. The Mongol interlude in China was too brief, and Mongol numbers too small, to change Confucian patterns. The freedom of women declined under Kublai's successors.

 

Mongol Tolerance and foreign Cultural Influence

The openness of Mongol rulers to outside ideas, and their patronage, drew scholars, artists, artisans, and office seekers from many regions. Muslim lands provided some of the most favored arrivals; they were included in the social order just below the Mongols. They brought much new knowledge into the Chinese world. Kublai was interested in all religions; Buddhists, Nestorian and Latin Christians, Daoists, and Muslims were all present at court. He welcomed foreign visitors. The most famous was the Venetian Marco Polo.

 

Social Politics and Scholar-Gentry Resistance

The ethnic Chinese, the vast majority of Kublai's subjects, were never reconciled to Mongol rule. The scholar-gentry regarded Mongols as uncouth barbarians with policies endangering Chinese traditions. The refusal to reinstate the examination system was especially resented. The Mongols also bolstered the position of artisans and merchants who previously not had received high status. Both prospered as the Mongols improved transportation and expanded the supply of paper money. The Mongols developed a substantial navy that helped conquest and increased commerce. Urban life flourished. Mongol patronage stimulated popular entertainment, especially musical drama, and awarded higher status to formerly despised actors and actresses. Kublai's policies initially favored the peasantry. Their land was protected from Mongol cavalrymen turning it into pasture, and famine relief measures were introduced. Tax and labor burdens were reduced. A revolutionary change was formulated—but not enacted—for establishing elementary education at the village level.

 

The Fall of the House of Yuan

By the time of Kublai's death, the Yuan dynasty was weakening. Song loyalists in the south revolted. Mongol expeditions of 1274 and 1280 against Japan failed. Other Mongol forces were defeated in Vietnam and Java. Kublai's successors lacked talent, and the Yuan administration became corrupt. The suffering peasantry was called upon by the scholar-gentry to drive out the "barbarians." By the 1350s, the dynasty was too weak to control all of China. Famines stimulated local risings. Secret societies dedicated to overthrowing the dynasty formed. Rival rebels fought each other. Many Mongols returned to central Asia. Finally, a peasant leader, Ju Yuanzhang, triumphed and founded the Ming dynasty.

 

In-Depth: The Eclipse of the Nomadic War Machine

The incursions of small numbers of militarily skilled nomads into the civilized cores have had a major effect on world history. Nomads destroyed entire civilizations, stimulated great population movements, caused social upheavals, and facilitated cultural and economic exchanges. The Mongol and Timurid invasions were the high point of nomadic success. During the fourteenth century, the effect of the Black Death on nomads gave sedentary peoples numerical superiority. Sedentary civilizations became better able to centralize political power and to mobilize resources for developing superior military organization. With the Industrial Revolution, sedentary dominance became permanent.

 

Aftershock: The Brief Ride of Timur

Just when the peoples of Eurasia began to recover from the effects of Mongol expansion, a new leader, the Turk Timur-i Lang, brought new expansion. Timur, a highly cultured individual from a noble, landowning clan, moved from his base at Samarkand to conquests in Persia, the Fertile Crescent, India, and southern Russia. Timur is remembered for the barbaric destruction of conquered lands—his campaigns outdid even the Mongols in their ferocity. His rule did not increase commercial expansion, cross-cultural exchanges, or internal peace. After his death in 1405, Timur's empire fell apart, and the last great challenge of the steppe nomads to Eurasian civilizations ended.

 

Global Connections: The Mongol Linkages

The legacy of the Mongol period was both complex and durable. The Mongols brought the Muslim and European worlds new military knowledge, especially the use of gunpowder. Trade and cultural contact between different civilizations throughout Eurasia became much easier. The trading empires established in their dominions by Venetians and Genoese provided experience useful for later European expansion. An unintended consequence was the transmitting of the fleas carrying the bubonic plague—the Black Death—from China and central Asia to the Middle East and Europe.

 

Questions to Ponder

We've covered a lot of history thus far.  Let's check to see how much you are retaining!

 

 

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