The art of Iran was influenced by Uighur and Chinese motifs. From China to the Islamic world and Europe came the knowledge of firearms, silk cultivation, ceramics and woodblock printing.
The Mongol empire served as a transmission belt for technology, science and culture — particularly, but not solely, between China and Iran.
The southern route of the Silk Road, which had fallen into disuse in favour of the northern and middle routes, was revived and linked the Aral and Caspian Seas with Byzantium.
Some writers even trace a causal line from the Pax Mongolica to the discovery of the New World by Columbus, the age of European exploration and expansion and the Renaissance itself. There is a good deal of truth in all of this, but anti-Mongolists have made some forceful rebuttals.
They also contend that the importance of journeys across Asia from the west has been exaggerated, and that they cannot be compared with the achievements of the Age of Discovery. Even worse, the Mongols may have been responsible for the spread of the Black Death. Although there are many conflicting views on the origin of this pandemic, it seems clear that central Asia was a major vector of the disease, in particular the new avenues of the Silk Route opened up by the Mongols, which had their terminus at the Crimea.
There are two final counts in the anti-Mongol indictment. One is that, although the Mongols were phenomenal warriors and outstanding conquerors, their system was always inherently unstable, since they neither traded nor produced, lived by extracting a surplus from the conquered and so depended entirely on the toil of the vanquished.
More seriously perhaps, the Mongols were a culturally unbalanced people. They had achieved a quantum leap in military technology, putting them far ahead of western Europe, but the Europeans were meanwhile producing Robert Bacon, Anthony of Padua, Thomas Aquinas and St Louis.
Although the Europeans could match the Mongols in slaughterous behaviour especially the atrocities visited on the Albigensians , they were at least producing the Divine Comedy, the Carmina Burana, the Roman de la Rose and the amazing series of cathedrals, either completed or begun in the 13th century, at Chartres, Amiens, Reims, Beauvais, Toledo, Burgos, Cologne, York and Lichfield.
Genghis Khan, an illiterate nomad, was a genius at many levels, not least in that his achievements, as it were, came from nowhere.
All other great conquerors were literate and had a huge background of tradition and knowledge to draw on — Alexander the Great from Aristotle, Julius Caesar from the whole canon of ancient Greece, Napoleon from the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement. It was an era noted for its initial prosperity and tumultuous final years, and for being only the second time that China was not ruled by the Han people. Succeeding party founder Sun Yat-sen as KMT leader in , he expelled Chinese communists from the party and led a successful unification of The Taiping Rebellion was a revolt against the Qing dynasty in China, fought with religious conviction over regional economic conditions, and lasting from to The Taiping forces were run as a cult-like group called the God Worshipping Society by self-proclaimed prophet The Cultural Revolution was launched in China in by Communist leader Mao Zedong in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government.
Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and China itself, in the wrong direction, Mao called on the In October , during a civil war, embattled Chinese Communists broke through Nationalist enemy lines and began an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as the Long March, the trek lasted a year and covered some 4, miles or more, by some Legends claim that the earliest rulers in China were the Xia Dynasty, from to B.
In , in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion or the Boxer Uprising , a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there. The rebels, referred Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Genghis Khan Unites the Mongols Going against custom, Temujin put competent allies rather than relatives in key positions and executed the leaders of enemy tribes while incorporating the remaining members into his clan.
Recommended for you. Genghis Khan. Britain Recognizes People's Republic of China. Temujin's Mongols then defeated the Taichi'ut using a series of massive cavalry attacks, including having all of the Taichi'ut chiefs boiled alive.
By , Temujin had also defeated the powerful Naiman tribe, thus giving him control of central and eastern Mongolia. The early success of the Mongol army owed much to the brilliant military tactics of Genghis Khan, as well as his understanding of his enemies' motivations.
He employed an extensive spy network and was quick to adopt new technologies from his enemies. The well-trained Mongol army of 80, fighters coordinated their advance with a sophisticated signaling system of smoke and burning torches. Large drums sounded commands to charge, and further orders were conveyed with flag signals.
Every soldier was fully equipped with a bow, arrows, a shield, a dagger and a lasso. He also carried large saddlebags for food, tools and spare clothes. The saddlebag was waterproof and could be inflated to serve as a life preserver when crossing deep and swift-moving rivers. Cavalrymen carried a small sword, javelins, body armor, a battle-ax or mace, and a lance with a hook to pull enemies off of their horses.
The Mongols were devastating in their attacks. Because they could maneuver a galloping horse using only their legs, their hands were free to shoot arrows. The entire army was followed by a well-organized supply system of oxcarts carrying food for soldiers and beasts alike, as well as military equipment, shamans for spiritual and medical aid, and officials to catalog the booty.
Following the victories over the rival Mongol tribes, other tribal leaders agreed to peace and bestowed on Temujin the title of "Genghis Khan," which means "universal ruler. With this declaration of divine status, it was accepted that his destiny was to rule the world.
Religious tolerance was practiced in the Mongol Empire, but to defy the Great Khan was equal to defying the will of God. It was with such religious fervor that Genghis Khan is supposed to have said to one of his enemies, "I am the flail of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you. Genghis Khan wasted no time in capitalizing on his divine stature. While spiritual inspiration motivated his armies, the Mongols were probably driven as much by environmental circumstances.
Food and resources were becoming scarce as the population grew. In , he led his armies against the kingdom of Xi Xia and, after two years, forced it to surrender. In , Genghis Khan's armies struck the Jin Dynasty in northern China, lured not by the great cities' artistic and scientific wonders, but rather the seemingly endless rice fields and easy pickings of wealth.
Although the campaign against the Jin Dynasty lasted nearly 20 years, Genghis Khan's armies were also active in the west against border empires and the Muslim world. Initially, Genghis Khan used diplomacy to establish trade relations with the Khwarizm Dynasty, a Turkish-dominated empire that included Turkestan, Persia, and Afghanistan.
But the Mongol diplomatic mission was attacked by the governor of Otrar, who possibly believed the caravan was a cover for a spy mission. When Genghis Khan heard of this affront, he demanded the governor be extradited to him and sent a diplomat to retrieve him.
After capturing a city, Genghis Khan would leave behind a few officials to oversee municipal matters and essentially let people carry on with their lives provided they were loyal to the Great Empire, of course.
Most citizens knew better than to revolt against their minders, but a few did and ended up facing the wrath of the full army all over again. Despite being the son of a chief, Genghis despised this system, and as he swept across the continent he implemented a new one that rewarded loyalty and individual achievement on the battlefield.
Genghis Khan understood the bitterness and economic strain that slavery created. So when Genghis Khan began unifying the Mongol tribes, he outlawed the taking of Mongols as servants or slaves. To enforce his law, Genghis ordered the creation of a writing system based on the Uyghur alphabet. Genghis Khan believed in the unifying power of foreign trade as well as using it to gain valuable knowledge many of his spies posed as merchants.
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