U368 Mongol Conquest
Week 15, Supplemental Notes:  What was not a cycle or the consequences of the Mongol world empire or how the world in 1400 was different from that in 1200

 

  1. Mongolia
    1. Mongolia becomes a national community, united through aristocracy by legacy of Chinggis Khan
    2. Mongols adopt Uighur script
    3. Mongols adopt Tibetan Buddhism
  2. Inner Asia, east and west
    1. Inner Asia:  tribal confederacis replaced by charismatic Chinggisid dynasties
    2. Nestorian Christianity disappears in Central and Inner Asia
    3. Islamization of Qïpchaq steppes
    4. Monetarization (on silver standard) of Qïpchaq steppe
  3. Ruthenia
    1. Monetarization (on silver standard) of Ruthenia
    2. Church power and prerogatives increase in Ruthenia
    3. Suzdalia (north) dominant over Kiev (south)
    4. Muscovite rulers end up with greater power over subjects
  4. China
    1. North and South China unified
    2. Yunnan (Dali), Gansu (Tangut) incorporated into China
    3. Jurchen writing disappears, Kitans assimilated to Mongols, Tanguts to Chinese
    4. Ming dynasty emphasizes autocracy, bureaucracy, (Confucian) orthodoxy
    5. China switches from copper to silver in currency and taxation, via paper money
    6. Major, self-sustaining population of Muslims implanted in northern China
    7. Islamic weaving and astronomy to China
  5. Middle East
    1. 'Abbasid Caliphate and Isma'ilis destroyed as independent political forces
    2. Sunni and (Twelver) Shi'ite religious leaders depend on Turco-Mongol patrons
    3. Sufism (Islamic mysticism) expands its role in Central and Inner Asia
    4. Middle-Eastern silver famine relieved, goes from gold zone to silver zone
    5. Egypt dominant over Iraq
  6. Eurasia
    1. Mongol conquests seem to have promoted increased international trade, high economic growth, inflation, and increased stratification in 14th century
    2. Conquest & trade spreads bubonic plague from Yunnan to Inner Asia, Middle East & Europe, helping bring the 13th-14th century price revolution to an end
    3. Cotton spreads to Egypt, Europe, and China