World History: The Mongols

Mongol Invasion of China

The Mongols have gone down in history as being some of the most fearsome warriors in history building an empire built on fire, blood, and destruction. Incidentally they have also become strangely admired as free nomads with John Wayne in 1956 starring in a movie around Genghis Khan called The Conqueror (incidentally Wayne played Genghis himself). How true is the view that the Mongol Empire was built by savage barbarians raping and murdering their way through Eurasia? Before we look at the Mongols we must first look at the world before the Mongols came onto the scene.

The Pre-Mongol World

Hsiung-nu depicted in the 14th Century

Prior to the rise of the Mongol Empire in what is now Mongolia nomadic herders migrated seasonally around an area of 100 miles. Nomadic herders sent their herds around this area following the seasons and grasses. However, the Mongols were not the first nomadic peoples to raid outside Mongolia. One such group was the Hsiung-nu who would later attack the Roman Empire under the name of the Hun. Mongolian society, according the Owen Lattimore, divided the clans (oboq) into ruling and subordinate clans where subordinated clans were under the protection of the ruling ones. To the south China was divided into three states: the Jin Empire in the North, the Sung Empire in the South, and the Hsi-Hsia in the North-West who were Tanguts from Tibet according to Chinese sources. In Persia a dynasty under 'Ala al-Din Muhammad II was expanding the Khwarazmian Empire. In Europe and the Middle East the Crusades were under way (please see here). In 1162 Temujin was born to Yesugei, leader of the Borjigin clan, but we know little of his early life due to the lack of written sources. According to The Secret History of the Mongols Yesugei was poisoned by Tatars when Temujin was nine. Within the first twenty years of his life he had seen corruption, alliances, hidden dealings, and was briefly captured by his father's enemies. When his father died his mother taught him and upheld the marriage contract with Börte. Women in Mongol society had more rights compared to their counterparts in China and Eurasia. After Börte was captured Temujin won notoriety by defeating his enemies. There began a process of unifying the tribes where he won support among the poorer and weaker clans by implementing a meritocracy in his leadership. By 1206 he had managed to unite or subdue the various warring tribes. He called a Khuruldai (council) to determine if he should be called 'the Great Khan' and those who supported him would go to show their support for him. After getting enough votes Temujin was granted the title 'Great Khan' and was henceforth called Chinggis or Genghis Khan.

Empire under Genghis

Genghis Khan

Conquests. The Mongol conquest began in 1209 when Genghis attacked the Hsi-Hsia and to the benefit of the Mongols the Jin refused to help the smaller kingdom. In the field the Mongols managed to defeat the Hsi-Hsia forces but being nomads they had no siege engines. As a result the Mongols had to resort to luring at fortress garrisons by feigning retreat. In 1210 they managed to subjugate the Hsi-Hsia, (although over ten years later they would return to permanently break them). After defeating the Hsi-Hsia they turned their attention to the Jin who had for generations been overlords of the Mongols. In 1211 the conquest of the Jin began and would end in 1234. The Jin sent a messenger to the Mongol forces who then defected and told the Mongols that the Jin army was waiting for them. During the invasion of the Jin the Mongols would massacre towns and cities which did not surrender, and then brought in Han Chinese soldiers and experts to help them. Despite the stereotype the Mongols would not ruthlessly massacre populations. They would offer them a chance to surrender and if they didn't they would massacre everyone. This would work out in the Mongol's favor as the fear of the massacres helped encourage settlements to surrender. In 1211 a deposed enemy of Genghis called Kuchlug usurped the throne of the Qara Khitai in Central Asia and began a war against the Khwarazmian Empire. Genghis's general Jebe was sent to conquer the region and in 1218 Qara Khitai fell. Wanting the benefits of the Silk Road (see here) a caravan was sent to the Khwarazmian Empire but was massacred leading to the Mongol invasion in 1219. The mobile Mongol forces spread the Khwarazmian army thin causing the Khwarazmian forces being slaughtered. The Muslim population saw this a punishment from God and Genghis reiterated this after conquering Bukhara announcing:

O people, know that you have committed great sins, and that the great ones among you have committed these sins. If you ask me what proof I have for these words, I say it is because I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.

Muhammad II fled from the Mongol conquests to an island in the Caspian Sea where he died from dysentery in 1220/1, and his son Jala al-Din was forced into exile in India after being defeated at the Indus River in 1221. After the defeat of the Khwarazmians Genghis returned to Mongolia to put down a rebellion several generals were sent west into the Caucasus and Russia. With a contingent of 20,000 the Mongols destroyed the Kingdom of Georgia, sacked a Genoese trade-fortress in Crimea, and attacked the Kievan Rus. At the Battle of Kalka River in 1223 the Mongols defeated a Kievan force which greatly outnumbered the Mongol forces, although they may have been defeated by the Volga Bulgars at the Battle of Samara Bend (it is not known if they were or not). When the Russians surrendered six princes were crushed to death as Genghis's general Subutai ate. When Genghis died in 1227 of a nosebleed in his sleep the Mongol Empire ruled from Kiev in modern Ukraine east China.

Administration and Trade. A big reason why empires fall is that they cannot administer the territory that they've conquered. Unlike later empires, like the British and French, or even earlier empires, like the Roman, conquered peoples were readily brought into the administration and military. For example, Chinese soldiers were used as garrisons and infantry after the conquest of China ended, and Chinese experts were used. Thanks to Chinese experts the Mongols managed to adapt siege equipment and gunpowder, (possibly introducing gunpowder to Europe). Using the Silk Trade domestic and international trade was widely encourage, and the Uyghur script was adopted to help necessitate administration (and trade). The Mongols ruled an area covering 36,200,000 square kilometers, (14 million square miles), so an attempt to divide the empire into easier to rule segments was implemented. In 1206 everyone was placed in units of a thousand (mingan) for military and taxation purposes (which the clergy and poor were exempted from). Although in areas like China and Persia existing administrations were kept in place and re-appropriated for Mongol use. Law was enforced in the Mongol Empire with the kidnap of women being made illegal, and banditry being rigorously suppressed. It was said that one could walk across the Silk Road wearing gold and not be afraid of being attacked. With this came an efficient postal service creating one of the greatest postal services until the rise of industrialized societies.

Mongol Units

Military. In The Secret History of the Mongols (1227) the army was put at 105,000 although chroniclers outside the empire, such as Juzjani, often put this figure as being far higher. Juzjani stated that during the invasion of Khwarazm the army was between 700-800,000. Like with mingan the army was divided along jaghun (hundreds) and arban (tens). The keshik was also created which was a bodyguard. They became a training ground for generals and governors. Mongol tactics could be especially brutal. Some sources state that plague ridden bodies were catapulted over the walls of fortresses in Crimea, although this is debatable. Rape was prevalent. In 1253 Franciscan friar William of Rubruck estimated that Genghis Khan's descendants numbered 20,000 and today around 16 million people are descended from Genghis.

Religion

The Mongols were originally Tengrist, a shamanistic and animist religion, which was a rather tolerant religion. Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, said:

The Catholic Inquisition of Europe who defended nonsense by cruelty, might have been confounded by the example of a barbarian, who anticipated the lessons of philosophy and established by his laws a system of pure theism and perfect toleration.

Genghis and his descendants were tolerant of various religions and often consulted Buddhists, Christians, Taoists, and Muslims. One Taoist sage was Ch'ang Ch'un who became a major adviser for Genghis after he asked the sage about immortality, and he would later give his Taoist sect privileges. However, this tolerance should not be overstated. Genghis referred to Jews and Muslims as 'slaves' as well as forbidding Halal and Kosher slaughter. He also banned circumcision among Jews. Religious leaders were exempted from taxes, and, Genghis's successor, Ögedei, built shrines for several religions in the new capital of Khartoum. Successor states of the khanate adopted local religions. The Yuan Dynasty in China adopted Buddhism as the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate adopted Islam.

Successor States

When Genghis died in 1227 he split the khanate among his sons and grandsons. His second eldest son, Ögedei, inherited the Empire of the Great Khan which comprised East Asia and China. His youngest son inherited the Mongol homeland. Chagatai Khan, the third son, inherited Central Asia and the Middle East. Finally the sons of his eldest son, who died before Genghis, inherited the Blue and White Hordes in Russia which later merged to form the Golden Horde. Now we will look at the Mongols in the Middle East and China.

Middle East

1258 Siege of Baghdad

In 1251 Möngke Khan became the fourth Great Khan after seizing the khanate for himself. In 1252 he organised a council to plan the next conquest, which would be the Middle East. The Islamic judge of Qazwin begged Möngke for aid claiming that his citizens were under attack from Isma'ili Assassins (the same ones from Assassins Creed). He sent his brother, Hulegu, to end the Isma'ili Assassins and either have the 'Abbasid Caliphate submit or have them destroyed. The caliph refused to submit. In 1257 the Mongols destroyed the Assassins' base disbanding the order and the next year they attacked Baghdad. The caliph was wrapped in a carpet and dragged behind Mongol horses until he died (it was seen as a calamity to shed a holy person's blood) and destroyed the city. The House of Wisdom containing some of the greatest Isma'ili and Islamic texts were lost as the building was burnt to the ground. Baghdad had been one of the greatest cities in the world, comparable to Constantinople, Rome or Beijing, and it would not become a wealthy city again until the 1920s. Hulagu would found the Ilkhanate where he even tried to orchestrate a Franco-Mongol alliance. However, here the Mongol Empire showed signs of decline. As he was about to attack the Mamluks in Egypt he warred with the Golden Horde who wanted retribution for his murder of the caliph. In 1260 the Mamluks defeated the Ilkhanate in Syria at the Battle of Ayn Jalut handing the Mongols a major defeat. Thanks to this defeat the Mongols never managed to spread into North Africa. In the fourteenth-century the Ilkhanate collapsed through the population being ravaged thanks to the Black Death and wars against the Mamluks, and a supposed descendant of Genghis called Timur. In 1375 the Ilkhanate collapsed.

China

Kublai Khan

By 1234 the Jin Dynasty had been conquered and by 1279 the Sung had also been conquered. This conquest had been done by Kublai Khan who in 1271 declared himself Emperor of China. His new dynasty would be called the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai would 'sinicize' the empire by adopting Chinese culture. During this period Chinese ceramics went through a boom and expansion with the famous blue and white design 'Jingdezhan' ware of underglaze becoming widespread. Like the Ilkhanate and Golden Horde the Yuan Dynasty adopted Buddhism as well as Confucian practices. A social order was implemented with the Mongols at the top, then non-Mongols from the west, then 'Han' (Han Chinese, Jurchens, Koreans and Khitans), and at the bottom were the subjects of the Southern Sung dynasty. Marco Polo is supposedly to have visited China during the reign of the Yuan Dynasty, and if his writings are indeed correct (and not elaborate embellishments) he managed to serve in the Yuan court. The Yuan Dynasty continued on the Mongol expansion although they were categorical failures. Invasions of Vietnam and Burma led to massacres of the Mongol armies. Sea invasions also failed with a disastrous attempt to invade Java in 1293, and two to invade Japan in 1274 and 1280. The Japanese invasions failed both times thanks to a typhoon which have been called 'kamikaze' (divine wind). By the time of the Yuan Dynasty's collapse the rest of the Mongol khanates were either collapsing or were abandoned by the khanates as the Yuan Dynasty was seen as being 'too Chinese'. Famines and revolts caused decline of the Yuan Dynasty until 1368 when they were forced to the north when the Ming Dynasty was founded.

Decline of the Mongols

Like the Roman Empire the Mongol Empire declined thanks to overextension and poor administration. Although there was an efficient postal service connecting distant parts of the empire it was difficult for the Mongols to rule territory stretching from Hungary to Korea. The Great Khanate only really had one or two cities, including Karakorum, so this made administration extremely difficult. Decline was sped up by the divisions between the khanates themselves. As shown with the war between the Ilkhanate and the Golden Horde with khanates warring they could not form a stable empire. At one part under the founder of the Timurid Empire in Persia, Tamerlane, did the Mongol Empire seem able to unify. Tamerlane's conquests were bloody as he tried to recreate the unified Mongol Empire with his massacres being seen by some historians as a genocide with around 17 million people, or 5% of the world population, being killed. However, the Timurids never managed to gain much land outside Iran, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Slowly the khanates started to fall one by one. In 1688 the Yuan Dynasty finally collapsed, in 1438 the Golden Horde split into two which was further divided in 1441. Ivan the Terrible conquered two of the khanates that sprung from the Golden Horde in 1552 and 1554. The Crimean Khanate lasted until 1783 when conquered by Catherine the Great. 

Conclusion

The Mongols were an empire of paradoxes. Bringing religious toleration, an efficient postal service, and aiding in the return of the Silk Road the Mongols brought great benefits, but paradoxically they orchestrated massacres which can be considered genocides, helped spread the Black Death through the Silk Road and expansion, and saw the mass rape of women. They built few cities and buildings meaning they left little architectural legacies but their empire left a profound result regardless. Historian Hidehiro Okada argued that the greatest legacy of the Mongols in China was creating a unified state. Since the Mongol conquest with the exception of civil wars and foreign occupation China remained a unified state. Meanwhile, in eastern Europe their meritocratic system briefly spelled an end to feudalism. Mongols are just another paradox in history. Thank you for reading and next World History will be about the origins of Russia.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-The Mongols by David Morgan

-The Mongol Empire and its Legacy edited by Reuvan Amitai-Preiss and David O. Morgan

-'Central Asia: The Mongols 1206-1405' by Timothy May in The Great Empires of Asia edited by Jim Masselos

-Crash Course World History: The Mongols

For a full list of the World History posts please see here

World History: The Decline and Fall of the (Western) Roman Empire

The Fall of Rome

On the last World History post we discussed Rome's evolution from a city-state kingdom to an empire ruling the Mediterranean and most of Europe, (please see here). In 27 BCE Augustus became the first official emperor of Rome; in 476 CE Romulus Augustulus became the last emperor of Rome when he was deposed. That is, he was the last emperor of the western Roman Empire. Meanwhile, in the east, the Eastern, or Byzantine Empire, lasted until 1453 CE with the inhabitants of Constantinople, (modern Istanbul), viewing themselves as Romans. Why did half of the Roman Empire collapse while the other half continue on for centuries? Often seen as the father of modern history Edward Gibbon tried to explain why Rome fell in his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Today we shall see for ourselves how the Western Roman Empire collapsed.

Preface
Instead of being a chronological post, like my previous World History posts, this post shall deal with topics instead. These topics are the contributing factors to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and all these factors are linked in some way. All of these factors helped the decline of the empire.

War and Expansion, (or lack of it)
War, both conventional and civil wars, helped place immense strain on the empire. Many emperors, such as Septimus Severus who reigned 193-211 CE, only became emperor by winning a civil war against their opponents. Naturally emperors ruling thanks to military might rather than Senate choice does not offer a stable government. Between 200 CE and 300 CE there were twenty-two emperors not including the generals who declared themselves emperor, like Postumus in Gaul, where the United States only had eighteen presidents in the same time-span. Of course changing emperors via murder, coup and civil war further degenerates the administration of the empire.

Foreign wars, successful and unsuccessful, all put strain on the empire. In 225 CE the Parthian Empire, (in modern Iran), was toppled and Ardashir was crowned emperor of the new Sassanid Empire who wished to reconquer lands in the Middle East. What followed was almost continuous warfare between Rome, (both west and east), and the Sassanids for centuries with the Sassanids even managing to capture the Emperor Valerian prisoner in 260, (who would later die as a Sassanid prisoner and was even reportedly used as a footstool by the Sassanid emperor Shapur). While war waged in the east to the north there were continuous wars against the 'barbarians' along the Rhine and Danube. We shall talk more about the involvement of barbarians later on but they did drain Roman power when war happened against the Sassanids after 230. The Alammani gained a tonne of concessions when the Romans wanted a free hand in fighting in Persia, later the Goths in 251 invaded a province just under the Danube when conflict broke out in Persia again which caused the death of the emperor by barbarians, and five years later the Franks and Alammani invaded with the latter reaching Milan. Fighting these wars, and wars to retake lost land, put a considerable strain upon the Roman economy as fighting continuous wars on two fronts requires a large army who needs to be paid, fed and armed. Not only that, but by not gaining more land they could not gain more slaves which was needed to act as craftsmen or farm hands.

Finally we also have overexpansion itself. At its height in 117 CE Rome stretched from Portugal to Palmyra to north Africa to Belgium to Scotland to Spain. The sheer size of the empire was just too big to handle. Upon becoming emperor in 117 Hadrian started to withdraw from his uncle Trajan's conquests in Armenia and Mesopotamia, and started to fortify the borders of the empire. In the south this war easy as the Sahara acted as a natural barrier and in the east when Hadrian had withdrew from former conquests the Euphrates acted as another barrier. However, in the north he had miles upon miles of fortifications along the Danube, Rhine, Elbe and northern Britain. These fortifications were made from local materials so on the continent they were mostly made of timber and turf; although they left no clear remains they can still be seen. However, in north-east Britain stone was used which has made this the most famous of the fortifications. Today it is known as Hadrian's Wall, (which one of my former lecturers, Professor Jim Crow of the University of Edinburgh, helped excavate).

Hadrian's Wall

Even before the many civil wars and foreign wars Rome was just too big to handle. Hadrian building these fortifications were done to stem the tide of expansion or otherwise it would damage Rome. As war brought instability Roman administration of such a vast area of land became diminished. Local generals and governors started becoming powerful which in turn weakened the empire, and allowed pretenders to Rome to rise. Not only that but communication was slow, despite the efficient Roman roads, which meant it took a long amount of time to warn the military of an invasion.

Division and Splintered Wealth

East vs. West

In 284 Diocletian managed to become emperor with the backing of the military. Diocletian became emperor after years of instability called the Crisis of the Third Century where the empire was beset by conflict, invasion and division, (a Gallic and Palmyrene empire had been declared and broke off from Rome) following the assassination of the emperor. Diocletian wished to avoid this occurring again and appointed a co-emperor in 285, Maximian, where one would rule the empire west of a line running from Dalmatia to the Danube in Rome, while the other would rule the east from Byzantium, (modern Istanbul). This was done to ensure that the empire could be ran far more easily. Doing this, however, created a rift between the Latin-speaking west and Greek-speaking east so by 395 the division had become permanent. Before the split the two halves had squabbles over military aid, resources, taxation, and later religion which left them to battle on their own. The east prospered. It had control of the western half of the Silk Road, (please see here), and could take from the prosperous cities in Persia which made the east richer, and in turn fortify her cities. Byzantium, later called Constantinople, became a heavily fortified city. Meanwhile, the west became overshadowed as they lost the eastern trade and could only loot from the so-called barbarians. When the barbarians chose to raid they avoided the militarily powerful east to invade the west. A weaker west relied on harsher taxation creating an even greater wealth diaspora between the poor and the rich creating further alienation between the state and the people.

Christianity

Constantine the Great

Around 33 CE a religious leader was crucified for stirring trouble in the Jewish community of Jerusalem. What started as a reformation of Judaism escalated into the worship of the crucified man, Jesus of Nazareth, and has now become the largest religion in the world, Christianity. Due to Christianity being monotheistic in contrast to Rome's polytheism this caused initial tensions as Christians refused to participate in the public religious ceremonies, or pay the Jewish tax. Edward Gibbon also stated that converts renouncing family, paganism and country, dislike of common pleasures and talk of an impending doom ostracized them from their pagan neighbors. Like the druids, Bacchanals and Jews before them Rome started to persecute Christians to keep public security, and direct blame away from the elite. In 64 CE Nero blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of Rome when the public initially blamed Nero and in 250 the first anti-Christian laws were passed. Despite Roman persecution and schisms in the early Church the religion started to grow in popularity so by the year 300 a tenth of the population was Christian. One emperor had even had Jesus Christ among the gods which he privately honored. Not even Diocletian's persecution of Christians managed to stem the popularity of the new religion. Everything would change under Emperor Constantine. On the 28 October 312 Constantine supposedly saw a cross in the sky just before a battle. He won the battle, was baptized and declared tolerance for all religions across the empire.

How did this help Rome fall? Edward Gibbon has exaggerated the role of Christianity, (I just want to say I am an atheist in case anyone was wondering if I had an overly pro-Christian bias), but it did have some role in helping the empire's decline. In 380 Christianity became the state religion. This severely damaged the power of the emperor as the emperor was seen as being descended from a god and being divine, so by shifting religion this shifted supreme power from the emperor. Meanwhile, the pope and other Christian leaders now had a say in the role of the state, in the west, thus adding another player into convoluted Roman politics. In contrast the Church in the east was more under the emperor's control with the city of Byzantium being renamed Constantinople to show the power of the new Christian emperor. However, as shown earlier, Christianity was less important compared to military and economic issues...and the barbarians.

Barbarians

Attila the Hun

Rome faced issues from two types of 'barbarians': invaders and soldiers. Weakening administration meant that Rome was finding itself increasingly difficult to recruit soldiers to fight the peoples of northern Europe, called barbarians by the Romans. Successive emperors made a bold decision to resolve the northern threat and solve their manpower issues: hire 'barbarians' as mercenaries. Instead of Roman citizens the legions were swelled with peoples from all around northern Europe. However, this would prove to hasten the decline. For one, many of these mercenaries were polytheistic so often they came into conflict with the now Christian Romans, (although this did help spread Christianity across Europe), and the mercenaries had no loyalty to Rome. Instead of fighting for the emperor, Rome and empire they instead fought for their local commanders. Increased localism as a result hastened the empire's decline.

Invasion, of course, sped up the fall of the west. As said earlier the wealthier east could afford defenses making the west prime raiding material. In 406 in what is called the Crossing of the Rhine thousands of people making up Germanic tribes destroyed the illusion of Roman power by crossing the Rhine and they migrated to the fertile southern provinces, sacking cities as they went. This destroyed the empire in Britain, Iberia and France but this migration would later play a crucial role in shaping the genetic makeup of Europe. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, in 410 even managed to sack Rome, the first time in centuries. Although Rome had no longer been the capital for several years it was a serious blow regardless as the city was so wealthy compared to the rest of the empire. An even greater threat to both east and west was Attila the Hun, ruler of the Hunnic Empire. Attila invaded first the east in 440 winning many battles which emboldened him to invade the west. In 451 the western empire had to ally itself with the Visigoths at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains to defeat Attila. It would be the last time that Rome could defend itself from invasion.

In 476 the final bell tolled for Rome. In 476 the west only consisted of Italy, the northern Balkans and parts of northern France. A man called Odoacer was a 'barbarian' officer in the remnants of the army when Emperior Julius Nepos was deposed by Orestes who declared his son, Romulus, emperor who then styled himself as Romulus Augustulus. When Constantinople refused to acknowledge this Odoacer deposed Romulus and declared himself King of Italy which Constantinople recognized. However, as Rome's power had diminished so much that most of the population outside of Rome went by regardless of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Often regarded as one of the greatest empires had died in a whimper.

Conclusion

The Western Roman Empire died a slow death with years of instability, economic decline, overextension, being overshadowed and religious discord slowly ebbing the strength of the empire. As the sun set on Rome it rose on Constantinople. The Roman Empire lived on with the eastern Byzantine Empire where the population truly saw itself as being Roman. It remained a major player in the world until it was finally conquered in 1453. Incidentally like the west it died a similar death: years of instability, economic decline, land being lost to others and being overshadowed by another empire. However, the Byzantine Empire will have to wait for another post. Next World History will take us to China following the Han Dynasty onwards. Before I give my sources though here are my favorite stupid reasons people have given for Rome's collapse: animal cruelty, the liberal arts, feminism, laziness, pacifism, stupidity and decadence.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

-The Times Complete History of the World edited by Richard Overy

-The Penguin History of the World by John Roberts

-http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-reasons-why-rome-fell

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PszVWZNWVA

For a list of other World History posts please see here