World History: The Ming

The Forbidden City

The Ming dynasty which ruled China from 1368 until 1644, and is probably the most famous of all Chinese dynasties. Most of what we have come to associate with pre-communist China comes from the Ming dynasty. What makes the Ming so significant in Chinese history? The Ming ousted the Mongol Yuan dynasty which World History readers may remember as being founded by the famous Mongol Empire. Before we look at the Ming in specific we have to first look at how the Ming managed to oust the Mongols from China.

Yuan to Ming

As always there was not one reason for the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. People who study history will know how important strong rulers are in preserving their rule. After the death of Kublai Khan (the grandson of Genghis Khan) in 1294 the Yuan dynasty lacked any particularly strong leaders. Palace intrigues, corruption and inept rule made it difficult for many Chinese bureaucrats to serve the Mongols. It is also important to understand the significance that the Yuan were also foreigners (Mongols) ruling over ethnic Han Chinese. The Yuan favored Mongols, particularly after the death of Kublai Khan, over the Han which alienated many which grew worse and worse as corruption skyrocketed. A series of famines hit China during the early fourteenth-century and outbreaks of the bubonic plague further added to the Yuan's problems. Those who know Chinese history will know the importance of the Mandate of Heaven. For those who don't the Mandate of Heaven is a system where a ruling dynasty is believed to rule with a mandate from heaven itself. Of course this is not entirely unique to China; Europe had the 'Divine right to Rule' for example. However, in China the Mandate of Heaven was also seen as being revoked if the dynasty was seen as being inept, corrupt, or going against the social order. Famines, natural disasters, plague, foreign invasion and rebellions were seen as evidence that the mandate had been revoked. The end of the Yuan dynasty had many of these. The White Lotus Society was one example of an anti-Yuan group alongside the Red Turban movement. In order to defeat the Red Turbans in the 1350s the emperor, Toghun Temur, relied increasingly on local warlords to fight them through fear that the army might turn on him. 

In southern China a peasant who had become a Buddhist monk called Zhu Yuanzhang rose to prominence. In 1352 his monastery had been burnt down so he joined a rebel group in Haozhou where a Red Turban commander, Guo Zixing, spotted him. He rose through the ranks to become a commander in his own branch of the Red Turbans in 1360 which he called 'Ming' after he had captured the Yuan stronghold of Nanjing in 1356. By 1367 Zhu had pushed the Yuan past the Yangtze River and brought most of the warlords under his rule, (mostly by force). Thanks to this in January 1368 Zhu declared a new dynasty called the Ming and adopted 'Hongwu' (vastly martial) as his era name. Later that year the Ming captured the Yuan capital of Khanbaliq which they renamed Beijing. It would take until 1381, however, before the Ming could finally capture the last of the Yuan strongholds. The Ming victory is significant though. It was the first time in centuries that China was unified under a Han Chinese dynasty. Over the last few hundred years China had either been ruled by non-Han Chinese or had been divided. 

Ming Rule and Governance

The Hongwu Emperor

The Ming dynasty claimed to restore the governance of old Han dynasties such as the Song or the Han. However, they kept many of the systems of governance from the Yuan in place. The Yuan had retained the Song office of Chung-shu sheng which acted like a prime minister and the Hongwu emperor initially retained this position. In 1380 he decided that the position was too powerful, 'tantamount to a usurpation' according to Albert Chan, and abolished it saying 'In the future if any of my subjects dares to suggest the restoration of a prime minister, let him be punished and cut into pieces, and let his whole family also be put to death'. I should also mention that as the Hongwu emperor was the founder of the dynasty he was very paranoid about a coup or rebellion. The Six Boards which organized China (Civil Office, Revenue, War, Works, Punishments, and Rites), became subordinate to the emperor rather than the Cheng-shu sheng or other major ministers. In theory the emperor exercised complete control over China but in reality this is in an impossibility. Hongwu had to back down and create an office called the Nei-ko, Grand Secretariat, which supplied secretaries for the emperor. It was not seen as being very exalted with the Six Boards being seen as higher. The Ming also divided China into thirteen provinces, (Shantung, Shansi, Shensi, Honan, Chekiang, Kiangsi, Hukang, Szechuan, Fukien, Kuangtung, Kuangsi, Yunnan, and Kueichow). Hongwu also resurrected the Chi-shih-chung which had a various amount of roles including: advising the emperor, inspect memorials sent by officials to the throne, correct memorials, serve as librarians of the archives, examining the morals and talents of officials, and censoring books. As you can see Ming governance rested entirely on the emperor with officials working to implement the will of the emperor. How were officials chosen?

To become an official you had to obtain the jinshi which was a degree. These degrees had originated with the Qin dynasty and had evolved over time changing slightly with each dynasty. The Imperial Examinations under the Ming introduced the 'Essay' or 'Eight Legs' where the student had to write a very precise essay revolving around Confucianism and classic Chinese texts. Strangely the writer could not express any opinion of his own (only men could take the exams) and had to perfectly recite classic texts and Confucius. No new interpretations were allowed. Writing in 1914 Li Ung Bing described it as 'a form of evil which has eaten into the very heart of the nation'. This system lasted until 1905! It is quite telling that Confucian and classic Han texts were expected to be known off by heart and tells us of the obsession with the old Yuan dynasty. Rule by the Mongols made the Ming obsessed with removing old Mongol rule in any way. Anyone in theory could take the exams and during early Ming rule only 14% of students from established families. Of course in practice it was largely metropolitan wealthy families which took part. However, as the years went along and a middle class started to emerge you had to pay to get a jinshi degree which meant that only the wealthiest could hold a jinshi, and therefore a place in the palace. By the Ming's collapse in 1644 60% of degree holders came from families with a long history in holding office. Also cheating became endemic with robes that had entire excerpts written in the sleeves being worn for the exam.

An example of how cheating was done: a mini-book

Ming Society

Ming Social Structure in art

When Hongwu came to power in 1368 he promised to restore Confucianism to China which had been seen as going into decline during the Yuan. Often he said he restoring the social order of the Han (seen as being the dynasty to emulate by all other dynasties). The Ming wished to implement a strict Confucian social structure. This was not limited to China. Europe had a rigid Estates system to rule society and India had the caste system to name two examples. At the top we had the emperor and royal family, then the scholars, then the gentry, then the peasants, then the artisans, and at the bottom the merchants. The scholars represented the top 1% of society and the written sources we have from Chinese society are written by scholars. Peasants were seen as better than artisans as they were seen as the backbone of society. Until recent years China has been largely rural so peasants were seen as being very important. Zhu Yuanzhang and later Mao Zedong had heavily relied on the peasantry to establish their rule. Merchants, in contrast, were seen as parasites. Highly mobile and not creating anything especially the literati saw them as leeching off of the hard work of others. Paradoxically by the end of the Ming the merchants had started to become far wealthier than other members of society. Women, however, were oppressed. The wife was expected to remain loyal to the husband and the daughter to the father. As always peasant women gained more freedom as all sections of society were required to help on the land. Wealthy women could also have the chance to become literate with Empress Xu managing to write several books. However, literacy never exceeded 1% of the female population.

Religion was important under the Ming. Being a former monk the Honwu emperor tried to revive native Chinese Buddhist sects over Lamaist Buddhism favored by the Yuan. Taoism, or Daoism, was held in equal high regard by the Ming, and the paranoid Hongwu tried to control both. He wrote a commentary on the Tao-te ching in order to guide Taoists. In later years emperors would favor their own religion more, but they would not overly oppress the other religion. The Buddhist Chenghua emperor was a devote believer in both building hundreds of temples where a hundred thousand monks were ordained in 1476 and two hundred thousand in 1486 (although this may be an exaggeration as Chinese sources sometimes embellish statistics). The later Longqing emperor (1521-1567) was a devote Taoist and was so obsessed that he considered abdicating to devote his entire life to his religion. As he was also promised immortality he let his obsession deplete the treasury and in the end it cost him his own life.

The Ming Voyages

The route of the Voyages

In 1405 a fleet of 27,000 people under the command of the eunuch Zheng He set out on the first of seven voyages from Nanjing. The famous Ming voyages represented everything which the Ming stood for in regards to foreign policy. The Ming used a system called the tribute system, inherited from past dynasties, where it viewed China as being the most powerful state in the world (which it basically was) so other states had to give tribute to China. A big reason for the voyages was to project Chinese power. Despite carrying 30,000 soldiers on the first voyage they never conquered, (instead the Ming chose to fight the Mongols and the state of Annam in norther Vietnam), and they went on established trading routes on the Indian Ocean. Instead they carried goods and soldiers to show just how powerful China was. The Ming were not willing to emulate the Yuan's disastrous attempts to conquer Japan and Indonesia. It was also done to prop up the Yongle emperor. In 1402 he had came to power via a coup. These voyages were to be used to show his own power and as he had used eunuchs to come to power he used the eunuch Zheng He to lead his fleet. Zheng He was a Muslim whose father had been an adviser to the Yuan dynasty. Captured at age ten he was made a eunuch and became close to who would become the Yongle emperor. 

The fleet was the largest to sail until the First World War, and it turns out the sources have not been embellished. In the 1960s outside Nanjing the shipyards were discovered confirming the size of the ships. The first voyage was to the Gulf stopping off at Java, Sumatra and Calicut. In Sumatra they overthrew a 'pirate' prince. Zheng He was expected to oust rulers who would not pay tribute to China and they often did so. During the third voyage they captured a king on Sri Lanka and on the fourth they became involved in a civil war on Sumatra. A novel written about the voyages often had parts stating that they came into conflict with other peoples. The fifth is most famous with Zheng He reaching Aden, Mogadishu and Milindi where he brought a giraffe back to China. This was very important as the giraffe was seen to resemble a qilin (often called the 'Chinese unicorn') and a qilin was said to only appear during the rule of a righteous ruler. This gave Yongle his legitimacy. The last voyage arrived back in China in 1433. Julia Lovell has given two reasons why. One is that it was a political move. The voyages were done by Yongle to prop himself up which it had done. When he died his successors had no need to continue them, and the bureaucracy did not like the voyages. One source claimed that one fleet cost half the tax revenue (most likely an embellishment though). A scholar even burnt most of Zheng He's records seeing them as useless. A second reason why they ended was because they served their purpose. Stories had spread of China's power and Zheng He had brought riches back for Yongle to distribute among the elite. No one doubted his legitimacy. The legacy of the voyages are present today. In recent years China has invested heavily in Africa and have pointed towards Zheng He's non-colonial trade as a way to justify their presence in the continent.

The giraffe

Economy and Europe

A Ming vase

As we saw with the voyages international trade with the Ming was one sided. Instead the Ming had an internal trade which shattered their Confucian world system. Some have argued that under the Ming we see an emergence of a 'semicapitalist' economy. Prosperity under the early Ming allowed landlords to become absentee landlords. Landlords could afford to move closer to cities and generations were born accumulating wealth from renting land which they could invest in craft industries and commerce. These benefited artisans who produced more. Eventually we see an emergence of a quasi 'middle class' (although it is inaccurate to directly call them that) wanting luxury goods. Here the merchants came it benefiting from the investment in technologies. The printing press had been invented under the Song but under the Ming commercial printing exploded. Using xylography (woodblock printing) books became cheaper although they were still confined to the elite. Literacy never exceeded 10% of the population. Porcelain also became popular becoming the characteristic design which we know today. This elite culture allowed artisans and merchants to become wealthier than peasants which divided society. The scholar Lu Ji argued this was good as wealth would then trickle down whereas Zhang Han argued it was destabilizing society. Here Europe came onto the scene.

Europeans had known of China for many years. After all Marco Polo was supposed to have been to the court of the Yuan, although this is debatable. In the sixteenth-century Europeans had started to visit China and Asia. In 1557 the Ming leased Macau to Portugal and in 1571 Spain established itself in Manila. Gold and silver from the Americas flowed to China via Manila greatly entrenching China in a global economy. When China switched its currency to silver its worth doubled worldwide. Similarly, Europe valued what China had to offer. In 1608 Europe, through the Dutch East Indian Company, obtained 62,300 pieces of ceramics from China! Chinese ceramics and porcelain was in very high demand. We call our ceramics china today because of the value of Ming ceramics. Also China held more power at this moment in time. Views on Chinese/Western relations today are shaped by either the Opium Wars or current Chinese/Western relations. Under the Ming China viewed the west as another tribute being interested in luxury goods like clocks or metals like silver. If you look at images of Jesuit missionaries at this time they dress in Chinese clothing to honor their hosts. The Ming did value European knowledge. Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci was the first European to be invited to the Forbidden City in 1601 where he was asked by the Wanli emperor to teach his scholars European astronomy and calendar sciences. He even translated Euclid's Elements into Chinese. Europe became obsessed by China and a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms (one of China's most greatest novels) was sent to the library in Madrid. By the time of the French Revolution European philosophes were praising China and what it had to offer.

The Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. A world map made by Chinese scholars and Matteo Ricci

Collapse

In 1644 the Ming collapsed. Why did it though? There are many reasons for the collapse of the Ming dynasty. China's population had boomed under the Ming putting pressure on land. This was made worse by something called the Little Ice Age (a topic for a future World History post). The Little Ice Age was a period of global cooling lasting from possibly the 1500s until the mid-1800s when carbon emissions from the Industrial Revolution warmed up global temperatures (and have continued to do so since). Colder temperatures destroyed crops as well as causing intense storms which in turn caused flooding. Naturally when people are starving they revolt. This became clear to many that the Mandate of Heaven had left the Ming. These issues were compounded by the fact that the government had been weakened by a series of weak emperors, court factionalism, corruption as people were buying their jinshi degrees, and eunuchs greatly influencing emperors, including Wei Zhongxian who ruled over the Tianqi emperor. Social tensions were rising thanks to the increased wealth of merchants and artisans. To make matters worse the economy was flailing thanks to Japan. Influx of silver from Japan (and America) had wrecked the economy and to make things worse Japanese pirates had been raiding coastal cities. Those that China hired to protect against Japanese pirates also became pirates and began raiding more cities. Japan had by then been reunified and the ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, wanted to fulfill his predecessor's dream of conquering China. His intention was to go through Korea and into China. However, Korea was allied to China and was seen as the perfect tribute by China. Korea refused to give Japan access so Hideyoshi decided to invade Korea in 1592. China came to Korea's aid and together they pushed back Japan. However doing so destroyed the Chinese economy. Then came an enemy from the north: the Manchus.

Originally called Jurchens the Manchus came from Manchuria in modern day northern China. Under Nurhaci, who declared himself the founding emperor of a new dynasty in 1616, the Jurchen started to attack the Ming. In 1625 he built an imperial capital at Shenyang (modern Mukden) in lower Manchuria where in 1636 his son, Hung Taiji, started challenging the Ming for the Mandate. As the Manchus, (after 1635 they referred to themselves as Manchus over Jurchen), started invading several rebels started rising up against the Ming. One of the famous was a general called Li Zicheng. At Xi'an in 1644 Li declared that he now had the Mandate and founded the Da Shun dynasty. In April he captured Beijing where the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen, hung himself from a tree in the Forbidden City. Li Zicheng's dynasty was short lived. His soldiers weren't paid so they rioted and sacked Beijing. Meanwhile the invading Manchus said they would restore the Ming and many leading Ming generals allied themselves with the Manchus; it is fairly possible that they knew that the Manchus would not restore the Ming. The Manchus defeated Li Zicheng and declared that they now had the Mandate. In the same year as the overthrowing of the Ming the Manchus declared a start of the Qing dynasty. In 1662 the last Ming claimant was killed. 

Conclusion

The Ming dynasty shows an interesting aspect of Chinese history. The Ming were obsessed with distancing themselves from their Mongol predecessor at all costs. Instead they created an image which many associate with pre-republican China today. The Ming changed Chinese society so much that their successors, the Qing, were eager to honor the fallen dynasty. Today China has tried to emulate aspects of the Ming. As mentioned earlier the PRC has tried to link its current investment in Africa to Zheng He's voyage to Africa in the fifteenth-century. In 2009 an expensive TV drama called Zheng He Xia Xiyang was made to commemorate Zheng He. As we shall later see China under the Ming wasn't the only place affected by the Little Ice Age. Thank you for reading and next time we shall look at the so called 'Age of Discovery' where we compare and contrast several maritime explorers (including Zheng He) to see why they explored, what he explored and whether we can truly call it an 'Age of Discovery'.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Outlines of Chinese History by Li Ung Bing

-Imperial China, 900-1800 by F.W. Mote

-The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence

-The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty by Albert Chan

-China: A History by John Keay

-'The Ming Voyages', BBC In Our Time

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

World History: The Origins of Russia

Novgorod Marketplace

We briefly talked about Russia in the post about Vikings and the Mongols. In Western imagination and history Russia has always been seen as the 'other'. Not quite Europe, and not quite Asia. This has been the case throughout history: the Russian Empire was seen as 'Oriental', by the mid-nineteenth century the empire was seen as backward, the USSR was the ideological enemy which almost led to nuclear war, and even today Putin's Russia has been seen as the 'other'. This is a shame as Russia has had a vibrant, unique history as great as any place in Western Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. This post will summarize the origins of Russia from the first Russian state with the Kievan Rus up to the formation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. However, the period we are covering if we called the land Russia a contemporary would have no idea what we were talking about. For simplicity we'll refer to it as Russia.

Origins of the Kievan Rus

Kievan Rus at its height

You may be wondering why we are starting with the Kievan Rus considering that Kiev is Ukraine's capital. Over a thousand years ago there wasn't an idea of Ukraine and Russia, and without the Kievan Rus there would be no Russia. There is some historiographical debate around the origins of the Kievan Rus. There are two schools of historiography: the 'Normanist' and the Nationalist schools. The Nationalist school states that the Kievan Rus was founded by Slavs, whereas the Normanist school states that the Rus were Vikings who founded trading posts along the Dnieper. There is strong evidence to suggest both. Archaeological evidence and written sources indicate that Vikings, called Varangians, were in the area while if we look at Russian and Ukrainian they sound nothing like Swedish. Elizabeth Howe has suggested that the subjects were Slavic and the Grand Princes (not kings) of Kiev were originally Varangian but became Slavic. Using the Russian Primary Chronicle we go from Rurik, to Oleg, to Igor showing a clear shift from Scandinavian names to Slavic names. The Slavs entered written history during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian where they appear across the Danube from the direction of the Carpathians. In 626 with the Avars, either a Turkic or Mongol people, they even attacked the Empire, and the following two centuries they settled the Balkans. Others settled north along the upper Dnieper where they mingled with the Baltic and Finnish tribal peoples. There they encountered the Varangians. 

The Varangians possibly came from Ruslagen in eastern Sweden and for years had been collecting tribute from the Baltic, Finnish, and Saami peoples. They also were big traders where a quarter of a million Islamic coins have been found in the Baltic. The Varangians started forming trade posts from Lake Ladoga, the Dnieper, and the Volga giving them access to the Black and Caspian Seas. Quite often they would go to Baghdad to access the very lucrative Islamic markets. Arabs even went north with Ibn Faldan in the 900s describing a Viking-style ship burial. The Russian Primary Chronicle, 'Tale of Bygone Years', (written by eleventh-twelfth century monks so they are not primary sources and must be taken with a pinch of salt) talk of the Varangian growing control over the locals:

859. The Varangians from beyond the sea imposed tribute upon the Chuds, the Slavs, the Merians, the Ves, the Krivichians. But the Khazars imposed it upon the Polianians, the Severians and the Viatichians, and collected a squirrel-skin and a beaver-skin from earth hearth.

860-2. The tributaries of the Varangians drove them back beyond the sea, and, refusing them further tribute, set out to govern themselves. There was no law among them... And they began to war one against one another. They said to themselves: 'Let us seek a prince who may rule over us and judge us according to law'. They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Russes: these particular Varangians were called Russes, just as some are called Swedes, and others Normans, Angles and Goths, for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs and the Krivichians then said to the people of Rus, 'Our whole land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us'. They thus selected three brothers [Rurik, Sineus and Truvor] with their kinsfolk, who took with them all the Russes, and migrated.

A Russian historiography places the founding of the Kievan Rus in 882 when Oleg of Novgorod became Grand Prince (although the settlement itself existed long this date). Oleg moved the capital from Novgorod to Kiev. We shall then continue the story of Russia from here.

The Kievan Rus

The Baptism of the Kievans by Klavdiy Lebedev

Like with their origins the Kievan Rus was built on trade. According to Arab traveler Ibn Rusta:

[The Rus] have no cultivated land. They eat only what they carry off from the land of the Saqlaba [the woodland Slavs, Balts and Finns]...They have no landed property nor villages nor cultivated land; their only occupation is trading in grey squirrel and other furs.

As shown in this quote trade was integral to the Rus. Coins and amber came from the extremely rich cities of the Islamic Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire, and slaves came from all over. Slavery was prolific in the Rus where even one of the possible origins for the English word 'slave' coming from 'Slav'. A 'Varangian Guard' was even made for the Byzantines indicating that the reputation of the Rus made them the best bodyguards for the Second Rome. The Kievan Rus lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns of traditional feudal societies although they had their unique structures. Merchants, laborers, and artisans in urban areas could exercise some political influence through a council called the veche. There was even an entire class of peasants who paid tribute directly to the princes so traditional serfdom was not present in the Rus. Despite the conception that women had no place in society during this time period there were several powerful regents who were women. In 945 Grand Prince Igor was killed fighting rebellious tributaries and his widow Olga (Helga) ruled until her son, Sviatoslav, came of age in 962. Olga was sent to Byzantium in 957 where she personally met with Emperor Constantine VII to organize trade. Rus relations with the Empire was marked by conflict and cooperation. War between the two broke out in 907, 941 and 971 leading to treaties giving the Rus trading rights in 911, 944 and 971 (notice how they did not seize land during these treaties). 

In 980 Vladimir became Grand Prince after conflict broke out among the sons of Sviatoslav with the aid of Novgorod. What I would argue is the most important event in Russian history occurred in Vladimir's reign. The Kievan Rus had various religions within its borders with most being polytheistic. Upon becoming Grand Prince Vladimir had erected idols to Norse, Slav, Finn and Iranian gods to bolster support for himself following the succession conflict. However, he would make a huge impact on religion in the area: he converted to Orthodox Christianity. In the 860s the Byzantines sent two missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, to convert the Slavic peoples. When Bulgaria converted they adopted a script similar to Greek, Cyrillic, which would spread to Russia. Orthodoxy was not the only Abrahamic religion to convert to. Trade had exposed the Rus to Islam through the Caliphate, Judaism from Khazaria, and Olga had invited a Catholic mission from Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. The Russian Primary Chronicle states that Vladimir had emissaries find out about Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam to see which was best. It stated that Catholic ritual was without beauty, Judaism passed over in silence, Islam banned alcohol which was required in the primary bonding ceremonial of the druzhina (retinue in service of a chieftain) but Orthodoxy's divine service was described as being so beautiful that 'we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth'. Although closer ties with the Byzantines was likely the true cause for conversion to Orthodoxy. Thus Russia became Orthodox. In 1019 Yaroslav the Wise came to power who created the Russkaya Pravda. This was a major law reform which even made no reference to corporal or capital punishment in reference to the old Norse law code. This code was so successful that it would last for centuries. Finally, Yaroslav granted Novgorod more independence for helping place both him and his father on the throne thus forming the groundwork for the Novgorod Republic. After Yaroslav's death the Rus went into decline as principalities started fighting over power. In 1136 Novgorod dismissed the prince (which had been appointed by the Kievans) and formed the Novgorod Republic, Constantinople went into decline, and the Crusades sapped further power away from Constantinople. Novgorod even started to replace Kiev as a major economic center. Then in 1223 the Mongols invaded and the Kievan Rus was conquered by 1240.

Mongols and Novgorod

Alexander Nevsky

In 1240 Kiev fell although several major centers of power like Novgorod had submitted before being overrun by the Mongols. The Russian lands of the Mongol empire was organized into a khanate called Kipchak, or the Golden Horde in European and Russian sources, with a capital at Sarai on the lower Volga. Despite many fleeing to the relative safety of Tver and Moscow the structures of power remained the same in many cities. The Mongols were relatively tolerant in religious matters so the Orthodox church retained its power, and the princes still ruled. However, they ruled at the pleasure of the khan, such as Prince Yaroslav of Vladimir in 1243 being made Great Prince of Kiev and Vladimir for paying tribute. Mongol rule has often been described as 'the Tatar Yoke'. The princes actually gained more power through Mongol rule as the Mongols prevented fighting by appointing princes, and the veches were given less power in return. The seeds for the autocracy of the Russian Empire were sown here. Many resented the stripping of the veche's power, and enslaving/conscripting householders who failed to pay their dues. Electing princes, diplomacy over war and peace, taxation, and recruitment into the militia were now controlled by the Mongols where they had been controlled by the veche forging an alliance between the veche and people. There were several risings, such as in 1262, which the Mongols put down. As the years went on the Mongols started giving more autonomy to cities to collect taxes.

We now need to talk about Novgorod. Like Kiev it had been founded as a major trading city and had been the capital before Kiev was. It became so powerful that it managed to choose the princes of Kiev. As their overlord Kiev had appointed the Novgorod prince until 1136 when they ousted the Kievan prince, appointed their own, and formed the Novgorod republic. Often overlooked Novgorod was a fairly democratic society compared to the other societies of contemporary Europe. A traditional narrative states that the Novgorod government ran through the veches, posadniks (mayors),  tysyatskys ('thousandmen' who originally were militia heads but later were judicial and commercial officials), archbishops and boyars (aristocrats). A Soviet (and a Marxist) historiography has described Novgorod as a 'feudal republic' although it has been contested whether Russia was ever feudal in the same sense as the West which the historiography implies. The most famous Novgorodian prince is Alexander Nevsky who has become a cultural icon in Russia. The same year that the Mongols sacked Kiev (1240) he won the Battle of Neva against a Swedish army, (although this battle is not mentioned in non-Russian sources). Nevsky opted to subordinate Novgorod to the Golden Horde. The Roman Curia had hoped that Novgorod would go to war against the Mongols, which would forestall an invasion of the rest of Europe. Historians have debated why. Some have argued that Nevsky saw Catholicism as a greater threat to Russia while the more tolerant Tatars could aid Russia. Others have argued that it was more self-serving pragmatism; aiding the Mongols would preserve his power while a war would certainly end it. Either way it further placed Russia in the Orthodox camp.

Rise of Moscow

Dormition Cathedral, Moscow

As we all know Moscow is the capital of Russia today. Until the creation of St Petersburg, and after the Russian Revolution Moscow was Russia's capital. How did Moscow usurp Novgorod and Kiev as the most powerful city? Founded in 1147 Moscow remained largely insignificant until the thirteenth century. Thanks to the Mongols many had fled to Moscow boosting the city's population. It was well situated being on the Movska River, (good for trade), and has a relatively high elevation (making it easy to defend). Quite fortuitously the princes of Moscow produced male heirs (like many societies it was patriarchal) and curried the favor of the Mongols. Ivan I of Muscovy was granted the responsibility for collecting the tribute from the Rus and he became very wealthy as a result. In fact he earned the nickname 'Kalita' which literally translates to 'Moneybags'. Ivan used his wealth to buy land from other principalities and to fund the construction of churches. Princely power in Muscovy became heavily linked to the church. Meanwhile, Mongol power was slipping. Collapse of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China separated the Golden Horde from the rest of the empire and the various khanates warred against one another. In Europe growing powers like Lithuania started to chip away at the horde. Also Russia loathed the Mongols. The Mongols were seen as punishment from God and were begrudged for the raids/tributes. Moscow had gotten powerful and in 1380 Dmitrii Ivanovich led a coalition handing the Mongols a major defeat at the Battle of Kulikovo Field. Although the Mongols regrouped and sacked Moscow in 1382 the idea of Mongol invincibility was shattered. They besieged Moscow again in 1408 but it could not save the Horde. It became split between the Crimean Khanate (1430), the Kazan Khanate (1436), the Astrakhan and the Great Horde. 

Moscow's predominance almost ended in 1431 in what Roger Bartlett described as a Muscovite equivalent of the Wars of the Roses. In 1431 Vasily II's reign was challenged by his uncle, Yuri, and a civil war erupted. During the war Vasily captured his cousin, Vasily the Cross-Eyed, and blinded his cross-eyed cousin only for later on to be blinded by his other cousin. In the end Vasily II won the war. His son, Ivan III, became Grand Prince and continued to expand the realm. Under Vasily and Ivan Moscow's control expanded by 1,000,000 kilometers squared. In 1478 Ivan III captured Novgorod destroyed the veche, massacred the population and, destroyed the library and archives. Ivan died in 1505 after a successful war with Lithuania. In 1533 Ivan's grandson, Ivan IV, would not be crowned Grand Prince as his father was. Instead he was crowned Tsar or 'Caesar'. After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 Moscow became the main seat of Orthodoxy. As a result Moscow claimed to be the Third Rome (Rome being the first and Byzantium being the second). With Ivan crowned Tsar the Tsardom of Russia was formed. Ivan would be known as 'the Great', 'the Awesome', 'the Awe-inspiring', and most famously 'the Terrible'. However, that is for a future post.

Conclusion

Russia has often been described as one of the 'in-between lands'. Kiev was founded through the actions of Slavs and Scandinavians of the West while Russia was founded thanks to Slavs and Mongols in the East. However, this description is often used negatively. For centuries Russia has been portrayed as being 'backward' or 'archaic' in Western culture. By looking at the origins of Russia we see a rich culture born through trade and diplomacy. We see a state born through clever political maneuverings. This is something often overlooked in world history. Next time we will look go to West Africa to look at Mali and Songhai, and a man reported to be the richest man in history.

Thank you for reading and the sources I have used are as follows:

-A History of Russia by Roger Bartlett

-Russia and the Russians: From Earliest Times to 2001 by Geoffrey Hosking

-'The Volga Vikings', BBC In Our Time podcast

-The Mongols by David Morgan

-Crash Course World History: Russia, the Kievan Rus and the Mongols

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

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