Wait for it... the Mongols!

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Wait for it... the Mongols!발음듣기

This is Crash Course World History and, today, we're going to discuss, wait for it, the Mongols!발음듣기

(wild galloping music) So you probably have a picture of the Mongols in your head. Yes, that's the picture.발음듣기

Brutal, bloodthirsty, swarthy, humorously mustachioed warriors riding the plains, wearing fur, eating meat directly off the bone, saying, "Bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar."발음듣기

In short, we imagine the Mongol Empire as stereotypically barbarian, and that's not entirely wrong.발음듣기

But, if you've been reading recent World History textbooks, like we here at Crash Course have, you might have a different view of the Mongols, one that emphasizes the amazing speed and success of their conquests.발음듣기

How they conquered more land in 25 years than the Romans did in 400.발음듣기

How they controlled more than 11 million contiguous square miles.발음듣기

And, you may even have read that the Mongols basically created nations like Russia, and even Korea.발음듣기

One historian has even claimed that the Mongols smashed the feudal system and created international law.발음듣기

Renowned for their religious tolerance, the Mongols, in this view, created the first great free trade zone, like a crazy medieval Eurasian NAFTA.발음듣기

And, that's not entirely wrong either.발음듣기

Stupid truth, always resisting simplicity. (upbeat lively music playing) So remember herders?발음듣기

We talked about them, back in Episode 1, as an alternative to hunting and gathering or agriculture.발음듣기

Here are the key things to remember.발음듣기

1. Nomads aren't Jack Kerouac. They don't go on random road trips.발음듣기

They migrate according to climate conditions so they can feed their flocks.발음듣기

2. Nomads don't generally produce manufactured goods, which means they need to trade, so they almost always live near settled people.발음듣기

And 3. Because they generally live close to nature and in harsh conditions, pastoralists tend to be tougher than diamond-plated differential calculus.발음듣기

Think of the Huns, or the Xiongnu, or the Mongols.발음듣기

(wild galloping music) Okay. Stan, that's enough. Back to me. Come.발음듣기

STAN! I AM THE STAR OF THE SHOW, NOT THE MONGOLS! Hi. Sorry about that.발음듣기

So one last thing. Pastoral people also tend to be more egalitarian, especially where women are concerned.발음듣기

Paradoxically, when there's less to go around, humans tend to share more, and when both men and women must work, for the social order to survive, there tends to be less patriarchal domination of women, although Mongol women rarely went to war.발음듣기

I can't tell your gender. I mean you've got the pants, but then you also have the [floopity] flop, so that's the technical term, by the way. I'm [an] historian.발음듣기

If you had to choose a pastoral nomadic group to come out of central Asia and dominate the world, you probably wouldn't have chosen the Mongols, because, for most of the history we've been discussing, they just hung out in the foothills, bordering the Siberian forest, mixing herding and hunting, quietly getting really good at archery and riding horses.발음듣기

Also, the Mongols were much smaller than other pastoral groups, like the Tatars or the Uighurs.발음듣기

And, not to get all great man history on you or anything, but the reason the Mongols came to dominate the world really started with one guy, Genghis Khan.발음듣기

The story goes that Genghis, or Chinggis, Khan was born around 1162, with the name Temujin, to a lowly clan.발음듣기

His father was poisoned to death, leaving Temujin under the control of his older brothers, one of whom he soon killed during an argument.발음듣기

By 19, he was married to his first, and most important, wife, B?rte, who was later kidnapped.발음듣기

This was pretty common among the Mongols;발음듣기

Temujin's mom had also been kidnapped.발음듣기

In rescuing his wife, Temujin proved his military mettle and he soon became a leader of his tribe, but uniting the Mongol confederations required a civil war, which he won, largely thanks to two innovations.발음듣기

First, he promoted people based on merit, rather than family position, and, second, he brought lower classes of conquered people into his own tribe, while dispossessing the leaders of the conquered clans.발음듣기

Thus he made peasants love him.발음듣기

The rich hated him, but they didn't matter anymore, because they were no longer rich.발음듣기

With these two building block policies, Temujin was able to win the loyalty of more and more people and, in 1206, he was declared the Great Khan, the leader of all the Mongols. How?발음듣기

Well, the Mongols chose their rulers in a really cool way. A prospective ruler would call a general council, called a kuriltai, and anyone who supported his candidacy for leadership would show up on their horses, literally voting with their feet.발음듣기

Child John: Mr. Green! Mr. Green!발음듣기

But horses don't have feet; they have hooves.발음듣기

John: I hate you, Me From The Past.발음듣기

ALSO, NO INTERRUPTING THE THOUGHT BUBBLE!발음듣기

After uniting the Mongols, Genghis Khan went on to conquer a lot of territory.발음듣기

By the time he died, in his sleep, in 1227, his empire stretched from the Mongol homeland, in Mongolia, all the way to the Caspian Sea. Thanks, Thought Bubble.발음듣기

So that's a pretty good looking empire and, sure, a lot of it was pasture, or mountains, or desert, but the Mongols did conquer a lot of people, too.발음듣기

And, in some ways, with Genghis' death, the empire was just getting started.발음듣기

His son, ?g?dei Khan, expanded the empire even more, and Genghis' grandson, M?ngke, was the Great Khan in 1258 when Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, fell to the Mongols.발음듣기

And, another of Genghis' grandsons, Kublai Khan, conquered the Song Dynasty, in China, in 1279.발음듣기

And, if the Mamluks hadn't stopped another of Genghis' grandsons, at the battle of Ain Jalut, they probably would have taken all of North Africa.발음듣기

Man, Genghis Khan sure had a lot of grandkids.발음듣기

Well, it must be time for the open letter.발음듣기

(gentle electronic harp music playing) An open letter to Genghis Khan's descendants.발음듣기

Oh, but, first, let's check what's in the secret compartment today.발음듣기

(gentle electronic harp music playing) Oh, a noisemaker and champagne poppers.발음듣기

Stan, you know I suck at these. What's all this for?발음듣기

OH, IT'S BECAUSE IT'S A BIRTHDAY PARTY! YAY!발음듣기

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GENGHIS KHAN'S DESCENDANTS!발음듣기

How do I know it's your birthday, Genghis Khan's descendants? Because every day is your birthday.발음듣기

Because, right now, on the planet Earth, there are 16 million direct descendants of Genghis Khan, meaning that every day is the birthday of 43,000 of them.발음듣기

So, good news, Genghis Khan. Your empire might be gone, but your progeny lives on, and on, and on, and on.발음듣기

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Best wishes, John Green. Unfortunately for the Mongols, those guys weren't always working together, because Genghis Khan failed to create a single political unit out of his conquests.발음듣기

Instead, after Genghis' death, the Mongols were left with 4 really important empires called the Khanates: the Yuan Dynasty in China, the Ilkhanate in Persia, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, and the Khanate of the Golden Horde in Russia.발음듣기

If you remember all the way back to the Hellenistic period, this is similar to what happened to another good general who wasn't much for administration, Alexander the Great.발음듣기

Also, neither of them ever conquered India.발음듣기

The Mongols succeeded, primarily, because of their military skill.발음듣기

Genghis Khan's army, which never numbered more than 130,000, was built on speed and archery, just like this guy.발음듣기

Mongol mounted archers were like super-fast tanks, compared to the foot soldiers and knights they were up against.발음듣기

But, wait, all the military history nerds are saying, "Once people knew the Mongols were coming, "why didn't they just hole up in castles and forts?발음듣기

It's not like the Mongols had flying horses.발음듣기

EXCEPT THEY DID. They didn't?발음듣기

Stan, why are you always making history boring?!발음듣기

So the Mongols apparently didn't have flying horses, but they were uncommonly adaptable.발음듣기

So even though they'd never seen a castle before they started raiding, they became experts at siege warfare by interrogating prisoners.발음듣기

And, they also adopted gunpowder, probably introducing it to Europeans, and they even built ships so they could attack Japan.발음듣기

That might have worked, too, except there happened to be a typhoon.발음듣기

Also, people were terrified of the Mongols.발음듣기

Often, cities would surrender the moment the Mongols arrived, just to escape slaughter.발음듣기

But, of course, that only happened because there were occasions when the Mongols did slaughter entire towns.발음듣기

So, with all that background, let us return to the question of Mongol awesomeness.발음듣기

First, 5 arguments for awesome:1. The Mongols really did reinvigorate cross-Eurasian trade.발음듣기

The Silk Road trading routes that had existed for about 1,000 years by the time the Mongols made the scene, had fallen into disuse, but the Mongols valued trade, because they could tax it, and they did a great job of keeping their empire safe.발음듣기

It was said that a man could walk from one end of the Mongol empire to the other, with a gold plate on his head, without ever fearing being robbed.발음듣기

2. The Mongols increased communication, through Eurasia, by developing this pony express-like system of way stations, with horses and riders that could quickly relay information.발음듣기

It was called the Yam System and it also included these amazing bronze passports, which facilitated travel.발음듣기

3. Another thing that travelled along Mongol trade routes was cuisine.발음듣기

For example, it was because of the Mongols that rice became a staple of the Persian diet, which I mention entirely because I happen to like Persian food.발음듣기

4. The Mongols forcibly relocated people who were useful to them, like artists, and musicians, and, especially, administrators.발음듣기

As you can imagine, the Mongols weren't much for administrative tasks, like keeping records, so they found people who were good at that stuff and just moved them around the empire.발음듣기

This created the kind of cross-cultural pollination that world historians, these days, get really excited about.발음듣기

And 5. The Mongols were almost, unprecedentedly, tolerant of different religions.발음듣기

They themselves were shamanists, believing in nature spirits, but since their religion was tied to the land from which they came, they didn't expect new people to adopt it, and they didn't ask them to.발음듣기

So you could find Muslims and Buddhists and Christians, and people of any other religion you can think of, prospering throughout the Mongol empire.발음듣기

And, it's that kind of openness that has led historians to go back and re-evaluate the Mongols, seeing them as a precursor to modernity.발음듣기

But there is another side of the story that we should not forget, so here are 5 reasons why the Mongols might not be so great:1. Here is Genghis Khan's definition of happiness.발음듣기

The greatest happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, "to rob them of their wealth, "to see those dear to them bathed in tears, "to clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."발음듣기

Off-topic but, if that quote rings a bell, it might be because Oliver Stone blatantly plagiarized Genghis Khan in the movie, "Conan The Barbarian."발음듣기

2. Is an extension of 1.발음듣기

The Mongols were seriously brutal conquerors.발음듣기

I mean, not uniquely brutal, but still ...발음듣기

The Mongols often destroyed entire cities, and most historians estimate the number they killed to be in the millions.발음듣기

3. Their empire didn't last.발음듣기

Within 80 years they'd left China and been replaced by a new dynasty, the Ming.발음듣기

And, in Persia, they blended in so completely that, by the 15th century, they were totally unrecognizable.발음듣기

I mean, they'd even taken up agriculture!발음듣기

Agriculture! The last refuge of scoundrels who want to devote their lives to working instead of [skoodillypooping]!발음듣기

4. They also weren't particularly interested in artistic patronage or architecture.발음듣기

I mean, your palace may last forever, but my yurt can go anywhere.발음듣기

5. The Mongols were probably responsible for the Black Death. By opening up trade, they also opened up vectors for disease to travel; in the case of the Plague, via fleas infected with Yersinia pestis.발음듣기

And, at least, according to one story, the Mongols intentionally spread the plague by catapulting their plague-ridden cadavers over the walls of Caffa in the Crimea.발음듣기

While this primitive act of biological warfare might have happened, it's unlikely to be what actually spread the plague.발음듣기

More likely it was the fleas on the rats in the holds of Black Sea ships that were trading with Europe.발음듣기

But, that trade only existed because of the Mongols.발음듣기

All right, Stan, one last time - cue the Mongol-tage.발음듣기

(wild galloping music) So the Mongols promoted trade, diversity, and tolerance, and they also promoted slaughter and senseless destruction.발음듣기

And, what you think about the Mongols ends up saying a lot about you.발음듣기

Do you value artistic output over religious diversity?발음듣기

Is imperialism that doesn't last better or worse than imperialism that does?발음듣기

And, are certain kinds of warfare inherently wrong?발음듣기

If you think those are easy questions to answer, then I haven't been doing my job. (lighthearted cartoon music)발음듣기

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