Mongols

link to Espirit for mongols:

-when ghengis khan was eected as khagan of the mongol tribes, he brought organization, discipline, and unity of command to his empire which ranged from persia to the north china sea, at the time of his death in 1227.
 * leaders were elected by free men
 * diplomatic skills and holding on to power while still remaining successful
 * Ghengis khan- first elected khagan or supreme ruler in a major meeting
 * kuriltai- meeting of mongol chiefs- planned an assault
 * khan was no more than 40 and had enrolled half a million mongols
 * when he passed away his third son elected grand khan
 * he furthered mongol expansion a decade later
 * when he died, his control was divided between his three sons and his grandson
 * main idea for political:

Notes for pgs. 315-321

The Mongol interlude in Chinese history: MI: Kublai Khan ruled all of China and made many changes and laws for peoples' lives, even though he greatly admired Chinese ways of living, etc.

detail: Khan forbade chinese scholars to learn Mongol script, Mongols forbeddened to marry ethnic chinese and only women from nomadic families were chosen for the imperial harem, friendship/relationships with each other was out of the question, and many chinese military forces were kept seperate from Mongols

detail: conquered Song Empire

detail: put the empire on the chinese calender and offered sacrifices to his ancestors at a special temple in the imperial city

detail: Yuan era- new social structure established with Mongols on top and central asian nomadic and muslim allies directly belowe them then chinese then ethnic chinese and minority people of the south

Gender Roles and the Convergence of Mongol and Chinese Culture: MI: Kublai Khan's most trusted confidants was his wife, Chabi, and women were more free to participate in "man" events but were still expected to do work in the household.

detail: Mongol women refuse to practice footbinding

detail: retained own rights of property and control within household and freedom to move around the town and country side

detail: some women joined in on the hunt with their husbands and at the head of their own hunting parties.

Mongol Tolerance and Foreign Cultural Influence: MI: Kublai Khan was very open to foreign influence and demanded tolerance in his domain for other religions and customs.

detail: Muslims- second highest on social pyramid, designed and supervise building of khan's chinese-style palace, proposed new systems for tax collection, muslim doctors ran imperial hospitals and added translations of 36 volumes on Muslim medicine to imperial library

detail: Persians and Turks- admitted into khans inner circle of administratorsand advisors, persian astronomers imported more advanced Middle Eastern instuments for celestial observations, corrected chinese calender, made most accurate chinese maps

detail: buddhists, nestorian christians, daoists, and latin christians made their way into khan's court

Social Policies and Scholar-Gentry Resistance: MI: Most of the scholar-gentry saw Kublai Khan and his successors as barbarians whose policies endangered chinese traditions even though Khan cultivated Confucian rituals and employed Chinese bureaucrats.

detail: ethnic chinese made up most of the population especially in the south

detail: during Yuan period in china, merchants prospered and commerce boomed because of mongol efforts to improve transportation and expand the supply of paper money

The Fall of the House of Yuan: MI: By the end of Kublais reign the dynasty was weak and collasping.

detail: mongols developed substantial navy which played major role in conquest of Song empire and after used to put down pirates

detail: revolts led by Song loyalists and the failed attempts of expeditions

detail: death of khans wife and son impacted his life greatly for the worse and this made him a weaker leader for the ending period of the yuan.

summary of notes: Kublai Khan followed in the footsteps of Chiggins Khan in ruling a great empire, china, that expanded and grew economically, socially, and politically. Kublai encouraged the tolerance of other religions in his domain and many foreigners were accepted into his court. After failed expeditions and revolts, the yuan empire fell.