Crash Course World History: “Wait for It – the Mongols” #17 The Mongol Empire is thought of as stereotypically barbarian, yet it created new nations and created the world’s first free trade zone. It flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries and at its height formed the largest contiguous land empire in world history.
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Mongol influence, in many ways, led Europe to the Renaissance. Fostered exchange of medical knowledge by establishing hospitals and training centers, bringing together the best doctors of the time from India and the Middle East with Chinese healers.
In a world where skills were highly localized and protected, the Mongols facilitated global knowledge transmission by employing Persian mathematicians and architects in China and moving Chinese doctors to Persia. This aided in the free transmission of knowledge and skill development across Eurasia.
Owing to their adaptability, their skill in communications, and their reputation for ferocity, the Mongols swept across Eurasia over the 13th and 14th centuries, quickly assembling the largest contiguous empire in world history. These non-state actors had to quickly learn how to become a state themselves.
At the empire's peak, Mongols controlled up to 12 million square miles. Despite its reputation for brutal warfare, the Mongol Empire briefly enabled peace, stability, trade, and protected travel under a period of “Pax Mongolica,” or Mongol peace, beginning in about 1279 and lasting until the empire's end.
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
The Mongol Empire (1206-1368) was founded by Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), first Great Khan or 'universal ruler' of the Mongol peoples. Genghis forged the empire by uniting nomadic tribes of the Asian steppe and creating a devastatingly effective army with fast, light, and highly coordinated cavalry.
The Mongols created the largest land empire by having very effective strategies and by placing part of the Eurasian mainland under a single rule. They created the world's largest land empire by bringing much of the Eurasian landmass under one rule.
Thus, the Mongol Empire arose as a result of two typical factors in steppe politics—Chinese imperial interference and the need for plunder—plus one quirky personal factor. Had Shah Muhammad's manners been better, the western world might never have learned to tremble at the name of Genghis Khan.
Altogether, the Mongols possessed a highly developed and complex military structure. This provided them an edge in warfare over their opponents, but a key to Mongol success in war and conquest was the melding of traditional and still effective steppe tactics with new tactics and forms of warfare they encountered.
The Mongols actively promoted international commerce, and the Mongol trading circuit that stretched from China to the Near East was a central element in an even larger commercial network that linked much of the Afro-Eurasian world in the thirteenth century.
The Mongols gained power because they had a strong army. The stirrup helped them have steady aim and the crossbow helped them kill many people. They were strong horsemen. Genghis Khan led them to power.
The Mongols were one of many nomadic groups who lived in the vast open grassland planes of Eurasia: the Steppe. The Mongols (and most other nomads) frequently fought amongst each other for power and rarely unified under a single leader.