The Decline of the Mongol Empire

Even good empires collapse. Some would say no empire has ever been good since empires arise through the expansionist policies of con uerors! but nearly all empires have brought some good. " few have brought great good. Even the bloody and brutal expansion of the Mongol Empire led ultimately to peace and trade over the largest contiguous land mass ever controlled by one people and to what one historian has called! the ma#ing of the modern world. The vision of $enghis %han! however! was not to last. &is desire to create a universal culture of pure Mongol living dissipated during the reign of his immediate successor! 'gedei. The Mongol Empire! li#e all empires! collapsed through overexpansion and the tragic flaws of its original culture. The uestion is still debated whether or not the Mongols were merely a scourge to which civili(ed people said! $ood riddance! or #ey global visionaries without whom our modern world would be impossible. 'gedei sought to create a lasting symbol of the Mongol Empire)s wealth and power so he ordered *hinese builders to create the largest structure in Mongolia! the +alace of Ten,Thousandfold +eace. The palace sat atop an earthen mound measuring -./ by -0. feet and had a tiled roof and floors as well as statues and frescoes on the walls. " hint at one Mongol tragic flaw! however! is evident in the description of a curious fountain in the midst of the palace1 "t its roots are four lions of silver! each with a conduit through it! and all belching forth white mil# of mares. "nd four conduits are led inside the tree to its tops! which are bent downward! and on each of these is also a gilded serpent! whose tail twines round the tree. "nd from one of these pipes flows wine! from another cara cosmos! or clarified mare)s mil#! from another bal! a drin# made with honey! and from another rice mead! which is called terracina2 and for each li uor there is a special silver bowl at the foot of the tree to receive it. Mongols! in other words! dran# themselves to death individually and as an empire. There is some comfort in the fact that a people used to slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocents could not do it and stay sober. 3ew Mongol rulers lived beyond the age of 4/! a fact that created instability in succession. Success also brought a troubling cultural dilemma. Mongol rulers lived in great opulence amidst great treasures in heated palaces while most Mongols could not get used to living within walls. 'rdinary Mongol families set up their yurts and lived outside capital cities in the many divided %hanates with their horses! cattle! and sheep. Most Mongol citi(ens of the empire refused to become farmers! and the con uered people refused to ta#e up Mongol ways. Stagnation set in as Mongols lost the lust for military con uest. "s in 5ome! the Mongol armies were increasingly made up of mercenaries and soldiers drafted from con uered peoples. These events led to what seemed impossible! the first defeat of a Mongol army in -67/. 8ronically! an army of Egyptians from the culture that created the world)s first empire ended the expansion of the world)s largest contiguous empire. 9ithout continued aggressive military expansion the Mongol Empire began to lose its cohesiveness and thereafter declined swiftly.

5eligious factors hastened the collapse. The pure Mongol culture was eroded by the conversion of the Mongols in the Middle East to 8slam and of those in *hina to :uddhism. The religious toleration advocated by $enghis %han was undone. These religious commitments led the Mongols to sub;ugation of especially the *hinese who clung to *onfucian ideals. 8n the Middle East! :uddhism and the traditional Mongol shamanism were both purged along with *hristianity in favor of 8slam. So! Muslim Mongols purged :uddhists and others while :uddhist Mongols persecuted *onfucians< confusing= Everyone thought so then! too. The Mongol dynasty of *hina! the >uan! had been established by $enghis %han)s grandson! %ublai %han in -6?@. 8n ;ust a few decades the new dynasty was in trouble in regard to the Mandate of &eaven. "part from the conscription of *hinese wor#ers! heavy taxation! and the removal of weapons and even iron tools! #nives! and horses from *hinese farmers! earth ua#es and floods caused discontent. Sei(ure of land for pasturing Mongol animals touched off widespread famine. "s this discontent grew! more and more of the Mongols had abandoned the life of warriors and ta#en up farming with slaves. This alien lifestyle left the army wea# and many Mongol plantation owners destitute because of their ignorance of how to wor# the land. Then something even worse happened. 9hen we thin# of the :lac# Death we commonly associate the plague)s furor with its impact in Europe and forget that it originated in "sia! in the south of *hina. The curious story of how the Mongols spread the plague is another seeming punishment on them for the abandonment of the culture thought best by $enghis %han. 9hile nomadic! Mongols were impervious to the plague. The fleas that carry the pla ue bacterium li#ed neither the taste of human blood nor the smell of horses so Mongols on the move did not contract the horrible disease. 5ats don)t live in yurts. 9hen Mongols settled down in cities! however! and opened up trade routes across "sia! the :lac# Death saw its chance Aif diseases were sentient beings! that isB. The fleas stowed away on rats in food shipments! inhabited marmot colonies in the $obi Desert! and then made it to urban areas in *hina by -CC-! #illing @/D of the people in &opei +rovince. :y -C04 it reached the capital of the $olden &orde and bro#e out in the Mongol army laying siege to the *rimean port city of %affa. The Mongol ruler called off the siege and retreated! but not before the disease too# hold in the city Asome reports say by Mongol plague victims) bodies being catapulted over the city wallsB. 3rom there! rats boarded ships bound for 8taly and<you #now the rest of that story. Estimates are that C? million of the ?4 million people #illed by the pla ue by the year -0// were "sians. The *hinese blamed the >uan dynasty for this nightmare. The Mongols in *hina and Mongolia were cut off from their brothers in +ersia and 5ussia as trade collapsed. Every Mongol principality was left to deal with its own disgruntled underlings alone. Military superiority and commercial wealth! the two great powers of the Mongols! were destroyed by invisible enemies that rode rats to war instead of horses. The unrest of *hina manifested itself in peasant uprisings. 8n the most successful of these uprisings! the peasant,leader *hu >uan,chang marched an army in -C7. toward :e;ing! the >uan capital. The last >uan AMongolB Emperor simply fled with 7/!/// of his people to %ara#orum! 'gedei)s capital city bac# in Mongolia. &e left 0//!/// Mongols to the mercy of the rebels. *hu >uan,chang declared the founding of the Ming! or brilliant Dynasty. Twenty years later a Ming army marched north and completely erased

%ara#orum from the face of the Earth. The Mongols living there fled bac# north to the steppe. Mongols rulers began to disappear across the Empire. 'ne of the last Mongol rulers of +ersia! $ha(an! had instituted sharia law and imposed 8slam ma#ing enemies of :uddhists as well as Eews and *hristians. $ha(an even banned $enghis %han)s $reat >asa! the traditional law code of the Mongols. The last Mongol ruler of +ersia died without an heir in -CC4. %orea bro#e free and returned its peninsula into the hands of its own native dynasty as had the *hinese who were so glad to be rid of the Mongols that they had abolished paper money! burned all their ocean,going vessels and built new walls to close off *hina from the world. The last gasp of the Mongol Empire might be said to exist in the dubious claim of Timur the Fame that he was a descendant of $enghis %han. Timur was a Tur#ish, spea#ing Mongol who had grown wealthy from banditry and set out to model himself after his supposed ancestor. &e sought to con uer the $olden &orde but only managed to attac# his Mongol brothers from the east while the 5ussians began attac#ing them from the west. "ll this war accomplished was to destroy the old Mongol capital on the Golga 5iver and allow the 5ussian princes to free themselves form Mongol rule completely Aone of the good things 8van the Terrible didB. Timur the Fame set out to ensure that his lineage would contain the blood of $enghis %han by having his family intermarry with some of $enghis %han)s true descendants. &e did not follow $enghis %han)s ways! however. Timur slaughtered people without reason and found perverse pleasure in torturing and humiliating his prisoners. 9hen he con uered Tur#ey and sei(ed the Sel;u# sultan! he forced the sultan)s wives and daughters to serve him dinner na#ed while the defeated ruler watched. &e also forced the sultan to watch his sexual assaults on these women and to pull Timur)s royal chariot harnessed li#e a draft animal. Timur displayed the sultan in a cage. 'n an expedition in -0/4 to con uer *hina! however! Timur died and his empire uic#ly disintegrated. The Mongol Empire had vanished. Descendants of Timur! and thus of $enghis %han! did become another group in a long line of outside invaders that too# over 8ndia. These Tur#ish,Mongol con uerors established what was #nown as the Mogul Dynasty of 8ndia in -4-@. The height of this Empire came under "#bar! the grandson of its founder and -4 generations removed from $enghis %han. "t last the genius of the founder of the Mongol Dynasty reappeared in this descendant who ruled until -7/? Athe year Eamestown! Girginia was foundedB. "#bar had $enghis %han)s gift for administration and he favored trade and tolerance. &e abolished a tax on non,Muslims and instituted a civil service based on merit. Eust as Mongols in their prime had made *hina a manufacturing and trade capital! "#bar)s 8ndia was the world)s greatest manufacturing and trading nation. &e even raised the status of women. 9hile he wanted to establish one religion under one god and one emperor! he never uite solved the MuslimH&indu division that had become 8ndia)s own tragic flaw. Even the :ritish who con uered the Moguls in 8ndia had no solution for this rift. Spea#ing of 8slam! while it converted many Mongols it was altered dramatically and fundamentally. &aving survived the threat of *hristian *rusaders and Mongols uniting against its forces in +alestine! its adherents were emboldened. The *hristians and Mongols never united! which proved the undoing of the *rusader impulse. Tur#ish peoples of central "sia had migrated west under Mongol rule and con uered large areas

of the Middle East! "sia Minor! and southeastern Europe thus founding the 'ttoman Empire. 9ith this power base! 8slam was positioned to inspire one of the great civili(ations of the world. Mongols! however! con uered several +ersian cities and what is today the 8ra i city of :aghdad. This defeat ended the philosophical achievements of 8slam in these urban centers! slowing advances in science! mathematics! and astronomy. "n ideology thus under assault went on the defensive! and 8slam became stricter! permitting no dissent and expelling foreign beliefs altogether. 8n *hina! the Ming used the unification and administration accomplished by the >uan to launch the modern nation of *hina as you will see. "s you have seen in 5ussia! the *(ars emulated the absolutism of their Mongol oppressors to establish total control of the state. Echoes of $enghis %han)s vision thus could be heard in 5ussia at least through the totalitarianism of the Soviet Inion! perhaps beyond. The Soviets! though! disallowed any attempt to ideali(e $enghis %han. The *ommunist +arty forbade 5ussians in -@70! to place the bloodthirsty barbarian $enghis %han on a pedestal as a historically progressive personage. *hinese communists countered this Soviet propaganda by saying 5ussians should revere $enghis %han because he gave them their first opportunity to get ac uainted with a higher culture. These comments reflect the immensely comforting reali(ation that 5ichard Jixon was the first "merican president to see! that Soviet and *hinese communists did not get along! much to our relief. "s to Mongolia itself! $enghis %han)s homeland still contains many people who live as nomadic herdsman even though the country itself was divided between the Soviets and the *hinese. There has been some industriali(ation in the last century there! but much of the area is forbidden to outsiders! especially along the 'non 5iver! $enghis %han)s ancient homeland. " traveler in -@C/ reported that1 To this day the Mongols preserve and reverence the 9hite :anner of the Sulde! which is the same! they believe! that led the armies of *hingis,%han from victory to victory. They believe the soul of the great Emperor has itself entered the sulde banner! and that he has himself become the guardian,genius of his glorious clan! which to this day governs the Mongols. 3or all the romance of that notion! the echoes of millions of dead voices would declare $enghis %han a beast. *ommunist authorities confiscated the white banner! and by the -@7/s it disappeared. Many assume that they destroyed the sulde in a spiteful act of vengeance on the memory or the soul of $enghis %han! but some still hope that it will one day be brought out to lead the Mongols to victory again. 8s it possible that Mr. Senter agrees with communists that the world is better off without that relic= Tell no one! if so.