I have heard
that the Mongols are very harsh people, especially when they destroyed the
Abbasid Caliphate when they attacked Baghdad in 1258. I have heard that they
conquer anything that they can get their hands on, so I will have to be careful
on my voyage. I will also have to be very cautious about nomads. I have heard a
great deal about them, and how they stole many things from caravans on the
Silk Road, and were very violent in doing so. An old friend told me that what
they wanted, they received (for the most part) and are extremely persistent,
especially in battle. They do not give up, and will keep fighting until they
win. When in battle, everything is open to them for killing. Women, children,
animals and whole armies are being wiped out, which is a large culture shock to
many, including myself. The Mongols are insensitive to Chinese traditions and
the culture over all, and they think that they are the best culture out there. These
people are land hungry, conquering any land that they can have access too, such
as the Jin Empire in 1125- 1134, and Tangut
Kingdom Xixia in 1209. The Mongols perused tribal leaders that opposed
Genghis Khan, and with these victories, and gained more land. While Genghis
Khan was ill and in bed, he ordered his sons to keep battling in Xixia, and
kill Chinese rebels, in which they did. They stole many military weapons and
tactics to further advance their military. In their military, they have small
groups called tumans. These groups consist of 10 men, and if 1 man leaves, the
whole group is killed, which represents how barbaric the Mongols really are.
The military leaders don’t help the soldiers at all either. The soldiers have
to carry their own food, and if they run out of food, they will drink their own
horses’ blood. This shows how ironically blood thirsty they are. I have heard
that they also have had several cases of cannibalism in the armies of the
enemy. Having very little food, they have a large amount of motivation to
conquer whole cities so that they could have dinner, which is very concerning knowing
that I will travel through these areas.
After I have
experienced the Mongol culture, I can honestly say that the majority of what I have
said in my previous entry is wrong. I have learned that the Mongol culture is
very accepting to all religions. Passing by a few cities, I was told that a
very large Islam Mosque that I passed, was built by the Mongols. That
surprised me, because I thought that if foreigners weren’t accepted, they would
be killed. But that is the exact opposite. Traveling through their culture, of
course I had to have contact with them, and they were notably peaceful. On my
voyage, I noticed the vast amount of foreign trade that went on. The Mongols had
a good attitude towards merchants. Not only Western Missionaries came to this
area to spread their religion ideas, but also traders from the West arrived, and
the Mongols certainly didn’t turn them down. The Mongols also have built many
long roads, mostly for trade, but these roads have also helped advance the
culture. They also increased the amount of usage of paper money, which helped
the trading process by having one common currency. The Mongols had numerous
practical inventions that further advanced their culture, such as gun powder, the
composite bow, coal, and they introduced tea drinking. My voyage wasn’t just a
day trip, it took countless months. And the longer I was in this area, the more
that I had learned. I learned that The Mongols recruited Islam finical advisors,
which definitely made superior connections with the Muslim community, and built
trust between the two cultures. The Mongols also recruited Tibetan Monks to
spread religion in hopes of uniting The Mongol people together.
In my opinion,
as a teenage girl, I think that there are several reasons as to why history has
such a different view on the Mongols. There are always extremists that
exaggerate things way too far. The way I see this, is just like politics. There’s
always going to be people that are pro-Mongol. And there is always going to be
someone that is anti-Mongol, and that’s just the way it is. The Mongols as a
whole kind of represent Julius Caesar in my head. Some people liked him, some
people didn’t. Caesar had his own intentions, and in my opinion, some people think
they know the intentions of this person or group. Because these people think
they know what this leader’s goal is, they over-stress this leader’s goals. The
public will always favor and or relate to different sides of the story. And for
that reason, that’s why I think that people are still arguing about what
happened back then, and what didn’t. Looking back at the Mongols’ history, sure
they were violent in battle, but they were also very peaceful when it came to
religion and trade. There will always be different outlooks on any aspect of
History, and this topic is difficult to choose a definite answer of why. But I
think it’s because individuals have such different observations because people
amplify ideas up to a certain extent.
Citations
"World
History Connected | Vol. 5 No. 2 | Timothy May: The Mongol Empire in World
History." World History Connected | Vol. 5 No. 2 / N.p., n.d. Web.
13 Jan. 2014.
<http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/5.2/may.html>.
"The
Mongols." The Mongols in World History | Asia Topics in World History. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
<http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/china/china.htm>.
Rugoff,
Milton. Marco Polo's Adventures in China. New York: American Heritage Pub.; Book Trade and
Institutional Distribution by Harper & Row, 1964. Print.
" ." FROM
MONGOLS TO MUGHALS. N.p., n.d. Web.
15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/mm.htm>.
"The
Historical Mongol Empire." The Historical Mongol Empire. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.oocities.org/athens/forum/2532/page5.html>
"Mongol
Missteps." Gale Power Search.
Gale Cengage Learning, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do>.
Beck, Roger
B. World
History: Patterns of Interaction.
Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2005. Print.
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