What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
What accounts for the often negative attitudes of settled societies toward the pastoral peoples living on their borders?
Why have historians often neglected pastoral peoples’ role in world history? How would you assess the perspective of this chapter toward the Mongols? Does it strike you as negative and critical of the Mongols, as bending over backward to portray them in a positive light, or as a balanced presentation?
In what different ways did Mongol rule affect the Islamic world, Russia, China, and Europe? In what respects did it foster Eurasian integration?
Why did the Mongol Empire last only a relatively short time?
Looking Back: In what ways did the Mongol Empire resemble previous empires (Arab, Roman, Chinese, or the Greek empire of Alexander, for example), and in what ways did it differ from them?
Next Steps: For Further Study
John Aberth, The First Horseman: Disease in Human History (2007). A global study of the history of disease, with a fine chapter on the Black Death.
Thomas Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (2001). A history of cultural exchange within the Mongol realm, particularly between China and the Islamic world.
Thomas J. Barfield, The Nomadic Alternative (1993). An anthropological and historical survey of pastoral peoples on a global basis.
Carter Finley, The Turks in World History (2005). The evolution of Turkic-speaking people, from their nomadic origins to the twentieth century.
Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (2004). A lively, well-written, and balanced account of the world the Mongols made and the legacy they left for the future.
“The Mongols in World History,” http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols. A wonderful resource on the Mongols generally, with a particular focus on their impact in China.