The Mongols are a modern-day people of east-central Asia, distributed in the nation of Mongolia as well as contiguous parts of Russia to the north and China to the south, east, and west. In the 13th century c. E. various Mongol tribes were united under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his descendants; they created the largest empire known to human history, stretching from Mongolia in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and from the Pacific Ocean west to the Adriatic Sea in Europe.
MONACANS
Nation:
Monaco; Principality of Monaco
Derivation of name:
Possibly from the Greek expression associated with mythology, Herakles monoikos, meaning "Herakles alone"; or from the Ligurian tribe Monoikos
Government:
Constitutional monarchy
Capital:
Monaco
Language:
Official language is French, although the Monegasque dialect, a mixture of French and Italian, is widely used; Italian and English are also spoken.
Religion:
About 90 percent of the population are Catholic; 4 percent are nonreligious, 2 percent are Jewish, 2 percent are Protestant, and 2 percent other.
Earlier inhabitants:
Ligurians; Gauls (Celts); Phoenicians; Greeks; Romans
Demographics:
About 47 percent of the population are French, about 16 percent are Monegasque, and 16 percent, Italian.
MONGOLS
Location:
Eastern and central Europe
Time period:
11th century C. E. to present
Ancestry:
Mongolian
Language:
Mongolic (Altaic)
Mongols time line
C. E.
1215 Mongols under Genghis Khan occupy Beijing.
1238 Mongols under Batu Khan capture Moscow.
1240 Mongols capture Kiev.
1240-41 Mongols capture Hungary and Poland.
1243 Kipchak khanate is founded.
1260 Mongol Empire is divided into four khanates.
1271-92 Travels of Marco Polo in Asia 1382 Mongols are expelled from China.
1391-95 Turks and Turkic-speaking Mongols under Tamerlane (Timur) capture Mongol holdings.
1440s Kipchak khanate breaks up into four independent khanates.
The origins of the Mongols are uncertain. They were indigenous to eastern Asia, originally consisting of nomadic tribes inhabiting steppe and desert country.
The Mongol language is known as Mongolic or Mongolian. It is part of the Altaic family, related to Bulgaric and Turkic. Their written language dates from at least as early as the 11th century.
In the early 13th century a chieftain of the Yakka Mongols, Genghis Khan, defeated his rivals and united the various tribes. He founded a capital at Karakorum in the northern Gobi Desert, established codes of law, and created a powerful army, consisting of horse-mounted warriors.
Under Genghis’s leadership and that of subsequent khans the Mongols seized territory in much of Asia and eastern Europe. Their armies included other peoples, such as Turkics, who became known collectively as the Tatars or Tartars (a name by which the Mongols were known to some Europeans). The Mongols adopted many of the customs of peoples they conquered, in particular the Chinese, whose capital, Yen-King (present-day Beijing), they occupied under Genghis in 1215.
Genghis died in 1227, whereupon his son, Ogodei, ascended as supreme khan. Ogodei’s
Brother, Juchi, was granted territory comprising much of present-day Russia. In 1235 Batu Khan, Juchi’s son, along with his chief general, Subatai, campaigned in the west. In 1237 the Mongols defeated the Turkic Kipchaks, leading to the breakup of their tribal confederation within two years. In 1238 Batu’s warriors— referred to in Russia as the Golden Horde because of Baku’s golden tent—captured Moscow, and in 1240 Kiev in present-day Ukraine. His razing of Kiev, at the time ruled by the Rus, led to the rise of Muscovite Russia.
The Mongols proceeded westward and within two years had also conquered present-day Hungary and Poland and made military incursions into Germany The death of Ogodei in 1241 led to Batu’s recall to Karakorum in 1242, but Batu had laid the groundwork for the founding of the Kipchak khanate (also known as the Khanate or Empire of the Golden Horde) between the Volga and Danube Rivers in 1243, with a capital first at sarai Batu near present-day Astrakhan on the Lower Volga and later at Sarai Berke also on the Volga near present-day Volgograd. This had been territory of the Kipchaks. The occupying forces also became known as the Golden Horde and the Kipchaks. Many of the Kipchaks migrated westward at this time into present-day Hungary, where they became known as Cumans. With Batu’s recall further significant Mongol expansion in Europe had ended. Yet the Mongols of the Kipchak khanate continued to control the lucrative trade routes connecting the Black sea ports with central Asia.
By 1260 the Mongol Empire was subdivided into four khanates, that is, territories ruled by khans, descendants of the royal line founded by Genghis Khan. They included the Great Khanate, comprising all of China and most of East Asia; the Jagatai khanate in Turkestan; a Persian khanate; and the Kipchak khanate in western Russia.
Contacts between Europe and Asia
The Mongol age of conquest led to a new age of contact between Asians and Europeans. The movements of armies and subsequent occupation led to the passing of knowledge between cultures. Routes, including the trade route known as the silk Road, became secure, leading to increased travel. The khans maintained a system of mounted couriers for communication throughout the empire.
With the Golden Horde (as Mongol and Tatar armies were called) at their doorstep
Europeans became more aware of Asian issues. Papal and political diplomatic missions were sent out. European traders followed. In 1271-75 the Italian merchants Maffeo Polo, Niccolo Polo, and Marco Polo traveled across central Asia to Cambaluc (present-day Beijing), the new Mongol capital founded by Kublai Khan. Marco Polo in 1275-92 explored on behalf of the khan, traveling throughout the Far East. His book The Travels of Marco Polo, with its descriptions of Mongol customs, was influential in Europe over the next two centuries.
In the 14th century the far-flung Mongol Empire eventually weakened as a result of internal conflicts as well as resistance from conquered peoples. By 1382 the Mongols were completely expelled from China, retreating to their original homeland. Timur (Tamerlane) created a Turkic empire centered in Samarkand in the region of Turkestan (part of present-day Uzbekistan), defeating the Golden Horde in 1391-95 and occupying Moscow. He claimed descent from Genghis Khan, as did Babur (Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad), who founded the Mughal (Mogul) Empire in India in the early 16th century The Kipchak khanate remained intact until the 1440s, breaking up into four independent khanates.
One group of Mongols who live in Europe— mostly in Kalmykia, a republic along the northwest shore of the Caspian Sea and west of the Lower Volga River in southwestern Russia—are known as the Kalmyks.
Economy
The Mongol economy over the centuries has been based on herds of horses and sheep, with seasonal movement. The Mongols of today are still a pastoral people, maintaining sheep, horses, cattle, camels, and goats and living much as their ancestors did.
The Mongol imperial code, the Yasa (Jasagh), established a system of governmental organization, including the administration of the army, as well as civil, commercial, and criminal codes of law. Many Uighurs, a Turkic people, were employed as bureaucrats to help administer this code.
The four khanates were ruled regionally, but final authority rested with the great khan at Karakorum. In the Kipchak khanate the Mongol overseers allowed the conquered principalities of primarily Russian SLAVS to retain their own rulers and administer themselves internally but collected taxes.
The Mongols lived in felt-covered yurts, light circular tents made of felt stretched over a lattice framework.
Religion
The Mongol traditional religion was shamanis-tic. Many modern Mongols also practice Lamaism, a branch of Buddhism.
Many peoples who held power for a time in
Eastern Europe.
Further Reading
Thomas T. Allsen. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Christopher P. Atwood. Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire (New York: Facts On File, 2004).
James Chambers. The Devil’s Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe (London: Phoenix, 2001).
David Christian. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999).
Jeremiah Curtin. The Mongols: A History (Con-shohocken, Pa.: Combined Books, 1996).
Leo de Hartog. Russia and the Mongol Yoke (London: British Academic, 1996).
Hugh Kennedy. Mongols, Huns and Vikings (New York: Sterling, 2002).
Andrew Langley. Genghis Khan and the Mongols (Hove, U. K.: Wayland, 1987).
David Morgan. The Mongols (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990).
Donald G. Ostrowski. Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
The Mongols are among those Asian peoples whose patterns of conquest became part of the European story. They are included among the
World History
