The Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde PDF

Preview

Summary

Download The Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde PDF

Description

The Mongol Empire and the Golden Horde Dear students, it is impossible to fully understand the history of Kazakhs without knowing fundamental principles of organisation of the Mongol Empire, its customs, political traditions, power reproduction and authority inheritance. The early cause of hundreds, and we'll discuss this political formation in subsequent lecture was one of the successor states of the Great Mongol Empire, which inherited most of its important features. Mongol Empire came to existence as a conglomerate of Turkic and Mongol speaking tribes in the heart of Eurasia, that led nomadic way of life and were highly dependent on the sedentary culture surrounding. In the early 13th century, these nomadic pastoralists under the leadership of Chinggis Khan and his descendants, managed to create the largest overland Empire in the world history. By 1280, it stretched from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan, from Lake Baikal to Hainan for the first time in history and for the last time in history, integrating Russia, Persia and China into one united political entity. Even after gradual disintegration, the Empire continued to exist in the forms of multiple successive states that were based on the same principles laid down by Chinggis Khan Himself, or even his ancestors. Our today's lecture will focus on the following three issues: What is authority and how individuals, groups and states legitimize their claims for power? Who are nomads and what are peculiarities of their power legitimation and reproduction? and How the institutes and traditions of power lay down by Chinggis Khan determined subsequent history of Central Eurasia? So what is authority? According to Cambridge English dictionary, Authority is the moral or legal right or ability to rule and control. It was eminent German sociologist Max Weber, who highlighted legitimacy as the key to authority. State's legitimacy, Weber argued, rests on the chance that people will follow its commands as a given source of power. He has identified three forms of authority used by state or anyone claiming power to affirm the validity of these claims legitimacy: charismatic

leadership, established tradition, reason, order, and law. All three forms are easily traceable in the history of the rise of the Mongols. Before we begin to discuss how these forms of authority worked in the case of the Mongols, let's talk about nomadism as a way of life and economic activity. This will facilitate our understanding of the driving force behind the Mongols conquest. Who are nomads? Look at these pictures. To some extent each of these groups and individuals can be labelled as nomads, because their vocation or life in general implies constant or regular movements from point A to point B. the truck driver, family of gypsies, aircraft crew or motorbikes. It means that the term nomads is too general. Which term works better for identification of traditional nomadic peoples like the Mongols or Kazakhs? Right, exactly. nomadic pastoralists. What is nomadic pastoralism? Which people can be characterised as nomadic pastoralists? As you see on this slide, they should meet the following basic requirements: One, pastoralism is the main form of economic activity. Two, herds graze free-range without stables year-round. Three, seasonal mobility is contained within a specific grazing territory. And four, the entire population is mobile, not only specific group, but the entire population. Seasonal nomadism by no means is convenient. Just imagine that at least once a year, most likely two or three times, you have to mobilise all your family, collect all your belongings and livestock, and move to another place, sometimes 100 miles away. So why did people nomadise? What was the reason for this? Well, in the arid areas of Central Eurasia, cattle breeding offers advantages over agriculture. Harsh natural conditions with very cold, windy winters, hot droughty summers with amazing climatic aberrations preclude raising crops effectively. One year you can have good crop. But next year, the next crop can be completely destroyed. Domestication of horce, which happened in the fourth millennium, before common era, most likely in

northern kazakh steppe was a very important achievement, which increased mobility of some groups of the people. You need to keep in mind that transition to nomadic pastoralism was that immediate, rather gradual process took several 1000s us. With all advantages this way of life and economic activity might offer, pastoralist economy could not be self sufficient. The nomadic lifestyle was precarious, as their constant migrations prevented them from transporting reserves of food or other necessities. Rarely having the luxury of surpluses to take them through difficult times. They were extremely vulnerable to the elements. Heavy snows, ice and droughts judging from contemporary times, droughts that looked at Mongolia, about twice a decade. Java days they flocks and herds and heighten their sense of fragility. And then nomads did need grain, other products of sedentary societies. These determined dependence of Nomads on sedentary societies, and this dependence often brought them to conflicts. Now let's look at the map of Eurasia. What we see in its central part, highlighted with green, so called Great Eurasian steppe, huge stretch of land that goes through central part of the continent from the Mediterranean to Pacific. Natural landscapes similar in different parts of the belt, flat plains, with sporadically scattered low hills. The belt is divided into western and eastern parts by Altai Mountains. Western part of the belt was the cradle of nomadism. Here archaeologists find the vestiges of the earliest nomadic societies. Those of Sumerians, Skythians, Sarmatians, Kushans, Heftalites and others that existed in the period between the seventh century BC and sixth century AD. Most of them inhabited the vast kazakh step. Early Western nomads were europoids speaking various indo-aryan languages. We know them not only from archaeological evidence, but also from testimonies coming from accounts written by Greek, Roman, Indian and Persian authors. For these societies it was uneasy coexistence with the nomads. As I mentioned before, nomadic economies were not self sufficient. Nomads were

generally satisfied as long as every cultural is agreed to trade with them. But as soon as this trade relation stopped, nomads attacked villages and cities of the neighbours. One of these early nomads, the so called isik golden men, or altin-adam, belongs to the people of sakha, a branch of scythians. What about the eastern part of the belt? Seems the people that inhabited these areas borrowed nomadism as a complex technology from their Western counterparts. The rise of Eastern Eurasian nomads dates back to the second century BC when Chinese chroniclers first mentioned so called khans or sooner. Hands and other nomads in the course of the history actively interacted with the mightiest agricultural society of that part of the world, China. Even before Common Era, Chinese began to construct the great wall to protect themselves from systematic inroads of step nomads. Some Eastern nomads were able to conquer various Chinese regions and establish their own dynasties. Another direction of their expansion was the western part of the belt. It were ancient Turks who in the seventh-eighth century AD brought under submission entire Western part and a simulated those who inhabited it before that. But let us move to the second century when the Mongol Empire, the greatest of all nomadic empires of both western and eastern parts of the Eurasian step came to existence. So how is it possible? What was the reason for the conquest and what was the path to success? There are many theories explaining the Mongol aggression and all of them in one way or another are connected with the precarious way of life of nomads. They are dependent on agriculturalists and principles of organisation of Eurasian nomadic societies. In the periods from 1180 to 1220, Mongolia experienced drop in the mean annual temperature, which meant that the growing season of grass was cut short. less grass meant a real danger to the mongols animals. And since the animals were truly the basis of the Mongols pastoral nomadic way, this ecological threat may have prompted them to move out of Mongolia. There's an alternative

view based on data of them to chronology. Recent analysis of remains of Siberian pine trees found in central Mongolia. The acquired data indicate that regional climates during the conquest of Chinggis Khan's 13th century mongol empire was warm and persistently wet. This period characterized by 15 consecutive years above average moisture in central Mongolia and coinciding with the rise of Chinggis Khan is unprecedented over the last 1112 years. Another reason might be the attempts by the Mongols neighbours in the north and the Northwest China, Ji and Shah dynasties. To reduce the amount of trade with the Mongols, being dependent on trade for goods that the Mongols desperately needed, such as grain, craft and manufactured articles, cessation of trade, or at least the diminution of trade could have been catastrophic and provoke a chain effect aggression. (The Great Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous overland empire in the world history. By 1280, it stretched from the Black Sea to the Sea of Japan, from Lake Baikal to Hainan integrating Russia, Persia, and China in one unified empire). And at last, the reason of the conquest may lie in the sphere of ideology. The nomadic empires changed each other over time, and may seem as discrete entities. However, all Eurasia nomads continued a long tradition in terms of their beliefs, political culture and relationships with sedentary civilizations. Each distinct nomadic entity made contribution to this set of values and institutes. One of them is an ideology that legitimized the appearance of a super tribal unit . Most success successful nomadic leaders inevitably came to understanding that tribal affiliations and loyalties would never allow nomads to become united. They shuffled tribes trying to break ties within and between the clans and create new types of identity. Most effective way to create new identities was through formation of military units. It were the nomadic people of kitans, who first introduced this principle of military organisation that was later used by the Mongols. it may be surprising many of you, but most of today's Central Asian

ethnic groups were created as artificial super tribal political identities: Kalmyks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Mongols, Manchus, etc. The powerful source of super tribal unity in the steppe world was the belief in Tengri (heaven), the unpersonified supreme deity, conferring the right to rule on a single clan. The heavenly charisma resided in the Royal clan, individual members of which could be elevated to the Supreme office of the ruler, but non members could not aspire to the throne. Chinggis Khan's heroic endurance to many hardships in his early life and eventual success in unification of disparate nomadic clans, served as an evidence of his possession charisma descended upon him from Tengri Chinggis Khan himself used to say he was protected by everlasting heaven. The Mongols were not the first people who exploited this idea, but definitely the most impressive and enduring tradition of institutionalized ancestry is the Chinggisid line (A Mongolian tug is still used as a representation of heavenly will). What did determine the amazing success of the mongols ? As nomads the Mongols were professional warriors, intensely trained for warfare from early childhood. Personal skills of a mongol warrior by far exceeded that of a warrior from sedentery society. Effective super tribal military organisation based on decimal principle, was inherited by the Mongols from earliest steppe empires. Mongol army was divided into the units consisting consecutively of 10, 100,1000, 10000 warriors with mutual responsibility. Each unit was led by the responsible officer, and the head of two men 10,000 maintain strong personal relationships with Chinggis himself, reinforcing his authority over his army. As I mentioned before, the Mongol Empire started as a family venture. Chinggis Khan's four sons born from his first wife Borte had rights for his power inheritance. He allotted each of them his own ulus or domain in line with appanage system common to eurasian nomads (Appanage is a common practice in many monarchies, when titles, estates or other benefits are granted to dependent members of ruling elite or vassals). Ulus rulers had to obey

Great Khan, but in reality, cultural assimilation, rivalry and time flow contributed to gradual increase of their independency. Chinggisids preferred lateral system of succession (Custom when a best qualified candidate (most likely a senior one) inherits previous ruler's title and estates) and combined it with merit-based principle. It means that every member of the clan could claim for power in the Empire, and later in a successive state, not necessarily direct offspring of the previous ruler. It could be a cousin, brother, or uncle. Merit-based succession implied the most qualified clans would become the next ruler. It was the Qurultai, or Council of tribal leaders that had a right to assign individuals to leadership (The Mongol Empire was a property of the Golden Clan. The power inheritance limited to descendants of Chinggis's four sons). Any direct descendant of Ghinggis Khan could potentially be next ruler of a khanate, especially if he had authority among others. As I mentioned earlier, non members of the ruling Chinggisid clan could not claim for leadership. Even Amir Timur, or Tamerlain (the 14th century) a mighty non-Chinggisid ruler of Central Asia, respected the Chinggisid prerogatives and never assumed khan's title preferring to rule through puppet Chinggisid khans. With time, the number of potential claimants for the throne and appanage multiplied arousing tense competition between them. Still tracing ancestry directly to the golden clan was a prerequisite for claims of power in Central Asia. The largest of all appanages had been granted by Chinggis Khan to his eldest son Juchi, probably as a compensation for passing him over in the right to inherit the title of the great khan. Juchi was allowed to expand his appanage by attaching to the territories in the West he would be able to conquer. The uluso Juchi came into existence as a separate entity earlier and continued longer than other main uluses . The core of the Golden Horde was the vast steppe stretching from the Irtysh in the east to the Danube in the West. By the way, the name Golden Horde seems to derive from the gold-hung palace-tent (ordo) at

which Ozbeg Khan (1313-1341) received visitors and was never broadly used by the mongols themselves. Juchi's second son, Batu inherited the domain and expanded it to include Russian principalities: Bulgaria, Crimea and Caucasus. Some of the conquered territories were ruled through local elites, under the supervision of basqaqs. Like other nomadic polities, the ulus of Juchi subsisted extracting resources from trade, cities and sedentary economies. Although Khans of the Golden Horde remained nomadic, cities flourished across the ulus, the biggest being Sarai, Ugek, Bish Dagh, Majar, Saraishig and Syganag. Jochi's sons further divided the steppe into strips extending along rivers from south to north . The main division was into right (western, Aq) and left (eastern, Kok) hands. The right hand was controlled by descendants of Batu and Berke, while the left one by offspring of Hordu-Ejen, Shiban and Tuqa-Temur. During most of its history, continuous rivalry was happening between different Juchid lines changing one another on the khan's throne. The rivalry facilitated collective rule of the broader Juchid clan. Late history is the struggle for power primarily between Shibanites and Tuqa-Temurids, and Chinggisid versus nonChinggisid usurpers. Bekleribeks, the highest officials in the Golden Horde after the Khan, usually represented by influential non-Chinggisid tribe leaders, could gain prominence under weaker Khans and become virtual rulers of the Juchi Ulus, like nogai, mamai, or yetigi. In the period of 60s-80s of the 14th century, Juchi Ulus entered the period of protracted political crisis, so called The Great Troubles (Великая Замятня), the rivalry between Juchid lines with participation of some non-Chinggisid usurpers. But political disruptions alone however strong they might be were not responsible for the decline of Juchi Ulus. Other factors, among which are The Black Death, decline of urban culture and

trade, inflation, rise of Moscovites and the eastern nomads, separatism, contributed much to the demise of the Golden Horde. The Black Death (1338-1353) alone the most devastating plague pandemic in human history killed from 75 to 200 million people. In the 15th century, the Ulus of Juchi ceased to exist as a political entity and divided into few successor states: Khanates of Crimea, Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia, Nogai Horde, Uzbek and Kazakh Khanates. These states were disappearing one by one, up to the early 20th century as a result of Russian annexation. It can be argued that the Mongol legacy survived until late modern periods, a few common features were shared by all successor states of the Mongol Empire and Golden Horde. Among them, the development of super tribal identities; lateral seniority, and merit-based succession, instead of one family linear succession principle; collective type of rule instead of one reigning family; subsistence through extracting resources from sedentary economies and trade; the system of appanage divided polity into smaller districts ruled by hereditary Chinggisid noblemen. All these features were inherited by the Kazakh Khanates. In subsequent lectures, we'll see how these traditions worked for the Kazakh political system and how they were deconstructed due to russian influence in the 18th-19th century. So far, think about the following issues: Which Mongol tradition could contribute to Three Juz system of Qazaqs? How collective rule principle influenced the history of the Qazaqs? Why GC political traditions proved to be so sustainable and endured well into late modernity? Thank you....