The Mongol Empire in note form:

⁃ Largest contiguous land empire in history

⁃ Stretching from Korea to Ukraine and from Siberia to southern China

⁃ In the 12th Century, East Asia was home to scattered groups of nomads led by Khans

⁃ The nomadic groups often fought each other

⁃ Things changed under Temujin, who was born under an aristocratic Mongol family

⁃ Temujin quickly rose to power by forging strategic alliances with other leaders

⁃ By 1206 he had united the people and had become Genghis Khan

⁃ The Mongols were Shamanist and believed the spirits of nature and their ancestors inhabited the world around them

⁃ Over everyone was a sky God the Mongols believed in named Tenggeri

⁃ Genghis Khan believed that Tenggeri wanted him to conquer the world

⁃ Anyone who resisted the Mongols meant they also resisted Tengerri’s will which would lead them to death

⁃ Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols subdued northern China and the eastern Islamic lands

⁃ Genghis Khan dies in 1227

⁃ In the 1230’s, the sons and daughters of Genghis Khan conquered the Turks of central Asia and the Russian princes

⁃ In 1241, they destroyed two European armies

⁃ In the 1250’s, the Mongols seized Islamic territory as far as Baghdad, while in the east their grasped reached southern China by 1279

⁃ Once the Mongols conquered territory, the internal politics were left alone and local administrators governed for them

⁃ The Mongols let all religions flourished as long as the leaders prayed for them

⁃ By the 1260’s the grandson’s of Genghis Khan found themselves in civil wars over inheritance which resulted in the empire being fragmented into 4 separate empires:

⁃ In China, Kublai Khan’s Yuan dynasty is remembered as a golden age of science and culture

⁃ In Iran, the Ilkhanate inaugurated the development of new monumental architecture and Persian painting

⁃ In central Asia, the Chagati Khanate brought forth leaders like Timur and his descendant Babur, who founded the Mughal Empire in India

⁃ In eastern Europe, the Golden Horde ruled for years until a trading post named Muscovy grew into a major world power