Wait for it... The Mongols!!

1.)    Nomads migrate in order to find the best season for their cattle, however there are goods that they need that they cannot produce on their own, therefore they must stay near settled towns, in order to trade for the goods that they themselves are unable to produce and also to distribute the goods that they do produce.

2.)    In a pastoral group all people need to work to make a living and this includes both men and women. There was not the common “house work” for a woman in a village built to be uprooted at any point.  In order to survive, pastoral people needed to all work and therefore they were not able to have women in inferior roles or roles where women weren’t as “strong” as men. Their egalitarian views were not so much a cultural belief as a necessity for survival.

3.)    A man who wanted to be a ruler would call a council and the number of people who arrived on horseback depicted the number of people who supported his leadership. It is vague as to the number needed for election and the specific details, but this also implies that  in order to be a Mongol leader you need only support from other people as opposed to being born into a blood line. This was an idea that differed from China in general at the time.

4.)    The four Khanates were the Yuan Dynasty, Ilkhanate, Chagatai Khanate, and The Khanate of the Golden Horde.  The Yuan Dynasty was the largest in what is mainly china today. The Ilkhanate was in Persia.  The Chagatai Khanate that was sandwiched between the two in central Asia. And lastly the Golden Horde which is now Russia.

5.)    1. “The Mongols really did reinvigorate cross-Eurasian trade.” The silk road was repopulated and put back into use as it was something that Mongols saw as a benefit both because of the profit of trade but also that trade could be taxed, and due to this the trade routes of the Mongol empire were both heavily fortified to be safe and were considered important to the growth of the empire, pretty impressive.

2. “The Mongols increases communication through Eurasia.” They did this with the Yam system; which was a horse powered kind of “mail” system and also the use of passports that encouraged travel. Being initially free to the public it was an incredibly resource for the spread of knowledge and communication.

3.” Another thing that traveled along the Mongol trade routes was cuisine.” This means the spread of rice into other countries diets and the overall development of Eurasian food. This is awesome because Mr. Green likes this food…  

4. “The Mongols forcibly relocated people who were useful to them.” This means that the Mongols would relocate and employ people to do the jobs there were not good at or that they found important, administration being a good example of this. This is interesting because they found people who were able to do what they weren’t great at and found strength from the skills of other people.

5. “The Mongols were almost unprecentedly tolerant of different religions.” This meant that Mongol religious diversity prospered and the Mongols were not religiously oppressive in there conquests and really religious extremism is just a contradiction in itself so who needs it?