Joe Becker, age 13, of Bowling Green, Ohio, for his question:
WHAT WAS THE MONGOL EMPIRE?
The Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and united almost all of Western and Eastern Asia. Ruled over by great leaders called called khans, this vast empire was one of the largest land territories in all of history.
The original homeland of the Mongols was in the eastern zone of the Asian steppe or extensive plain. Today this region comprises approximately the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, Outer Mongolia and the southern fringes of Siberia.
In this environment, Mongolian speaking tribes developed a pastoral economy based on the sheep and the horse. Certain commodities, such as grain, textiles, tea and metals, were obtained through trade with thee adjacent agricultural civilization of China.
The first flowering of the Mongol Empire occurred during the 13th century. At a gathering of tribes in 1206, the powerful conqueror Temujin, then master of almost all of Mongolia, was proclaimed universal ruler with the title of Genghis Khan, or Great Khan.
Genghis Khan's army, although not particularly large for its day, was distinguished by its superb horsemanship and expert archery, the discipline and control of its aristocratic leaders and the khan's own brilliant military strategy and tactics.
The neighboring Chinese Empire and Central Asian states, both militarily weak and fragmented, inevitably surrendered as did the decaying Arab Turkish society of the Middle East to the Mongol hordes racing over Asia.
After the death of Genghis Khan, his third son Ogadai became the great khan. Ogadai was succeeded by his son and then his grandson. The next great leader was Mangu Khan. Together with his brother, Kublai, Mangu Khan succeeded in conquering nearly all of China.
The Mongol Empire did much to bind Eastern and Western Asia together. But by the end of the 14th century, the great empire started to break up.
The khanate of Kipchak ruled the area that is now southern Russia until the late 15th century. The Mongols imposed a bureaucratic system and methods of tax collection that showed the influence of the Chinese methods adopted by their East Asian kinfolk.
In the late 14th century, the Russians seemed on the verge of overthrowing the Mongols. The balance was tipped in favor of the Mongols, however, by the intervention of the conqueror Tamerlane (Timur the Lame). From his base in Samarkand, Tamerlane overran Iran and Mesopotamia and invaded northern India in 1369. His conquests, however, marked the final wave of Mongol power.
In 1405, while initiating a campaign to conquer China and transform it into an Islamic state, Tamerlane died. Thereafter, Mongol unity ended and the link between Eastern and Western Asia was broken.
Good communication helped the Mongols maintain their vast and diverse empire for such a long time. They proved inadequate, however, to counteract the forces that eventually tore the empire apart. Religious differences appeared early and political ideas also differed greatly.