Essential Questions: How were the Mongol invaders able to conquer and rule so much of Asia? What impact did Mongol rule have on China?
I. The Mongol Empire
A. Genghis Khan and the Mongols
1. Brief Background
a. The Mongols lived north of China (present day Mongolia)
b. The Mongols were great warriors
-They had about 100,000 mounted cavalry
-Special saddles allowed them to fire arrows accurately, while riding at top speeds
-Mongol riders surrounded their enemy
-They used powerful weapons (catapults and crossbows)
c. Genghis Khan was one of the fiercest leaders of all time
2. Mongol Conquests
a. In the early 1200�s, Mongols under Khan captured Beijing
-Then they turned westward and conquered central Asia
b. Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis) conquered all of China
-In 1260, Kublai Kahn was given the title of Great Khan
-In 1271, Kublai Kahn formed his own dynasty called the Yuan
c. In 1240, Batu (another grandson of Genghis) invaded Europe
-Then they swept across Russia, Poland, and Hungary
-They plundered, killed, and captured slaves
B. China Under the Mongols
1. China�s Prosperity
a. Population began to grow under Mongol rule
b. Kublai Khan extended the length of the Grand Canal, which
increased the supply of food from the south to Beijing
c. He also fostered routes connecting China with India and Persia
d. They made the local governments more responsible to the government in Beijing
2. Contact with Europeans
a. Contact between China and the rest of the world increased
-It was during the reign of Kublai Kahn that Marco Polo traveled to China
-Polo was an Italian explorer who wrote about the
achievements of the Mongol empire
3. China-Mongol Relations
a. Although the Yuan dynasty did a lot of good for China, there
were still tensions between the Mongols and Chinese
-Different languages
-The Mongols did not treat the Chinese as equals
4. After Kublai Kahn died in 1294, China was left to weak successors
a. In 1368, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown