Chapters 14 and 15

Nasim Kamali and Marina Baez

● Mongols○ Genghis Khan

■ Key to success - archery on horseback > foot soldiers ■ organized

● tumens (units of soldiers)● messenger force● special force (elaborate maps)

○ Kublai Khan■ Islamic Heartlands■ China

● Yuan Dynasty ● Religiously tolerant ● Distinct cultures● Mongol women = more freedom

Mongol Conquest

● Song loyalists revolto stirring hostility towards foreigners o encouraged by scholar gentry

● “invulnerability” goneo military status tarnished by failure in Japan

● Expeditions to Java and Vietnam failed● Banditry increases

o unsafe for people● Famine● Corruption

o laziness of ruling class (near end of dynasty) stealing, cheating, lying

o angry overtaxed peasantry

Decline

● Islamic world declining - Mongols & Abbasids (1258)o economic decline as landlords take power

peasants became serfs agriculture and tax revenues drop

● Mongols decline/Ming- encouraged expansion of sea trade o opportunities for Chinese and West

● Chinese expeditions - Zheng He o Ming rulers withdrew (1433) o make way for European expansion into Asia

Decline of World Powers

● In a disarrayo Medieval culture decline

Church Philosophy Warrior aristocrats Famine (1300) - pop. Black Death

● Turmoil causes strikes*strife of Western problems leads to motivation of exploration After distress comes success…

● Strong monarchies in France and England - reliance on nobility to paid soldiers ● Spain and Portugal pushed out Muslims ● Economy grows

o Church and capitalism ● Technology

o timekeeping and iron● Asian technology ● Renaissance

Rise of the West