HIST 105-04, The Mongol World Empire, Fall 2005

Abstract

The world’s largest contiguous land empire was created by a people whose history is little known and whose way of life would not immediately suggest the likelihood of such an achievement. Yet the Mongol conquest affected most of Eurasia, including China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Inner Asia, Iran, the Middle East, Russia, and Europe. Armies under Mongol leadership battled armored knights in Poland, Japanese samurai on the coast of Kyūshū, and mounted warriors in Palestine. Who were these people, and what caused them to burst out of their remote homeland to overthrow the great states of Eurasia? What factors allowed such a small and thinly-scattered population to conquer much of the known world, and what finally stopped them? This course will examine these questions and more as we seek to understand the Mongol Empire and its impact on world history.