Samenvatting Stearns week 2 chapter 4: Transition - The Mongol Period
- Soon after 1200, an unexpected development took place. A new, interlocking
Mongol empire began to be established that accelerated connections among
major parts of Asia and Europe, creating new opportunities for contact that
would have an impact long after the Mongol period itself.
- Chinggis Khan won leadership of the Mongols and set out to conquer
China. → The Mongols conquered a great deal of territory very
quickly. In 1227, all of northern China was seized. Other Mongol
conquerors pressed further into Central Asia, others into Russia.
Another wave invaded the eastern Middle East, winning Baghdad in
1258 ending the Arab caliphate definitively.
- Mongol cavalry techniques were supplemented by use of explosive powder
picked up from the Chinese.
- But there were limits: efforts to invade southeast Asia failed.
- Mongol rulers were tolerant leaders, ative in promoting trade and
artisanal manufacturing, delighted to use officials and entertain
visitors from a variety of backgrounds. They also secured trade
routes throughout the domains. → There was peace in the empire.
- The Mongols thus were crucial for the development of interregional
contacts. → Period of European-Asian interaction, whereby the
Mongols provided motives and means for further connections.
- The mongols took full advantage of the many available products through
existing networks.
- But their power wasn’t received in all places as peaceful: in China, by the late
14th century, a series of bloody wars began to push them out.
- In many countries, the Mongol period is seen as negative and disastrous.
Even in Western-Europe the Mongol period contributed to a tragic passage:
the spread of bubonic plague from China through the Middle East.
- Some key areas weren’t affected at all, like Africa.
- A sense of variety of connections with and reactions to the Mongols around
1350, helps predict the range of regional involvements in the next phase of
globalization.
- By the late 14th century, the Mongols were pushed out of their
conquered lands. But it did show what new connections might allow.
→ the Mongol era would prove to be a crucial link between the
patterns of globalization generated in the centuries around 1000 CE
and the next stage, as it began to emerge 500 years later.
Chapter 5: 1500 as turning point - The Birth of Globalization?
- Developments around 1500, like the inclusion of the Americas in patterns of
contact, and the first definitely recorded trip across the Pacific, created the
possibility of growing links to virtually every major society in the world.
Complete isolation now became the exception instead of the rule.
- Soon after 1200, an unexpected development took place. A new, interlocking
Mongol empire began to be established that accelerated connections among
major parts of Asia and Europe, creating new opportunities for contact that
would have an impact long after the Mongol period itself.
- Chinggis Khan won leadership of the Mongols and set out to conquer
China. → The Mongols conquered a great deal of territory very
quickly. In 1227, all of northern China was seized. Other Mongol
conquerors pressed further into Central Asia, others into Russia.
Another wave invaded the eastern Middle East, winning Baghdad in
1258 ending the Arab caliphate definitively.
- Mongol cavalry techniques were supplemented by use of explosive powder
picked up from the Chinese.
- But there were limits: efforts to invade southeast Asia failed.
- Mongol rulers were tolerant leaders, ative in promoting trade and
artisanal manufacturing, delighted to use officials and entertain
visitors from a variety of backgrounds. They also secured trade
routes throughout the domains. → There was peace in the empire.
- The Mongols thus were crucial for the development of interregional
contacts. → Period of European-Asian interaction, whereby the
Mongols provided motives and means for further connections.
- The mongols took full advantage of the many available products through
existing networks.
- But their power wasn’t received in all places as peaceful: in China, by the late
14th century, a series of bloody wars began to push them out.
- In many countries, the Mongol period is seen as negative and disastrous.
Even in Western-Europe the Mongol period contributed to a tragic passage:
the spread of bubonic plague from China through the Middle East.
- Some key areas weren’t affected at all, like Africa.
- A sense of variety of connections with and reactions to the Mongols around
1350, helps predict the range of regional involvements in the next phase of
globalization.
- By the late 14th century, the Mongols were pushed out of their
conquered lands. But it did show what new connections might allow.
→ the Mongol era would prove to be a crucial link between the
patterns of globalization generated in the centuries around 1000 CE
and the next stage, as it began to emerge 500 years later.
Chapter 5: 1500 as turning point - The Birth of Globalization?
- Developments around 1500, like the inclusion of the Americas in patterns of
contact, and the first definitely recorded trip across the Pacific, created the
possibility of growing links to virtually every major society in the world.
Complete isolation now became the exception instead of the rule.
