Why This Unit? |
During the thirteenth century, the Mongols built an empire from scratch by remarkable feats of organization, planning, endurance, courage, slaughter, destruction, and terror. The empire was ruled by a combination of exploiting and protecting subject peoples. The large-scale displacements of population, combined with Mongol peace-keeping and encouragement of long-distance communications, resulted in widespread exchanges of ideas, goods, and techniques, as well as in the spread of disease.
Studying the Mongols' rise to power and its consequences helps students to:
- grapple with the causes, process, and results of empire-building in the context of the Eurasian steppes.
- evaluate the impact of Mongol imperial conquest on both Mongol society and the societies they conquered.
- analyze ways in which the Mongol empire reestablished and intensified contact between various parts of Afroeurasia.
- develop some empathetic understanding for the Mongols, a people with values and customs very different from students’ own.
Although the Mongol empire’s heyday ended after its first century and it definitively disintegrated at the end of its second, some of its legacy was long lasting. This legacy included:
- a firm and lasting unification of China.
- the beginnings of Russian unification and the firming up of Russian identity.
- the further expansion of Islam.
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Time and Materials |
Time:
Lessons 1 and 2 can be accomplished in 180-225 minutes. Actual time taken will vary with circumstances. If time is limited, Lesson 1 can stand alone and be done in about 90 minutes. Parts of Lesson 1 can be adapted to take 45 minutes (for instance, using only the sections on leadership and social organization with their discussion questions.).
Materials:
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