Bipul Mainali Journal Project

1. Today is the day where I tell you about how the mongols were blood thirsty marauders and the slayers of innocent. An invasion by the mongol empire that I recall is when they invaded the Islamic lands in the 13th century. This invasion was a massacre that resulted in 1.3 million dead, in the city Merv alone, and also another 800,00 residents in Baghdad. After the invasion, the mongols went back to Merv and Baghdad to make sure no one was alive and hiding in a cellar or a hole. If they found anyone, they would drag them out and slay them in cold blood. The mongol leaders, like Genghis Khan, were so ruthless that they had their soldiers sometimes cut off the ears of their victims and bring them in a sack to show that they had accomplished the order. Another battle when the mongols killed millions of people is when the mongol army, which was estimated at about 130,000 men, massacred hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of people. 1.6 million people were killed at the sack of Harat, and 1,747,000 at Nishapur. The mongol Empire did not just stop at killing 1 million people, they charged throughout Asia and Europe killing tens of millions of people. 

2. Asia is the most powerful country solely because of the Mongol Empire. Their successes in cultural exchanges and being promoters of trade led them to be so strong by having many resources and a huge army. I have learned so many things about the Mongol Empire other than them being blood thirsty marauders. The Mongols are very efficient at using their time wisely. They created an amazing mailing system where mail could be been carried by a messenger and take up to two days, but mongols mounted on animals, such as elephants and horses, and split the time in half. The most important thing is that the mongols became so knowledgeable due to how much they trade. They use the silk road when lets them trade the resources in which they have a vast amount of, like iron and even animals, and get things that they need, like spices, salt, and cloth. Since the mongols were nomads, which are people that move around from place to place, so they do not have a place where they are allocated, they met a lot of different people and learned about different cultures, like the Islamic and Buddhist culture. Even thought Genghis Khan set up an institution that insured complete religious freedom, the majority of the Mongols turned towards Buddhism. This is one of the things that makes Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, his son, great was because  they are shamanists, which is a religion. He lets people believe in what they want to follow, unlike the Byzantine Empire, which enforced the belief of Christianity. 

3. I have been studied about the Mongol Empire and their fascinating journeys throughout the continents of Asia and Europe. Even though I have devoted my life towards the Mongol Empire, anyone can tell that people have mixed feelings about the Mongol Empire. Some people think that the mongol empire was a group of nomads that went from place to place and killing people, spreading the bubonic plague, and they are not wrong. On the other hand, there are a group of people, like me, who think that the mongol empire spread knowledge about the art of military strategy under the rule of Genghis and Kublai Khan. This is a very opinionated topic because both of those things are true. The reason that people think that the Mongol Empire is so bad is because they slayed tens of millions of people while trying and succeeding to expand the empire, but a flaw of the mongol empire is they expanded to the point where if they tried anymore, it would hurt more than help them. After Genghis Khan died, and Kublai Khan was the ruler of the Mongol Empire, he tried invading japan but he failed. That failed invasion was really the beginning of the fall of the Mongol Empire. The reason people think that the Mongol Empire was good was because they absorbed so much knowledge from different places throughout Asia and Europe and since they were nomads, they moved from place to place so that knowledge that they received, they can share with other people. Another thing is that they were so smart when it came to Military strategy. A very smart strategy that they used was they sent about one hundred soldiers to draw the entire enemy army towards the Mongol Empire, which usually consisted of around 130,000 men. This genius strategy was created by Genghis Khan. The mongol culture compares really well with the Roman Empire. The Roman soldiers expanded around the same distance or if not more thean the mongol empire. They were every smart because they traded with other people. The most common things that they traded consisted of Iron, Wool, Lapiz Luzili and gold, and salt. They traded with India to recieve spices and silk. The Roman Empire  was very powerful because of their amazing military size and strategic military plans, which made them victorious in many battles. The Mongol Empire and the Roman Empire are very similar. 






Bibliography :

* Rossabi, Morris. "The Mongols in World History | Asia Topics in World History." The Mongols in World History | Asia Topics in World History. Columbia University, 13 Apr. 2001. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Wild, Oliver. "The Silk Road." The Silk Road. UCI, 29 Dec. 2007. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.

Prawdin, Michael. The Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy. New Brunswick, NJ: AldineTransaction, 2006. Print.

Morgan, David. "The Decline and Fall of the Mongol Empire." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 19.04 (2009): 427. Print.

"Religion in the Mongol Empire." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 01 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

Pelant, Jason. "The Mongol Invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281." About.com Asian History. Asian History, 4 Oct. 1998. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.