Mongol Empire Dbq Analysis

Mongol DBQ
The Mongols were a nomadic people until 1206, when they acknowledged Temujin as the supreme leader, Genghis Khan. A huge empire was created under his rule, linking Eastern and Western Eurasia. An analysis of these documents will discuss the topic of how the Mongols expanded their empire so far in such a short time through their power of violence. This analysis will also show the admiration and respect of the Mongols by others in surrounding regions. Ultimately, this analysis will discuss how the fear from other people gave the Mongols their biggest advantage in conquering other regions to expand their enormous empire. The Mongols used violence to destroy those who had rebelled against them. A story passed down orally for years
read, “Genghis Khan, commanding the great Middle Army, attacked as well, forcing the Cathayan army to retreat, killing the finest and most courageous soldiers of Cathay… slaughtering them along the side of Chuyung Kuan so that their bodies lay piled up like rotten logs.”. This story is not a reliable source due to the fact it has been passed down orally, but it still gives us a sense of what the Mongols were capable of. An anonymous eyewitness account says “He sent soldiers out against those of the Tanqut people who had rebelled against him… The whole tribe was completely wiped out.”, confirming the Mongols ruthless killing tactics. The speaker was an eyewitness, making it a reliable source. The Mongols used violence to not only wipe out populations, but to gain control of and conquer new regions. They strategically fabricated armies of non-Mongols to expand their military, and therefore conquer more regions. Eyewitnesses to the Mongols military wrote of admiration and awe of how precise they were.
A picture of a Mongol horse-mounted bowman demonstrates how skilled these soldiers were in their combat. We can assume the artist admires the Mongols method of fighting by their interpretation of a skilled archer turning a full 180 degrees to shoot an arrow, all while riding a horse. If the time period of Mongol conquest matches closely to the time the painting was done, we can mark this source as reliable. Marco Polo recorded in 1298 about his travels eight years before when first handedly seeing the Mongols army. “They are brave in battle, almost to desperation, setting little value upon their lives, and exposing themselves without hesitation to all manner of danger… No people on earth can surpass them in fortitude under difficulties, nor show greater patience under wants of every kind. They are most obedient to their chiefs, and are maintained at small expense.”. Though this is an eyewitness account, we are forced to question on its reliability since it wasn’t written down until eight years later. This document is unbiased because it was observed and written by a person who was neither Mongol nor a Mongol enemy. A biased record of admiration is present in the document written by Juvaini, a high ranked official of the Mongol who shortly after writing this document was appointed as the governor of Baghdad. He states, “For they have divided all the people into companies of ten,
appointing one of the ten to be the commander of the nine others; while from among each ten commanders one has been given the title of ‘commander of the hundred”… There is a true equality in this; each man toils as much as the next, and no difference is made between them, no attention being paid to wealth or power.”, speaking highly of the Mongols military. A missing voice that is unaccounted for in this document would be the Mongols that made up the military. It would be helpful if we could hear from them how they felt about the training of the army, as well as if they were as committed as Juvaini states.
Eyewitnesses to the Mongols could not help but feel fear from them.
Anonymous monks in Novgorod, Russia recorded the event of a Mongol invasion and the horrors that came with it, writing “They likewise killed the Knyaz and the Knyaginya, and men, women, and children, monks, nuns and priests, some by fire, some by sword, and violated nuns, priests’ wives, good women and girls in the presence of their mothers and sisters… And we, indeed, having seen it, were terrified and wept with sighing day and night over our sins…”. We can probably count this source as reliable because it was written by Monks, and it is in their religion, which by they live their life that they should not lie. In a letter to the Great Khan from Pope Innocent IV, another religious source, he writes “and with a fury still unabated you do not cease from braking the bonds of natural ties, sparing neither sex nor age, you rage against all indiscriminately with the sword of chastisement.”. His tone is almost accusatory, but there is fear and disbelief at what the Great Khan has done. We cannot mark this source as reliable, however, because in his letter he writes “according to what we have heard”, and therefore has not witnessed anything he is accusing the Khan
of.
Through violence, respect, and fear, the Mongol Empire expanded far wider than most kingdoms of their time, spreading across Russia, China, Iran, Korea, and Japan. One last document of a map shows just how far spread the Mongol Empire was (Doc 11). Altogether, the documents seem to be pretty evenly spread out between biased and unbiased, and reliable and unreliable sources. Additional views that were not expressed in any of these documents were those of women and commoners. It would have been helpful to hear from them because both were treated unequally from the higher ranked officials. Also, it would have been nice to hear from the soldiers of the opposing side to know what they thought of the Mongol’s fighting skills. Of course, the Mongols being such skilled and ferocious fighters left very few to tell the tale.