What Role Did The Mongols Play In The Development Of Asian Empires

When discussing Asian history, countries or empires such as China and India are frequently mentioned. China and India are indeed important in Asian history, but a giant player, who played an irreplaceable role in the development of Asia, is missing. It is the Mongols. The Mongols established large secular states, increased the scale of trades, and promoted religion coexistence that accelerated the development and integration of regions in the Asia’s Circulatory System.

Before Genghis Khan, the great Mongolian leader, established the Mongol Empire in 1196, the land in Asia was separated into small states. The expansion of the Mongol Empire, mostly towards the south, was driven by the desire of obtaining greater variety of goods (Weatherford:

76). The need for various commodities was caused by the limitation of resources the steppe region could provide (Weatherford: 76). With their dominating military forces and advanced ideology of forming civil administrations, the Mongols managed to establish large secular states across the continent. For example, Khubilai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered China in 1271, unifying China from the north to the south for the first time in its long history (Weatherford: 195). After ensured his domination of the land in China, Khubilai Khan adapted the Chinese culture, and created and enforced laws that were drafted based on the Chinese culture (Weatherford: 200). For example, the Mongols interpreted themselves as the strong leaders favored by Heaven, which was respected and awed in the Chinese culture (Mair: 5). The Mongols adopted the Chinese way of permanently marking one’s crime by tattoo, for example, only changing the spot of the mark from one’s forehead to the upper arms (Weatherford: 201). Establishing clear and strong laws that suited the customs of the Chinese as the center of his civil administration in China, Khubilai Khan successfully won the loyalty of the Chinese civilians. Applying the method of adapting local culture and creating legal codes that suited the local customs in other parts of Asia, the Mongols managed to secure their rules on the conquered land and establish large secular states in Asia’s Circulatory System.
The Mongols also increased the scale of trades from simply trading commodities such as silk and spices to exchanging people and knowledge while expanding their empire.

Before the Mongols began their domination in Asia in the thirteenth century, trades were common in many parts of Asia. The Silk Route, for example, was an essential trade route between China and the Mediterranean since the second century. Goods such as silk, tea, and spices were exported from China, while commodities like fine cottons, gold, and silver were imported to China from the Mediterranean through the Silk Route (Mair: 34). Although the Mongols imposed limited Mongolian culture and customs in conquered land and adapted local culture, they were still committed to their commercial and communicational ideology. The system of shares, or khubi, which entitled each member of the Golden Family to “a share of the wealth of each part of the empire,” encouraged the exchange of people along the trade routes and across the continent (Weatherford: 221). For example, the wealth in Persia and Iraq under the control of Hulegu was shared with Khubilai Khan, who was dominating China, because Khubilai owned properties there. Commodities such as jewels, pearls and textiles were sent to China, while skilled people such as Persian translators and doctors were also sent to Khubilai Khan (Weatherford:

222).
The Mongols did not limit the trades to merely exchanging of material goods as more regions became accessible during the expansion of their empire, they made culture portable (Weatherford: 229). The Mongols moved both drugs and Arab doctors, who had adequate knowledge of using them, from the Middle East to China, and exported Chinese doctors with knowledge of Chinese medicine to Persia. The Mongols realized that forms of knowledge, alike material goods, carried new possibilities for merchandising and wealth. In order to maximize the prosperity the trade routes brought, the Mongols also maintained their trade routes across the empire throughout the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, assuring the accessibility of the routes and the safety of their travelers (Weatherford: 220-221). Broaden the scale of trades from simply importing and exporting commodities to the exchange of people and culture, the Mongols not only encouraged the circulation of goods, but also boosted the mobility of people and culture in Asia’s Circulatory System, which eventually contributed to the globalization of the world.
Unlike demonstrating military power and controlling trades, the Mongols did not impose any particular religion on the conquered land.

Instead, they allowed multiple religions to exist and practice on the same land. The Mongols did not have any religion of their own to impose upon their new fellow civilians. They simply respected and honored the Blue Sky, treating it as the ultimate source of solutions to questions and the ultimate destination of their souls (Weatherford: 13). Instead of following the same religion, the Mongols valued completely following their rules regardless of the religion practiced as loyal. Over the years of their ruling, the Mongols did not favor any religion over the other in court. During their campaigns of invading Europe, the Mongols heavily relied on Rubruck, an envoy with a Christian background, to communicate with the leaders of European kingdoms. Although Rubruck acted as an important bridge between the Mongols and the European leaders, Mongke, the Mongolian leader in the campaigns, was not interested in Rubruck’s religious background, but the diplomatic and commercial value he possessed (Weatherford: 175). With the advanced development in their trading networks, especially the large scale of trades under their rules, the Mongols supported the monks of missionary religions to travel across the empire along with the merchants. For example, Muslim mosques were built along trade routes in the thirteenth century by Muslim merchants (Alphers: 57).

Khubilai Khan even designated sections in Dadu, the Great Capital of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, for travelers from the West. Travelers such as “Roman Catholic, Nestorian, and Buddhist priests” were arranged to meet their Taoist and Confucian counterparts who practiced in China (Weatherford: 199). The religion-friendly setting in Dadu was a miniature of the religious tolerance in the entire Mongol Empire. In regions outside the Mongol Empire, such as the European kingdoms, only a single religion was tolerated; practicing religions that were not legitimized by the state was strictly prohibited (Weatherford: 219). In the modern society, the concepts of religious freedom and religious tolerance are highly valued and actively pursued. The Mongols, who were considered as “the barbarians” by the civilized societies in Europe and other parts of Asia, surpassed any other societies in promoting religious tolerance. Introducing a new but essential ideology of religious freedom, the Mongols not only contributed to the modern civilization, but also encouraged mobility by supporting the missionary monks.
Growing from a small tribal group in the steppe region to an empire that dominated the majority of Asia, Middle East, and modern Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongols accomplished unparalleled achievements that any other empires in the course of history could never reach. They not only established large secular states, increased the scale of trades, and promoted religion coexistence thus contributed to the development of the Asia’s Circulatory System. But more importantly, the Mongols pushed forward the development of civilization, encouraged mobility that greatly contributed to the integration of societies and the modern idea of globalization.