Brief Summary
The Mongol Empire's decline stemmed from a combination of factors, including difficulties adapting to Chinese culture, weakening control in Russia, and the devastating impact of the plague facilitated by their own efficient communication system ("yam"). Despite the empire's disintegration, Mongol influence persisted, particularly in Russia, and many Mongols eventually returned to their homeland, retaining their cultural identity.
- Mongols never adapted well to China and faced problems in various regions.
- Russia was under Mongol domination for a long time, but it weakened over time.
- The plague, spread through the Mongol's "yam" system, significantly weakened the empire.
- Despite centuries of exposure to other cultures, many Mongols returned to Mongolia, retaining their cultural identity.
Despite unifying the empire and maintaining trade, the Mongols struggled to integrate into Chinese society, leading to problems in different regions. In Central Asia, they adopted Islam and assimilated into the local culture, distancing themselves from traditional Mongol customs. Russia remained under Mongol control for an extended period, but their power gradually diminished, eventually becoming a tributary within the Russian empire.
The Mongols left a lasting framework for empire in Russia, a fact often downplayed. The "yam" postal system, for instance, evolved into modern-day ministries. Numerous other aspects of Russian culture, including vocabulary related to herding (like "malicin"), bear Mongol influences. While some deny these influences, extensive research supports the significant impact of the Mongols on Russian society.
By 1368, the Mongol's power in China had waned significantly, leading to their overthrow. However, they were not absorbed into Chinese culture. Instead, they retreated to Mongolia, maintaining their identity as the Yuan Dynasty and refusing to acknowledge the Ming Dynasty's legitimacy. They even captured a Ming emperor, later attempting to ransom him back, but the Chinese appointed a new emperor instead.
Internal issues and external factors, particularly the plague, contributed to the Mongol Empire's decline. The "yam" system, which initially facilitated unity and communication, also enabled the rapid spread of the plague from southern China to other parts of the world. This devastation undermined the benefits of Mongol rule, leading to the empire's disintegration after 1368.
Following the empire's collapse, many Mongols settled in Persia, Iran, and Afghanistan, with the Hazara people being descendants of the Mongol army. In Russia, some Mongols remained until Catherine the Great's time, when many returned to Mongolia in the 1700s. Despite centuries of cultural exposure, these returning Mongols retained their cultural identity, embracing their traditional nomadic lifestyle.
The return to Mongolia presented challenges, as the returning Mongols had become accustomed to a different lifestyle and were not as productive. However, the Mongolian spirit proved resilient, with returnees readily embracing their traditional customs, such as living in tents, herding, and consuming fermented milk and dried curds.
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Transcript
Full transcript of “The fall of the Mongol Empire: Historian explains why it collapsed | Jack Weatherford”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:03 How did the Mongol Empire come to an end? How did it fall? Despite the fact that Timuro Jetuhan had united the empire, at least symbolically all of it, and they had the trade going on, the Mongols never adapted well to China and they began having problems in different areas. So in some areas of the world they became more like the local people. So in Central Asia they became Muslim and they got more absorbed into that world and broke away from the Mongol examples from before. Russia lingered on longer under Mongol domination but it got weaker and weaker over time and it was based around the
0:48 Vular River but they weakened to the point that they just became a tributary people minority within a Russian empire. But the Mongols had left kind of the framework for empire for Russia. That's something the Russians don't want to hear anymore than they want to hear me criticize the the end of the Song dynasty. But it is true that even yam yam is the word that was used for this postal system and that's the ministries today in in Russia and many many other things in Russia. Just even malicin is a herder. Ma is a p is an animal and chin is a person person who takes care of animals. You know it's all kinds of influences in Russia that some people want to deny but there's always a great powerful uh
1:35 strand of of uh research and scholarship in Russia that supports this understanding of the Mongols and I depend on them tremendously. It's not just Guml Yof is one of the famous ones but he was a little bit too romantic with his ideas and all but I depend upon a lot of the research done by Russian scholars and by early German scholars in the 19th century under sponsorship of the Tar. So I I depend on that work. So you had a great influence there but it was weakening. So bit by bit 1368 the Mongols have become so weak within China that they were overthrown but they
2:20 weren't absorbed into China. The Mongols have been there since 1215 to 1368. They packed up went back to Mongolia. It was just another seasonal migration. Yeah. Yeah. You know it was just amazing. And they said okay we're still the Yuan dynasty. We're not giving you the seals. We're not acknowledging the Ming. And they never did throughout the whole of the Ming. In fact, they went down one time and captured the Ming emperor, took him back to Mongolia. And then they tried to ransen him. And the Chinese said, "No, we're going to appoint another emperor." So the Mongols decided, "Okay, the worst thing we can do to the Chinese is give them back the old emperor." So you had two emperors, you know, back.
3:06 Okay, let them work it out, you know, and the empire just weakened from internal reasons for the Mongols, but some external things from nature. And I think that was the great plague. You know, everything in history, everything that's good comes with something underneath it that's bad. And everything that's bad seems to have something underneath that's sometimes works out good in a way. But uh this great system that united it's called the yam or or to or to that that it united everything. People could move back and forth quickly. Then it could also take the plague out of southern China into all parts of the world. And I do think that's what happened. And uh the plague destroyed the Mongol system. And if all
3:53 of these people are ruled by Mongols because they're benefiting so much from this system and now the system collapses. Yeah. You don't need the empire anymore. Yeah. So it just fell apart after 1368. The empire just fell apart. And most of them stay stayed in uh Persia and Iran and uh Afghanistan. The Hazara people are still descended from the army there. And then in Russia some of them stayed but then finally in the time of Katherine the Great a lot of them returned a little bit they had been there for hundreds of years and then they returned to Mongolia uh in the 1700s and so many Mongols came home. They were
4:42 still Mongols despite hundreds of years of exposure to other cultures. They came back to their tent and squatting around the fire and drinking fermented milk and eating dried curds. It's interesting that the the the Mongolian spirit is so strong that it uh persists Yes. through centuries. Yes. And they just return right back on the horse riding in the open step. Yeah. Well, it was it was actually very difficult because they were a little bit lazy and they weren't so good with doing the task and so uh it it became difficult actually to support so many people coming home uh and eating up all the animals. The Mongols in China had been used to just eating. They hadn't
5:28 been producing much for 150 years.
