CHIN 50 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Kublai Khan, Four Books And Five Classics, Mongolian Script
Document Summary
Son of a tribal chieftain, his personal name was temujin. Avenged the death of his father, then attracted an army of loyal followers. In 1206, at the mongol council (khuriltai), he was formally declared great khan . Under his leadership, mongols conquered mongolia, manchuria, korea, central asia, even kiev, By 1227, chinggis ruled from the pacific ocean to the caspian sea! Ogodei (r. 1229-1241) chinggis khan"s son and successor. Took title of khagan, or great khan, higher status than khan, in 1229. Continued conquests, expanding empire into georgia, persia, armenia, kiev, hungary. Built capital city with walls and palaces in 1235 at karakorum, mongolia. Army only about 130,000 horsemen, but in battle gave appearance of several times as many. Military technology adopted from conquered groups, such as iron stirrups (jurchen), iron-tipped arrows (song), firebombs (with song gunpowder) Strategic device of terror ( psychological warfare ) - their enemies would rather submit than resist.
