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Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405

Impact of the Mongol invasions and interaction between East and West to 1405: the Black Death, travellers and ideological impact

  • 1 thing to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Rashid al-Din, the spread of the Black Death and Caffa, papal envoys, William of Rubruck and Marco Polo, contacts from East to West and the ideological impact on Islam and Christian Europe.

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Answer each one before you reveal it.

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How is the Black Death thought to have reached Europe?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was Rashid al-Din's world history, and why was it possible only under Mongol rule?

    Model answer

    It was the first attempt at a history of all the known peoples, from the Mongols and Chinese to the Franks and Indians, and it could only be written in Persia under a regime whose contacts brought informants from every one of those societies to one court.

  2. 2

    How is the Black Death thought to have reached Europe?

    Model answer

    Plague appears to have travelled west from Central Asia along the Mongol trade and military routes, reaching the Black Sea ports and then Mediterranean Europe by ship in 1347.

  3. 3

    What is said to have happened at the siege of Caffa in 1346?

    Model answer

    A Golden Horde army besieging the Genoese port was reported to have catapulted plague-infected corpses into the town, after which fleeing Genoese ships carried the disease into the Mediterranean.

  4. 4

    What was the effect of the plague on the Mongol world itself?

    Model answer

    It struck the Golden Horde and the Yuan lands as well, killing populations, wrecking the tax base and emptying the trade routes, so the epidemic that Mongol connections helped spread also helped destroy Mongol power.

  5. 5

    Why did the papacy send envoys such as John of Plano Carpini to the Mongols?

    Model answer

    After the invasions of 1241 the West knew almost nothing about who the Mongols were, so envoys were sent to gather intelligence, to protest at the attacks and to explore whether the Mongols might be converted or allied with.

  6. 6

    What makes William of Rubruck's account so valuable?

    Model answer

    He travelled to the khan's court at Karakorum, described what he actually saw, including the European craftsmen working there, and reported accurately rather than repeating the legends that filled other western accounts.

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