Mongol Empire: Encyclopedia II - Mongol Empire - Legacy

Mongol Empire - Legacy

The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in human history. The 12th and 13th century, when the empire came to power, is often called the "Age of the Mongols". The Mongol armies during that time were extremely well organized. The death toll (by battle, massacre, flooding, and famine) of the Mongol wars of conquest is placed at about 40 million according to some sources.

Non-military achievements of the Mongol Empire include the introduction of a writing system, based on the Uighur script, and the same is still used in Inner Mongolia. The Empire caused the unification of all the tribes of Mongolia, which made possible the emergence of a Mongol nation and culture. Modern Mongolians are generally proud of the empire and the sense of identity that it gave to them.

Some of the long-term consequences of the Mongol Empire include:

• The Mongol empire is traditionally given credit for reuniting China and expanding its frontiers.
• The Mongol empire (Western) unified much of the Central Asian Republics that formed part of the erstwhile USSR. Today, in a number of Central Asian nations, Tamerlane and other Mongol figures are viewed as important symbols of national identity rather than as "feudal oppressors".
• Russia rose to prominence at the same time that Russian rulers were accorded the status of tax collectors for Mongols. The Russian ruler Ivan the Terrible overthrew the Mongols completely to form the Russian empire, after the Great standing on the Urgu River proved the Mongols vulnerable, and led to the independance of the Grand Duke of Moscow.
• Persia became Iran with almost the same boundaries as the modern Iran. The Persian language gained ascendancy over Arabic in Iran.
• The language Chagatai, widely spoken among a group of Turks, is named after a son of Genghis Khan. It was once widely spoken, and had a literature, but was since eliminated in Russia.
• Some historians attribute the origins of the Emirate of Osman, the nucleus of the later Ottoman Empire, to the Mongol empire.^{[citation needed]}
• Europe’s knowledge of the known world was immensely expanded by the information brought back by ambassadors and merchants. When Columbus sailed in 1492, his mission was to reach Cathay, the land of the Genghis Khan. Some research studies indicate that the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the late 1340s, may have reached from China to Europe along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Legacy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki