Brooks Johnson Mongolia

    I am Marco Polo and I am about to set forth on a journey were potential threats are. I have researched and asked merchants what I should watch out for and they all said the Mongols and this is why.  The Mongolian Empire is a extremely violent and ruthless empire. They attack in very large numbers and in strategic ways. Many methods of attacking involve using fear as a weapon. I have even encountered civilians who were once a member of a prosperous civilization that did not do anything to the Mongols and still they were attacked. I believe the Mongols attack for resources and land but certainly not for more people or slaves. I have heard that if a civilization does not surrender then it dies and not just the men in the city but the women and even the helpless children. A young merchant who once lived in Mongolia said there motto was “surrender or die”.  I have heard how they attacked Caffa it is only a rumor but supposedly they used infected bodies while invading.

    I have just left Mongolia. I am very surprised by the amount of trade Mongolia supports. On my way into Mongolia I noticed how many trading roads the Mongols have built, and these trading roads were nice too the Mongols must have put a large amount of time and effort into these roads. Also I heard that the Mongols even increased the amount of paper money in China. Also the moneys value was guaranteed with metals. I think that the fact that they were once nomads made them more likely to encourage trade. With all of the roads and trade supporting things the Mongols made they greatly increased the spread of culture.

    When people look back on an ancient civilization they tend to concentrate on the things they did badly. This is the case for Mongolia. People look in books and see that the Mongols were savages and did nothing civilized or anything to help others. But when the person looking back on the civilization learns more about it they learn how even taking over what seemed to be pointless cities had a large amount of logic behind it. This kind of view is also put on Sparta. Many people thought all Sparta did was fight. Then when a person looked over the fact that they fought a lot they would find that Sparta was a very civilized, artistic, and trade supporting civilization much like Mongolia.

  

                                                        Citations

Hartog, Leo, and Leo Hartog. Genghis Khan Conqueror of The World. 1st. 1. United States of America: Barnes and Noble Books, 1989. 42-52. Print.

Lister, R.P. Genghis Khan. 1st. 1. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1969. 180-196. Print.

"Destruction under the Mongol Empire." Destruction under the Mongol Empire. 1. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_Empire>.