Mongol Empire Dbq Analysis

The Mongols, one of the fiercest and most savage groups of humans to ever exist. The 13th century was home to this group of people, who resided in the grasslands of central Asia. The Mongols were illiterate warriors, who depended on horses as a means of travel. Although being illiterate, the Mongols are said to be one of the most ferocious peoples, conquering more than four million square miles of land. The Mongols were, undoubtedly, overwhelmingly barbaric. This is seen through their actions, and way of life.

The Mongol empire in comparison to other empires and groups in terms of world conquests and death tolls, have alarmingly high numbers. The Mongol empire stretched across parts of modern day Russia, to China, to Persia, and more (Doc.

An article written by Robert Marshall in 1993 describes how the Mongols equipped and traveled while they went on their military duty (Doc. B). The Mongols were very smart, their deft behavior was one of the key factors that led them to be so successful, yet so brutal. Men aging 15 and above would be awaited to partake in military service (Doc. B). The men would wear silk shirts that would help them in the way that if they were to be stabbed by a weapon the silk shirt would not break, it would actually protect the men (Doc. B). This is one key example of their intelligence. In terms of weapons, the Mongols would use bow and arrows, swords, javelins, battle axes and more (Doc. B). You could say that the fact that they did not have weapons such as guns, and still conquered and killed as much as they did, would mean that they were relentless savages. Adding on, in an excerpt from a book written by John of Plano Carpini in 1955, it went on to address just how organized the Mongol army was (Doc. C). The army was organized by the amount of men, the most basic unit was 10 men, and it went all the way up to “tunman”, the number they used for 1000 (Doc. C). Not only were they serious in doing their “work” right, but they could not stand doing their “work”wrong. If men decided to leave the battle, others would be punished by death (Doc. C). The Mongols took their

John of Plano Carpini wrote the History of the Mongols in 1955, located in the book there is a section titled Carpini on Battle Tactics. This section describes how the Mongols cleverly fought (Doc. D). In battle, they would put “dummies” on horses to give the illusion of more warriors (Doc. D). This seemed to work seeing that outcome of their empire. In addition, a disgustingly savage way that they fought were taking the deads fat, lighting it on fire, and then throwing it at their enemies, causing an almost inextinguishable fire (Doc. D). Ata-Malik Juvaini wrote an article titled Genghis Khan: The HIstory of the World Conqueror, in 1997. In this article Juvaini wrote of the level of brutality the Mongols took in order to get what they desired (Doc, E). The Mongols went to the level of beheading people and stacking their heads up in piles separated by age, and sex, almost as if they were trophies (Doc. E). Some of the Mongol rampages had little to no survivors, others had up to 2,000,000 fatalities (Doc. E). Furthermore, in a manuscript titled Book of Kings, there is an art piece made around 1300, that shows the execution of a group of people (Doc. F). In detail, some people have their head buried in the ground, and others are being shot in the chest with arrows (Doc. F). The Mongols seemed to have no remorse, all they wanted was more power, this allowed