Dynasties: The Mongol Empire (Part - 1) - History Video Lecture - UPSC

Beijing capital of China the country
with the largest population on earth
Beijing is one of the world's great
cities and it was made capital of China
by a great man
that man was Kublai Khan
Kublai declared himself great calm the
supreme ruler of the mongol empire at
his palace of Xanadu in 1260 but his
main interest was in China where he
reigned until 1294 and found Lee that
the Yuan Dynasty this meant he also
became a major figure in the history of
China kakan was an extremely significant
figure in the course of Chinese history
because he was the first significant non
Chinese ruler to rule over the entire
Chinese Empire and more than that had
aspirations in effect to try and rule
the entire world Kublai Khan was the
grandson of the legendary Mongol warlord
Chinggis Khaan who carved out a vast
empire across Asia and the Middle East
at the beginning of the 13th century
like his grandfather Kublai crushed his
enemies with brute force yet he ruled
his own lands peacefully setting up
government's creating systems of
Taxation and promoting culture and
commerce
he made Beijing the capital of the
biggest empire the world had ever seen
stretching from the shores of the China
Sea to the river Danube in Europe and
from Siberia to the Indian Ocean
but his greatest achievement was the
unification of China a unification that
survives to this day and although he
reigned over 700 years ago his story is
one that still has great significance
the reason why Kublai Khan is of
interest today is because Kublai Khan
ruled a great multicultural society a
great multicultural Empire and he
presided over a global economy and this
was globalization in the in the Middle
Ages and again his empire incorporated
many many different cultures and peoples
and he was able to unify them bring them
together and do so successfully so
Kublai Khan was clearly a man of vision
but what else do we know about him the
Venetian traveler Marco Polo who lived
in Kublai's court for more than 20 years
described him as a man of middle height
with a figure of just proportion and a
face that was somewhat red which may
have resulted from his love of food and
alcohol
but he was also capable of extreme
violence of barbarity and cruelty he
carved out his great empire with one
battle after another and even though his
military career started quite late in
his life his skill in combat was second
to none but there was another very
different side to his character
throughout his reign the wise Khan as he
was known courted the most sophisticated
intellectual scientific and artistic
minds of the day and he was very
practical recognising the benefits that
freedom of trade an effective taxation
would bring in terms of practical
changes one of the big things that you
would have seen if you lived through his
rule was a massive increase in Public
Works for instance china's canal system
was increased during his time through
massive use of forced labour
this meant that grain and other
important agricultural goods could be
transported up and down the country much
more conveniently without having for
instance to use the often slightly
dangerous in pirate ridden seas on the
China coast another innovation of the
period of one that would have great
significance later was the introduction
of paper currency banknotes
to understand the full significance of
this we need to know more about the
Mongol culture that Kublai Khan came
from
Kublai's grandfather Ginga scam was one
of the most violent men in history in
just two decades in the early 13th
century his forces carved out the
biggest Empire in world history the
Mongolian tribes he led originated from
the steppe grasslands in the shadows of
the Altai mountains in the southwest of
the modern state of Mongolia
the Mongols were a nomadic race they had
no towns instead they lived in
magnificent tented settlements it was a
harsh existence and it produced a race
of men and women who were extremely
tough in 1206 Chinggis Khaan was
proclaimed Universal ruler of these
people of the steppes and he set about
organizing his military resources in a
great flurry of violence Dinges khan's
campaigns extended from the Black Sea to
Korea their brutality was legendary
if you resisted the Mongols you're in
deep trouble because once they laid
siege to your town and taken it you
might find that for instance every man
would have his head cut off there were
famous tales selling miracle perhaps was
still very indicative of piles of heads
like Campbell's being found in conquered
cities or they might exercise arbitrary
terror for instance decide that every
man over a certain height in the city
was going to be executed or that
everybody in towns ears were going to be
cut off from placed in a big pile and it
was well known also that by surrendering
you could avoid these sorts of horrors
therefore the Mongols managed through
psychological terror and rumors of how
brutal they were often to force cities
to surrender without even fighting
because they were afraid of the
alternative if they actually tried to
resist but as the Mongol Empire spread
across Asia there was one major obstacle
they couldn't overcome
the song empire of southern China had
over 50 million people and fast
resources for years the Mongols tried to
conquer this giant of the south but were
unsuccessful
it was going to take a warrior of very
special abilities to overcome the
resistance of the Sung dynasty that
ruled southern China
this man was Kublai Khan but it was to
be many years before he was to get the
chance to prove himself
Kublai was born in Mongolia in 1215 when
his grandfather jingis was at the height
of his power his father Tolly was a
coarse military man the youngest of
dinguses four sons by his favorite wife
kuba lies childhood in early Korea were
unspectacular they gave little hint of
how influential he was to become not
just his overlord of all the mongol
dominions but also as the ruler of his
own chinese empire his father died from
alcoholism when he was 15 but this seems
to have had little effect on the young
Kublai because Tawi had been away at war
for years at a time and Kublai had
hardly ever seen him his primary
influence was his remarkable mother
so Kakutani women enjoyed a prominent
role in mongol society regularly they
would fight alongside their husbands
others rule their own territories so
Kakutani was typical of this strong
tradition as a young woman she was one
of the few people to stand up to Jing
he's calm and jinkies had a high regard
for her and for her son Kublai the great
warrior was quick to recognize the
child's intelligence
like most Mongol children pool I could
ride and shoot by the time he was three
and he was an accomplished fighter but
his mother also pushed him academically
and Chinese scholars taught him
Confucian philosophy which was based on
the principles of harmony in the family
order in the state and peace in the
Empire she is credited with having
brought all her children up in this
rather enlightened way to realize that
there was no use just killing people and
enslaving them taking their things but
if the Empire was actually going to
become a real Empire not simply just a
conquest state you had to respect the
traditions of the people you were you'd
conquered and you had to preserve you
know the wealth that was there not
simply destroyed or dissipated so he
obviously benefited from wise counsel
for his mother and he was educated in
Chinese ways as a younger man and that's
obviously paid off when he became Khan
by taking the time to educate him