The Mongol Empire
Teacher Resources
Driving Question: How did the Mongols manage to build and maintain history’s largest land-based empire?
From the steppes of Central Asia came nomadic tribes who would forever change the face of Afro-Eurasia. The Mongols are known for being the largest contiguous land empire to have ever existed. Their ways of growing and maintaining their empire differed greatly from successful empires that came before them. Despite their fierce reputations, the Mongol Empire also brought a prodigious level of stability and security to the Silk Road. Their legacy would influence other Eurasian empires for centuries to come.
- Learn about the formation and spread of the Mongol Empire.
- Assess the Mongols’ impact on networks of exchange.
- Use graphic biographies as microhistories to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this time period.
- Utilize quick-sourcing skills to analyze how the Mongol expanded their empire and its impact on trade networks.
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- Why was the Mongol Empire important?
- What factors contributed to the Mongol Empire’s success?
- How did Mongol rule help increase trade in Afro-Eurasia?
- What role did scholars and technology play in the Mongol Empire?
- Does this article conclude that the Mongols were good or bad?
Evaluate
- This article concludes with a view of the legacy of the Mongol Empire. What do you think? Can you take a side? Do you think the Mongols were a positive or negative force for the societies they encountered? What evidence from this article supports your opinion? What challenges it?
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- Who was Rashid al-Din?
- What was the difficulty of ruling the Ilkhanate?
- What does the quote from Rashid al-Din’s book, shown in the top panel, tell us?
- How does the artwork in the Jami’ al-Tawarikh demonstrate this diversity?
- How did the artist of this biography try to demonstrate the connections of the Ilkhanate to other regions in the top panel?
Connect
- How does this biography of Rashid al-Din support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about connections and networks in Mongol society and in this unit?
As you read the primary source excerpts in this collection, use the accompanying Quick-Sourcing Tool to guide your analysis.
-
Guiding Questions
-
Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- Who was Sorqoqtani Beki and what was her relationship to the Mongol royal family?
- What was the cause of Sorqoqtani’s conflict with Oghul-Qaimish?
- How and why did Sorqoqtani win this conflict?
- Sorqoqtani’s nephew Batu agreed to support her. What did he get in return, and what was the eventual result?
- How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate the ways in which competition between women, and their support for each other, helped determine Mongol politics?
Connect
- How does this biography of Sorqoqtani Beki support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the Mongols?
Extension Materials
Wait for It…The Mongols! Crash Course World History #17
Key Ideas
-
Guiding Questions
-
Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- How did Mongol migratory patterns affect their production and distribution?
- Why were Mongols generally more egalitarian than many other societies?
- Which policies did Genghis Khan use to unite the Mongol confederation?
- How did adaptability help the Mongols build their empire? Please give at least two examples.
- How did the Mongol Empire affect trade and exchange across Eurasia (and even parts of Africa)?
- What was the Yam System?
- How did the Mongols recruit people to work for them? What world-historical effect did this have?
- What did the Mongols have to do with the Black Death?
After you watch
- The Eurasian trading system around 1 CE relied on two poles—Rome and the Han Dynasty—connected to each other by smaller states. How was the Eurasian trading system during the period of the Mongol Empire similar or different?
Comanche Empire
Key Ideas
-
Guiding Questions
-
Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- What do the Comanche and the Mongols have in common?
- What was unique about Comanche leadership, and how did it help them build their empire?
- Why were horses so important to the Comanche Empire?
- How did the Spanish colonizers relate to the Comanche?
- What was production and distribution like in Comanche territory?
- How did the Comanche form broader networks and communities with other Indigenous groups?
After you watch
- Is the author’s argument that the Comanche built an empire convincing? What other sources or facts support, extend, or challenge the author of this text?
- The Comanche empire described in this video existed from about the sixteenth century. The Mongol empire was mostly a twelfth and thirteenth century state. The creators of this course believe it is useful to study the two together, despite the chronological difference. Do you agree? Why or why not?
