Pax Mongolica
Pax Mongolica or "The Mongolian Peace" is an expression coined by Western authors to describe - based on the Pax Romana - the relatively stable social, cultural and economic conditions in the interior of the Mongolian Empire . This empire, conquered by Genghis Khan and his heirs, encompassed large parts of Asia and Europe from the late 12th to the 16th centuries.
Legend has it that in the heyday of the empire a maiden with a pot of gold could cross its territory unaccompanied from one end to the other without fear of any kind of harassment.
More detailed explanation of the term
The well-organized civil administrative structures and the resulting relative security inside the empire are only partially based on political unity within the Mongol empire . Such was only in effect from 1190 to 1307 for the entire empire. Rather, the cohesion manifested itself after 1307 in the law codified in the Jassa , the postal and communication system (Örtöö and Païza), and the common art and cultural assets such as writing and language in particular . In this respect, from 1307 onwards , the Mongol Empire was for most of the time a confederation of states similar to the Holy Roman Empire, under more formal than factual leadership by the respective Great Khan as a unified state in the modern sense.
The security prevailing within the Mongol Empire stands in a certain contrast to the cruelty and harshness of the Mongolian warfare . In its greatest expansion, the empire stretched from Poland to Vietnam and from Moscow to northern India , ruling among other things the entire Silk Road , the most important trade route between Europe and Asia. It was surrounded by numerous vassal states that had to pay tribute to the Mongol Empire and whose policies had to be based on the wishes of the khans .
A large number of sources about the Mongol Empire are due to the Pax Mongolica, especially the travelogues, which are an important source for research into the Mongol Empire. Significant examples are the Ystoria Mongalorum by Johannes de Plano Carpini and the travel reports of the European adventurers Wilhelm von Rubruk and Marco Polo . These and other travel reports were created because, for the first time in human history, enormous distances could be covered relatively safely. The same circumstance is responsible for the first transfer of a large amount of (historical) knowledge over very long distances: During the Pax Mongolica, for example, Chinese writings reached the Middle East and vice versa.
literature
- Peter Brent: The Mongol Empire: Genghis Khan: His Triumph and his Legacy. Book Club Associates, London 1976.
- Paul D. Buell: Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham (MD) 2003, ISBN 0-8108-4571-7 .
- Nikolay Kradin, Tatiana Skrynnikova: Genghis Khan Empire. Vostochnaja literatura, Moscow 2006, ISBN 5-02-018521-3 .
- Veronika Seber: The "Pax Mongolica". Diploma thesis 2013 online
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jack Weatherford: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York 2004, pp. 241-265.
- ^ David Morgan: The Mongols. Second Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2007, ISBN 1405135395 , pp. 74-98.
- ^ David Morgan: The Mongols. Oxford 2007, pp. 5-29.