📅Weekly Schedule and Objectives: The World the Mongols Made

From the first explosion of military might from the steppes of central Asia in the early 13th century, the Mongols made a stunning appearance on the center stage of world history. Their invasions and expansion ended or interrupted many of the great empires of the medieval period and also extended the trade network that had increasingly defined the prosperity of Asia. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols and their nomadic neighbors were forged into one of the mightiest war machines the world had ever seen. With astonishing rapidity the Mongols conquered central Asia, northern China, and much of eastern Persia. Genghis Khan's heirs added the rest of China, Tibet, Iraq, and southern Russia to the empire. Although much of what the Mongols did was destructive, their conquests also produced beneficial consequences; the relative peace and stability of the Mongol territories allowed for the spread and exchange of prosperity, material goods, technology, organisms, and new ideas that flowed along the trade routes protected by Mongol armies. In many ways, the Mongols laid the foundations for the modern world.