Andrew's+Essay

=Decline of the Mongolian Empire =

Andrew The Mongolian Empire was the world’s biggest land empire ever. However like all things it fell apart. In the last years of the Mongolian Empire things finally caught up with it. There had never been a stable power structure. The economy was in a steep decline. The resources of the empire stretched too thinly over its vast territory. For these reasons __there is much our world can learn from the fall of the Mongolian Empire__.  Andrew First, in 1274 the Mongolian armies, under the rule Kublai  Khan, attacked the island of Japan. Unfortunately, for the Mongols, when sailing towards Japan they were hit by a typhoon forcing them to retreat. When they returned in 1281 the Japanese had prepared for them by building fortresses. However, the Mongols almost won but strong winds broke apart the attacking fleet and caused many of the ships to sink. Thousands of men drowned or were killed as they approached the shore [[|Source]]. These defeats made the currency of the empire lose its value. This greatly increased inflation. Kublai Khan also increased the taxes in his territory. This caused turmoil and anger among the population [[|Source]]. Though our circumstances are different the world today like the Mongolian Empire did back than is going through economic problems. Kublai Khan did pay attention to the problems his failed invasions were causing on the economy. Similar to how Americans failed to foresee the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Like the Americans Kublai Khan was focused on the acquiring of Japan into the Mongol Empire; banks were too focused on trying to get people to buy homes. If someone had looked back at the crisis that befell the Mongol Empire maybe we would not be dealing with a recession.  Andrew Second, the Mongols were always nomads and never staying in one place makes hard to run an empire. When a city or territory became conquered this mostly meant the conquered party had to pay tribute or eventually “taxes”. If they failed to pay or tried to rebel the Mongols would return and “enforce”. The actual administration of the people was left to actual people there. Controlling this mesh of people and cultures was a massive task. At the beginning of 60’s (1260) civil war broke out in the Empire [[|Source]]. Clashes broke out over whom should the Great Khan by the end of the civil war the Mongolian Empire had been split in territories each being ruled by its own ruler. Kublai Khan became Khan but he was not universally recognised as ruler [[|Source]]. Today are many issues are which people are divided on. This is division leads to distrust. Like in Ancient Mongolia everyone thinks their opinion is the right one and they have to right to it. An example of something like the title Khan that everyone thinks that is theirs is oil. Like the wars being fought in the Middle East over the rights of ownership over the oil. The wars like the civil war in the Mongolian empire are merely dividing people and no one is really winning. A civil war caused an empire to crumble; people should look back at history and learn from the mistakes of those who came before us.  Andrew Third, the Mongolian Empire was over 33, 000, 000 square kilometres [[|Source]   ]. To control an empire of that size well would take superhuman effort. Unfortunately for the Mongols they were only human. The Mongol Empire became too big to be controlled. While the Mongol Empire was vast land wise there were only a relatively small number of Mongols compared to the rest of population in the empire [[|Source]]. There were not enough Mongols to keep the citizens under control and stop people from rebelling. The Mongols kept conquering and making their empire bigger without think about the future. People today are treating the environment with a similar attitude. We take and use up our resources. The Mongol Empire collapsed when they used up resources trying to control such a huge territory. People today are using resources up without think about the consequences that will befall us in the future. One day the human civilization may fall apart because our resources are stretched to thinly.  Andrew The people of today’s world learn could learn a lot from looking back at the past. We could have learned to keep our eyes on the economy preventing a recession. We could have learned to be united and how to share our world. We could have learned how use our resources wisely and avoid collapse. There are many lessons to learn by looking back at the decline of the Mongolian Empire.

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Return to Andrew's Main Page