The Mongol Conquests in World History (Globalities) Hardcover – May 15, 2012

This is a quite good account of the Mongol impact. Much of the book is about successor empires, following the breakup of the massive conquests than ran from Korea to Poland. It also examines the status of descendants of Chingis Khan, who remained a pool of potential conquerors for centuries.It includes the origins of empire, the development and coexistence of the several Chingatid states (such as the Ilkhanids in Persia). Chapters include Mongol administration (rather advanced for its time), the black death, the Mongol approach to making war, and more.Key in the book is what the author calls the Chingatid Exchange, presumably derived from the concept of the Columbian Exchange. The thesis is that the Mongols for a time provided relative peace in much of the Eurasian area, which facilitated long range trade, and included the interchange of not only goods, but also ideas, inventions, crops and concepts. There has been a lot of debate among historians how Chinese inventions such as paper and gunpowder made it to Europe. This could be the answer, although it remains a theory. Others have noted the increased intercontinental contacts, so in a way, all May has done is give it a useful name. It makes sense to me and I think it has utility in discussing these things.The maps are not very good. The illustrations, mostly of Persian origin, are better.

Timothy May takes the Mongol Empire, a subject which has often been the subject of regional historians, and turns it into a true world history. May begins chronologically, covering the Mongols from the rise of Chingghis Khan to the empire’s dissolution. After chronologically giving the history, he proceeds to explain the Mongols and their influences in trade, warfare, administration, religion, demographic trends, and cultural exchanges. May’s most significant contribution in this work, is his coinage of the term “Chingghis exchange”, which he uses to explain cross-cultural exchanges in Eurasia facilitated by the Mongols. He contends that the Mongols, rather the Europeans, created a truly global world by 1350. This argument is a strong one, evinced mainly by the number of people affected by the Mongols compared to the European Age of Exploration. The expanse of the Mongol Empire allowed for the diffusion of ideas, technology etc., thereby globalizing Eurasia. May makes use of the existing historiography, exposing its lack of global perspective and pointing out historiographical difficulties such as the vast number of primary source languages necessary to fully research the topic. Despite this, May still manages to make use of a variety of primary sources from different regions, but most significantly synthesizing regional studies into a broad, global perspective which is necessary to fully understand the extent of the Mongol impact on the world. This work’s strength is that it takes a gigantic topic and squeezes it into a manageable book. It is an engaging, well-written work that does a great job holding the reader’s interest. It is filled with illustrations, its only possible weakness being a lack of detailed maps. Overall, it is an excellent read and really captures the essence of the Mongol Empire as a global force of connectivity, rather than just a steamroller of civilizations.

can not complain