Before commercially-driven colonialism and exploration led to modern globalization at the hands of the Europeans, Eurasia's globalization was largely driven by another force: conquest. The Medieval and Early Modern eras saw the rise of vast and powerful empires that rivaled and even surpassed the wonders of the Roman Empire. From the enduring Byzantine Empire to the mighty Ottoman Empire (an empire that was a major participant during World War I), the future of Eurasia was defined by the rise and fall of these mighty Eurasian empires.
Nomadic Empires and Eurasian Integration
Eurasia is massive, and Eurasian empires span from the Roman Empire to the modern-day. Naturally, not every Eurasian empire will be mentioned in this article. This article has a general focus on the Asian empires of Eurasia, including their influence and interplay on overall Eurasian development.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, its eastern half lived on as the Byzantine Empire, based on the Mediterranean, with its capital at Constantinople (though it won't be named Constantinople forever!). But the Islamic Caliphates carried the real torch of civilization and societal progress into the Middle East, powerful states typically ruled by the descendants of Islam. All was going well; the caliphates even had their Islamic Golden Age. Despite multiple crusades and infighting, living within walled cities or working on outlying farms was still safe and fashionable. That is until the Mongol Empire attacked!
Whether in their policy of religious tolerance, devising a universal alphabet, maintaining relay stations, playing games, or printing almanacs, money, or astronomy charts, the rulers of the Mongol Empire displayed a persistent universalism.
-Author Jack Weatherford, "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" 1
Raiding the Middle East at various points throughout the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongol Empire conquered city after city, bringing ruin to settled civilizations. The Middle East was not alone. For a time, the Mongols conquered and held dominion over China, parts of Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, and Russia. Once a disparate handful of nomadic tribes on the Asian Steppe, Genghis Khan, and his descendants conquered much of Eurasia as the largest land-based empire in human history. But the Mongols did not only conquer. They connected.
Fig. 1- Map depicting Eurasia in the early 14th century.
As early as Genghis Khan, the nomadic Mongol warrior established roads connecting the western world of Europe to the Eastern world of China and India. They revitalized the Silk Road, laid out a network of post offices, and promoted immigration within their empire. Confident Mongol leaders, such as Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty in China, displayed a keen understanding of global commercialism long before it drove the Europeans to conquer the world. But even the largest of the Eurasian Empires did not last forever.
A Connected Medieval World:
Before the Black Death, Medieval Eurasia was surprisingly globalized. People commonly think of a "Dark Age" or that the Medieval World was disconnected. Still, they often fail to connect a confident Venetian explorer who openly traveled throughout Eurasia during the 13th and 14th centuries to a connected medieval landscape: Marco Polo.
Kublai Khan failed in his attempts to conquer Japan and Southeast Asia, so he (and his Mongol contemporaries) turned to new expansion methods. The Mongols began trading across Eurasia, protecting trade routes, opening borders, promoting immigration, and relocating specialized workers where they needed them most. Above all, the best post-world-conquering Mongols strove for market efficiency, trading silk with the nobility in Paris and ornate porcelain plates with sultans in the Middle East. What would the modern world look like if the Black Death hadn't swept through Eurasia?
The decline of the Mongol Empire was a slow and painful process, undoing the relatively peaceful and stable states that the Mongols had created through brutal conquest. The Mongols had touched nearly every corner of Eurasia, and their fall allowed for the rise of new empires in the Middle East, China in East Asia, and Russia. Also, after the Mongols came to the rise of powerful states in the extended Afro-Eurasia, such as the Ashanti and Ethiopian Empires.
Eurasian Empires Existing From 1300 to 1700
The late-Medieval and Early Modern Eurasian empires had learned from the costly lessons of the Mongol Empire and the devastating Black Death. Bridging the gap between the dominant nomadic tribes of the Medieval era and the imperialistic states of the Early Modern Period (especially the Gunpowder Empires) was Tamerlane, better known as Timur the Lame.
The Timurid Empire and the Rise of the Gunpowder Empires
Timur was a powerful Asiatic warlord who claimed to be a descendant of Genghis Khan, though historians do not believe in his claims. He conquered and established the Turkic-Mongol Timurid Empire (1370-1526) in modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of Turkey, and beyond. Tamerlane was renowned for his cruelty, often torturing his victims, but historians prefer to focus on the achievements of his descendants, notably Babur.
Fig. 2- Art depicting Tamerlane (Timur the Lame).
Babur, the descendant of both Timur and Genghis Khan (Timur married a descendant of the famous khan), went on to found the Mughal Empire (1526-1858) in India. The Mughal Empire was the most wealthy state in the world, commanding the Indian Ocean trade and a sizable military to support it. The Mughals were a Gunpowder Empire, a term often used to describe the changing nature of militaries in the Early Modern Middle East and India.
Consider the increasing interconnectedness of the Eurasian world. Although wars were still occurring, global diplomacy and trade were still rising. The transfusion of cultures heralded by the Mongols also led to the spread of technologies, namely gunpowder. Even indirectly, the Mongol Empire shaped the Early Modern world.
At the same time, the gunpowder Safavid Empire (1501-1736) was established in Persia by a leader named Shah Ishmael I. Gone were the days of nomadic horseback archers; effective militaries of this new age were well-disciplined units bearing firearms and cannons.
Ottoman Empire
The most famous of the Gunpowder Empires was the Islamic Ottoman Empire (1299-1922). Ruling over North Africa, Arabia, Turkey, and parts of Europe, the Ottoman Empire was responsible for the fall of the Byzantine Empire, taking Constantinople in 1453. The Ottomans renamed the old Medieval city of Constantinople Istanbul.
Fig. 3- Map of the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Turks reigned and matched the might of the rising European nations into the modern era when they joined the Central Powers as part of World War I. Internal dissent and outside pressure saw the end of the Ottomans, but only after 600 years of imperial Eurasian rule.
- The Ottoman Empire famously took Constantinople, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453. Prominently using cannons during the siege, the fall of the Medieval Byzantine Empire (who considered themselves to be the Roman Empire still) and the rise of the gunpowder Ottoman Empire is also used as a major turning point in world history as the close of the Medieval Era and the opening of the Early Modern Period.
- The Ottoman Empire declined in its later years, coming to an end in tandem with the end of World War I. The Ottoman Empire largely represented the Islamic world from the late Medieval Era to the modern day, including its glorious victories and terrible infighting.
Late Imperial China
China had the most to prove following the fall of its Mongol masters. Having been ruled by nomadic warriors for many years, the country sought to redefine itself during the following centuries.
The Ming Dynasty
The Mongolian Yuan Dynasty was immediately replaced by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) through a military uprising. Disillusioned by the later years of Yuan rule, the Ming Dynasty enacted strong anti-Mongol policies, reinstating the civil service examinations based on Confucian ideas. The Ming were intent on reshaping China to pre-Mongol traditions, causing them to regress into isolationism after a brief stint of exploration through Ming admiral Zheng He.
Fig. 4- Map depicting the territorial boundaries of the Ming Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was the final imperial dynasty in China's history. The Chinese population swelled to over 400 million as the Qing Dynasty gained power, and China reached its modern-day borders under Qing rule. Still, political corruption and internal dissent often threatened to lower the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, the increasing dominance of the European Maritime Empires further threatened Qing China, culminating in the 19th century Opium Wars. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty through the Wuchang Uprising, it became clear to the world that East Asia was a pawn in Western Europe's power plays.
Afro-Eurasian empires
Similarly to China, Russia had a stake in proving itself after a period of intense Mongol rule. Other enterprising empires in Japan and Africa also sought to expand their influence as empires.
Russia and Japan
The history of the Russian Empire (1721-1917) begins with 17th and 18th-century monarch Peter the Great, an absolutist monarch who modernized his country to the standards of the contemporary European powers. He established the capital of Petersburg and expanded Russia's territories. Over centuries, Russia climbed its way to rival European powers in land-based conflicts but never matched European maritime might. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Russia sought to test its maritime mettle against a neighboring island country: Japan.
Fig. 5- Art depicting a Japanese ship sinking a Russian ship during the Russo-Japanese War.
However, the Empire of Japan (1868-1947) was not prepared to roll over in battle. After conflict and struggle, Japan and Russia clashed head-on in the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905. The Russian Empire was humiliated in defeat and would crumble only a decade later through revolution near the end of World War I. The Empire of Japan, however, was only just beginning. Throughout World War I and II, Japan expanded its borders over many islands in the Pacific Ocean. From Samurai infighting in the 15th century to attack the USA in the 20th century, Japan became a true Eurasian empire to be reckoned with.
African Empires
Africa was deeply connected with the rise and fall of Eurasian powers from the Medieval to the Modern eras. The Ethiopian Empire (1270-1974) was a dominant force in East Africa, resisting even the territorial expansion of the mighty Ottoman Empire. On the other side of Africa, the Ashanti Empire (1701-1902) became a powerful regional force through trading with the Europeans. The Ashanti Empire fought well against the colonial expansion of the British Empire in the Anglo-Ashanti Wars but eventually succumbed to British pressure in 1902.
Eurasian Empire - Key takeaways
- The largest Eurasian empire in world history was the Mongol Empire, an empire that both conquered and globalized the Eurasian world.
- Timur the Lame bridged the gap between the nomadic horseback militaries of the medieval era and the dominant gunpowder militaries of the Eurasian Empires.
- Certain Eurasian Empires, such as the Ottoman, Russian, Japanese, and Qing Chinese empires, lasted into the 20th century.
- China and Russia had much to prove after ending centuries of Mongol rule in their countries. Both became redefined themselves as powerful imperial states during the Early Modern Period.
References
- https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2468245-genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world
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