This section of the publication is devoted to providing information and resources specifically designed for our K-16 readership and their curricular needs. You'll find narratives on thematic topics, resource lists, and calendars of events for the University of Illinois' area studies centers. Should you have any questions or require additional information, please feel free to contact the appropriate center.
Center for African Studies
Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
European Union Center
Center for Global Studies
Center for International Business Education and Research
Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Russian, East European and Eurasian Center
Other Studies Centers
Center for African Studies
The Center for African Studies' Engagement and Outreach Program is designed to increase public knowledge about Africa and to enhance the broader community's understanding of African peoples and cultures. Our programming serves K-12 schools, community colleges, the media, community groups, the business community, and the general public. For more information, please contact the center at african@uiuc.edu.
Three Perspectives on Teaching African History
From doctoral candidates in Illinois' Department of History
Joy Williams-Black
I currently teach "The History of Africa," a survey course covering antiquity to the present. I aim to sharpen my students' critical thinking skills and have them gain experience in assessing historical evidence by "doing history."
In part, I try to capture their interests by talking about well-known public figures and their philanthropy in Africa. I inquire as to what Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Bono of U2, Bill Gates are doing in Africa and in what countries. This inquiry serves as an example for a later assignment that I call "What's in the News?" Students must keep a journal for this assignment, paying attention to media disseminating information on Africa--TV, radio, and newspapers. They record entries weekly, summarizing and providing the source. One-third of the entries must come from African sources. Entries must be varied-newspaper, radio, etc. Throughout the term, we discuss the information they have collected. I then link what's going on now within classroom discussion. With this assignment students become the authority. Everyone gets an opportunity to participate and even "the quiet ones" participate in a no-pressure environment.
To challenge students to think about the past globally and draw parallels to historical and contemporary events, situations, and moments, I have them write a critical review on a contemporary movie. The movies include The Last King of Scotland, Black Hawk Down, or Blood Diamond and assess historical realities in juxtaposition to contemporary depictions. Students write a critique, not a movie review, of the film. I seek to provide them with an intellectual, historical, and social context for recognizing the continuity between the past and future.
Jeffrey S. Ahlman
For many Americans, the media, specifically television, serves as the primary medium for their introduction to Africa. Unfortunately, scenes of poverty, disease, famine, and violence taint this introduction. The media often suggests that Africa is a land of degradation, far away, and disconnected from our lives. Educators must bridge the gap forged by these prejudices.
Integrating African history to broader themes in world history is an important strategy for teaching African history. Major themes-the slave trade, colonialism, world wars, decolonization, as well as religion-provide an introduction to African history through familiar subjects. Students will understand Africans' roles in shaping these historical events. Students can also think critically about the interconnections that shaped these events beyond the narrow lens of American and European narratives. For instance, discussions of the slave trade could go beyond discussions of the brutality of the trade, which although important offers only limited room for debate. Instead, focus on how, in spite of the brutality of the trade and slavery, African cultural traits and languages-i.e. the Gullah language in the southeastern U.S.-continue to survive outside Africa. This is not to minimize the horror of the slave trade or of slavery, but instead it opens up new arenas for students to think about and approach this and similar topics in African history.
Novels are influential means of addressing African and world history. Authors such as Camara Laye, Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngugi wo Thionga, Ousman Sembene, and Chinua Achebe offer wonderful, teachable texts. The internet can be useful for research, but it may never compete with African novels in exploring topics in African history and in introducing students to the emotions felt by Africans when writing about these themes.
In terms of classroom activities, organizing debates, presentations (with Q&A), and oral presentations seem most important. Debates and presentations force students to discuss amongst themselves the issues they are reading about and relate them to their own lives. Hopefully, in doing so, the students will confront some of the prejudicial images of Africa portrayed in the media.
Brian Yates
In teaching African history, I am concerned that Africa is commonly taught and is viewed as one big village that has remained unchanged and isolated for thousands of years. Educators must dispel this myth. To get high school students interested in Africa, I would suggest looking at the lives of African high school students. Historical projects can be recommended in some cases, but current events have been the most effective way to bring Africa to people who know little about the continent.
Most, if not all, countries have a website (i.e., http://www.ghana.com; http://www.ethiopia.com). These are good sites for at least government sponsored news. I suggest the BBC website; it has a separate section for African news. Assignments should explore issues, the interconnections, and diversity of Africa.
1) Take a broad and significant topic (i.e. diamonds & trade) and explore its role in two separate African nations (Sierra Leone and Botswana in this case).
2) Look at the role of student movements in the politics of a nation. This assignment helps the students connect their lives to the lives of students across the Atlantic.
3) Select one country and examine the major historical themes going back to the 19th century, prior to colonialism. Start at the current period and work backwards. The students can see that African successes and failures are the sum of historical affairs.Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
The Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (EAPS) is the steward of campus-wide teaching, research, programming, and outreach on East Asia, as well as Southeast Asia and the Pacific. EAPS is currently a National Undergraduate Resource Center devoted to the enhancement of campus undergraduate teaching and learning on East Asia and to outreach programming on East Asia for educators, the public, and media and business professionals. EAPS serves over 100 specialists on East Asia, as well as more than 30 off-campus affiliates across the state. For more information, contact Anne Prescott.
East Asia in World History
Anne Prescott
Associate Director, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies
As Clint Eastwood clearly demonstrated with the movies Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, history is not cut and dried, nor is the focus always necessarily "us". There are always at least two viewpoints from which any story can be told. In our classrooms, the study of world history very often centers on Europe or the United States. But what if we were to change that perspective, putting Asia at the center?
During some of the history of the world, East Asia, in particular China, was one of the great economic, scientific and cultural leaders. In today's world, much of what is happening has little to do with the United States, and even when our country is involved, a given situation is best understood in its complete context. For these and many other reasons, spending some time focusing on the world through an East Asian lens provides a valuable alternative route to learning about the history of the world.
In his book East Asia at the Center, Warren Cohen challenges Americans to think of world history using China as the center of the world. This forces us to think about China and the rest of East Asia not in terms of us (U.S.) vis-a-vis them (China), but them vis-a-vis them: China vis-a -vis Japan, or Vietnam vis-a -vis China, for example.
What might this mean for the middle school or high school classroom? One example of how an East Asia-centered historical perspective might enlighten students is the current situation in North Korea. If students know anything about the situation, it is likely that they are only aware of the issue of nuclear weapons capabilities, missile tests, or the fact that the Korean conflict is not officially "over." This only skims the surface of the issues at hand. Famine, North Koreans escaping into China, the kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Korea and the recent repatriation of some of them, and other conditions complicate the story, but also illustrate that a given issue rarely is completely centered on the U.S.
In the more distant past, teachers can emphasize that the very name of China in Chinese translates as "Middle Kingdom," demonstrating that the Chinese very much thought of themselves as being the center of the world. Stories abound of foreign adventurers, missionaries, and delegations traveling to China, thinking that they would "enlighten" the Chinese, only to find that not only did the Chinese not believe they needed to be enlightened and did not want their knowledge, but firmly believed that those intruders were the ones who needed to see the light.
Returning to World War II, the book Kamikaze Diaries by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney not only puts a human face on the war in the Pacific, but exposes us to a completely different view of who these pilots were. Readers discover that while some of these young men became kamikaze because of their patriotism, many questioned their country's role in the war and were pressed into serving their nation. They were educated and articulate, and in the end, most of them were resigned to their fates. Teachers will undoubtedly be able to cite parallels to situations in many countries, including our own, demonstrating that it isn't always about "us."
Another example, also from World War II/the Sino-Japanese War/the War of Japanese aggression (even what we call it demonstrates differing perspectives) is the Nanjing Massacre. This act of aggression by the Japanese against mostly innocent Chinese citizens in Nanjing in 1937 is not always given due attention outside East Asia. But it is an important fact in attempting to understand current relations between China and Japan.
Finally, comparing the history of early 20th century China as recorded by the Chinese Nationalists who fled to Taiwan, the Chinese Communists who eventually united the mainland, and the U.S. will surely demonstrate that history has many versions depending on who is telling the story.
Putting East Asia at the center of any point in history will open up new possibilities and avenues of exploration, leading to new "truths" and a greater understanding of events past, present-and future.
European Union Center
The European Union Center (EUC) serves as a bridge of exchange and understanding between residents of the United States and member states of the European Union (EU). The Center brings together faculty and students from across campus to promote the study of the EU, its institutions and policies, and EU-U.S. relations. Working with other campus units and other institutions, the EUC also creates and delivers high-quality programs that serve Illinois businesses, policy makers, high-school teachers and students, and the general public. As one of the most comprehensive EU Centers in the U.S., the Center is the focal point on campus for teaching, research and outreach programs on the EU. For more information, please contact the center.
The Eurozone
Brenda Kay Zylstra, Illinois student, political science and English
Last year the European Union (EU) celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the elemental piece of legislation in defining the EU's past. The European Union is a unique supranational organization of 27 European nations that have agreed to give up a certain measure of sovereignty in exchange for an increasingly close economic and cultural union. Next year the EU will commemorate another milestone: the 10-year anniversary of the launch of the Eurozone. On January 1, 1999, eleven member states of the European Union began phasing out their individual nation's currency in favor of the euro, an important step towards the EU's overarching goal of an "ever closer union" across the European continent.
The term Eurozone refers to the geographic area of EU member states wherein the euro is the official common currency. For use of the euro outside the EU, certain states and provinces have formal agreements with the EU to use the euro. Still other states and provinces make use of the euro without any formal agreement, but technically these areas are not a part of the Eurozone.
In 1991, the original 11 EU member states in the Eurozone were Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Though the Eurozone was officially launched in 2001, it was not until a year later that physical banknotes and coins began to be circulated. The Mark, Guilder, Lira and other currencies became relics of the past, replaced by the euro.
The euro banknotes come in seven denominations, which increase in size as they increase in value. Unlike the dollar, each denomination of the euro banknotes is printed in different, brightly colored hues. Each banknote features designs of bridges and windows or gateways, to represent a certain period of European architecture. Interestingly, none of the designs represent actual existing monuments, to avoid jealousy between member states.
Since the introduction of the Eurozone, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia have all joined. The United Kingdom and Denmark both received permission in the Treaty of Maastricht to remain outside the Eurozone unless their governments decide otherwise. The Danish government recently announced its intention to hold a referendum on joining the Eurozone following the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. Since the UK's pound is consistently valued higher than the euro, it is unlikely the UK will adopt the euro anytime soon. Sweden has opted out of the Eurozone by not attempting to meet the criteria for joining, and has yet to receive any rebuke from the Commission.
The remaining countries-Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia-would very much like to join the Eurozone and are working towards meeting the Convergence Criteria. The Convergence Criteria, also known as the Maastricht Criteria from the treaty of the same name, are the economic criteria member states must fulfill in order to adopt the euro. The four benchmarks deal with inflation rates, government finance, exchange rates, and long-term interest rates.
The adoption of the euro is the third stage of economic monetary union and considered a big step for member states. Once on the euro, a member state is plugged into a larger economic entity, giving it greater weight around the globe. Tourism and business transactions are significantly eased, and citizens of that member state can have one more thing in common with their European comrades, further contributing to the feeling and ideal of European citizenship and collaboration.
After all, money is a big part of identity-think of all the euphemisms and idioms Americans have concerning the dollar bill. And if one can use the same banknotes to buy schnitzel and latkes, gyros and crepes, then the European dinner table might just feel a little more like family.
Center for Global Studies
The Center for Global Studies (CGS) supports research and outreach on the impacts of globalization -- an ever-widening process of increasing interdependence of peoples and states that puts the world at risk, yet opens new and exciting opportunities for improvements in the lives of people everywhere. As a Department of Education funded National Resource Center, CGS offers global studies educational opportunities to the university community, K-12 teachers and students, and the public; and offers grants to support learning advanced language skills and understanding of other cultures. CGS also administers the International High School Initiative (www.ips.uiuc.edu/ihs/index.php). For more information, please contact the center.
The Global Demand for Biofuel
International Agriculture Summer Workshop for Vocational Agriculture EducatorsThursday, June 19 - Saturday, June 21, 2008
Touted enthusiastically as the fuels of the future, biofuels have been embraced globally and domestically as renewable energy sources. Recently, however, enthusiasm has been tempered by pessimism in response to scientific reports that biofuels may not be a viable solution to remediate global climate change. Added concern stems from economic factors such as higher prices for food resulting from a shift away from food crop production toward production of biofuel crops which yield higher revenues.
This summer, the Center for Global Studies (CGS) will host an international agriculture workshop for high school vocational agriculture educators to learn about global trends in the bioenergy field, international agricultural crop production, research on second generation bi-products that can be used for biofuels, and the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of bioenergy. During this 2 ½ day workshop on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, participants will hear about bioenergy developments nationally and internationally, learn about the latest science, visit biofuel labs and test-crop sites, and work with educators to create lessons that can be used in the high school agriculture curriculum.
Faculty and students at Illinois are among the world leaders in researching bioenergy. They are investigating bioenergy problems as part of the new Energy Biosciences Institute initiative -- a collaborative effort led by the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory -- with major funding from the global energy company, British Petroleum (BP). At Illinois, the Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research (CABER) actively supports inter-disciplinary research as well as educational outreach programs. Even the Waste Management Resource Center, a state agency located on campus, has a biodiesel lab and education program for schools. CGS will include these researchers in designing and leading an informative bioenergy workshop.
Teachers participating in the workshop will receive professional development credits and can apply for graduate credits. A modest registration fee of $25 will cover field trips and miscellaneous expenses; housing and some meals will be covered by the organizers. Space for the workshop is limited. The deadline for early applications and travel grants is April 18, 2008. Late registration is open until May 15, 2008. For registration information, contact Karen Hewitt: khewitt@uiuc.edu, or visit the CGS website at http://www.cgs.uiuc.edu.
The workshop is organized by the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with co-sponsorship support from the Center for the Study of Global Change at Indiana University and the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota. The workshop is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant. Additional assistance with the workshop is being provided by the Illinois State Board of Education's division of Agriculture Education, and departments at the University of Illinois including ACES Global Connect, the Center for Advanced Bioenergy Research (CABER), ACES Office of Extension and Outreach, and the Energy Biosciences Institute.
Center for International Business Education and Research
The Illinois Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), one of 31 national resource centers for international business, is a leader in designing and delivering programs that equip future business leaders with language skills, cultural awareness, and the specific business skills needed to be at the vanguard of international business management. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Illinois CIBER coordinates seminars and workshops for professional audiences, funds faculty research on international competitiveness, underwrites development and delivery of new business foreign language courses, develops and sponsors overseas experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, supports an annual international business case competition, serves as a resource for the business community through its website, conferences, and consulting, and administers the Certificate in Global Business Culture with Area Specialization. For more information, please contact the center or visit the CIBER Web site.
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
In consortium with the Center for Latin America Studies at the University of Chicago, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at Illinois is a National Resource Center for Latin American Studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Title VI program. The combined resources of the consortium provide one of the largest concentrations of human and material resources on Latin America in the United States. The center's mission is to increase knowledge and awareness of Latin America and the Caribbean in the educational community and the general public.
Lost and Found: Latin America's Role in World History
Nils Jacobsen
Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Latin American historians in the United States are alarmed. Their region receives scant notice in the majority of textbooks on world history. Intellectuals in Latin America are not surprised. They have long lamented that the world has only paid attention to the region in periods of major upheaval threatening the interests of the North Atlantic countries, such as the revolutionary fervor from the Cuban Revolution in 1959 or Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution in 1979.
How can we explain the neglect of a major region in representations of world history? And how can we change these representations to adequately reflect Latin America's multifaceted impact on world history? Here I can only offer a brief catalogue of possible answers to these two big questions:
- Latin America still often shares with Africa, the Middle East and some parts of Asia a "filtering view" of world history, wherein Europe and the United States are viewed as paradigmatic for every major trend, from the Enlightenment to nation-state formation and nationalism, industrialization and urbanization, and others. While many historians have tried to escape this "Eurocentric" view of world history, it has proved extremely difficult to overcome.
- The pre-conquest civilizations of the Americas developed in relative isolation from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The millennial rise of the American civilizations with their unique accomplishments in agriculture, metallurgy, astronomy, statecraft, and so on is thus easily downplayed if one aims at telling a linear story of the interactive ("transnational") rise of those states that became powerful in the globalizing world of the past five centuries.
- Latin America was colonized more thoroughly by the Spaniards and Portuguese than any other world region was by other European colonizing powers. So much so that it has become difficult to clearly define the role of Latin America in the emerging modern world.
- Latin America has never been viewed (nor has it viewed itself, at least until the past decade) as a major independent center of power, politically or economically. It was thus depicted as a region upon which great powers inscribed their own designs and desires - a victim, as it were, of world history, rather than a protagonist.
But there are approaches to history through which Latin America's contributions to the mosaic of world history can be brought into focus. Here are just a few:
- In the pre-modern world, the Aztec and Inca empires, and hundreds of smaller polities were spheres of influence in their own right, just as those of Europe, China, or the Caliphate of Baghdad. Just as the polities and cultures in the Eastern Hemisphere, they were formed, grew and faced challenges through the interaction with other states and cultures.
- Latin America has given "ecological relief" to other parts of the world. From the migrations to the Americas of the early Amerindian peoples to recent immigrant streams from Europe to East Asia and in between, the region gave a new home to people expelled from their places of origins by population pressure, impoverishment, ecological disasters, or violence.
- "Commodity chains" have connected Latin America to the rest of the world since the 16th century. Mexican and Peruvian silver figured prominently in the formation of merchant communities from Amsterdam and Seville to Manila and China. It powerfully affected the early modern economies throughout the world. Andean potatoes would sustain population growth from Prussia to China; and by the late 19th century, Latin American commodities from copper to coffee fueled the industrialization of the North Atlantic world and changed the lifestyles of burgeoning working classes there. The dissemination of European, African, North American and Asian trading goods has repeatedly reshaped material cultures in Latin America itself.
- Because of the depth of its colonial experience, Latin America may have been the earliest hybrid, thoroughly modern macro-region in the world in which old identities and institutions were transformed. Racial orders, religious practices, social institutions, and even languages were so thoroughly reworked by the interactions between native Americans, Africans and Europeans that they often anticipated globalizing trends by several centuries.
Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
The Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (CSAMES) is a U.S. Department of Education designated National Resource Center for the study and teaching of the Middle East. As an area studies program, our research and teaching covers a very expansive part of the globe, a region that is home to about one-fifth of the world's population and the cradle of some of the world's oldest religions and civilizations. The center's mission is to facilitate scholarship on South Asia and the Middle East by regularly organizing lectures, symposia and conferences.
Multiple Perspectives on Teaching World History--The Middle East
Kenneth M. Cuno
Professor, History
There is a greater need than ever before to introduce students to Middle Eastern history and culture, and there are a number of different ways in which Middle Eastern content can be infused into curricula. The handful of suggestions below is intended for different grade levels.
Trade, cultural exchange and adaptation - A unit might focus on cuisine as reflecting the multiple influences that have shaped modern Middle Eastern culture - including the transnational movement of food crops in the past. For example, rice and citrus fruits came to the Middle East from south and Southeast Asia, and tomatoes from the Americas. Don't forget to sample some food as part of the unit. Claudia Roden is the author with whom to begin. A related topic that lends itself to the study of international trade and the diffusion of consumer culture is coffee, which was first consumed in the Middle East (it was grown in Yemen and shipped from the port of Mocha).
Religion - There are numerous introductions to Islam. For teachers short on time, the writing of Karen Armstrong is direct and accessible. For more advanced reading, John Renard's books are illuminating. His book Windows contains translated texts with good explanations suitable for class assignments. In addition to Islam, the Middle East is the traditional home of eastern (Mizrachi and Sephardi) Judaism, several Christian Orthodox churches, and the Bahai faith - all of whom, along with Muslims, have established communities in the U.S. (and Illinois). Students could check the yellow pages in their community for the presence of one or more synagogues, Orthodox churches, Bahai temples or mosques; members of these communities might be willing to be interviewed as part of a study of immigration in U.S. history.
Colonialism and nationalism - With a handful of exceptions (Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia) the Middle Eastern states are postcolonial states that were shaped profoundly by both the experience of colonial rule and anti-colonial struggles. Erez Manela has written a comparative study of the impact of Wilsonian rhetoric in spurring anti-colonial movements in Egypt, India, China, and Korea that offers a global, non-western perspective on World War I and Versailles.
Arab-Israeli conflict - Charles Smith's frequently updated book is a good political history with pertinent documents. The United Nations Documentation Centre is another rich source of documents on this and other world issues that can give students hands-on experience in reading and analyzing original sources.
Claudia Roden A Book of Middle Eastern Food (1974).
Ralph Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (1985).
Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (2002).
John Renard, Seven Doors to Islam: Spirituality and the Religious Life of Muslims (1996).
_____, Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources of Spirituality and Religious Life (1998).
Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism (2007).
Charles Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History with Documents (2006).
http://www.un.org/documents/
Russian, East European and Eurasian Center
The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center is a U.S. Department of Education-designated National Resource Center, committed to providing information and service to K-16 teachers. If you are interested in the center's workshops, onsite presentations, or curricular materials, please contact the center or visit the REEEC Web site. The Web site features a special section for K-12 teachers under Outreach, which includes an extensive annotated bibliography of resources, information on the center's multimedia lending library, annotated links to relevant Web sites, and more.
The Mongols in World History
John Randolph, Assistant Professor, Russian History
In recent years, as students of history have turned ever more avidly to "transnational" and "global" themes--big stories about the human past that take neither Europe nor its political states as their central concern--the legacy of the Mongol Empire has consumed an ever greater portion of their attention. At their height, the Mongols were the masters of the greatest land empire the world has ever seen. It ran right across the great geographic and cultural boundaries that we often take for granted today, straddling Europe, Asia, and Asia Minor, and the worlds of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Mongol political authority and social institutions made possible renewed communication between these realms along the ancient Silk Road. For all these reasons, historians increasingly speak of the Mongol Empire as having ushered in a new "political, economic, and even epidemiological 'world system'." To put it another way, the Mongol Empire put the "global" in late medieval history, establishing real ties across the most densely populated areas of the world. That said, there remain many uncertainties and controversies about its history.
Though there are many explanations for the Empire's origin, the most widely accepted version is essentially charismatic. According to this logic, the Mongol Empire began in the early 13th century, when a gifted Mongol chieftain, Temujin, managed to unite a loose confederation of Turkic and Mongolian tribes under his personal authority. At a council in 1206, we are told, Temujin was proclaimed 'Chinggis' or 'Universal' Khan--the leader of all the steppe peoples--under which name he subsequently entered history. (Thus in Europe Temujin was often known simply as Genghis Khan). Having united his pastoral population into a mighty, mounted army, Chinggis Khan embarked on a series of conquests of neighboring states. By the time of his death in 1227, the Mongol confederation had invaded north China (capturing Beijing in 1215); conquered much of Central Asia; entered the grasslands north of the Caspian and Black Seas; and defeated an army fielded by the Christian Eastern Slavs known as the Rus (1223).
Nor did Chinggis Khan's death mark the end of his empire's expansion. His descendants subsequently renewed and completed their conquest of China (by 1279); finished off the Rus (in the early 1240s); and captured much of Persia and Mesopotamia, including the sack of Baghdad in 1258. At this point, and under Chinggis Khan's greatest successor Khubilai, his royal clan claimed to be the overlords of an area stretching from China to Syria, and north through what is now eastern Ukraine and Russia.
The late 14th century was the high-water mark for the Mongol Empire as a centrally-coordinated polity. Thereafter, under the pressure of the Black Death and intergenerational squabbling among Chinggis Khan's descendants, the great Empire gradually subdivided into ever smaller units--operating with ever more autonomy from each other. In themselves, these states remained powerful and economically vibrant for as long as the Silk Road retained its economic importance for world trade and their mounted archers retained their military superiority on the battlefield. Both of these conditions would fade definitively, however, by the late sixteenth century, when global shipping replaced land based trade, and Europe's "military revolution" finally broke the back of the pastoral world's military supremacy. (In this sense, the Mongol Empire is sometimes seen as the last blossoming of that economic and military primacy that the Central Asian steppe had over Europe from the sixth century onwards).
Throughout much of history, the Mongols' reputation in the Christian and Islamic worlds was unremittingly harsh. The Mongols, it was said, indiscriminately slaughtered cities and peoples, using them as little more than a tax base while offering little by way of either culture or technology in return. More recent research has held that while the Mongols met any opposition with annihilating force, those parts of Eurasia which surrendered and paid tribute were often left more or less intact, with a great amount of local sovereignty. Polytheists themselves, Mongol rulers tended not to interfere in matters of religion (and indeed, the western Khanates largely converted to Islam). And the role of Mongol institutions--their customs system, their post-routes, and the continent-spanning "pax Mongolica" itself, across which merchants could travel with fewer hindrances than before--in the political, economic, and social history of the modern world is still being explored. While few will ever speak with pride about the Mongol Empire's "civilizing mission" among its subject peoples, the pretensions of empires that had such central ambitions have taken a beating in recent years.
Bibliography:
Allsen, Thomas T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Christian, David. Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. Vol. 1 of A History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
Halperin, Charles. Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Kotkin, Stephen. “Mongol Commonwealth?: Exchange and Governance Across the Post-Mongol Space.†Kritika 8, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 487-531.
Lane, George. Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Morgan, David. The Mongols. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Other Studies Centers
Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security
Website: www.acdis.uiuc.edu
Phone: 217-333-7086
Fax: 217-244-5157
E-mail: acdis@uiuc.edu
Women and Gender in Global Perspectives
Website: www.ips.uiuc.edu/wggp
Phone: (217) 333-1994
Fax: (217) 333-6270
E-mail: kcmartin@uiuc.edu