Nomadic Empires NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 5 

Class 11 History Chapter 5 Nomadic Empires

Textbook	NCERT
Board	CBSE Board, UP board, JAC board, HBSE Board, Bihar Board, PSEB board, RBSE Board, UBSE Board
Class	11th Class
Subject	History
Chapter	Chapter 5
Chapter Name	Nomadic Empires
Topic	Nomadic Empires NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 5
Medium	English
Especially Designed Notes for	CBSE, ICSE, IAS, NET, NRA, UPSC, SSC, NDA, All Govt. Exam

NCERT Notes for Class 11 History Chapter 5 Nomadic Empires, (History) exam are Students are taught thru NCERT books in some of state board and CBSE Schools. As the chapter involves an end, there is an exercise provided to assist students prepare for evaluation. Students need to clear up those exercises very well because the questions with inside the very last asked from those.

Sources of History About Mongol

• The Mongols produced little literature on their own. So we have to rely on chronicles, travelogues and documents produced by city based professional writers.
• These writers often produced biased and prejudiced reports of nomadic life.
• The imperial success of the Mongols attracted many travellers.
• They came from a variety of backgrounds Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, Turkish and Muslims served under Mongol masters.
• Many of them produced sympathetic accounts and others hostile.
• The earliest narrative on Genghis khan was The Secret History of the Mongols.
• So, in history of Mongols the sedentary societies characterised nomads as primitive barbarians.
• The barbarian term is derived from the Greek ‘word barbaros’ which meant a non-Greek, someone whose language sounded like a random noise.

Mongols-Social and Political Background

• The mongols were a diverse body of people and linked by similarities of language to the Tatars, Khitan and Manchus to the east, and the Turkic tribes to the west.
• Some of the Mongols were pastoralists while others were hunter-gatherers.

Pastoralists Mongols

• Pastoralists maintained mainly horses, sheep and partly cattle, goats and camels.
• They led nomadic life in steppes of Central Asia.
• This area had a majestic landscape with wide horizons, plains with gentle and wavy slopes, surrounded by snow-capped Altai mountains to the West and arid Gobi desert in the South.
• This area was drained by the Onon and Selenga rivers and a number of springs from the melting snows of the hills in the North and the West.

Hunter-Gatherers Mongols

• The hunter-gatherers lived to the North of the pastoralists in the Siberian forests. They were lower ranked people than the pastoralists.
• They make their living from trade in furs of animals trapped in the summer months.
• The entire region had extreme weather conditions like harsh, long winters followed by dry summers.
• Mongols did not go for farming even though agriculture was possible in the pastoral regions during short parts of the year.
• Neither the pastoral nor hunting-gathering economy could sustain dense population settlements. This is why the region did not have any cities.
• The Mongols lived in tents, gers (portable round tent) and travelled with their herds from their winter to summer pasture lands.

Mongol Society

• Ethnic and language ties united the Mongols, but due to scarce resources The Mongols were divided into patrilineal lineage.
• The richer families owned more animals and pasture lands.
  • Hence, they had large followers and and were influential in local politics.
• When ever there were harsh winter or drought conditions then there were conflicts among the families over pasture lands.
• Predatory raids were occurred in search of livestock.
• Groups of families form alliance in defensive or offensive during these occasions.
  • But these alliances were for a short period.

Genghis Khan’s Political System(Comparison with Attila’s)

• The size of Genghis Khan’s confederation of Mongol and Turkish tribes perhaps matched in size to that of the confederation in the fifth century by Attila.
• Genghis Khan’s political system was different from Attila’s.
• It was more durable as it survived its founder.
• It was stable enough to counter large and better equipped armies of China, Iran and Eastern Europe.
• They also administered complex agrarian economies and urban settlements far from their home.

Relations between Nomads and Settled Societies

• The social and political organisations of the nomadic and agrarian economies were very different but both societies are not completely dissimilar to each other.
• The scant resources of the grasslands forced Mongols and other Central Asian nomads to trade and barter with settled communities in China.
• This was mutually beneficial to both as agricultural produce and iron utensils from China were exchanged with horses, furs and animals trapped in the grasslands.
• Commerce was not so smooth especially when groups applied military pressure to increase profit.
• When Mongols formed alliances, they forced Chinese neighbours to offer better terms.
• Sometimes trade ties were not respected and there was an outright plunder.
• When Mongols were disunited this relationship would change and, Chinese would assert their influence in the steppe.
• These boundary wars were more problematic to settled communities because they destroyed agriculture and looted cities. Whereas nomads, relocate themselves with marginal losses.

• Early from 8th century BCE, China suffered much from nomad intrusion and other regimes. From 3rd century BCE, Chinese built fortifications and integrated them into common defensive structure which is now known as the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall of China

• Early from 8th century BCE, China suffered much from nomad intrusion and other regimes. From 3rd century BCE, Chinese built fortifications and integrated them into common defensive structure which is now known as the Great Wall of China.

Genghis Khan

Early Career

• Genghis Khan was born in1162 near the Onon river in the north of present day Mongolia.
• Originally named Temujin(‘blacksmith’),Genghis was the third son of the minor chieftain Yesugei. (kiyat).
• He was 9 when his father was assassinated by the neighbouring Tatars.
• He along with his brothers and step-brothers, was brought up by his mother.
• The next ten years were full of hardships. He was captured and enslaved at one occasion.
• Soon after his marriage he had to fight to recover his wife (Borte)who was kidnapped.
• He also formed alliances with Boghurchu, a friend; Jamuqa, his brother, and his old uncle, Ong Khan.

Temujin to Genghis Khan

• Between 1180 and 1190, he used his alliance with Ong Khan against Jamuqa.
• After this he gained confidence and moved against other tribes.
• He defeated the Tatars ,the Naimans, the Keraits etc. Finally he defeated the powerful Jamuqa in 1206.
• Then the assembly of Mongol chieftains(quriltai), declared Genghis Khan the Great Khan of the Mongols. He took the title Genghis Khan: ‘Oceanic ruler’ or Universal Ruler.

Campaigns of Genghis Khan

• Genghis Khan united the Mongol people in to a more effective, disciplined military force.
• The first of his concern was to conquer china.
• At this time ,China was divided in to three kingdoms.
  • (i) Hsi Hsia people of Tibetan origin in the North-West provinces,
  • (ii) The Jurchen of Chin dynasty that ruled North China from Peking.
  • (iii) The Sung dynasty who controlled South China.
• By 1209 CE, the His Hsia was defeated.
• The Great Wall of China was breached until 1213 CE and Peking sacked in 1215 CE.
• Long-drawn out battles against the Chin continued until 1234 CE.
• But Genghis Khan was satisfied enough with the progress of his campaigns to return to his Mongolian homeland in 1216 CE and leave the military affairs of the reign to his subordinates.
• Defeated Qara Khita who controlled the the Tien Shah mountains Northwest of China in 1218, Mongol dominions reached the Amu Darya and the states of Transoxiana and Khwarazm.
  • Muhammad, Shah of Khwarazm in central Asia executed Mongol ambassadors.
  • Genghis had to respond to their execution.
• The Mongols destroyed cities such as Samarqand, Nishapur, Bokhara, and Herat.

Genghis Khan and India

• Mongol forces in pursuit of Sultan Muhammad ( the ruler of Khwarazm ) pushed into Azerbaijan and defeated Russian forces.
• Another wing followed the Sultan’s son, Jalaluddin, into Afghanistan and Sindh province.
• At the banks of the Indus, Genghis Khan considered returning to Mongolia through North India and Assam.
• But because of heat, natural habitat and ill omens that were reported to him by his soothsayer which made him change of his mind.
• Thus India escaped from the visit of Genghis Khan. He died in 1227.

Causes for the Success of Ghengis Khan

• The military achievements of Genghis Khan were stunning .
• He had achieved all the military victory by his ability to innovate and transform various aspects of steppe combat into effective military strategies.
• The horse riding and hunting skills of Mongols and Turks provided speed and mobility to the army.
• Their abilities as rapid shooting archers from horse back were further perfected during regular hunting expeditions which doubled the chance of victory over the enemies.
• They carried out campaigns in the depths of winter by using frozen river as highway to enemies ‘cities and camps.
• They brought their knowledge of moving light in terrain as an effective military strategy.
• He learnt the importance of siege engines and naphtha bombardment quickly.
• His engineers built light portable equipment which he used against his opponents.

Military Organisation under the Mongols

• Among the Mongols all the able-bodied, adult males of the tribe bore arms.
• They constituted the armed forces when the occasion demanded.
• Unification of different Mongol tribes and induction of new members into Genghis Khan’s army complicated the composition.
• He altered the old steppe system of decimal units system .i.e, divisions of 10s,100s,1,000s and 10,000 soldiers.
• He divided the old tribal groupings and distributed their members into new military units.
• No individual could move from his allotted group without permission, If they did so they were punished severely.
  • Thus, the largest unit of soldiers(10,000 soldiers(tumen) now included different tribes and clans.
• The military units were to serve under Genghis Khan four sons and specially chosen captains of his army units called noyan.
• A band of followers who had served Genghis Khan loyally through grave adversity for many years also became important within the new realm.

Conferring titles

• Genghis Khan conferred title of ‘blood brothers’ (anda) publicly to military persons.
• He also honored humbler persons as bondsmen a title that indicated their close relationship with Genghis Khan.
• It did not preserve the rights of old clan chieftains and new aristocracy derived its status from its closeness to Genghis Khan of the Mongols.

Political Organisation under Genghis Khan

• Genghis Khan assigned the responsibility of governing the newly-conquered people to his four sons (Jochi, Chaghatai, Ogodei and Toluy).
  • These comprised the four ulus., a term that did not originally mean fixed territories.
• Genghis Khan’s reign was full of conquests and expanding territory where boundaries changed frequently.
• Genghis Khan envisaged that his sons would rule the empire collectively.
• Genghis’ eldest son, Jochi, received Russian steppes but the boundary of his territory, ulus, was not fixed. It extended as far West as his horses could roam.
• Genghis’ second son, Chaghatai, was given the Transoxianian steppe and lands North to the Pamir mountains beside his brother.
• Genghis’ Khan had decided that his third son, Ogodei, would succeed him as the Great Khan. The prince established his capital at Karakorum after accession.
• Genghis’ youngest son, Toluy, received the ancestral lands of Mongolia.
• Genghis Khan imagined that his sons would rule the empire collectively and to make this point clear, military contingents (tama) of the individual princess were placed in each ulus.
• The sense of the dominion shared by the members of family was emphasised at the assembly of chieftains (quriltais), where all the decisions relating to the family or the state like campaigns, distribution of plunder, pasture lands and succession, were collectively taken.

Trade and Communication systems under Genghis Khan

Courier System

• Genghis Khan had formed a rapid courier system that connected the distant areas of his regime.
• Fresh mounts and despatch riders were placed in outposts at regularly spaced distances.
• The Mongol nomads contributed a tenth of their hard either horsed or livestock-as provisions for the maintenance of this communication system.
• This was called the qubcur tax, a levy that the nomads paid willingly for the multiple benefits that it brought.
• The courier system(yam) was further refined after Genghis Khan’s death and its speed and reliability surprised travellers.
• It enabled the Great Khan to keep a check on developments at the farthest end of their regime across the continental land army.

Trade

• When peace was established after Mongol conquest (Pax Mongolica), trade connections matured.
• Europe and China were territorially linked with Mongolia.
• Travel and trade along silk route increased under the authority of Mongols.
• The trade routes did not stop in China, It continued north of Mongolia and to Karakorum.
• Communication and ease of travel was essential to maintain the authority of the Mongol regime.
• Travellers were given a pass (paiza in Persian;gerege in Mongolian) for safe conduct.
• Traders paid by tax for the same purpose ,there by acknowledging the Mongol authority.

Mongols after Genghis Khan

• Genghis Khan died in 1227 (BCE).
• By the middle of the 13th century, the Genghis Khan’s dream of collective rule shared by all brothers, was gradually replaced by individual dynasties, each ruling separate ulus (now it meant territorial dominion).
• This was the result of succession struggles where Genghis Khan descendants competed for the office of Great Khan and rich pastoral lands.
• Yuan and Il-Khanid dynasties formed in China and Iran by descendants of Toluy.
• Descendants of Jochi formed Golden Horde and ruled the Russian steppes.
• Chaghatai’s successors ruled the steppes of Transoxiania and the lands called Turkistan today.
• Nomadic traditions continued for long time in Central Asia (descendants of Chaghatai) and Russia (the Golden Horde).
• There was a gradual separation of the descendants of Genghis Khan into separate lineage groups.
• This shows that their connections with the traditions of a past family unity was changed. This was due to the competition among the cousin clans.
• Toluyid branch was more clever in presenting their versions of the family disagreements in the histories produced under their patronage.
• This was because they controlled Iran and China, and recruited many scholars.
• Persian chronicles produced in Il-Khanid Iran during the late thirteenth century had details of violent killings of the Great Khan and also it had aggravated the numbers of people killed.

Peace between Nomadic and Settled Communities

• The rivalry between nomadic and settled elements within the Mongol empire reduced in thirteenth century.
• For example, in 1230s when Mongols defeated Chin dynasty in North China, there was a strong pressure group within the Mongol leadership that wanted the massacre of all peasantry and conversion of their fields into pasture lands.
• By 1270s, when South China was annexed to the Mongol empire after the defeat of the Sung dynasty, Genghis Khan’s grandson, Qubilai Khan became the protector of peasants and the cities.
• In the 1290s, the Mongol ruler of Iran, Ghazan Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan’s youngest son Toluy, warned family members and other generals not to exploit peasants, because it would not lead to a stable prosperous realm (empire).
• There was also pressure to move from nomadic to settled life in new areas of Mongol which were far away from the original steppe habitat of the nomads.

Expansion of Territory

• Mongol expansion after Genghis Khan death can be divided into two phases:

(i) The first phase was during the years 1236-42, when major gains happened in the Russian steppes (grasslands), Bulghar, Kiev, Poland and Hungary.

(ii) The second phase was during the years 1255-1300 which led to the conquest of all China (1279), Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The boundary of the empire stabilised after these campaign.

First Phase

• Though, the Mongol military forces met with few reversals in the decade after 1203 CE, but quite noticeably after the 1260s, the original impetus of campaigns could not be sustained in the West.
• It was in the spirit of Genghis Khan’s ideals that his grandson Mongke (1251-60 CE) warned French ruler, Louis IX (1226-70).
• In 1236-41, campaigns of Batu, another grandson of Genghis Khan, destroyed Russian lands up to Moscow, seized Poland and Hungary and camped outside Vienna.
• In the 13th century, it seemed that Eternal Sky was on the side of the Mongols.
• Many parts of China, the Middle East and Europe saw Genghis Khan’s conquests as the Wrath of God and the beginning of the Day of Judgement.

Second Phase

• After 1260s, the original motivation for campaigns could not be sustained in the West. Vienna, Western Europe, as well as Egypt was within the reach of Mongol forces.
• However, their retreat from the Hungarian steppes and defeat at the hands of the Egyptian forces signalled the emergence of new political trends. There were two reasons for this:

(i) The first was a consequence of the internal politics of succession within the Mongol family where Jochi and Ogodei allied to control the office of the Great Khan in the first two generations. These interests were more important than the pursuit of campaigns in Europe.

(ii) The second reason was that the Jochi and Ogodei lineages were marginalised by the Toluyid branch of Genghis Khan descendants.

• When Mongke, a descendant of Toluy, became emperor, he pursued campaigns in Iran during the 1250s.
• But as Toluyid interests in the conquest of China increased during the 1260s, forces and supplies were increasingly diverted into the heartlands of the Mongol empire.
• As a result of this, the Mongols fielded a small, understaffed force against the Egyptian military. Their defeat and the increased preoccupation with China of the Toluyid family marked the end of western expansion of the Mongols.
• At the same time, conflict between the Jochid and Toluyid descendants along the Russian-Iranian frontier diverted the Jochids away from further European campaigns.
• Mongol expansion was suspended in the West but their campaigns did not stop in China which was reunited under the Mongols.

Administrative features of Genghis Khan’s Rule

• During the reign of Genghis Khan, civil administrators were recruited from the conquered lands. But they were deployed in distant areas.
• Chinese Secretaries were posted in Iran, and Persians in China.
• These administrators helped in integrating the distant regions. Their backgrounds and training were always useful in controlling the nomadic predation on sedentary life.
• These administrators retained the confidence of their masters till the time they continued to increase the revenues for them.
• These administrators could sometimes command considerable influence.

Yasa(Legal code of Genghis Khan)

• It is believed that Yasa was officially proclaimed by Genghis Khan at the Quiriltai of 1206, with the aim to re-organise Mongol society and give it  new shape.
• In its earliest formulation ,the term was written as ‘yasaq’ which meant ‘law’. ‘decree’ or ‘order’.
  • By the middle of the thirteenth century, Mongols started using the term yasa in a more general sense to mean the ‘legal code of Genghis Khan’.
• Other few details about the yasaq were about administrative regulations like the organisation of the hunt, the army and the postal system.

Law as the identity of Mongols

• By the middle of 13th century, the Mongols had emerged as a unified people and create the largest empire the world has ever seen.
• They ruled over very sophisticated urban societies with their respective histories, cultures and laws.
• Though Mongols dominated the region politically, they were a numerical minority.
• One of the ways in which they could protect their identity and distinctiveness was through a sacred law given by their ancestor.
• The yasa was most probably a compilation of the customary traditions of the Mongol tribes, but referred to as Genghis Khan’s code of law.
• The yasa served to join together the Mongol people around a body of shared believes.
• It recognised the affinity to Genghis Khan and descendants and, even as they absorbed different aspects of sedentary lifestyle, it gave them the confidence to retain their ethnic identity and impose their ‘law’ upon their defeated subjects.
• It was an extremely empowering ideology inspired by Genghis Khan’s vision and was vital in the construction of a Mongol universal dominion.

The Mongols in the World History

• Genghis Khan is remembered in the history as a conqueror, destroyer of cities and a person responsible for the death of thousands of people.
• Many 13th century residents of towns in China, Iran and eastern Europe looked at steppe people with fear and distaste, however for Mongols, Genghis Khan was the greatest leader of all time.
• He united the Mongol people, freed them from wars ,brought them prosperity and restored trade routes and markets that attracted travellers like Venetian Marco Polo.
• Beyond the opinions of the defeated sedentary people, the large size of the Mongol empire in the 13th century had embraced diverse body of people and faiths.
• Mongol Khans themselves belonged to different faiths like Shaman, Buddhist, Christian and eventually Islam but they did not let their personal beliefs dictate public policy.
• The Mongol rulers recruited administrators and armed contingents from all ethnic groups and religions. It was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious regime that did not feel threatened by its pluralistic constitution.
• Historians now are studying the ways in which Mongols provided ideological models for later regimes like the Mughals in India.
• Mongols were a diverse body of people.
  • Inspite of their own faith in Buddhism, Christianity, Islam etc.

Genghis Khan as a Source of Inspiration

• The nature of documentation on Mongols and other nomadic regimes, makes it highly impossible to understand the inspiration that led to the confederation of divided groups of people in pursuit of an ambition to create an empire.
• Though Mongol empire changed their social settings, Genghis Khan remained their powerful source of inspiration.
• At the end of 14th century, Timur, another monarch who aspired to conquer the world was reluctant to declare himself monarch because he was not of Genghis Khanid descent.
• He declared his independent sovereignty as a son-in-law (gruegen) of the Genghis Khanid family.

Present Mongolia

• After decades of Soviet control, today Mongolia country is recreating its identity as an independent nation.
• It is projecting Genghis Khan as a great national hero who is publicly respected.
• His achievements were remembered with pride.
• In the history of Mongolia, Genghis Khan had appeared as an iconic figure for the Mongol people.
• His personality was inspiring Mongol people by bringing glorious past memories and shaping the national identity that can carry the nation forward

Class 11 history chapter 5 nomadic empire: Timeline

c. 1162	Birth of Temujin.
1160s-70s	Years spent in slavery and struggle.
1180s-90s	Period of alliance formation.
1203-07	Expansion and triumph.
1206	Temujin proclaimed Genghis Khan, ‘Universal ruler’ of the Mongols.
1227	Death of Genghis Khan.
1227-60	Rule of the three Great Khans and continued Mongol unity.
1227-41	Ogodei, son of Genghis Khan.
1246-49	Guyuk, son of Ogodei.
1251-60	Mongke, son of Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Toluy.
1236-42	Campaigns in Russia, Hungary, Poland and Austria under Batu, son of Jochi, Genghis Khan’s eldest son.
1253-55	Beginning of fresh campaigns in Iran and China under Mongke.
1258	Capture of Baghdad and the end of the Abbasid caliphate. Establishment of the II-Khanid state of Iran under Hulegu, younger brother of Mongke. Beginning of conflict between the Jochids and the Il-Khans.
1260	Accession of Qubilai Khan as Grand Khan in Peking; conflict amongst descendants of Genghis Khan; fragmentation of Mongol realm into independent lineages – Toluy, Chaghatai and Jochi (Ogodei’s lineage defeated and absorbed into the Toluyid).
1257-67	Reign of Berke, son of Batu; reorientation of the Golden Horde from Nestorian Christianity towards Islam. Definitive conversion takes place only in the 1350s. Start of the alliance between the Golden Horde and Egypt against the Il-Khans.
1295-1304	Reign of Il-Khanid ruler Ghazan Kahn in Iran. His conversion from Buddhism to Islam is followed gradually by other Il-Khanid cheiftains.
1368	End of Yuan dynasty in China.
1370-1405	Rule of Timur, a Barlas Turk who claimed Genghis Khan descent through the lineage of Chaghatai. Establishes a steppe empire that assimilates part of the dominions of Toluy (excluding China), Chaghatai and Jochi. Proclaims himself ‘Guregen’ – ‘royal son-in-law’ – and marries a princess of the Genghis Khanid lineage.
1495-1530	Zahiruddin Babur, descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, succeeds to Timurid territory of Ferghana and Samarqand, is expelled, captures Kabul and in 1526 seizes Delhi and Agra; founds the Mughal empire in India.
1500	Capture of Transoxiana by Shaybani Khan, descendant of Jochi’s youngest son, Shiban, consolidates Shaybani power (Shaybanids also described as Uzbeg, from whom Uzbekistan, today gets its name) in Transoxiana and expels Babur and other Timurids from the region.
1759	Manchus of China conquer Mongolia.
1921	Republic of Mongolia.

class 11 history chapter 5 nomadic empires: Summary

NCERT Notes for Class 11 History
Chapter 1 From the Beginning of Time
Chapter 2 Writing and City Life
Chapter 3 An Empire Across Three Continents
Chapter 4 The Central Islamic Lands
Chapter 5 Nomadic Empires
Chapter 6 The Three Orders
Chapter 7 Changing Cultural Traditions
Chapter 8 Confrontation of Cultures
Chapter 9 The Industrial Revolution
Chapter 10 Displacing Indigenous Peoples
Chapter 11 Paths to Modernisation