Genghis Khan: Good or Bad Leader? History Unit Summative Assessment

Transcription

1 Name History Unit Summative Assessment To end this unit, you will be examining primary and secondary sources and using the Historical Method to determine whether Genghis Khan was a good or bad leader. You will then write a 4 paragraph essay explaining your stance using evidence from the sources provided. Step 1: Artifacts Evaluation and Corroboration Using the graphic organizer provided, read each of the sources and evaluate 4 that corroborate the argument of whether Genghis Khan was a good or bad leader. These 5 sources will be the evidence you use to support your thesis. Then evaluate 2 sources that disagree with your thesis. This will support the counterargument you include in your essay. Step 2: Recording a Historical Account Paragraph 1: Introduction This paragraph should introduce your argument. Begin by explaining the traits that define a good leader. Are they kind? Fair? Generous? Efficient? Merciful? What is the main job of a good leader? Then provide a thesis statement which argues whether Genghis Khan fits your definition of a good leader. (you should reference reasons why he was or was not, but you don t need to reference specific sources). 4-5 sentences in length Paragraph 2: Support your argument Using the sources provided, explain in detail why Genghis Khan was or was not a good leader. Be sure to use at least 4 sources to prove your argument. You may pick any of the 13 sources provided to back up your thesis. 5-7 sentences in length Paragraph 3: Show evidence against your argument Every historian tries to record an objective account of history. In order to do so, you must include sources that might disagree with your thesis. In this paragraph you must include at least 2 sources to show why some historians might disagree with your thesis. 4-5 sentences in length Paragraph 4: Conclusion Restate your thesis and make sure you have clearly argued why you believe Genghis Khan was a good or bad leader, restating what makes a leader good or bad and why Genghis Khan fits this description. 3-4 sentences in length Total Points for Essay: 25 1

2 Argument Source Evaluation Good/Bad # What does it say/show? Genghis Khan: Good or Bad Leader? Essay Graphic Organizer # What does it say/show? # What does it say/show? # What does it say/show? Good/Bad # What does it say/show? # What does it say/show? Thesis: 2

3 Source 1 During the Mongol rule, trade revived with Central Asia and the Middle East. Both of these areas were ruled by relatives of the khan. The vast lands controlled by the Mongols experienced general peace, called the Pax Mongolica. It was said that a maiden bearing a nugget of gold on her head could wander safely throughout the realm. Camel caravans once more carried Chinese products such as porcelain, tea, medicines, silk, and playing cards to the Middle East and into Europe. Source: Dorothy Hoobler et al., China, Globe Book Source 2 Those you speak of slew our envoys. Therefore, in accordance with the commands of the Eternal Heaven the inhabitants of those countries have been slain and annihilated. If not by the command of Heaven, how can anyone slay or conquer out of his own strength? Thanks to the power of the Eternal Heaven, all lands have been given to us (the Mongols) from sunrise to sunset. You in person, at the head of the monarchs, all of you, without exception, must come to tender us service and pay us homage, then only will we recognize your submission. But if you do not obey the commands of Heaven, and run counter to our orders, we shall know that you are our foe. Source: Letter from Great Khan to Pope Innocent IV Source 3 The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms. Source: Genghis Khan, speech to his men before the campaign into China,

4 Source 4 One woman will drive twenty or thirty wagons, since the terrain is level. It is the women s task to drive the wagons, to load the dwellings on them and to unload again, to milk the cows, to make butter and cheese, and to dress the skins and stitch them together, which they do with a thread made from sinew. The men make bows and arrows, manufacture stirrups and bits, fashion saddles, construct the dwellings and the wagons, tend the horses and mares, churn the milk, produce the skins in which it is stored, and tend and load the camels. Source: A Report on Gender Relations, William of Rubruck, a Franciscan friar who visited the Mongols in 1250 s on behalf of the King of France. Source 5 During the seven years Ogedei (the son of Genghis Khan) enjoyed life and amused himself. He moved from summer to winter camp and vice versa, serene and happy, and took permanent delight in beautiful women and moonfaced enchantresses. At every opportunity, he allowed his sublime thoughts to overflow lavishly into the most just and charitable of good deeds, into the eradication of injustice and enmity, into the development of cities and districts, as well as into the construction of various buildings. He never neglected any measure designed to strengthen the framework of peace, and to lay the foundation of prosperity. Source: History of the Mongols, Rashid al-din, Mongol high official, written after Source 6 That summer Genghis Khan pitched his camp on the Snowy mountain. He sent soldiers out against those of the Tangqut people who had rebelled against him. The whole tribe was completely wiped out. Then he showed favor to Bo orchy and Mugali, saying: Take what you want, until you can carry no more. Make their fine sons follow behind you, holding your falcons. Bring up their daughters to arrange your wives skirts. Source: Anonymous eyewitness account, translated by Urgunge Onon,

5 Source 7 Size of World Conquests Conquerors Square Miles Conquered 1. Genghis Khan ( ) 4,860, Alexander the Great ( BCE) 2,180, Tamerlane ( ) 2,145, Cyrus the Great ( BCE) 2,090, Attila ( ) 1,450, Adolf Hitler ( ) 1,370, Napoleon Bonaparte ( ) 720,000 Note: The area of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is 3,806,885 square miles. 5

6 Source 8 Their weapons are bows, iron maces, and in some instances, spears; but the first is the weapon at which they are the most expert, being accustomed, from children, to employ it in their sports. They wear defensive armor made from buffalo and hides of other beasts, dried by the fire, and thus hard and strong. They are brave in battle, setting little value upon their lives, and exposing themselves to all manner of danger. Their disposition is cruel. When there is a need for it, they can live for a month on the milk of their horses, and upon such wild animals as they may catch. Their horses are fed upon grass alone, and do not require barley or other grain. The men are trained to remain on horseback during two days and two nights, without dismounting. No people on earth can surpass them in strength under difficulties, nor show greater patience. They are most obedient to their chiefs. Source: Marco Polo, a European adventurer and travel writer, written in 1298 based on his travels from 1274 to Source 9 Reported Inhabitant Deaths From Varied Sources Year Place Reported Deaths Source 1220 Bukhara (Khwarazm) 30,000 Juvaini 1220 Samarkand (Khwarazm) 30,000 Persian chronicler 1221 Merv (Khwarazm) 700,000 Persian chronicler 1221 Nishapur (Khwarazm) 1,747,000 Persian chronicler 1223 Herat (Khwarazm) 1,600,000 Chronicler 1237 Riazan (Russia) Few survivors Russian chroniclers 1237 Kozelsk (Russia) No survivors Russian chroniclers 1258 Baghdad (Persia) 800,000-2,000,000 Persian chroniclers Source: George Marshall s Storm from the East. Despite very probable exaggeration, there is agreement among historians of today that the number of deaths at Nishapur was staggering. 6

7 Source 10 Mongol Commerce in China and Persia The Mongols conquered nearly all of Asia and achieved what all Inner Asian steppe empires had dreamed of, control of the continental caravan routes from China to Persia. The enormous destructive cost of the Pax Mongolica cannot be denied, but the Mongol Empire made significant contributions to the political institutions, economic development, and cultural diversity of many lands. No history of the Mongol Empire... which dwells only on Mongol destruction, can be satisfactory. The Mongol emperors built canals to improve transportation and communication. In China agriculture production... continued unstopped. Persian winemaking thrived under the Mongols, who were great drinkers, even after their conversion. The Persian silk industry also benefitted from the Mongol conquest because of the contacts that opened up with China. Cities along the caravan routes, in Persia, Central Asia, and China, prospered as part of the tax-free customs zones protected by the Pax Mongolica. Source: Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde, Indiana University Press, Source 11 The Mongol impact, assert the Eurasian historians, proved highly beneficial to the Russians. The Tatars [Mongols] defended Russia from Europe, sparing it from conquest by the West. After the conquest Mongols and the people of Rus [Russia] coexisted in harmony and peace. From their conquerors the Rus adopted typical Turanian [Asian] character traits: steadiness, conviction, strength, and religiosity, all of which promoted the development of the Muscovite state. The Mongols assured to Rus secure commercial and cultural relations with the Orient; they enhanced the position of the Orthodox church. In the mid-13th century Alexander Nevskii prince of Novgorod, faced with a fateful choice, wisely chose the East over the West: Alexander saw in the Mongols a friendly force in a cultural sense that could assist him to preserve and consolidate Russian cultural identity from the Latin West Source: MacKenzie and Curran, A History of Russia, the Soviet Union, and Beyond, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning 7

8 Source 12 Note: John of Plano Carpini was a Franciscan emissary of Pope Innocent IV and traveled to Karakorum between 1245 and It is believed he was the first European to visit the Mongols in their homeland. Genghis Khan ordained that the army should be organized in such a way that over ten men should beset one man and he is what we call a captain of ten; over ten of these should be placed one, named a captain of a hundred; at the head of ten captains of a hundred is placed a soldier known as a captain of a thousand, and over ten captains of a thousand is one man. Two or three chiefs are in command of the whole army, yet in such a way that one holds the supreme command. When they are in battle, if one or two or three or even more out of a group of ten run away, all are put to death; and if a whole group of ten flees, the rest of the group of a hundred are all put to death, if they do not flee too. In a word, unless they retreat in a body, all who take flight are put to death. If one or two or more go forward boldly to the fight, then the rest of the ten are put to death if they do not follow and, if one or more of the ten are captured, their companions are put to death if they do not rescue them. Source: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols, in Christopher Dawson, The Mongol Mission, London: Sheed and Ward,

9 Source 13 A scene from a Persian manuscript c.1300, showing the execution of a prisoner by a Mongol soldier. Others are being buried alive upside-down. Source: Persian manuscript, The Shah Namah or Book of Kings, c. 1300, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. In Robert Marshall, Storm from the East, From Genghis Khan to Kubilai Khan, University of California Press,