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diff --git a/wroblewski-world/exam-dbq.txt b/wroblewski-world/exam-dbq.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..834d058 --- /dev/null +++ b/wroblewski-world/exam-dbq.txt @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +WY5V8181 +HR + +Before the Mongols came to control the majority of Asia, the Song +Dynasty and various religious Arab and Persian rulers were developing +technological prominence (credit, gunpowder, seafaring) and had control +over their regions because of prosperous centralized government. The +Mongols, however, had superior military tactics, and were able to seize +large parts of these empires. But despite their ability to take over +these regions, bureaucratic control wasn't well-suited to their culture, +especially after Kublai Khan's death where a single central controller +couldn't exist. The khanates instead used local religious infrastructure +and continued to develop technology within the regions they ruled +because local rulers (usually religious in nature because states were +often closely tied to religion, especially in the Islamic world) wanted +to retain their power and the Mongols were such a small group that they +could not entirely supplant a bureaucracy even if they wanted to. + +Religious leaders tried to preserve their own power as can be seen +in document 2. A Buddhist monk is pushing the message that the Mongol +empire should preserve religious organization for rational and +bureaucratic reasons (order that the people already follow, and arguing +that it would not interfere with Mongol rule). The intended audience is +the Khan and the wider Mongol court, so this message is likely pandering +to their sense of importance and power over China, but the parts about +the religious organization retaining power are certainly believed by +this monk. Especially because Khubilai Khan is a Buddhist himself, this +monk believes that he has a good chance at retaining most of his power +as long as he remains in the good grace of the Mongols. Document 3 also +shows the Sufi sheikh (a religious ruler) has worked to convert the +ruler to his faith. Religious leaders attempting to convert rulers is, +historically, not uncommon, but the Mongols are particularly pliant to +these advances because the Mongols do not have an established religion +because they were originally a nomadic group and so do not have as +strong of power structures. + +The Mongols are also uncommonly tolerant rulers. Because the roots of +their power lie with Kubilai Khan's enhancement of the Silk Road in his +early years, preservation of intergroup trade is easiest when the people +controlling it are mostly neutral to the religion and ethnicity of +merchants because then more merchants are likely to participate. But, +after his death, the Khanates although still trying to retain the +strength of the road began to infight between themselves---which +eventually befell the empire. So, during these years, alliances with +local ethnic groups was especially important. In the Yuan dynasty, +Mongol leaders took ethnic female companions as can be seen in Document +5. In order to garner support of the local groups, the Yuan dynasty +used this silk tapestry in religious ceremonies because it represented +their alliance to the local powers---which was expected to be returned +in favour. Document 4 shows this same pattern of native religious +advantage. The Persian Khanate Ilkhanid ruler married to a Nestorian +Christian because, although she didn't hold specific hierarchical power +over this land, the alliance with the Nestorian Christians is valuable +mostly in the preservation of peace. + +Technological growth was the earliest way that the Khans were affected +by local change and culture. Khans brought together scholars and artists +for their own gain; the development of new technology would further +their control over the Silk Road and the prosperity of the lands they +controlled. These technologies were also used directly by the Mongols, +as is seen in Document 1. At this time, the Mongols were an illiterate +people interested in developing a bureaucratic system because they +had conquered much land but had no way to profit from it because no tax +system was in place. The Mongols needed to reuse an existing writing +system to further the strength of their empire, which projected into +cultural changes. The Mongols gradually stopped being a nomadic people +and their core strength (military dominance) faded out, their being +closer to these native peoples because the reuse of native culture +was the easiest way to control an area. But this eventually meant that +the Mongol empire was essentially the same as the preexisting empire +because they used the same tax and writing system, were just as divided +as before, and began to face new challenges which it was difficult +for the Mongols to handle. |