Kublai+Khan

Kublai Khan was Chinggis Khan’s grandson and Mongol leader who led the Mongols to conquer Song China, the hardest region for the Mongols to conquer. Kublai worked to keep a separation between the Mongols and the Chinese by not allowing intermarriage or friendships between the two regions. He also forced the Mongols and the Chinese to use their own writing systems and separate military forces. Kublai moved the capital to Tatu and brought Chinese customs into his Mongolian court such as the Chinese calendar and ancestor worship. The Mongols brought new social stratification to China, with the Mongols at the top, followed by the Asian nomads and Muslim allies, northern Chinese, and lastly the ethnic Chinese. Mongolian women were treated almost as equals, a concept very different in China. These different customs rubbed off on the Chinese, giving women a slightly higher social status. Kublai refused to have Confucian scholars in his governmental court, alienating the scholar-gentry. Kublai greatly improved the status of artisans and peasants by limiting their taxes and encouraging their labor. Trade and commerce also boomed because of the use of paper money. Kublai’s reign came to an end as the Song revolted and Mongol military declined. No one following Kublai’s reign could live up to his great leadership and ways of ruling China through Mongol influence.

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Created by Hannah Hollon