The Pax Mongolica Project

It is well considered that that Mongol rule of China had allowed China to have greater diplomatic relationships with the Muslim world. China’s relationship with Islam had a tremendous impact on China’s relationship with the outside world. China’s relationship with Islam had gave China the upper hand to dominate Eurasian politics and the Silk Road. China’s control over the Silk Road draws the clear inclination that the Islamization of the Silk Road was an important factor in World Civilization. The Pax Mongolica project draws the clear inclination that Beijing then went on to become the center of nomadic culture when the Mongols ruled China. Mongol rule over China draws the clear inclination that the Mongols “sprang from tribal warfare and drew on familiarity with key elements of Chinese civilization, including writing, record keeping, and law” (Dray-Novey 13). This clearly demonstrates in how Mongol rule over China changed the course of Eurasian politics. This could give us a sense in how the Mongols brought different cultures to China. The Mongols managed to make China the center of diversity through the inclination that “Khubilai thus skillfully appealed to his Mongol, Chinese, and universal audiences in the creation of the Yuan Dadu” (Dray-Novey 15). This clearly demonstrates in how the Mongols preserved Chinese culture in order to dominate Eurasian culture. This could give us a sense in how China’s diversity is based on the fact that “cosmopolitanism was both the natural outlook of a nomadic people and a strategy of empire” (Dray-Novey 15). This clearly demonstrates in how China became the center of Eurasian culture under the Mongols. This could give us a sense in how Beijing became the light of the Mongols. Beijing had prospered as the Great Metropolis through the inclination that “the Mongols brought together the skills of diverse civilizations to an extent rare at the time and long afterward” (Dray-Novey 17). This clearly in how the Mongols promoted diversity in order to dominate the Silk Road. This could give us a sense in how the Mongols were open minded towards different cultures.

The Pax Mongolica project in their expansion proved to be one of the most ruthless expansion in human history. Their expansion had “become a byword for the devastation of fertile agricultural land, the sack of towns and cities, and the massacre of populations” (Jackson 71). This clearly demonstrates in how the Pax Mongolica project in controlling the Silk Road had come at a high coast. This could give us a sense on how the Mongols had built a reputation of cruelty towards their opponents. One of the most striking examples of Mongol brutality is Siege of Baghdad (1258). The Mongol conquest of Baghdad is considered brutal because “that city paid dearly for the Caliph’s defiance and vacillation once the Mongols were victorious” (Jackson 167). The Siege of Baghdad had lasted for 13 days until the Abbasid Caliphate surrendered. When the Abbasid Caliphate surrendered, Mongols sacked Baghdad, committing numerous atrocities. This clearly demonstrates how the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 is considered the darkest period in human history. But, the Mongol conquest Baghdad had allowed the Mongols to control the Silk Road. The ability of the Mongol to control the Silk Road draws the clear inclination that “the city [Baghdad] had given birth to the Persian art of manuscript painting by the 1290s” (Jackson 179). This rehabilitation is crystal clear in how China’s relation with the Muslim world allowed the Silk Road to flourish. This could give us a sense in how the Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 is a major testament to the world in China’s connection with the Muslim world.

The 1258 Siege of Baghdad ushered in something new in Eurasian politics. After the Siege of Baghdad in 1258, the Mongols went on to the business in rebuilding the city. The Pax Mongolica project made Baghdad the center of international trade in the Silk Road to the point that Baghdad as the center of international trade gave rise to two major developments which is “a growth in transregional trade, through the removal of a multiplicity of tolls and other exactions and the elimination of competitive predators; and a more intense cross- cultural contact between distant regions of Asia and between Asia and Europe” (Jackson 210). This clearly demonstrates in how Baghdad as the center of the Silk Road took the Pax Mongolica project into new level. This could give us a sense in how the Mongols were trying to create a new world order in Eurasian politics. This new world order is crystal clear in how the Pax Mongolica project had played an important role in the growth and trade along the Silk Road. This new world order is a clear testament that we are “seeing the Mongol epoch as the apex of a process of growing integration within Eurasia that had begun in the eleventh century” (Jackson 211). This clearly demonstrates in how the Mongols were able to consolidate their control over the Silk Road in order to create a single unitary empire throughout Eurasia. This could give us a sense in how the Pax Mongolica experiment with a single unitary empire throughout Eurasia allowed the Silk Road to flourish.

The Silk Road is considered one of the greatest economic masterpiece in Eurasia. This could give us a sense in how the Silk Road was a network of trade routes which connected the East and West. The Silk Road was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between East and West. The Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.