to keep a check on developments at the farthest end of their regime across the continental landmass. The conquered people, however, hardly felt a sense of affinity with their new nomadic masters. During the campaigns in the first half of the thirteenth century, cities were destroyed, agricultural lands laid waste, trade and handicraft production disrupted. Tens of thousands of people – the exact figures are lost in the exaggerated reports of the time – were killed, even more enslaved.
All classes of people, from the elites to the peasantry suffered. In the resulting instability, the underground canals, called qanats , in the arid Iranian plateau could no longer receive periodic maintenance. As they fell into disrepair, the desert crept in. This led to an ecological devastation from which parts of Khurasan never recovered.
Once the dust from the campaigns had settled, Europe and China were territorially linked. In the peace ushered in by Mongol conquest Family tree of Genghis Khan. (Pax Mongolica) trade connections matured. Commerce and travel along the Silk Route reached its peak under the Mongols but, unlike before, the trade routes did not terminate in China.
They continued north into Mongolia and to Karakorum, the heart of the new empire. Communication and ease of travel was vital to retain the coherence of the Mongol regime and travellers were given a ACTIVITY Note the areas traversed by the Silk Route it passes and the goods that were available to traders along the way. This map does not reflect one of the eastern terminal points of the silk route during the height of Mongol power. Can you place the missing city?
Would it have been on the Silk Route in the twelfth century? Why not? N OMADIC E MPIRES pass ( paiza in Persian; gerege in Mongolian) for safe conduct. Traders paid the baj tax for the same purpose, all acknowledging thereby the authority of the Mongol Khan.
The contradictions between the nomadic and sedentary elements within the Mongol empire eased through the thirteenth century. In the 1230s, for example, as the Mongols waged their successful war