Kipchak Khanate (Golden Horde)

Mongol Empire (Kipchak Khanate/ Golden Horde)

1251-1502 CE

Interactions

Culture

Demography

Most of the population, both agricultural and nomadic, adopted the Kipchak language and the Golden Horde developed a more sedentary than nomadic culture.

Most interactions that the Mongols of the Golden Horde had with other peoples were battles to conquer them and their land. There was also interactions between other khanates during the Mongol civil war in the late 13th century.

The Golden Horde population was largely a mixture of the conquered Turks and the Mongols who The Black Plague was a pandemic that had spread to the Golden Horde somewhere between 1945 and 1946.

A picture of a Kipchak chieftain. A majority of the conquered Turks was from the Kipchak tribe. After the adoption of their language and after the disintegration of the Golden Horde, the different regions developed different regional languages of the Kipchak language.

The Golden Horde developed a sedentary culture, apparent in the Horde city of Sarai, which grew to be a prosperous metropolis in the 14th century and one of the biggest medieval cities with a population of 600,000.

The Golden Horde was mostly made up with Turks (Kipchaks, Cumans, Volga Bulgars, etc.) as wells as Slavs, Finno-Ugrians, and others, while they were conquered by four main groups of Mongols (Qiyat, Manghut, Sicivut, and Qonqirat) to rule over them.

Map showing the spread of the Black Death or Bubonic Plague to the Golden Horde

From 1260-1280, the Golden Horde was involved in the Mongol Civil War, during which the Golden Horde battled with the Ilkhanate as the two leaders, Berke and Hulegu respectively, had a rocky relationship. This scene shows the victory of the Horde over the Ilkhanate in the Battle of Terek in 1262.

In the summer of 1470, the last prominent Khan of the Golden Horde, Ahmed, attempted to attack Moldavia, the kingdom of Poland. By August, the Moldavians under Stephen the Great defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Lipnic, as shown here.

Economics

Religions

Politics

The Mongols of the Golden Horde actively traded with the Genoese and Mamluk Egypt. The Golden Horde had a well developed agriculture when they conquered and there wasn't much changed.

In the 14th century, Islam became the official religion of the Golden Horde. At the same time, Buddhism and Shamanism was forbidden among the Mongols.

The Mongol forces led by Batu Khan invaded northern Asia and forced the Rus to surrender, establishing the Golden Horde in 1251 BCE. They established a rather tolerant political system that forced the Rus and Turkic peoples to pay tribute to them.

Political map showing the Golden Horde's trade routes that led to the West

In the settled land of the Golden Horde-occupied Russia the land millet was the main crop, followed by rye, wheat, barley, oats, and peas. Fishing was well developed and fish like sturgeon were exported abroad. Hunting was mainly for furs as the people relied on livestock for their meat.

A Mongol is pictured here converting from Buddhism to Islam. After making the official religion Islam, Uzbeg Khan also outlawed Shamanism and Buddhism amongst his fellow Mongols.

Uzbeg Khan, as seen here sitting, assumed the throne in 1313, making the official religion Islam in the Golden Horde.

Batu Khan (1205-1255), the conqueror of Kieven Rus and the Mongol leader who established the Golden Horde

Political map showing the Mongol invasion routes of Kieven Rus and the Golden Horde

Technology

Social Structures

The Golden Horde's social structures were similar to their political structures as the conquered people were more on the bottom while the elite class were the Mongol conquerors. However there were usually some Russian princes in the Mongol court at any given time.

After their conquering of Kievan Rus, the Mongols began to teach the Russians of their superior military tactics, integrating them into their army. The Russians then used the military technology to turn on the Mongols in the 14th century onwards and attempt to drive them out of Russia.

Sources

The Mongols suffered their worst defeat ever in 1380 CE in the Battle of Kulikovo against the Russians who used Mongol military tactics to ambush and defeat them

http://asianhistory.about.com/od/glossaryfj/g/GlosGoldenHorde.htm

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/civil_n2/histscript6_n2/golden.html

http://www.britannica.com/place/Golden-Horde

https://www.course-notes.org/World_History/Outlines/World_Civilizations_The_Global_Experience_4th_Edition_Outlines/Chapter_14_The

https://in.rbth.com/arts/2014/05/21/lessons_in_warfare_learnt_from_the_golden_horde_35375

Economy

http://countrystudies.us/mongolia/21.htm

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/AAE1061-1959480203?journalCode=maae20

http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/25/ukrainian-conflict-is-between-heirs-of-kyivan-rus-and-heirs-of-golden-horde/#arvlbdata

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/golden-horde-empire-the.html

http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/04/07/russia-and-russian-nation-owe-their-existence-to-the-mongols-kalmyk-emigre-eurasianist-argued/

The Mongols integrated the Russians into their military and teaching them Mongol cavalry tactics

However, in the Mongol court of the Golden Horde, Russian princes would frequent there, most notably Alexander Nevsky who became the sworn brother of Sartaq Khan, Batu's successor, evidence that the social structure was a little more complex than Mongols at the top and everyone else at the bottom.

The conquered people were lower than the Mongols mainly because they were defeated people/vassals who had to pay tributes to the warriors. It's evident that they were rather submissive by these pictures, the left showing a Mongol punishing a Kievan Rus prince, and the right showing Alexander Nevsky, ruler of Muscovy/Moscow, bowing down to Batu Khan. Most of the conquered peoples submitted to the Mongols so that their cities and people would be spared.