One of the most remarkable points about the Mongol Empire was its hostility that allowed them to become a foreign ruling class for many other nations. All the destruction that the Mongols caused on Eurasia seemed to be a planned series of activities that should not have promoted death and destruction but the role of the Mongolian Empire in the development of Eurasia as a whole (Brown 782).
The key to understanding the part of the Mongolian Empire within the framework of the Mongolian ‘migration’ might consist of assessing the positive and negative sides of the Mongolian movements. The author of the current paper expects to provide relevant arguments for both the positive and negative types of influence related to the Mongol Empire. Despite the destruction and numerous human victims, the Mongols had a mostly affirmative impact on Eurasia that presupposed the transformation of political, social, and military aspects of the life of the local population.
Positive Impact
When discussing the positive side of the Mongolian conquest, it may be hard to step away from the terror that the Mongols had caused across both Europe and Asia. Nonetheless, the Pax Mongolica became one of the most important contributions to world peace (Dunne and Reus-Smit 50). Under the Mongolian rule, Eurasia experienced almost a century of peace as the Mongols effectively managed the relations between neighboring countries.
The trading route between Europe and China – also known as the Silk Road – was opened and started functioning correctly under the Mongolian rule (Dunne and Reus-Smit 50). This new overland trade route allowed for additional trade options for both the West and China, making the Eurasian region much more stable than it was before the Mongolian rule. As the Mongols contributed to the development of cross-cultural interactions, they may be seen as the funders of the expansion of the trade process across Eurasia.
Negative Impact
As history shows, the Mongols were not slowed down a bit by the idea that they would have to invade numerous settlements and kill people to instill their rule. While the Silk Road had been opened, China had to give up several regions in order to make the new trade options work (Barisitz 88). With some of the districts remaining completely depopulated after the Mongol invasions, it may also be stated that the Mongols spread panic all over Eurasia and believed that their maneuvers were the only way to rule the world in a unified manner.
Nonetheless, the biggest issue linked to the Mongol conquest was their unconscious contribution to spreading the bubonic plague that covered Europe in dead bodies quicker than during wartime (Barisitz 129). From Western China, bubonic plague traveled to Europe via the trade routes that had been re-established by the Mongols.
Discussion
The evidence shows that the Mongol invasions were among the most treacherous and devastating events that affected whole continents. Despite the human and animal victims and all the damage that the Mongols inflicted upon Eurasia, their positive impact on the world cannot be either ignored or underestimated. The Mongols created trading opportunities for more impoverished regions and helped to lower numerous prices owing to the re-launch of the Silk Road. As the Renaissance came right after Europe acquired the new knowledge, the impact of the Mongol Empire could be seen stretching way beyond the merely political and economic transformations.
Works Cited
Barisitz, Stephan. Central Asia and the Silk Road. Springer, 2017.
Brown, Kerry. Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2017.
Dunne, Timothy, and Christian Reus-Smit. The Globalization of International Society. Oxford University Press, 2017.