The Mongols in China

Today we want to talk about the Mongols in China. You'll find this information in section 17.3 in your textbook. The Mongols were China's enemy from the north. They came from a region called the steppe and the steppe region is a grassy plains that stretched from the Black Sea to northern China. The step is much like the great plains of North America. Probably the most famous leader of the Mongols was Genghis Khan because he was the one who unified the various Mongol clans. He organized Mongol law to create a new legal code. The Mongols created the largest empire in history. Now as you look at the map, you're going to maybe think that this isn't as large as the Roman Empire, but indeed it is. The other main emperor that we want to talk about today was kubla Khan. And Kublai Khan started the Yuan dynasty in China. Now one of the reasons we know about kubla Khan is because he was the emperor at the time when Marco Polo made his famous trip to China and wrote about all of the wonders of China and actually was one of the people who inspired later on those who would explore China by sea. Now China was known for trading things. Such things as silver, carpet, cotton, and spices, but the three most important thing that they things that they created were tea, silk, and porcelain. And in this picture it shows all three. The Mongols eventually decided that they would try to invade Japan. And so they attacked Japan as well. But were unsuccessful in that invasion.