Mongol conquestsSociety and economy

Pax Mongolica

A term historians coined on the model of the Pax Romana for the relative security of travel and trade across Eurasia under Mongol rule: from the mid-13th to the mid-14th century merchants, envoys, missionaries and scholars moved along the roads and relay stations of the khanates between China, Iran, the Black Sea and Europe.

Date: c. 1250 – c. 1350year known, approximate · duration: ≈ 100 years
Place: Almaliqtoday: Huocheng County, Ili, Xinjiang, China · Central and Northern Asia
Route: Tana (Azov) → Astrakhan → Saraychik → Urgench → Otrar → Almaliq → Ganzhou → Beijing
Participants: Mongol Empire
Threads: Mongol conquests
Also known as: Pax Tatarica; Mongol Peace; Монгольский мир; Татарский мир

The conquests brought much of Eurasia under the rule of one dynasty. The empire’s relay service, the yam — founded, according to the Secret History, by Ögedei — kept stations with fresh horses along the roads, and European travellers from Carpine and Rubruck to Marco Polo described it in detail. Caravans carried Chinese silk, spices and Indian textiles westward and silver, cloth and horses eastward, and with them travelled knowledge: astronomy, medicine, printing, geography and the writing of history.

The boundaries are conventional. The term is applied to the 13th and 14th centuries; the period is dated here, as in Janet Abu-Lughod’s Before European Hegemony, to about 1250–1350. The peace was relative: the empire split into four khanates — the Yuan, the Golden Horde, the Chagatai ulus and the Ilkhanate — and after nearly a century of conquest and of wars between them (Berke against Hulagu from 1262, Kaidu against Kublai in 1268–1301) relative stability came only in the early 14th century. The disintegration of the khanates and the Black Death, which spread all the faster because the empire had linked once isolated regions, brought the period to an end.

On the map the period is anchored at Almaliq in the Ili valley, the capital of the Chagatai ulus. The line follows the overland route from Tana on the Sea of Azov to Khanbaliq (Beijing) described between 1335 and 1343 by the Florentine merchant Francesco Pegolotti, who assured his readers that, according to the merchants who had used it, the road was safe by day and by night.

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Connections

Related events

Mission of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine to the Mongols16 April 1245 – 1247 · Central and Northern AsiaCarpine was among the first European travellers to describe the Mongol relay service
Completion of the Secret History of the Mongolsbetween 1228 and 1264 · Central and Northern AsiaAccording to the Secret History, the yam relay service was founded by Ögedei
Founding of the Maragheh Observatory1259 · Middle East and EgyptA Chinese astronomer worked at Maragheh, and the Ilkhanid Tables drew on Chinese methods as well
Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295 · East AsiaThe Polos travelled to Kublai’s court and back during the Pax Mongolica, and Marco Polo described the Mongol relay service in detail

Same participants

Proclamation of the Yuan dynasty1271 · East Asiavia Mongol Empire

Adjacent events in the thread

Death of Kublai Khan18 February 1294 · East Asia

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within a year of this event

Western and Central Europe

Rise of the Hanseatic League1241–1356
Sicilian Vespers30 March 1282
“Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274
Rebuilding of Chartres Cathedral and the High Gothic10 June 1194 – 24 October 1260

Eastern Europe

Formation of the Principality of Moscowbetween 1263 and 1283
Battle of Wesenberg18 February 1268
Death of Alexander Nevsky14 November 1263
Mongol census of Rus’1257–1259
First mention of Lvivbetween 1255 and 1257

+ 3 events

Balkans and Anatolia

Rumi composes the Masnavi in Konyac. 1258 – 17 December 1273
Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261
John III Vatatzes and the revival of the Empire of Nicaeabetween December 1221 and December 1222 – 3 November 1254

Middle East and Egypt

Fall of Acre18 May 1291
Reign of Sultan Baibars24 October 1260 – between 30 June and 1 July 1277
Battle of Ain Jalut3 September 1260
Founding of the Maragheh Observatory1259
Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258

+ 3 events

+ 4 events

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Zhou Daguan’s embassy to AngkorMarch 1296 – 30 August 1297
Founding of Majapahit10 November 1293
Mongol invasion of Javabetween December 1292 and January 1293 – August 1293
Ram Khamhaeng Inscription1292
Eruption of Samalasbetween May and October 1257

North America

Great Drought and the Ancestral Puebloan departure from Mesa Verde1276–1299
Mississippian centres after Cahokia: Moundville, Etowah and the Southeastern Ceremonial Complexc. 1200 – c. 1450
The Thule migrate east across the Arctic to Greenlandc. 1200 – c. 1300
Ancestral Puebloans build Cliff Palace at Mesa Verdec. 1190 – c. 1280

Latin America

The Kingdom of Cusco: the Inca state before the empirec. 1200 – c. 1438
The Mexica enter the Valley of Mexico and settle at Chapultepecbetween 1245 and 1280 – 1299
Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán1220s – between 1441 and 1461
Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470

The same period

125013th century

Sources

Wikipedia (English): Pax Mongolica
Wikipedia (English): Yam (route)
Wikipedia (English): Francesco Balducci Pegolotti
Wikipedia (English): Almaliq, Xinjiang
Wikipedia (English): Berke–Hulegu war
Wikipedia (English): Kaidu–Kublai war
Wikipedia (Russian): Pax Mongolica
Abu-Lughod J. L. Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350. — New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Allsen T. T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Yule H., Cordier H. Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China. Vol. III. — London: Hakluyt Society, 1914. — P. 143–171 (F. B. Pegolotti).
Wikidata: Q1473258