gettingfat
Emperor
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2003
- Messages
- 1,417
well, first of all, every European, American, and "white" political entity (no insult or rascism here) owes their prosperity to the Mongols. without the Mongols, the Europeans would've never known that an Asia really existed, and without Marco Polo and the other Europeans trying to find way to Asia, they would've never discovered America, sailed around the world, and try to go on a quest for world domination. the Mongols also severely weakened the islamic, chinese, and indian empires, the threat that would've existed against European expansion.
whatmore, in China, Kublai Khan was a very humane ruler. he actually conquered a city without shedding any blood; more importantly, he built orphanages, homeless shelters, and free welfare for the poor and needy.
they may not have been much of a unique civilization, but surely, their amazing accomplishments, and the fact that they were pretty much the closest anyone has gotten to total world domination, shows that they should deserve a place in the game.
I generally agree with you for the most part. Although as a Chinese (maybe I have been brainwashed by our ancient historians ), it's really hard to accept the claim Kublai Khan is a very humane ruler. You have to be a humane person when you are humane to almost everybody, not just some part of the people. The population of China has been cut down by half after Yuan dynasty. You know what half of Chinese population mean. I just think he's a bit more tamed & sophisticated in general.
One major reason people still believe they are just bunch of rar rar barbarians are how people get drilled about what means by a "civilized" group of people. They need to see some amazing, well-defined big buildings. Oh you have the Chichen Itza? You must be much more civilized than the barb Mongols. Who care about the Silk Road maintained by Mongols which definitely has more impact on the world history. Also, nomadic people whose culture were founded on animal-husbandry based economy were traditionally considered as inferior (e.g. vs the agriculture-based civ like Chinese). People assuming because they seldom have big well-built cities, they have little culture.
The culture powerhouse in ancient China also belittled a lot of their neighbours. I think we randomly pick a SE Asian country before 16th century it is quite likely more advanced and prosperous than..say Incan, Mayan, and the "American native". But people just keep using that " but they learn everything from China" excuse, which is not really true.