Nomadic Societies

They developed by adapting to the ecological conditions of their arid lands. Due to the lack of rain in central Asia they are not able to support large scale agriculture. The Nomadic people would bring their herds of animals to lands that actually had large amounts of grass, and stubs so that they could graze. They lived off of only meat, milk, and the hides of their animals. They used animal bones for tools and animal feces for fuel. Classify their interaction with the sedentary states. Their interaction with the sedentary states was mostly throughout trade and â€Å"they sometimes even adopted aspects of secondary cultures, and acted as intermediaries between settled worlds. † (Sanders, Nelson, Morillo, & Ellenberger, 2006, p. 181) Was it always hostile? No, they were not always hostile while interacting with others and they had a very strong military. Because they had such a strong worriers they were able to seize the wealth of settled societies they then were able to build imperial states in the regions surrounding central Asia. How were they viewed differently? * A first century BCE description of the Xiongnu, the archetypal nomadic peoples of the Chinese world. * A late fourth century Roman view of the Huns. * One of the barbarian groups that invaded the Roman Empire. description of the steppe nomads by the tenth-century Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus that reflects both Byzantine experience and the classical legacy of Greek and Roman views and terms * Ibn-Al-Athir gives us an early –thirteenth-century Muslim view of the Mongol attacks on the Islamic World, and Marco Polo, a European who lived for years at the Mongol court, gives us something of an â€Å"outside insiders† view of Mongol life. (Sanders, Nelson, Morillo, & Ellenberger, 2006, p. 181) They also normally did little governing seeing how clans and tribes pretty uch looked out for themselves. And they were known to have a very strong military. Analyze the Mongol empire. The nomadic Mongols lived on the high steppe lands of eastern central Asia they displayed deep loyalty to kin groups organized into families, clans, and tribes. They were allies with Turkish people who had built empires on the steppes. They were unable to establish strong stable society on a large scale due to their loyalties to kinship groups. What kind of a leader was Chinggis (Ghenghis) Khan? He mastered the art of steppe diplomacy which called for displays of personal courage in battle, combined with intense loyalty to allies, a willingness to betray others to improve one’s position, and the ability to entice other tribes into cooperative relationships. In 1206 a group of Mongol leaders recognized Temujin supremacy by proclaiming him Chinggis was known as a universal leader. † (Bentley, Ziegler, & Streets, 2008, p. 272) Why did the empire decline? The empire then declined due to serious difficulties governing Persia and China. In Persia they had cases of excessive spending which strained the treasury, and overexploitation of the peasantry led to reduced revenues. They tried to fix their mess by creating paper money in the 1290’s but the merchants refused to accept paper, they thought it was worthless. Then when the last Mongol ruler pasted away in 1335 there was no heir the ilkhanate collapsed. What overall effect did the Mongols have on the eastern world? Even though the Mongols came to an end it was not the end of the nomadic peoples influence on Eurasia. The Turkish people resumed the expansive campaigns that the Mongols had interrupted.