Handout Genghis Khan

Handout: Genghis Khan Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Jack Weatherford. 2004, Three Rivers Press. Pages 233-234: Without deep cultural preferences in these areas, the Mongols implemented pragmatic rather than ideological solutions. They searched for what worked best; and when they found it, they spread it to other countries. They did not have to worry whether their astronomy agreed with precepts of the Bible, that their standards of writing followed the classical principles taught by the Mandarins of China, or that Muslim imams disapproved of their printing and painting. The Mongols had the power, at least temporarily, to impose new international systems of technology, agriculture and knowledge that superseded the predilections or prejudices of any single civilization; and in so doing, they broke the monopoly on thought exercised by local elites.”