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MongoliaThe Golden Horde
The Golden Horde of Batu had more time and more room for
expansion of its territories than any other Mongol khanate. The
Mongols maintained sovereignty over eastern Russia from 1240 to
1480, and they controlled the upper Volga area, the territories
of the former Volga Bulghar state, Siberia, the northern
Caucasus, Bulgaria (for a time), the Crimea, and Khwarizm. By
applying the principle of indirect rule, the Golden Horde Mongols
were able to preserve the Mongol ruling class and the local
dynasties for more than 200 years. The influence that the Golden
Horde Mongols came to have over medieval Russia and other areas
was immense and lasting. They played a role in unifying the
future Russian state, provided new political institutions,
influenced imperial visions, and, through indirect rule,
facilitated the appearance of a Muscovite autocracy.
The Golden Horde capital at Sarai became a prosperous center
of commerce. Here, as in China, Mongol rule meant free trade, the
exchange of goods between the East and the West, and also broad
religious toleration.
In the mid-thirteenth century, the Golden Horde was
administratively and militarily an integral part of the Mongol
empire with its capital at Karakorum. By the early fourteenth
century, however, this allegiance had become largely symbolic and
ceremonial. Although certain Mongol administrative forms--such as
census and postal systems--were maintained, other customs were
not. The Golden Horde embraced Islam as its state religion and,
with it, adopted new and more complex administrative forms to
replace those of the old regime that had been devised for
conquest. Even though most Mongols remained steppe nomads, new
cities were founded, and a permanent urbanized bureaucracy and
social structure took shape at Sarai. The Golden Horde allied
itself with the Mamluks and negotiated with the Byzantines to
combat the Ilkhans in a struggle to control Azerbaijan. Rather
than isolating Russia, the Mongol presence and extensive
diplomatic system brought envoys to Sarai from central and
southern Europe, the Pope, Southwest Asia, Egypt, Iran, Inner
Asia, China, and Mongolia.
The Mongols' vast contacts opened Russia to new influences,
both Eastern and Western. The reason the Mongols did not occupy
Russia itself, but left its administration to local princes, was
not inability to administer a society that was both urban and
agrarian, or Russian resistance. Rather, some historians believe
that Russia had little to offer the Mongols in terms of produce
or trade routes, and even tax revenues were insignificant
compared with the wealth of the southern realms under their
control. The inability of cavalry to operate in forests and
swamps--a factor that limited the northward advance of the
Mongols and largely determined the northern frontier of their
empire--was undoubtedly a distinct disincentive as well.
In time the Golden Horde Mongols and the Mongol Tatars,
although still nomads, lost their original identities and--as
happened to Mongols in China and Iran--became largely synonymous
with the local Turkic peoples, the Kipchak. Arabic and Tatar
replaced Mongol as the official language of the Golden Horde, and
increasing political fragmentation occurred. The power of the
Golden Horde khans slowly declined, particularly as a powerful
new state rose in central Russia.
Data as of June 1989
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