Historical Context: Mongols and Christopher Columbus

I recently finished reading “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford, a fantastic book on the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. As with all empires, the Mongol dynasty had its high point and its eventual collapse – and just like Rome (and other empires) the Mongol dynasty had been so large and solid, that its disappearance was unthinkable.

From Weatherford’s book:

“With so many empires striving to maintain the illusion of the Mongol Empire in everything from politics to art, public opinion seemed obstinately unwilling to believe that it no longer existed. Nowhere was the belief in the empire longer lasting or more important than in Europe, where, in 1492, more than a century after the last khan ruled over China, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand that he could reestablish sea contact and revive the lost commerce with the Mongol court of the Great Khan. With the breakup of the Mongol communication system, the Europeans had not heard about the fall of the empire and the overthrow of the Great Khan. Columbus, therefore, insisted that although the Muslims barred the land route from Europe to the Mongol court, he could sail west from Europe across the World Ocean and arrive in the land described by Marco Polo.”

I found this amazing since I’ve read several interesting books that involve the journey of Christopher Columbus (Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card and 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann are two of them) – in addition of course to the general history of America that I learned in school – and never once did the topic of the Mongols ever come up. I think it’s one of the reasons that I’ve been so intriuged by them – that they played such a large role in world history, and yet hardly raised a blip on the radar in all the general history I’ve read.

Tagged as: History, Mongolia