The Mongol invasion of China was perhaps one of the greatest political, social, and economic upheavals in Chinese history. Fierce and obscure people who lived in the outer reaches of the Gobi Desert, present day Outer Mongolia, accomplished it. The outcome of this invasion was the destruction of the Sung Dynasty, and the creation of the Yüan Dynasty, one of the shortest lived of the major Dynasties in Chinese history. The Mongols were an alien people who completely subjugated the Chinese people and in doing so, they opened China to Europe in ways the Chinese had never done nor wanted. Their rule was harsh and brutal and would eventually lead to their demise. Although the Mongols brought several changes during their reign very little seems to have rubbed off on the Chinese culture. The cultural interaction was not really a cultural exchange, for the situation was perhaps too unstable in the Mongol regime. To really understand the Mongol invasion and its effects on Chinese cultu!
             re you must go to the beginning of this great Empire. Temujin, latter called Genghis Khan, was the son of a local Chieftain who had a small clan. His father was poisoned when he was still young and, the clan, for lack of an effective leader, abandoned Temujin, his mother, and several brothers and half brothers. This had an effect on him which, although difficult, would lead Temujin at the age of forty, after having consolidating several clans, to be elected Grand Khan of the Mongols in 1206. Although he had a difficult start, when he died twenty years latter, his rule extended from the Caspian to the northern coast of China. Genghis Khan was perhaps one of the greatest military innovators in human history, and his armies were perhaps the best-trained horsemen in all of history. His men fought on horseback with incredible competency; they could hit their targets with superb precision while running at full gallop. Their speed and efficiency struck terror in...