Our Journey Through the Silk Road...

The Great Mongolia!  Once considered the largest empire in the history of mankind.  It all started by one man, one extraordinary man, who is called Genghis Khan.  He rose up from a place where kidnapping, stealing, and even murder were part of his society's norms.  Being able to unite several viscious conflicting tribes, forming a huge, politically stable, civilized, and economically empowered Empire.

Following Genghis Khan's rule by a couple of years, his grandson, Kublai Khan, took his place as the Great Khan.  Unlike his grandfather, he was more of an enlightened ruler than a cruel warrior.  He developed the Mongolian Empire economicaly, socially, and politically.  One of his greatest achievements in developing his empire's economy was controlling and securing the Silk Road.  The Silk Road highly promoted trade in Eurasia, under his rule, as it expanded from Korea in the East to Hungary in the West.

A timeline of the Silk Road's influence is provided, track and evaluate the achievments of Kublai Khan. Become a solitary merchant traveling through the Silk Road, exploring Kublai Khan's impact across the globe. 

After you have obtained a sufficient background of the Silk Road, create a map from either perspective: Genghis Khan or Kublai Khan (refer below). Utilize the attached map, and on this map draw a line representing the Silk Raod (passing through the necessary countries). Then emphasize the trade's effect on the world by illustrating the reach of Kublai Khan/Genghis Khan on the different parts of the world. 

Notes:

Sufficient backgroungd entitles you to know the countries the Silk Road passes through, the effects of trade, the causes of the dispersion of trade, and Kublai Khan/Genghis Khan's policies and grasp across the globe. 

This oppurtunity will gurantee you a full scope of the effects of Silk Road trade on the pre-Modern World. 

Be careful! You will be presented with obstacles during your journey, and you must overcome these barriers to proceed with your adventure. 

We hope you achieve International Mindedness like that of the great leaders: Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan. 

These maps will help guide you in creating your timeline:

Before you start your journey, you have to know more about the brilliant leaders that established or helped in establishing The Silk Road.  Without Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, neither Mongolia nor The Silk Road would have existed. They played a major role in establishing the road that helped many countries in many different ways.

These articles will help furthur build your knowledge of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan and their policies:

http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h11mon.htm

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-history/the-yuan-dynas…

http://www.diplomacy.edu/resources/books/reviews/genghis-khan-and-makin…

These articles will help you further know the effects and spread of trade under Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan's rule: 

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mongol_Empire

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/silk-road/history/

http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html#6

The Silk Road was first used beginning from 130 BCE by the Han Dynasty of China. The Silk Road opened the doors of the East to the West, and with it began the gloablization we currently live in. It was not only a road of commerce, but with it came an exchange of ideologies, beliefs, arts, and culture. 

These articles will help further build your knowledge of the Silk Road:

http://www.ancient.eu/Silk_Road/

http://www.ancient.eu/image/146/

http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html

Before we start talking about the effects of The Silk Road, we have to get to know The Silk Road's history.

These articles will help further build your knowledge of The Silk Road's History:

http://en.unesco.org/silkroad/about-silk-road

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/chrono.shtml

The Silk Road affected many countries, dynasties, and people. 

-The Effect of The Silk Road on the Crusades:

http://thecrusades1.weebly.com/the-silk-road.html

-The Effect of The Silk Road on the Ming Dynasty:

http://www1.chinaculture.org/08olympics/2008-07/09/content_136313.htm

Marco Polo was a famous merchant that traveled along the Silk Road to reach China in the thirteenth century. He is known for his memoir: The Travels of Marco Polo, in which he recounts his adventures living in China as Kublai Khan's subject. Much controversy surrounds Marco Polo on whether or not he truly experienced all the stories he told in his memoir.

These articles will help further build your knowledge of Marco Polo:

https://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/marco-polo

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Marco-Polo

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/marcopolo.shtml

Another very significant traveler is Ibn Batutta; he provided a large scope of the 14th century Islamic world and without his recordings there would have been many undiscovered civilizations. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, was a Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveler. He is known for his traveling and long excursions called the Rihla. His journey lasted for almost thirty years.

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/ibn_battuta.shtml

http://ibnbattuta.berkeley.edu/9china.html

The Silk Road helped open the eyes of Genghis Khan towards the west, and towards Persia. Persia was then ruled by the Abbasid dynasty, and this discovery of the wealthy empire full of culture and arts led to the fall of Baghdad-- the center of the Islamic world-- in 1258.

The effects and spread of trade in the Mongolian Empire under Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan’s rule: Writtten By: MOHAMED HATEM

Mongols prized their commercial and trade relationships with neighboring economies and they continued this policy during the process of their conquests and during the expansion of their empire. For all merchants and ambassadors having proper documentation and authorization, traveling through their realms were protected. This greatly increased overland trade.

During the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, European merchants, numbering in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, made their way from Europe to the distant land of China—Marco Polo is only one of the best known of these. Well-traveled and relatively well-maintained roads linked lands from the Mediterranean basin to China. The Mongol Empire had negligible influence on seaborne trade.

Genghis Khan whose plans were to conquer the Silk Road realized that with the impressive military power of Mongols it would be impossible to control all the routes for long. Therefore, having occupied the northern route Genghis Khan began to methodically destroy Arabian and Turkic cities standing on the southern route. Doing so Genghis Khan tried to stop the intense commodity exchange beyond his control. 

He provided security in the Silk Road, which lead to vast economic growth

In 1271, the great Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan established a powerful Mongol Empire – Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) at Dadu (the present Beijing). The territory of the giant empire was the largest one in Chinese history, which stretched as far as Mongolia and Siberia in the north, South China Sea in the south, Tibet and Yunnan in the Southwest, Stanovoi Range (Outer Khingan) and Okhotsk in northeast, Xinjiang and Central Asia in the northwest. Even West Asia and Russia were under the control of this empire.

The Mongol Empire destroyed a great number of toll-gates and corruption of the Silk Road; therefore passing through the historic trade route became more convenient, easier and safer than ever before. The Mongolian emperors welcomed the travelers of the West with open arms, and appointed some foreigners high positions, for example, Kublai Khan gave Marco Polo a hospitable welcome and appointed him a high post in his court. At that time, the Mongolian emperor issued a special VIP passport known as "Golden Tablet” which entitled holders to receive food, horses and guides throughout the Khan’s dominion. The holders were able to travel freely and carried out trade between East and the West directly in the realm of the Mongol Empire.

Website Login Creation: Ms. Teresa and Hanya Tamer

Best Intro Ever: Mohamed Hatem

Mediocre Intro Pictures: Hanya Tamer 

The Silk Road connected most of the worlds trade. The students of IB History 2015-16 will show how the Mongolians effected trade, polictics, economics, social, and religion during their reign.