The chapter covers the main aspects of the relations between the Mongol Empire and European powers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It first discusses the main events and assumed motivations of the Mongol invasion of Europe, which set the stage for the later development of political, diplomatic, and commercial relations. It summarizes the European efforts to gain information on the Mongols by sending missionaries to the heart of the Mongol Empire. Mutual knowledge and formal contacts led to several attempts to establish diplomatic relations between European powers (such as the Pope and the kings of France and England) and the Mongol khans. Furthermore, the chapter examines the commercial relations between European traders and Mongol rulers that flourished in the late thirteenth century and the fourteenth from the Black Sea to China. Finally, material and cultural influences in art, manufacturing, geographical knowledge, and technology are illustrated.

This chapter explores the climatic and environmental conditions in the regions that were invaded by the Mongols during the first decades of their conquest. Its main goal is to trace possible connections between environmental conditions and economic, military, or political aspects of the Mongol conquest. Four separate regions are considered: Mongolia, northern China and Manchuria, arid Central Asia, and Russia and Eastern Europe. For each region, the chapter presents a survey, based on current scientific literature, of the prevailing paleoclimatic conditions pertaining chiefly to temperature and precipitation, thus attempting to assess possible connections between environmental and historical factors. The most relevant findings are to be registered in relation to environmental conditions that may have supported or hindered large-scale Mongol military operations. It should be noted that climatic reconstructions contain a high level of uncertainty and are based on different types of proxy data that are difficult to interpret.

In world history, steppe nomads have acquired a reputation for nearly unmatched wanton brutality, but rarely has such violence been examined in its political and social contexts. This essay examines violence among the pastoral nomads of Inner Asia –with a special focus on the nomadic empires originating in Mongolia and Manchuria – by looking at three separate aspects. The first of these concerns violence as a means of political action, especially in connection with royal succession or competition within an aristocratic milieu. It further explores, as a second aspect, intra-nomadic violence, as reflected in various types of intertribal conflict, possibly related to phenomena of political centralization as well as competition over economic resources. The third level of analysis refers to large-scale wars by nomads against non-nomads, most typically agricultural societies that were invaded and conquered by the nomads. This latter type of violence is the best documented because of the availability of plentiful sources from literate societies, but not necessarily the most representative. This chapter will also touch on elements that potentially contributed to increasing the level of violence, such as political and cultural resistance, improvements in armament, environmental conditions, and co-optation of non-nomadic soldiers.