Childlike Wonderment.
The Pax Mongolica or "Mongol Peace" is a phrase coined by Western scholars to describe the alleged stabilising effects of the conquest of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory they conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries.
A saying existed that a naked maiden could ride the length of the Empire without fear of molestation, so thoroughly had the Mongols intimidated the peoples under their control.
The conquests of Genghis Khan effectively connected the Eastern world with the Western world for the first time, ruling a territory from Southeast Asia to Central Europe. The Silk Road, connecting trade centers across Asia and Europe, came under the sole rule of the Mongol Empire. The term Pax Mongolica is used to describe the eased communication and commerce the unified administration helped to create.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Mongolica
Embarassing, quite simply. We of the west have been so scarred by the roman empire that our minds will likely never recover. It makes sense to Call Pax Romana that because it's latin, and they spoke latin. Meanwhile, the mongolians spoke mongolic languages. For us, rome is the center of the world, and something new... the center of history. Everything before and after is compared and analyzed in relation to the romans. And it is not a true analysis. It is glorification and myth, something that began after the fall of rome and continues on into this present day. We can't get our heads past it. Statemen of all breeds walk through roman halls and past roman columns. Our scientists and doctors use latin words, as if to give them credit for all that we have become. That may be fine for us, for our culture, but to claim it as a universal? Pax Mongolica? That's certainly not proper mongol, and I bet it's not even proper latin.
A saying existed that a naked maiden could ride the length of the Empire without fear of molestation, so thoroughly had the Mongols intimidated the peoples under their control.
The conquests of Genghis Khan effectively connected the Eastern world with the Western world for the first time, ruling a territory from Southeast Asia to Central Europe. The Silk Road, connecting trade centers across Asia and Europe, came under the sole rule of the Mongol Empire. The term Pax Mongolica is used to describe the eased communication and commerce the unified administration helped to create.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Mongolica
Embarassing, quite simply. We of the west have been so scarred by the roman empire that our minds will likely never recover. It makes sense to Call Pax Romana that because it's latin, and they spoke latin. Meanwhile, the mongolians spoke mongolic languages. For us, rome is the center of the world, and something new... the center of history. Everything before and after is compared and analyzed in relation to the romans. And it is not a true analysis. It is glorification and myth, something that began after the fall of rome and continues on into this present day. We can't get our heads past it. Statemen of all breeds walk through roman halls and past roman columns. Our scientists and doctors use latin words, as if to give them credit for all that we have become. That may be fine for us, for our culture, but to claim it as a universal? Pax Mongolica? That's certainly not proper mongol, and I bet it's not even proper latin.
posted by Tristan Tzara at 7:20 AM
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