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Introduction
Early in the thirteenth century, the Mongols became a formidable
power in Asia. Their new, bureaucratic way of organizing their army - by tens,
hundreds, thousands - broke up the older Klan groupings. While horses and
stirrups had been familiar for centuries, the Mongol's skilled horsemanship
made them powerful and profoundly changed the course of history. Thus, the
filmmakers of MILLENNIUM chose the stirrup as the symbol of for the thirteenth
century.
The symbol of the stirrup captures the essence of
the rise of the Mongols and their remarkable thirteenth-century advance across
Eurasia. It also evokes the importance of travel along the reopened transcontinental
Silk Road which transported both goods and knowledge. Few areas of Eurasia were
untouched by the Mongols, but their advances and conquests meant different things
to different peoples. For western Europe, the Mongols were the means of transmission
of important knowledge and goods that a century later would enable Europeans to set
sail across oceans. For China, Mongols established their rule but not cultural
subjugation. The Mamluks in Egypt gained fame as the first to successfully defeat
the Mongols, thereby protecting Mamluk Islamic culture. And for the Mongols
themselves, their horse-riding prowess meant the beginning of the end of nomadic
existence and control of the Eurasian steppe.
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© 1999 Turner Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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