The Impact of Nomadic Peoples

Nomadic peoples played a key role in the process of state building between c. 1200 and 1450. The Mongols, a pastoral people from the steppes of Central Asia, ruled over significant areas of Asia and Eastern Europe during the 13th century. (For more on the Mongols, see Topic 2.2.) The political stability resulting from Mongol dominance allowed trade across Eurasia to greatly expand. Cross-cultural interactions and transfers intensified and some of the first direct contacts between Europe and China since the classical period occurred, also facilitated by Mongol rule.

Similar to the Mongols, Turkish peoples, also from the Central Asian steppes, increased their dominance over large land-based empires in the eastern Mediterranean, Persia, and South Asia that lasted well past 1450. However, unlike the Mongols, who built their empire initially as a coordinated campaign by unified Mongol clans, different Turkish groups built separate empires. The Seljuk and Ottoman Turks became dominant forces in the Mediterranean region while another Turkish group established an empire located in Persia and the surrounding territories.

The creation of these empires would be among the last major impacts of the interaction between settled and nomadic peoples. The role of nomads in commerce and cross-cultural exchange diminished as they were replaced by organized groups of merchants and trading companies.