Week 7 threaded discussion

How did Mongol impressions of the Russian princes and their populations affect the
way in which the Mongols asserted their rule over those peoples and small states?

From the third chapter of the book, Russia and the Golden Horde, we can see that
the reason why the Mongols did not occupy and directly ruled over the Russian
principalities was neither the Russians’ powerful resistance nor the incapability of the
Mongols to administer an agricultural society in the forest areas. The main reason
was that the Mongols considered the campaign of directly occupying Russia as
unprofitable (Halperin, 1985, P30).

Firstly, from the Mongols’ perspectives, the Russian principalities were located in the
forest areas where the climate was humid and cold, which was uninhabitable for the
Mongols and hard for them to utilize their cavalries. If they directly control the
Russian principalities, the cost of operating administrative institutions was more than
what they could gain from these areas.

Moreover, one of the primary purposes for the Mongols to occupy one place was to
effectively control the trade routes so that they could make money. However, the
Russian areas were not located along any profitable trade route. Despite the heavy
taxes levied from Russia, this revenue was relatively minor compared to what the
Mongols gained from the caravan routes along the Dnieper and Volga rivers and
from Khwarizm, Persia and China. Thus, Russia was “peripheral to the Golden
Horde’s interests.” (Halperin, P30). Instead of setting up direct administration, the
Mongols let the local princes continue to rule their subjects and paid tributes to the
Golden Horde.