The Secret History Of The Mongol Queens Summary

Women around the world have played either a small or no role at all in the success of their societies. Empires such as the Mongol empire succeeded through economic rise and land expansion. In “The Secret History of the Mongol Queens”, by Jack Weatherford, the Mongol Queens helped raise the empire into a great one, but due to an incident “war on women” it collapsed from staying cohesive. Genghis Khan’s daughters were in charge of maintaining healthy relationships with other tribes, and of expanding the empire. Yet, Ogodei, one of Genghis Khan’s sons decided to overthrow his father’s legacy and do things his way. The Mongol empire would have lasted longer and remained well integrated but because of Ogodei’s greed, violation of laws towards women,

The Silk Road is a network of trade connections between China, India, and the Mediterranean that exchange goods. Through the management of Genghis Khan’s daughters, the Silk Road attained a high level of global importance. The significance of achieving a global level is that it shares important information to other societies such as diplomatic correspondence, tax receipts and census summaries along with other things. It is important for information like this to travel around in order for the empire to grow and learn new things to improve. The Mongol’s always had the desire to attained more territory, “As they acquire new lands, they increasingly craved control of richer agricultural and urban areas nearby to increase their wealth and power through tribute,” (WA 395). Genghis Khan’s daughters

However, it did not have the same composition that it was built on. In this instance, Genghis Khan’s daughters- in-law took matters into their hands and decided to obtain power. They were not ordinary house wives, “…they had grown up at the center of political and diplomatic life and been exposed to the intrigues that simmer and periodically explode in every power center,” 94 These women were not naïve and had a knowledgeable background in regards to controlling an empire. They knew exactly what needed to be done and how it had to be implemented. They reign until there son’s were old enough to rule for themselves. Toregene, Ogodei’s widowed prove to be worthy to rule her dead husband’s empire. She managed to, “ in pursuit of her own policies, she dismissed all her late husbands’s ministers and replaced them with her own,” (95). Not only did she care for the empire, she also had her own agenda in mind and was ready to start. She later managed to appoint a woman named Fatima to the highest governmental positions in the empire instead of her sons. “Despite being the mother of five sons, she chose not to move them into high positions of critical importance in her new government,” (95). Toregene knew better than to place her own blood into high occupations because they were to young and did not have any experience. She managed to conquer more lands but at the expense of getting rid of the