What featured distinguished pastoral peoples from farming communities and civilization?

Pastoral Societies Were Common Across Afro-Eurasia

Nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoral societies that relied on herding animals as their primary economic resource lived across Afro-Eurasia.

Pastoral peoples and societies have been significant forces throughout history, and their historical achievements have shaped the modern world.

What is Pastoralism?

Pastoralism is when a society’s primary economic activity revolves around the herding of animals. Pastoral peoples thrived across Afro-Eurasia in dry areas and could not easily support agriculture.

• Pastoral peoples were diverse, and their communities spanned from the subarctic regions of Northern Russia to Southern Africa’s grasslands. 
• Pastoral communities lived in the lands between large, settled agricultural societies. Asa result, they connected distant civilizations and spread settled civilizations’ knowledge, goods, and technologies through their territories.

Map: Major Pastoral Regions and Peoples

• Communities based on ancestry

Comparing pastoral and agricultural societies

Pastoral Peoples Made Significant Impacts on History

Despite being nomadic or semi-nomadic, pastoral societies caused some of history’s most significant events and built large civilizations. Sometimes some members of influential pastoral groups settled and gave up their nomadic ways.

Many of history’s significant changes resulted from the actions of pastoral groups. These changes helped shape the modern world.

Contribution 1: pastoralists founded the Islamic religion

Contribution 2: pastoralists built large empires that changed the course of history

Contribution 3: pastoralists promoted global trade

Contribution 4: pastoralists spread goods, ideas, and technologies

Founded the Islamic religion

Founded major empires: Seljuk (Middle East), Mamluk (Egypt), the Delhi Sultanate South Asia), and the Mongol Empire (across Eurasia)

Turks founded the Ottoman Empire, which destroyed the Christian Byzantine Empire

Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty in China and Abbasid Caliphate in the Middle East

Significant Impacts of Pastoral Peoples 7th - 15th Centuries

The Mongols Were One of the Most Successful Pastoral Groups in History

The pastoral Mongols were a significant pastoral group. They constructed the largest land empire in history.

The Mongols were central Asian pastoral peoples from the north of China (modern Mongolia). Within just a few decades in the 13th century, the Mongol tribes of Northern Asia went from being a society of fragmented pastoral clan groups to creating the largest land empires in history. In constructing their Empire, Mongol leaders destroyed the Abbasid in the Middle East and the Song Dynasty in China. At its largest, the Mongol Empire stretched over 5000 miles from Eastern Europe to the Pacific coast in China.

Chinggis Khan founded the most successful Mongol alliance

Mongol clan or tribe had a leader known as a Khan (great leader). Tribes were often in conflict with one another over land and resources. When there was an outside threat or war preparation, separate Mongol tribes and clans would unite briefly. When the conflict was over, the groups would disband and return to their independent lifestyle. Bravery, courage, strength, and negotiation skills were desirable traits in Mongol leaders.

Chinggis Khan unified fragmented Mongol tribes: The founding of the Mongol Empire was the work of Chinggis Khan. His life did not start with much promise. His father was a Mongol leader who died when a rival Mongol leader poisoned him. Still a teenager and viewed as a weak leader, Chinggis’ tribe abandoned him. After a rival tribe captured him in 1182, Chinggis escaped to a remote mountain refugee, where he plotted his revenge. Over the following decades, Chinggis grew his reputation as a skillful warrior. In 1206, Mongol chiefs elected him as supreme ruler. Chinggis united the various Mongol tribes under his leadership and began his military conquests. When he died in 1227, the Mongol Empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean across Central Asia to near the borders of Europe.

Significant Impacts of Pastoral Peoples 7th - 15th Centuries

In what ways did pastoral societies differ from their agriculture counterparts?

What common feature did pastoral and agricultural society share?

What were some features shared by pastoral societies?

Which of the following was an important difference between pastoral people and those who adopted agriculture?