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There wasn't the same division of civil and military government in the mongol system, or even civilian institutions as we'd understand them today. The mongol em

There wasn't the same division of civil and military government in the mongol system, or even civilian institutions as we'd understand them today. The mongol empire ran in large part on "loyalty networks", where subordinates would be personally loyal to their patron specifically, not any office they held [1]. Powerful people wouldn't assume loyalty, they'd be constantly engaged in building and maintaining the loyalty of their subordinates in order to maintain their own power. If this sounds like it'd lead to dynamic systems of government full of infighting, indeed it did. That was part of the enduring success of Central Asian polities and broadly similar to e.g. Europe. [1] Small caveat on this in that royal families held something akin to the mandate of heaven by virtue of their heredity. This mandate did not necessarily follow lineal descent and regularly transferred to siblings, family, or even close vassals that outshone than the original line.

fuzztester 2y ago
>[1] Small caveat on this in that royal families held something akin to the mandate of heaven by virtue of their heredity. They pretended that they did have such a divine right: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings Events like the French Revolution proved them wrong: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
- ffgjgf1 2y ago
  > Events like the French Revolution proved them wrong: To be fair nobody took it that seriously before either. Cities, regions, nobles etc. were constantly trying to challenge the king and his/her authority and protect/expand their rights and privileges. It’s just that before the French Revolution they usually just wanted to extract additional privileges from the monarch or limit his powers (or in the worst case replace). The same thing happened in the French Regime before it got slightly out of hand.. e.g. even Louis XIV constantly had to fight the courts to force through his new laws (and was almost deposed in quasi-revolution(similar to the English civil war just without the religious element) at the beginning of his reign)
  - fuzztester 2y ago
    >To be fair nobody took it that seriously before either. Cities, regions, nobles etc. were constantly trying to challenge the king and his/her authority and protect/expand their rights and privileges. Okay. Also, similarly, the Magna Carta in England. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

fuzztester 2y ago

>[1] Small caveat on this in that royal families held something akin to the mandate of heaven by virtue of their heredity. They pretended that they did have such a divine right: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings Events like the French Revolution proved them wrong: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution

ffgjgf1 2y ago
> Events like the French Revolution proved them wrong: To be fair nobody took it that seriously before either. Cities, regions, nobles etc. were constantly trying to challenge the king and his/her authority and protect/expand their rights and privileges. It’s just that before the French Revolution they usually just wanted to extract additional privileges from the monarch or limit his powers (or in the worst case replace). The same thing happened in the French Regime before it got slightly out of hand.. e.g. even Louis XIV constantly had to fight the courts to force through his new laws (and was almost deposed in quasi-revolution(similar to the English civil war just without the religious element) at the beginning of his reign)
- fuzztester 2y ago
  >To be fair nobody took it that seriously before either. Cities, regions, nobles etc. were constantly trying to challenge the king and his/her authority and protect/expand their rights and privileges. Okay. Also, similarly, the Magna Carta in England. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta