Modern Mongolia

4 credits · Undergraduate

This course examines the modern history of Mongolia. Beginning from the Mongols' heritage as imperial nomads who uphold a dual custom, the Buddhist religion and the Manchu Qing dynastic state, it discusses how this order came to be threatened by, and ultimately dissolve under, the political pressures imposed by modern thought and the certain governments that espoused it. With this, it focuses on how, navigating through the chaos that ensued with the falls of the Russian Empire and Qing Dynasty, the Mongols were able to come to found a sovereign government of their own. Readings for the course are of primary sources in translation.