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Asia

Hand drawn map with a grid showing land and coastline
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Guang yutu map

The map of the “South-Eastern ocean barbarians” from the 1558 edition of the atlas Guang yutu. This atlas is divided into two parts, the first one deals with the geography of China, the second one with the Chinese borderlands, thematic maps, and maps of non-Chinese regions.

Map showing railways across Eastern China, Korea, and Japan
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Southern Manchuria Railway (1906-1945)

The world’s earliest locomotive-operated railroads, short stretches transporting coal and ore locally from mines to factories and furnaces, were developed in Britain between 1800 and 1825.

Page 10 from Gambar-Gambar akan Peladjaran dan Kasoekaän Anak-anak dan Iboe-bapanja
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Coffee Production in the Dutch East Indies

This is a page from an educational print for children called Gambar-Gambar akan Peladjaran dan Kasoekaän Anak-anak dan Iboe-bapanja (Prints for the Benefit and Pleasure of Young and Old).

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Teaching

Long Teaching Module: Masculinity and Femininity in the Mongol Empire

This module examines ideals of masculinity and femininity among the Mongols, the Central Asian nomadic pastoralists who in the thirteenth century under their leader Chinggis Khan created the largest land-based empire the world has ever seen.

Painting shows king and queen at court
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Sorghaghtani Beki and Tolui

In this illustration from Rashid al-Din’s Compendium of Chronicles Sorghaghtani Beki and Tolui sit together on a pillowed throne.

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Sorghaghtani Beki in the eyes of court historians

Sorghaghtani Beki, the wife and then widow of Chinggis Khan’s youngest son Tolui, appears in many contemporary written sources about the Mongol Empire, and is always viewed positively.

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The Anda Bond

Along with practices of male bonding that are shared with other times and places, such as membership in all-male groups with distinctive uniforms or clothing or socializing in places where women are not allowed or do not go, the Mongols also had a specific type of male bonding, the anda

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Chinggis Khan and his wife Börte in The Secret History of the Mongols

Chinggis Khan had four sons by his principal wife Börte, though there is some question as to his eldest son Jochi’s true father.

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Chinggis Khan’s mother Hogelun in The Secret History of the Mongols

The Secret History of the Mongols, the story of the rise and rule of Chinggis Khan and his son and successor Ogodei produced by an anonymous court scribe in about 1240, is full of close mother-son relationships.

Painting shows mounted warriors armed with bow and arrows in combat
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Mounted Mongol Warriors

In this watercolor illustration from the Compendium of Chronicles, the enormous hemispheric history by the learned official Rashid al-Din finished around 1310, mounted Mongol warriors shoot bows and arrows while riding, a military tactic perfected by steppe warriors.