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**The Yuan Dynasty **

Founder of Yuan Dynasty: Kublai Khan Started in AD 1279-1368

Created a civil service bureaucracy and staffed it with foreigners, such as Mongols, Turks, and Persians. Chose his officers from Noble foreign families.

The Mongols did not strongly support any Chinese support system.

Buddism flourished during his reign and the number of monastaries rose from 42,000 to 213,000. Shaminism became predominant religion.

He developed a strict hiearchy of social classes. On top were the non-taxed Mongols, second were the non-Chinese government officials and then came the Northern Chinese. The Southern Chinese were placed at the bottom.

Yuan was the first dynasty in China to use paper currency s the predominant currency.
 * Under Kublai Khan's rule:**
 * Chinese were not allowed out after sunset
 * Chinese were not allowed to carry weapons
 * They were not allowed to learn the language
 * Chinese were not allowed to intermarry with the Mongols
 * Land was taken away from Chinese
 * Could no longer grow crops and many died from disease and starvation
 * Beijing called Dadu was named the capital for the first time
 * Grand Canal was extended to connect the capital with the Pacific Ocean


 * __Transportation and Communication Under Yuan Dynasty:__**

Developed an advanced transportation and communication system, which included a postal system of relay horses that traveled between stations

They didn't maintain the roads and therefore they became unusable; and farmer lost money because they couldn't get goods to market.

An Italian named Marco Polo traveled to China with his father and spent 17 years under the service of Kublai Khan as an ambassador and civil-servant.

When he returned to Italy, he wrote a book called, __A Description of the World__.

The Yuan Dynasty declined due to problems with his ill health and who would succeed in his place to rule the kingdom. After his death, the dynaasty fell apart due to administrative inefficiency and corruption. The next emperors incurred a lot of debt using a variety of bad financial decisions.

The Yuan Dynasty fell in 1368 and the Mongul court fled from China.