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Making “Peace” with the East

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Embassies to China

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Abstract

This chapter covers several embassies, beginning in 1248, sent from the pope and the king of France to the Mongols, who had overrun large parts of Eastern and Central Asia and were also posing a very real threat to Christian Europe. Soon they would become emperors of China as well. The Europeans asked the Mongols to stop their invasions and to convert to Christianity, but both requests were unequivocally refused. At issue was the West’s notion of “peace,” which meant something very different when it was translated into the languages used by the Mongols during this period. The West expected a mutual peace treaty and the laying down of arms, but in the Mongol world “peace” meant capitulation, in other words, that the West would agree to become subservient to Mongol authority.

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  1. National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Michael Keevak

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  1. Michael Keevak
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Keevak, M. (2017). Making “Peace” with the East. In: Embassies to China . Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3972-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3972-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3971-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3972-0

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