WI: Nestorian Mongols

Around the time of the mongol invasion of the middle east, european christians all thought that it was the legendary eastern christian Prester John. This was not the case as mongols were not christians and certainly had to alliance, formal or not, with Christianity.

What if Nestorian efforts pay off and the mongol steppe people are converted? What would this mean for China and the Crusades?
 
Many Mongols were already Nestorian already AND many of them also still followed tengriism at the same time, sort of as an ideological thing.

I'm just not sure it would make much of a difference, they weren't all that into proselytization. The initial conquests of Persia by the Ilkhanate were done by (sort of) Buddhists at first...
 
Basically what Constantinople said. Religion never were the central matter for Mongols it was for Latin and Greek Christians or for Muslims.
I'd see little change regarding Crusader states and Christian Caucasus, except maybe a less blunt "Bow or die" attitude from Mongols (which was admittedly less blunt already at this point, but the alliance was still far more tied up to Mongol strategical interests)
 

trajen777

Banned
The mongols were very Asian as far as religion went -- kind of a blending of all sorts -- remember reading a book one time on how the first missionaries to China could not fathom how people would not (for most part) identify themselves with one religion -- anyway Christianity was well represented -- the biggest change could have been if the occupiers of Persia had not become "nativized by the Muslim population "but instead had driven Christianity from the top down -- or had surtaxes to be Muslim or other religions . This would have made a change --
 
Around the time of the mongol invasion of the middle east, european christians all thought that it was the legendary eastern christian Prester John. This was not the case as mongols were not christians and certainly had to alliance, formal or not, with Christianity.

What if Nestorian efforts pay off and the mongol steppe people are converted? What would this mean for China and the Crusades?

For the Crusades?
I don't know, but it might make it even worse for them as the Catholics are schismatics for the Nestorians from all I know. And the Nestorian Mongols might demand something unacceptable from the Crusaders like changing Catholic rites or something.

Well, Mongols being Christians...
There might be some implications. You see, tengrizm has nothing against drinking alcohol which was the favorite occupation of Chengizz Khan and his offsprings. Actually alcoholism is the main cause of death of the Chengizids from all I know.
The Mongol nobles even chose an official whose chief responsibility was to remind Great Universal Khaan Ogedei not to drink too much (kind of shitty job as Ogedei drank himself to death).
But say that Nestorianism as any Christianity demands some restrictions in drinking alcohol (at least at certain dates) - well, that meaning Chengizz-Khan and Ogedei living a few years years longer - a little longer Western Campaign = a few more European countries screwed, properly screwed, like in Hungary, wasteland and ashes.

But that's what I meant as sort of joke.

On a more serious note -
everything depends on the extent of Mongol Christianization. If it is skin-deep - it doesn't change anything, almost anything.
But I wonder why it is considered impossible for the steppe nomads to be deeply religious Christians. As a matter of fact it is possible if they had baptized a century or so before their world conquest started.
And then the butterflies would have been pretty enormous...
 
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