Jamuka´s empire
Historians are not all in agreement on how organised and excactly how centralised Jamuka´s empire was. On paper it reached from the Caspian sea, across the Crimean south to Hungary, north to Novogorod and with France and Denmark along with the various citystates of Germany and Poland pledging allegiance.
One can see why Jamuka needed an effective postal service. (It is said that over 5000 turkic horseriders were devoted completely to carrying messages across the empire.)
Jamuka was the son of Anne of Novogorod, and was therefore half European. In fact he could claim ancestry to both king Knut the Rich and Harold Godwynsson founder of the Godwynsson dynasty. Jamuka was raised much like any other son of a Mongol khan, he is said to have been an excellent fighter and a good general, but his interests were elsewhere. Not only did he put an effort in to learning Polish and German the main languages of his empire, but he was very interested in learning to read. He was fifteen when he started taking classes and although he never became very literate he supported scholars fervently.
Jamuka governed through fear just as his father Kublai and he didn´t have government officials in all major cities. He merely had taxcollectors visiting and taking, and he didn´t try to change customs or laws. His Ordumen became the upperclass of the empire of course. In a court case a member of the Ordu counted as two witnesses, while normal europeans merely counted as one. They weren´t a noticable part of the empire except for in the land of Rus and in Poland, where Jamuka offered them land to govern and allowed them to collect taxes for themselves.
To think though that Jamuka was only emperor in name would be an understatement. Jamuka held large conventions in Vienna and Crackow where people could come from all over the empire and plead with him. Often people came with reports of harassements and sometimes Jamuka became the judge in land feuds. In ruins close to Crackow documents have been found that show that Jamuka sent soldiers to protect peasants from robbers and other tyrranisers and that he settled many disputes. In one case he f.x. redivided lands between two chieftains in Lithuania to stop infighting there.
Another testaments to the emperors power are the buildings he left. The palaces and forts he raised all over Poland prove that the taxmoney were used for more than courtpleasures and bribery to the soldiers. But they were not only used to build castles, Jamuka built roads across his empire, bridges and even canals. In many places there have been raised stones and on them written in Latin, Jamukas imperial orders. On one stone not far from the Rhine for exemple it says:
This bridge was built by the command of Jamuka, emperor of Europe.
Certainly Jamuka was respected, feared but also adored and loved. He was regarded by his subjects as a good and benevolent king, for on many occasions he was generous and people prospered from the peace and stability his reign brought.
Trade with asia blossomed and the invention of paper and powder reached Europe by the end of his days. Silkworms were brought to the court of Crackow as a gift from Jamuka´s cousin, emperor Batu in China. Many spices and artobjects made it across the central asian steppes to Europe, and even ideas. Jamuka brought chinese philosophers and artists to his court in Crackow, and due to Jamuka´s will the teaching of Confusius were translated into latin.
Some scholars argue that thanks to the crusades and the kingdom of heaven Europe was already on it´s way to rediscover the philosophical writings of the Romans and greeks. But most are in agreement that without the library in Crackow buying of works from the Byzantine empire, Arabia and Rome the renaissance that occured a century later might not have happened.
Who knows, without the Mongol invasion, would Europe ever have prospered and industrialised?
