Compare and Contrast the Political and Economic Effects of Mongol Rule on China and Russia.

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Prompt: Compare and contrast the political and economic effects of Mongol rule on China and Russia.
Mongol rule affected China and Russia similarly because it caused power struggles but was different in the way that China dealt with inflation and the Mongols were brought down by peasant rebellion while Russia declared itself independent and prospered economically through its annexed cities.
Mongols created discontent within their rule from the start when they purposefully kept a rift between the Mongols and Chinese through the banning of intermarriage and the Chinese speaking their language. Leaving the Chinese festering led to peasant rebellion and eventually the collapse of the Mongol rule through the rebels’ capture of Khanbaliq in 1368. Alternately, Russia shook off Mongol rule by declaring it rather than violence. In 1480, Grand Prince Ivan II, otherwise known as Ivan the Great, refused to pay the Mongol khan tribute; thereby proclaiming Russia’s independence. It took quite a few years of power struggles in both China and Russia to achieve this.
Throughout the entire Mongol rule, China was overcome with political distress. The Mongols kept a distant, yet firm, hand on the Chinese population which they all resented, especially the peasantry. Rebellions, power struggles, and imperial assassinations were the nation’s response between the 1320’s to the 1340’s when rebels finally sent the Mongols running – quite literally. In the early 15th century, the Mongols began losing their control on Russia as their power diminished in other countries. That began the intense power vacuum that wracked the land for many years.
China began experiencing inflation because of the Mongol’s carelessness with the paper notes established during the Tang and Song dynasties. They failed to keep sufficient bullions to back up the paper notes, spiking up prices exponentially due to diminished value. However, Russia prospered after Mongol rule through Grand Prince Ivan II’s annexation of Moscow and Novgorod. Novgorod being a large trading city, Russia flourished from its profits. Russia initially benefitted from independency quite a bit more than China had.
Much like Russia, China had been wracked with power struggles after Mongol rule but, while Russia prospered economically and had gained enough power to declare itself independent, China had to suffer through serious inflation and undergo peasant rebellions before it received its independence.