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Actually, the Mongols practiced freedom of religion long before the West did. It was enshrined in the Yasa [Jasagh], Chinnghis Quan's Law Code, and enforced by the Mongol Army [although he wasn't real fond of Muslims].

The argument can be made that Chinnghis Quan and the Mongols are responsible for the European Age of Discovery.With the Pax Mongolica that lasted through the reign of four Qa Quans [Chinnghis, Ugeddai, Guyuk and Mongke], Europe had access to the Silk Road and all the goods of the East they desired, plus access to Eastern technology. And the entire Silk Road was secure and safe.

With the internal wars that developed after Mongke Qa Quan's death on campaign in China, on the one hand between his brother Hulegu's Il Khanate of Persia and the Golden Horde under Berke Quan; and the other between his other two brothers, Qublai and Arik Boka over the succession, that ready access was cut off, but not the desire for the goods Europeans had grown to require, and desire. The Age of Exploration was the result of that rupture.

By the bye, while Chinnghis, Uggedai, Guyuk and Mongke were pagans, Hulegu and Qublai were Buddhists, Berke was a Muslim, Hulegu's wife and one of Qublai's were Nestorian Christians. And Chinnghis' Empire , in areas, survived his death by three hundred years.