The Mongol Empire

The nomadic Mongol tribes were a loosely organized confederation of peoples occupying the remote grasslands of Central Asia until in 1206 Genghis Khan was proclaimed the supreme ruler. He welded the tribes into a united and magnificently disciplined conquering force that fought with incredible courage and utter ruthlessness.

Under Genghis Khan, every Mongol male was a soldier, skilful with bow and arrow and a consummate horseman. Moving with lightning speed, Genghis Khan led the Mongol armies on a path of successful conquest, first conquering China in 1215 and then, turning westwards, subduing all of Asia and moving towards East Europe. Genghis Khan specialized in siege tactics, using storming ladders to scale the walls of fortified cities, sandbags to fill in the moats and gigantic shields for protection.

As well as being a brilliant leader and tactician, he was also a very skilled lawmaker and administrator. However, although his successors displayed the same military brilliance, they did not inherit his administrative genius.

Under Ogotai, Genghis Khan's son and successor, the European conquests rolled on and it was only the death of this khan that saved all of Europe from falling to the Mongols.

On the death of Ogatai, the leaders withdrew their armies and retired to argue the succession. Preoccupied with internal strife and jealousies, they did not return to complete the conquest of Europe.

Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, founded the Yuan dynasty in China, which lasted for the period 1279-1368. He was more tolerant than his predecessors and, under his rule, religious tolerance was upheld. Even while on some fronts the empire was expanding, however, a decline started after Kublai Khan's death in 1294, almost as soon as the empire had reached its peak. In the rapid growth of the empire, the superiority of the Mongol warrior was aided by the internal divisions and mutual suspicions among the leaders of the conquered nations, who never collaborated in combating the Mongol armies.

Decline set in because the empire had become too big and unwieldy, without any kind of cultural unity. Lacking the administrative skill of Genghis Khan and with experience only in warfare, the khans following Kublai brought in officials from other races to govern. Initially a means of preventing rebellion, this tactic allowed corruption and incompetence to develop to such an extent that revolts increased and disintegration was rapid.

The Mongol tradition of conquest continued with Timur, or Tamerlane, a Mongol leader not descended from Genghis but who proclaimed himself his heir. He fostered a resurgence of power in the late fourteenth century, bringing much of Asia again under Mongol domination. China then conquered the Mongol homelands.

A Mongol state was established in India by a descendant of Timur, Babur, who founded the Mohammedan Mogul Empire in India in 1526. The Manchus conquered China and Mongolia in the seventeenth century and, under their rule, Buddhism became entrenched.

Buddhism is credited with transforming the warriors into peaceful herders and priests. The herders continued the unchanging nomadic lifestyle until well into the twentieth century, irrespective of changes in political control.

Although the Mongols were cruel conquerors, a number of long-term benefits accrued from their rule, the most striking being the increase in communications among the many conquered races. Roads connected Russia and Persia to East Asia and thus Europeans traveled to China. Marco Polo was an early adventurer along this route and the Chinese visited Europe and Russia. Europe probably gained most from the resulting cultural exchanges, with the advent of numerous Chinese inventions, such as paper, printing and gunpowder.

The migrations of peoples fleeing before the Mongol hordes brought political and cultural change to a number of isolated and primitive regions. Much of the racial and cultural diversity of Europe stems from such mass migrations.

The contemporary Mongolians, although retaining their cultural identity virtually intact, are politically subject to Russia and China.