The Mongol Conquests

Summarize the impact of the Pax Mongolica.

Building a Perspective As the Chinese made their made way through prosperity in the middle of the Song Dynasty, a grievous group of people far to the north were also aquiring their own backbone. With their prided strength and great strategy they make thier way from the central Asian steppes to achieve their goals of wealth and glory. Their bloody triumph resulted in the construction of the largest empire in world history


Geography of the Steppe

The Eurasian steppe is divided into two; western steppe and eastern steppe. The western steppe runs from Central Asia to eastern Europe, while the eastern steppe covers the area of present-day Mongolia. The western steppe was home of the ancient invaders and the eastern Europe was home of the Huns, the Turks, and the Mongols. It has little rainfall, but the dry, and humid weather supports the grasses. Their temperature can easily and dramatically change.

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Steppe Nomads and settled Societies

The differing ways of life of nomadic and settled people resulted in constant interaction between them. Sometimes they were engaged in peaceful trade. Nomads exchanged horses, for example for basic items, such as, grain, metal, cloth, and tea. The nomads were accustomed to the scarcity and hardships in life. the prided themselves on their toughness. However they were sometimes tempted by the rich land an relative wealth of townspeople and took what they wanted by force.

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The Rise of The Mongols

The Mongol people had roamed the eastern steppe in slightly organized clans for centuries. To unite the Mongols into a force with their eyes set on conquest it took one exceptional political and military genius.

Genghis Khan Unites the Mongols

During the 1200, Temujin, a mongol clan leader, strived to unify and subordinate the Mongols under his authority. He fought and successfully defeated every rival that had dimwittedly challenged. Seeing as he was so successful he deserved an exceptional name to match his power and adopted the name of Genghis Khan, meaning the “Universal Ruler” of the Mongol clans.
In the passing of 21 years, Genghis conquered chunks of Asia leading his fellow Mongols to victory time and time again. His goals were to firstly conquer China, however after invading the northern Jin Empire in 1211 he set his eyes on a new target: the Islamic region west of Mongolia. Feeling contempt by the murder of Mongol traders he began a campaign of terror across Central Asia. He destroyed city after city- Utrar, Samarkand, Bukhara- and annihilated many inhabitants. It was only a matter of time when in 1225 Central Asia was under the control of the Mongols.

Genghis the Conqueror
Genghis Khan's ravishing success as a conqueror can be classified in three characteristics: brilliant organization, gifted strategies, and cruelty.
Genghis was a spectacular organizer. He set up his warriors in armies of 10,000. Genghis Khan organized the Mongol soldiers into groups based on the decimal system. Units were recursively built from groups of 10 squads, 100 man companies, and 1,000 man brigades, each with a leader reporting to the next higher level.

The Mongol Empire

after Genghis khan's death in 1227, his successor continued to expand his empire. with this in less than 50 years the Mongols had conquered territory form China to Poland. by doing this they became the largest empire in history.

The Khanates

After his death, Genghis' sons and grandsons continued on with his legacy and his campaigning conquests. Their armies traveled to the south, east, and west out of inner Asia. Their armies were able to conquer northern China and invade Korea as well as get into Russian city of Kiev and reach the banks of the Adriatic Sea. By the 1250s, the Mongols drifted their attention towards Persia, leaving the westward conquests behind. They divided their empire into khanates, or four regions, by 1260, which were known as the Khanate of the Great Khan(Mongolia, and China), the Khanate of Chagatai (Central Asia), the Ilkhanate (Persia), and the Khanate of the Golden Horde (Russia), each ruled by one of Genghis' descendants.

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Pax Mongolica

The Pax Mongolica also known as "Mongol Peace" was a term to describe the mongol peace, eased of trading, and communication with the other empires in order to develop their own empire and maintain a stable popularity with the other empires. This peace term was made after the Mongol's vast conquests.
The conquests of Genghis Khan and other emperors that followed him connected the Eastern and the Western world creating a better relationship between others. Also the Silk Road which connected Asia and Europe was under the rule of the Mongol Empire. The end of the Pax Mongolica was marked by some political struggles and conflicts.

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Characteristics of the Strategies that mark Genghis Khan Success

Genghis Khan had several characteristics of his stunning success as a conqueror, in which he was an exceptional strategist. He used an assortment of tricks to confuse his enemy. One of the ways he would trick them is by making the Mongol pretend they were going to attack, but then they would make believe to gallop away in voyage. In which the enemy would usually run after them, then the rest of the Mongol army would appear unexpectedly and slaughter the astonished enemy forces. Another way would be Genghis would use his weapons to terrify them to surrender.

Genghis Khan the Conqueror

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His true name was Temujin; he was called Genghis Khan by the Mongols, which meant universal ruler. His actions might have been provoked by the fact that he saw his father being killed by the Tatars. That might be the reason why he just wanted to kill surrounding peoples, as a way of revenge.

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Genghis Khan’s success as conqueror was due to the following factors:

• His organizing skills, the way he assembled his army putting 1,000 man brigades, 100 man companies, and 10 man squads. He also put in charge his most loyal and capable man.

• He being a great strategist, using tricks to win battles with other peoples.

• He was REALLY cruel, he used to terrify peoples by killing others, for example.

Mongol Peace

Sometime during Genghis Khan's reign he established peace in his "empire". This period of peace which lasted from the 1200s until the 1300s is what we now call the Pax Mongolica. It is called this way since trade was possible and really active during this period. What I really didnt like of this period, now that we learned about the bubonic plague and all, is how they believe this was spread by the Mongols. They should have, in some strange way, been more careful. They could send just new ideas and inventions, not a plague that would kill lots of people, from my point of view.

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