In order to suppress the traditional causes of tribal warfare, he abolished inherited aristocratic titles. He also forbade the selling and kidnapping of women, banned the enslavement of any Mongol and made livestock theft punishable by death. Moreover, Genghis Khan ordered the adoption of a writing system, conducted a regular census, granted diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors and allowed freedom of religion well before that idea caught on elsewhere.
After a series of raids, the Mongols launched a major initiative in that brought them to the doorstep of Yinchuan, the Xi Xia capital. Unlike other armies, the Mongols traveled with no supply train other than a large reserve of horses. The army consisted almost entirely of cavalrymen, who were expert riders and deadly with a bow and arrows. At Yinchuan, the Mongols deployed a false withdrawal—one of their signature tactics—and then initiated a siege.
Though their attempt to flood the city failed, the Xi Xia ruler submitted and presented tribute. From to , the outnumbered Mongols ravaged the countryside and sent refugees pouring into the cities. Food shortages became a problem, and the Jin army ended up killing tens of thousands of its own peasants. In the Mongols besieged the capital of Zhongdu now Beijing , and the Jin ruler agreed to hand over large amounts of silk, silver, gold and horses. When the Jin ruler subsequently moved his court south to the city of Kaifeng, Genghis Khan took this as a breach of their agreement and, with the help of Jin deserters, sacked Zhongdu to the ground.
The sultan there had agreed to a trade treaty, but when the first caravan arrived its goods were stolen and its merchants were killed. Despite once again being outnumbered, the Mongol horde swept through one Khwarezm city after another, including Bukhara, Samarkand and Urgench.
Skilled workers such as carpenters and jewelers were usually saved, while aristocrats and resisting soldiers were killed. Unskilled workers, meanwhile, were often used as human shields during the next assault. In early a horse threw Genghis Khan to the ground, causing internal injuries. He pressed on with the campaign, but his health never recovered. He died on August 18, , just before the Xi Xia were crushed. Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much land as any other person in history, bringing Eastern and Western civilizations into contact in the process.
His descendants, including Ogodei and Khubilai, were also prolific conquerors, taking control of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the rest of China, among other places. The Mongols even invaded Japan and Java before their empire broke apart in the 14th century. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
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Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. And he did so from fraught beginnings. When he was born in c, the son of a tribal warrior chief, he was named Temujin. The Secret History of the Mongols , the oldest-surviving literary work in the Mongolian language, set down shortly after his death, tells us that he was born clutching a blood clot, a sign that he would be a brave warrior.
If Temujin was destined for greatness, there were few signs during his early years. At the age of eight or nine, his father was poisoned by a rival tribe, the Tatars, and he and his mother were rejected by their clan and forced out onto the grasslands of Mongolia, where they survived by foraging for berries, rats and birds. It was a humiliating, pitiful existence. Being friendless in the cut-throat world of 13th-century Mongolia was not a good place to be.
The young Temujin came to the realisation that his best chance of reversing his fortunes — and creating a powerbase for himself — lay in establishing alliances. Yet on the violent, febrile Mongolian steppe, even getting married could spell trouble.
So he sought to secure another alliance, this time with a formidable leader named Toghrul. Temujin won over Toghrul by reminding him that he had fought alongside his father, and sugar-coated the offer with a lavish sable coat. The gambit worked. Someone, however, stood in his way, and it was one of his greatest friends. Temujin had been blood brothers with a fellow warrior named Jamukha, also the son of a Mongolian tribal leader, for a number of years.
In fact, Jamukha had played an instrumental role in the defeat of the Merkit. Yet, as the two had grown older, cracks began to appear in their friendship. Soon, his distrust morphed into outright war. When Jamukha struck, it was with bloodthirsty ferocity. He was good to his word, and when his revenge came, it was total. Then a few months later, Jamukha was captured. Rather than dish out a fate similar to what befell his generals, though, Temujin showed him mercy… up to a point.
Jamukha asked for a noble death, which meant without the shedding of blood. His former friend granted him that, so had his back broken. Among the first people to feel the force of the newly united Mongol nation was the Western Xia of northwest China, who succumbed to a sustained Mongol invasion.
In , Genghis followed that by attacking the Jin, gobbling up land, cities and loot in a spectacular campaign that culminated in the fall of Beijing. The Mongolians were highly adept at communicating over large distances, something they had honed over centuries of rounding up animals on the steppe. This enabled them to slowly tighten the noose around the enemy. Guile was another key weapon in the Mongol armoury. Genghis Khan relied heavily on spies and was certainly not above using fake news as a tactic.
Genghis Khan was also a master of the feigned retreat, luring opponents out of defensive positions before delivering a lethal strike. Combine all this with his ability to quickly assimilate new technologies into his own army — such as Chinese siege weapons, mortars, gunpowder, not to mention thousands of captured troops — and you had a truly formidable foe.
And then, of course, there was terror. Cities that put up a fight were routinely subjected to an orgy of destruction: their men butchered, women raped and buildings razed.
Yet in terms of sheer barbarity, the worst was yet to come. Having subdued the Western Xia and Jin to the east, Genghis Khan looked to establish trade links to his west. He sent emissaries into the Khwarezmid Empire modern-day Afghanistan and Iraq. Let us conclude a firm treaty of friendship and peace.
When he learned of this grisly snub, he flew into a rage that would change the course of history. Some of the most notorious of all Mongol atrocities were perpetrated during this campaign, visited upon the eastern outposts of Islam. Muslim historians record that, after it succumbed to a five-month siege, 50, Mongol soldiers slaughtered ten men each. Among their other victims was the oasis city of Merv also Turkmenistan , whose libraries, constituting the greatest collection in central Asia, contained , volumes.
Most had their throats slit.
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