Introduction

It was said by a Mongolian Shaman, that the Eternal Blue Sky set the world aside for Genghis Khan. That statement rings quite true, for within his 65 years of life, Genghis Khan united the fragmented Mongolian people, conqueror most of Northern and Western China, and subjugated nearly all of the Eurasian steppe. At the time of his death, the empire spanned from the Caspian Sea to the Sea of Japan, making it the largest contiguous empire in history.

History

Genghis Khan was born under the name of Temüjin, in 1162. He was the son of a tribe leader, who live a comfortable life until the age of 10, when his father was assassinated. Following the assassination, his family was ostracized by the tribe, they were forced to fend for themselves. For many years the family lived in poverty, foraging and hunting for what little they could. It was during this time that Temüjin’s became the patriarch of the family, after he murdered his older brother over a hunting dispute. Sometime during this period, Temüjin’s family managed to reconnect with an old friend of his father, the Khan of the Keraites, who offered the family his protection. This bond was tested in 1178, when Temüjin’s first wife was kidnapped by a rival tribe, the Merkits. Aided by the Keraites, the rescue mission was successful, bringing great renown to Temüjin. Somewhere between 1178 and 1186, Temüjin returned to his tribe, where he was elected Khan of the Mongols. With a tribe of his own, Temüjin was able to begin to expand his power. The first opportunity, arrived when his old friend turned enemy, the Khan of Jadaran, declared war on him. Using his newly assembled 20,000 man army, Temüjin was able to defeat the Jadaran. This first victory, allowed for Temüjin to begin his policy of assimilation, in which he would incorporate defeated tribes into his own. In practical terms, this meant that each time he conquered a tribe his power grew substantially. In 1197, both the Mongols and the Keraites declared a joint war on the Tatar tribe. It was during this war that the Mongols first employed new military tactics (primarily relating to signalling and command structure ), which greatly aided in the defeat of the Tatars. Being that it was the Tatars that had assassinated his father, Temüjin took the opportunity to enact his revenge. He did this by executing any male that was over the size of 3 feet. Following the defeat of the Tatars, Temüjin grew distant from the Keraites, which would lead to a war in 1206. But in the meanwhile, Temüjin conquered the remaining Mongolian tribes (the Merkits, Naimans, and Toghrul). After defeating the Keraites in 1206, Temüjin was given the title, Genghis Khan (“Universal Ruler”), by the Mongol people. With Mongolia fully united, Genghis began to look south, hoping to expand into China. He began this process by attacking the Xi Xia kingdom. Even though greatly outnumbered, the advanced tactics and brutality of the Mongols allowed them to defeat the kingdom, leading their ruler to submit to Mongol rule in 1211. Genghis then turned his attention towards the other North Chinese kingdom, the Jin kingdom. Early in the war the Mongols were able to destroy the main Jin army, leaving them defenseless. The Mongols capitalized on this by beginning a campaign of sieges, which ended with the capture of Beijing in 1215. The fall of Beijing marked a temporary end to the war (the war continue to be waged on and off for the next twenty years), and the surrender of Northern China to the Mongols. The next and arguable greatest war waged by the Mongols was against the Khwarazmian Empire, an Empire in the modern-day area of Turkmenistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. This empire had provoked the Mongols when a governor had killed an envoy of Mongol trade diplomats. When the Shah of the empire refused to give the governor to the Mongols, the Mongols responded with an invasion of 100,000 men. The war lasted from 1219-1221, and is largely considered a one-sided affair in which the Mongols besieged and slaughter city after city (killing the entire population of cities that did not immediately surrender to them). Upon conclusion of the war, Genghis was forced to return East to deal with the revolting Xi Xia kingdom which had allied with the remains of the Jin Empire. The Xi Xia were forced to surrendered in 1227 after their capital was taken. Genghis Khan died shortly after their surrender on August 18, 1227.

Significance

Genghis Khan is known to history because of his conquests. But, some of his more obscure contributions to history actually dwarf the significance of his conquests. These contributions are the opening up of trade from East to West, the spreading disease, and lastly the amount of people that he killed in his conquests.

With the Silk road firmly under Mongol control, trade was able to dramatically increase between the East and the West. This occurred for multiple reasons, but they can be simplified into protection, promotion of trade, and infrastructure construction. The Mongols were able to provide protection to traders, because they patrolled trade routes and killed highway men and bandits that they encountered. Since the routes were safer, there were more incentives for trader to move along the trade routes. In addition to the protection, Genghis Khan actually went out of his way to promote trade. He did this because he recognized that in addition to the economic boom that trade brings, it also makes parties reliant on one and other. He hoped that this inter-dependency would lead to greater loyalty among his subjects. Finally, the Mongols actually increased accessibility of trade routes, by building roads. They originally built these roads to serve as communication routes across their vast empire. But they also had the effect of making the terrain more traversal for merchants and other travelers.

The issue with the increase in trade between the East and the West was an increase in the spread of disease. As more and more people traveled between China and Europe a series of deadly disease were exchanged. The most noteworthy of these disease was the Black Plague, which is said to have been brought to the Byzantine Empire by the Mongols. The Black Plague would go on to kill about 50% of the population of Europe, leading to a whole host of social upheavals which completely restructured European society.

The worst thing that Genghis Khan is significant for is the deaths of about 40 million people. Throughout his conquests, Genghis employed a policy of severe cruelty if an enemy did not surrender immediately. This cruelty lead to the complete extermination of cities, meaning the executing of every man, woman, child, and even animals. There are some regions that were at the height of their civilization when the Mongols arrived, and after they left were mere wastelands. Some historians believe that there are some areas that never fully recovered from Genghis’s invasions.

Ultimately, Genghis Khan is significant to history, because he was able to conquer large tracks of territory, he promoted trade from East to West which marked the beginning of the Silk Road, his armies brought new diseases from Asia to the Mediterranean, and his conquests decimated entire regions of the world in ways which they never recovered from.

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