CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1 MYSTERIOUS MENACING MONGOLS 12 CHAPTER 2 GENGHIS KHAN WARRIOR KING 20 CHAPTER 3 MONGOL MILITARY CAMPAIGNS 26 CHAPTER 4 AN EMPIRE IN DECLINE 35 GLOSSARY 44 FOR FURTHER READING 46 INDEX 47
INTRODUCTION The Central Asian people known as the Mongols occupy a vast highland region called the steppe in what is now Mongolia and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China The Mongols share a common language and a tradition of following a nomadic way of life herding livestock The Mongols ori gin is a mystery but their place in medieval history is unforgettable They announced their existence by force across the continents of Europe and Asia beginning in the 1200s CE A thirteenth-century English monk named Matthew Paris called the Mongols a detestable nation of Satan that poured out like devils from Tartarus hell How did a pastoral people create such hostility Life on the steppe was far from peaceful In fact it was a bit like constantly being in battle In the thirteenth century an alliance of nomadic Mongol tribes became a powerful military force Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors they established an empire that reached from what are now China and Korea in the east to Eastern Europe and the shores of the Persian Gulf in the west At the height of their power the Mongols overthrew the rulers of northern and southern China and reunited China under Mongol rule Though the influence of the Mongol Empire declined greatly in the fourteenth century the Mongols are still remembered today for their unprecedented mili tary success owed partly to their unusual lifestyle 6
Much of Mongolia today still looks as it did in the thirteenth century when the Mongols rose to power across the continent
