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
MONGOL WARRIORS A Mongol warrior did not join the army but rather was born into it Every Mongol man who could ride a horse was a soldier and all became expert equestrians early in life The Mongol prow ess for riding was especially noticed in collaboration with their The Mongol Empire grew to encompass many cultures across Europe and Asia far different than its own
9 INTRODUCTION Caption Title skill as archers on moving horses The Mongol warrior was always ready to fight whether he was hunting wild animals or going to war He met both challenges with vigor and an eagerness to prove his courage and fighting expertise The Mongols were not always the army with the best weap ons the strongest armor or the largest forces yet they were often the victors Unparalleled ferocity dazzling battlefield tactics and brilliant leadership were common factors in their successes Extraordinary discipline was also an ess ential component in fact desertion meant death Though the Mongols did not adopt a written lan guage until Genghis Khan’s reign a significant work of their early literature Mongqolun niuča tobča’an Secret History of the Mongols survives to relate the details of the Mongols rise It is a chronicle of the deeds of Genghis Khan and of his son Ögödei composed no earlier
