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Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Guest Mon May 07, 2012 9:29 pm
When Genghis Khan and his armies exploded out of the steppe in the early thirteenth century, no one on the Eurasian continent was prepared for his innovative style of warfare. Through years of what was essentially civil war, the Mongols of that period, as well as the surrounding tribes, had already refined various elements of shock warfare. But Temujin - Genghis Khan's birth name - added much to the Mongols' arsenal that was previously missing. He integrated surrounding tribes into his Mongol army; he ensured looting was strictly controlled and that shares of it were divided on a pre-assigned basis; he killed off the aristocracies of the tribes, cities, and empires he defeated, thereby ensuring they would not rally their people to turn on him at a later time; he organized his armies, and even his society, through a decimal system that smoothed the functioning of his eventual empire; he instituted laws that even he, a great khan, must obey.
What resulted from these innovations was unprecedented: an army with the same benefits of speed and maneuver that had always been a part of the traditional tactics of the tribes of the steppe melded together with an effective bureaucratic leadership that was very different from the typical kin-based and ad hoc tribal relationships. This was Temujin's creation, and he perfected it in numerous battles to unify Mongolia under his leadership. In 1206, two years after the final battle to assume control of all Mongolia, he took the name Genghis Khan, and prepared to take his army out into the world.
Jack Weatherford's remarkable narrative of these events captures the creativity of Genghis Khan and the Mongols in a way that no book I've read before ever has. Whereas most histories of the Mongols have long emphasized their unprecedented success in war, Weatherford builds a solid case that shows the social and economic achievements of the Mongols may have been even more remarkable than their adaptations to warfare. The author makes the argument that the Mongols were fairly civilized by the standards of the thirteenth century, almost never engaging in torture, mutilation, or maiming. While they were quick to kill, and left an unprecedented path of destruction in their path, especially to those who resisted their rule, conquest and loot were their goals, not gratuitous death and injury.
After making himself the undisputed ruler of the steppes, an area about the size of Western Europe, Genghis Khan began moving south and west, conquering the Jurched (Manchurian) tribes ruling Northern China and the kingdom of Khwarizm, an empire under the rule of a Turkic sultan that stretched from what is modern Afghanistan to the Black Sea. Khwarizm was an important catch, as the Muslims there were noted for their steel- and glass-making, as well as numerous exotic commodities. As each conquest was assimilated, Genghis Khan took what was special and distinctive about the place and employed it productively. Craftsmen, miners, artisans, interpreters, and specialists in warfare were all absorbed into the Mongol Empire and tasked according to their specialty. The Mongols were nomads, but the genius of Genghis Khan was to recognize the value of even the smallest and most foreign of civilized talents and to use it to his empire's advantage.
Genghis Khan died in 1227 - a mere sixteen years after he began his world conquest. With the exception of India and China, he had conquered everything he set his mind to. It would now be up to his sons and their children to finish what in the shortness of time he could not. (Genghis Khan dies about halfway through Weatherford's book, leaving plenty of space to write about the continued expansion of the empire.) Interestingly, the empire seems to have expanded more by the momentum of its founder's achievements, even after his death, than by the skill of his heirs. Genghis Khan had always been careful not to give his children too much power, as he sought to break away from the traditional kin-based ties of the steppe in order to more smoothly run his empire. In mediating disputes involving his sons, he sometimes took the side of non-kin against them. Until late in his life, he neglected their training as leaders. The consequences of this became immediately apparent in the actions of his son and first heir to the empire, Ogodei.
But, even with sub par and occasionally strife-ridden leadership, the empire continued to expand. Some of the Mongol leaders to follow Genghis Khan were exceptional leaders, while others were not, but the combination of unbeatable virtues in the empire was fixed in a way that it hardly mattered in the first few decades after his death. Nothing outside of the empire could stop it, only enduring struggles from within. As Weatherford details, even as the empire began to split into four quadrants, trade and other imperial activities continued. Two Mongol rulers from separate quadrants could be at war with each other and still allow trade and investments between the sides to continue unmolested. Eventually this relationship would break down, and when it did, it would spell the end of the empire. The Mongols did not create anything. They conquered and looted. And the trade routes needed to move their loot from one part of the empire to another were necessary to keep the empire strong. When those trade routes began to close down, and the economy contracted, the Mongol rulers in each area needed to depend on their local political skills to survive. Some did, but others never made the transition.
Weatherford's book is a marvel - the best of more than half-a-dozen histories I have read on the subject. Writing about the Mongols has always been a complex task for two seemingly contradictory reasons. On the one hand, their widespread empire requires a scholar to dig through a variety of source material written by those conquered by the Mongols, which many find daunting; on the other hand, the Mongols themselves were illiterate and secretive, and so their own literature was almost nonexistent and, when found, difficult to understand. Given these odd circumstances, histories on the Mongols are usually hit-and-miss affairs. Scholars tend to be great at explaining some part of the Mongols, but fail to maintain that quality in other areas. Weatherford's extensive experience in Mongolia, researching Genghis Khan and his empire, makes up for what he loses by not going to the source material outside of English; his accomplishment is a narrative of the highest order.
.......
One of the remarkable features of his style was that he hated the elite and the aristocrats, and slaughtered as many as he could. He loved the professional men, the teachers and doctors, and especially the craftsmen and engineers, and did not even tax them. My kinda guy!
Weatherford's style of writing is lively and easy to read. The maps are just detailed enough to be informative without overburdening the reader in detail. This is not an exhaustive account of every battle, every city destroyed, which would be mind-numbing history as usually written, but rather a wide survey of events and their impact on the world to come. And I especially enjoyed his description of the military tactics employed by the cavalry, and his use of siege engines and gunpowder, which would be new to most readers.
Perhaps one of his greatest inventions, though, is that of diplomatic immunity. Any city, and there were several, who murdered or mutilated his envoys as a method of rejecting his terms of surrender, would be ruthlessly razed and the inhabitants slaughtered. Even in those days, the word got around...
This is quite a tale, well told.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336440254&sr=8-1
What resulted from these innovations was unprecedented: an army with the same benefits of speed and maneuver that had always been a part of the traditional tactics of the tribes of the steppe melded together with an effective bureaucratic leadership that was very different from the typical kin-based and ad hoc tribal relationships. This was Temujin's creation, and he perfected it in numerous battles to unify Mongolia under his leadership. In 1206, two years after the final battle to assume control of all Mongolia, he took the name Genghis Khan, and prepared to take his army out into the world.
Jack Weatherford's remarkable narrative of these events captures the creativity of Genghis Khan and the Mongols in a way that no book I've read before ever has. Whereas most histories of the Mongols have long emphasized their unprecedented success in war, Weatherford builds a solid case that shows the social and economic achievements of the Mongols may have been even more remarkable than their adaptations to warfare. The author makes the argument that the Mongols were fairly civilized by the standards of the thirteenth century, almost never engaging in torture, mutilation, or maiming. While they were quick to kill, and left an unprecedented path of destruction in their path, especially to those who resisted their rule, conquest and loot were their goals, not gratuitous death and injury.
After making himself the undisputed ruler of the steppes, an area about the size of Western Europe, Genghis Khan began moving south and west, conquering the Jurched (Manchurian) tribes ruling Northern China and the kingdom of Khwarizm, an empire under the rule of a Turkic sultan that stretched from what is modern Afghanistan to the Black Sea. Khwarizm was an important catch, as the Muslims there were noted for their steel- and glass-making, as well as numerous exotic commodities. As each conquest was assimilated, Genghis Khan took what was special and distinctive about the place and employed it productively. Craftsmen, miners, artisans, interpreters, and specialists in warfare were all absorbed into the Mongol Empire and tasked according to their specialty. The Mongols were nomads, but the genius of Genghis Khan was to recognize the value of even the smallest and most foreign of civilized talents and to use it to his empire's advantage.
Genghis Khan died in 1227 - a mere sixteen years after he began his world conquest. With the exception of India and China, he had conquered everything he set his mind to. It would now be up to his sons and their children to finish what in the shortness of time he could not. (Genghis Khan dies about halfway through Weatherford's book, leaving plenty of space to write about the continued expansion of the empire.) Interestingly, the empire seems to have expanded more by the momentum of its founder's achievements, even after his death, than by the skill of his heirs. Genghis Khan had always been careful not to give his children too much power, as he sought to break away from the traditional kin-based ties of the steppe in order to more smoothly run his empire. In mediating disputes involving his sons, he sometimes took the side of non-kin against them. Until late in his life, he neglected their training as leaders. The consequences of this became immediately apparent in the actions of his son and first heir to the empire, Ogodei.
But, even with sub par and occasionally strife-ridden leadership, the empire continued to expand. Some of the Mongol leaders to follow Genghis Khan were exceptional leaders, while others were not, but the combination of unbeatable virtues in the empire was fixed in a way that it hardly mattered in the first few decades after his death. Nothing outside of the empire could stop it, only enduring struggles from within. As Weatherford details, even as the empire began to split into four quadrants, trade and other imperial activities continued. Two Mongol rulers from separate quadrants could be at war with each other and still allow trade and investments between the sides to continue unmolested. Eventually this relationship would break down, and when it did, it would spell the end of the empire. The Mongols did not create anything. They conquered and looted. And the trade routes needed to move their loot from one part of the empire to another were necessary to keep the empire strong. When those trade routes began to close down, and the economy contracted, the Mongol rulers in each area needed to depend on their local political skills to survive. Some did, but others never made the transition.
Weatherford's book is a marvel - the best of more than half-a-dozen histories I have read on the subject. Writing about the Mongols has always been a complex task for two seemingly contradictory reasons. On the one hand, their widespread empire requires a scholar to dig through a variety of source material written by those conquered by the Mongols, which many find daunting; on the other hand, the Mongols themselves were illiterate and secretive, and so their own literature was almost nonexistent and, when found, difficult to understand. Given these odd circumstances, histories on the Mongols are usually hit-and-miss affairs. Scholars tend to be great at explaining some part of the Mongols, but fail to maintain that quality in other areas. Weatherford's extensive experience in Mongolia, researching Genghis Khan and his empire, makes up for what he loses by not going to the source material outside of English; his accomplishment is a narrative of the highest order.
.......
One of the remarkable features of his style was that he hated the elite and the aristocrats, and slaughtered as many as he could. He loved the professional men, the teachers and doctors, and especially the craftsmen and engineers, and did not even tax them. My kinda guy!
Weatherford's style of writing is lively and easy to read. The maps are just detailed enough to be informative without overburdening the reader in detail. This is not an exhaustive account of every battle, every city destroyed, which would be mind-numbing history as usually written, but rather a wide survey of events and their impact on the world to come. And I especially enjoyed his description of the military tactics employed by the cavalry, and his use of siege engines and gunpowder, which would be new to most readers.
Perhaps one of his greatest inventions, though, is that of diplomatic immunity. Any city, and there were several, who murdered or mutilated his envoys as a method of rejecting his terms of surrender, would be ruthlessly razed and the inhabitants slaughtered. Even in those days, the word got around...
This is quite a tale, well told.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336440254&sr=8-1
Guest- Guest
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Guest Tue May 08, 2012 12:10 am
The Mongolian Empire gets a bad rap in the West and all because of a
political accident that occurred in 1755. Voltaire was writing a play to
skewer the King of France, but out of concern for his life, he
substituted Genghis Khan for the King. Thenceforth, the Mongolians were
on the outs.
In fact, the Mongolian Empire created the modern
world as we know it and introduced widely accepted and indeed, revered
principles such as diplomatic immunity, freedom of religion, the rule of
law, free trade, professional standing armies. He created the first
social service bureaucracy and abolished torture. His daughters ruled
their own empires in their own rights. As the author says, "the scale
and scope of Genghis Khan's accomplishments challenge the limits of the
imagination and tax the resources of scholarly explanation."
It
was the Mongolian's that built Beijing and ruled China as the Yuan
Dynasty. The Forbidden City was built the way it was so that the royal
family (of Kubla Khan, Genghis's descendant) could live in gers and keep
their horses just as they did on the Steppe. The Mongolian's united
China in one economy and one territory, virtually the identical
boundaries that exist today. The Mongolians also established the Moghul
Dynasty in India, the last outpost against British Imperialism and the
source of some of the most deliriously beautiful architecture and art we
have a race. It was Genghis Khan's descendant who built the Taj Mahal.
It was also his descendants who ruled the Golden Horde in Russia, and
the Ilkhanate in Persia. He introduced the Chinese to Europeans and vice
versa -- he established global trade routes and commercial contacts
that exist to this day.
In other words, Genghis rocks, and this
book will chill you to the bone. The efforts the West has gone to to
destroy his reputation and take credit for his innovations is downright
creepy -- including actions taken by the Soviets as recently as the
1960s in the original Mongolian homeland.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/product-reviews/0609809644/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
political accident that occurred in 1755. Voltaire was writing a play to
skewer the King of France, but out of concern for his life, he
substituted Genghis Khan for the King. Thenceforth, the Mongolians were
on the outs.
In fact, the Mongolian Empire created the modern
world as we know it and introduced widely accepted and indeed, revered
principles such as diplomatic immunity, freedom of religion, the rule of
law, free trade, professional standing armies. He created the first
social service bureaucracy and abolished torture. His daughters ruled
their own empires in their own rights. As the author says, "the scale
and scope of Genghis Khan's accomplishments challenge the limits of the
imagination and tax the resources of scholarly explanation."
It
was the Mongolian's that built Beijing and ruled China as the Yuan
Dynasty. The Forbidden City was built the way it was so that the royal
family (of Kubla Khan, Genghis's descendant) could live in gers and keep
their horses just as they did on the Steppe. The Mongolian's united
China in one economy and one territory, virtually the identical
boundaries that exist today. The Mongolians also established the Moghul
Dynasty in India, the last outpost against British Imperialism and the
source of some of the most deliriously beautiful architecture and art we
have a race. It was Genghis Khan's descendant who built the Taj Mahal.
It was also his descendants who ruled the Golden Horde in Russia, and
the Ilkhanate in Persia. He introduced the Chinese to Europeans and vice
versa -- he established global trade routes and commercial contacts
that exist to this day.
In other words, Genghis rocks, and this
book will chill you to the bone. The efforts the West has gone to to
destroy his reputation and take credit for his innovations is downright
creepy -- including actions taken by the Soviets as recently as the
1960s in the original Mongolian homeland.
http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/product-reviews/0609809644/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Guest- Guest
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Idéfix Tue May 08, 2012 12:20 am
Actually the Mongols got "a bad rap" -- as far as Indians are concerned -- because of the horror with which their victims reacted in the Abbasid Caliphate. When Baghdad was sacked, Muslim commentators of the day were shocked beyond belief, and told tales of utter destruction at the hands of nomadic barbarians. They talked about libraries being burnt, massacres to the last man, and precious books being used to build a passage for their horses across the Tigris river by illiterate nomads who had no appreciation for their value. One story goes that the victorious army had to move its camp upwind of the city, because of the stench of decaying bodies from the city. Those stories reached India long before Voltaire was born.
The sack of Baghdad marked the end of the "golden age" of Islam, and Genghis Khan and his immediate successors were not remembered favorably by Muslim historians over the centuries.
The sack of Baghdad marked the end of the "golden age" of Islam, and Genghis Khan and his immediate successors were not remembered favorably by Muslim historians over the centuries.
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by MaxEntropy_Man Tue May 08, 2012 12:25 am
apparently he also banned gay sex. he wouldn't have liked his great great grandson, the founder of the moghal emperor's mild tendencies in that direction. not that there's anything wrong with it.
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Guest Tue May 08, 2012 12:26 am
panini press wrote:Actually the Mongols got "a bad rap" -- as far as Indians are concerned -- because of the horror with which their victims reacted in the Abbasid Caliphate. When Baghdad was sacked, Muslim commentators of the day were shocked beyond belief, and told tales of utter destruction at the hands of nomadic barbarians. They talked about libraries being burnt, massacres to the last man, and precious books being used to build a passage for their horses across the Tigris river by illiterate nomads who had no appreciation for their value. One story goes that the victorious army had to move its camp upwind of the city, because of the stench of decaying bodies from the city. Those stories reached India long before Voltaire was born.
The sack of Baghdad marked the end of the "golden age" of Islam, and Genghis Khan and his immediate successors were not remembered favorably by Muslim historians over the centuries.
the fight of the mongols with the persian empire of the time began after the persian king slaughtered the envoys of Genghis Khan and commandeered a mongol trading caravan without any provocation. hardly civilized behavior.
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
Guest- Guest
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by MaxEntropy_Man Tue May 08, 2012 12:29 am
Rashmun wrote:
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
so a bit like the borg, with the added benefit of mass raping.
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Idéfix Tue May 08, 2012 12:32 am
There's a lot to admire right there.Rashmun wrote:panini press wrote:Actually the Mongols got "a bad rap" -- as far as Indians are concerned -- because of the horror with which their victims reacted in the Abbasid Caliphate. When Baghdad was sacked, Muslim commentators of the day were shocked beyond belief, and told tales of utter destruction at the hands of nomadic barbarians. They talked about libraries being burnt, massacres to the last man, and precious books being used to build a passage for their horses across the Tigris river by illiterate nomads who had no appreciation for their value. One story goes that the victorious army had to move its camp upwind of the city, because of the stench of decaying bodies from the city. Those stories reached India long before Voltaire was born.
The sack of Baghdad marked the end of the "golden age" of Islam, and Genghis Khan and his immediate successors were not remembered favorably by Muslim historians over the centuries.
the fight of the mongols with the persian empire of the time began after the persian king slaughtered the envoys of Genghis Khan and commandeered a mongol trading caravan without any provocation. hardly civilized behavior.
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
Idéfix- Posts : 8808
Join date : 2012-04-26
Location : Berkeley, CA
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Guest Tue May 08, 2012 12:32 am
MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Rashmun wrote:
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
so a bit like the borg, with the added benefit of mass raping.
the idea was to minimize mongol casualties. with respect to mass raping is it your contention that the army of raja raja chola did not resort to raping women when it conquered sri lanka?
Guest- Guest
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by MaxEntropy_Man Tue May 08, 2012 12:35 am
Rashmun wrote:MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Rashmun wrote:
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
so a bit like the borg, with the added benefit of mass raping.
the idea was to minimize mongol casualties. with respect to mass raping is it your contention that the army of raja raja chola did not resort to raping women when it conquered sri lanka?
why do you ask? are you planning to write something like that on another website and then link it here later thereby "proving" that they too were rapists because someone says so on the internets?
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Guest Tue May 08, 2012 12:36 am
MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Rashmun wrote:MaxEntropy_Man wrote:Rashmun wrote:
furthermore, mongol rules of battle were very clear: if you surrender, we will spare you; if you put up a resistance we will annihilate you so as to set an example to any future enemies who we may fight against.
so a bit like the borg, with the added benefit of mass raping.
the idea was to minimize mongol casualties. with respect to mass raping is it your contention that the army of raja raja chola did not resort to raping women when it conquered sri lanka?
why do you ask? are you planning to write something like that on another website and then link it here later thereby "proving" that they too were rapists because someone says so on the internets?
I am disappointed that you would contemplate that i would behave in the unethical manner you describe.
Guest- Guest
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by MaxEntropy_Man Tue May 08, 2012 12:39 am
Rashmun wrote:
I am disappointed that you would contemplate that i would behave in the unethical manner you describe.
ok not you. but you are not beyond copy-pasting someone else giving out such gyan. your standards for "proof" have been quite liberal as i remember from the recent past.
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Kayalvizhi Tue May 08, 2012 12:41 am
Rashmun,
When will you be visit TN next? Where you stay?
When will you be visit TN next? Where you stay?
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by MaxEntropy_Man Tue May 08, 2012 12:42 am
Kayalvizhi wrote:Rashmun,
When will you be visit TN next? Where you stay?
are you planning on giving him tamil lessons? good idea.
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Join date : 2011-04-28
Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Kayalvizhi Tue May 08, 2012 12:46 am
sort of gteach him a lesson
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Re: Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
by Merlot Daruwala Tue May 08, 2012 2:10 am
MaxEntropy_Man wrote:apparently he also banned gay sex. he wouldn't have liked his great great grandson, the founder of the moghal emperor's mild tendencies in that direction. not that there's anything wrong with it.
Sir, your petty attempts - based on pure hearsay - to portray the Mongol hero as a bigoted homophobe will now provoke a slew of quotes and references for the next few days, lauding Genghis Khan's liberalism and saint-like forbearance of lifestyle choices. Remember, you asked for it.
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