Podcast Summary: Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History 45 – Wrath of the Khans III

Date: September 23, 2012
Host: Dan Carlin
Episode Theme: The Mongol Expansion Westward, the Conquest of Khwarezmia, and the Death of Genghis Khan

Episode Overview

In this third installment of the Wrath of the Khans series, Dan Carlin delves into the Mongols’ unprecedented western expansion. The episode focuses on Genghis Khan’s military campaigns against the Khwarezmian Empire, the terrifying cavalry raids led by his general Subedai, the devastating Mongol incursion into the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, and finally, the Khan’s last war and mysterious death. Carlin explores not just the events, but their psychological, cultural, and historical reverberations for Eurasia.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Shattering of Barriers: Khwarezmian Folly

• Advice Ignored: Muhammad, the Khwarezmian Shah, ignores his father Takesh’s warning to leave the Kara-Khitai as a buffer. Destroying this “geopolitical estuary” opens the floodgates for the Mongols to pour into the classical world.
  • Quote:
    “He brought down that wall. And the people that burst through this geopolitical estuary... broke into the classical world from the separate galaxy that was East Asia.” (05:49)
• Comparisons: Carlin likens the Mongols to a team descending from a “higher league” after generations of clashing with the sophisticated Chinese armies.

2. Apocalypse in the Middle East

• Destruction of Khwarezmia: The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, devastate the Khwarezmian Empire, inflicting a scale of suffering not seen before; irrigation systems and wealth are destroyed, some say irreversibly.
• Seen as Apocalypse: The invaders are equated to "Gog and Magog," apocalyptic figures in Christian and Islamic eschatology.
  • Quote:
    “To them this was the greatest tragedy that they had ever known. In fact, they compared it to the biblical apocalypse...” (13:25)

3. Rumors and Hope in Europe

• Prester John Myth: In the West, rumors swirl of a Christian king in the East aiding the Crusaders, which turn out to be wishful thinking.
  • Quote:
    “Unfortunately for those Europeans, there was no Prester John. There was only a Genghis Khan.” (19:23)
• First Encounters: Subedai leads a force westward to “scout” (read: pillage, sack, and exterminate), encountering cities like Hamadan, which face total destruction for defying Mongol demands.
  • Quote on Mongol thoroughness:
    “I thought about having a little ding sound... But then I realized it would sound like an old rotary telephone with just one big long ring all the time. When you kill between 10 and 70 million people by hand, as the Mongols did, you're killing people all the time.” (26:10)

4. The Mongol Raid into the Caucasus and Georgia ([~35:00])

• New Mongol Wealth: The Mongols, once impoverished, are now luxuriously attired, a testament to their looting success.
• Battle with the Georgians: King George III “the Brilliant” leads Georgia against the Mongols with an army (possibly exaggerated in numbers) including Cuman mercenaries. Despite tactical innovations, the Mongol mobility and discipline prove overwhelming.
  • Quote on tactics:
    “Subedai launched his attack... with the sort of tactics and discipline that were common in the galaxy that those Mongols were used to fighting in... The Georgians had never seen anything like it.” (47:20)
• Aftermath: After initial fights, the Mongols disappear, only to return and employ ambush tactics near the Caucasus, thoroughly defeating the larger Georgian forces again.

5. Diplomacy as a Weapon ([01:06:00])

• Allied Opposition and Mongol Manipulation: Encountering an alliance of Christians, Muslims, and Cumans at the Caucasus, Subedai uses bribes and persuasion to drive wedges, convincing the Cumans to defect before destroying both the alliance and the Cumans afterward.
  • Quote:
    “Diplomacy doesn’t have to be a shield... Diplomacy can be a weapon that strikes at the heart of your enemies.” (01:10:20)

6. Foray into Europe: The Battle of the Kalka River ([01:21:00 – 01:50:00])

• First Contact – Kievan Rus & Cumans: As Mongols penetrate into Russian lands, they encounter a patchwork of semi-warring city states unfamiliar with this new threat. Initial warnings are ignored.
• Destruction of Allied Forces: After failed diplomatic overtures, Russians kill Mongol emissaries—“the worst thing you can do.” The Mongols string out, confuse, and then rout the much larger, disorganized Russian-Cuman alliance.
  • Infamous Atrocity: Captured Russian nobles are executed by being crushed under a wooden platform during a Mongol feast.
  • Quote:
    “They begin killing the Russians anyway...the Mongols have lunch, served food and drink, and enjoy themselves immensely, while the groaning and suffocating men underneath them can be clearly heard and felt beneath the floorboards.” (01:44:00)
• Russian Chroniclers’ Bewilderment:
  • Quote:
    “For our sins, unknown tribes came, whom no one exactly knows who they are, nor whence they came out, nor what their language is, nor of what race they are, nor of what their faith is. But they call them Tartars.” (Chronicle of Novgorod, ~01:48:20)
• Mongol Withdrawal: Subedai and his force, after a three-year reconnaissance raid, withdraw on Genghis Khan’s orders, leaving the local populations traumatized and unprepared for future onslaughts.

7. Genghis Khan’s Last Campaign ([01:55:00 – 02:14:00])

• Civilizing Measures: Nearing the end of his life, Genghis adopts elements of administration, like the Uyghur alphabet, and seeks advice from Chinese and Muslim advisors about governance. He issues decrees about succession and the mandate to conquer the world.
• Final War: Seeking revenge for broken promises, the Khan unleashes a war of extermination on the Tanguts/Xixia—a campaign so devastating that even Mongol sources give it more space than their entire invasion of Europe.
  • Quote from the Secret History:
    “As long as I can eat food and still say, make everyone who lives in their cities vanish, kill them all and destroy their homes. As long as I am still alive, keep up the slaughter.” (02:13:45)
• Death and Burial: Genghis Khan dies—accounts vary as to whether from injury, illness, or the mysterious episode involving a Tangut princess. He is buried in an unknown grave, shrouded in secrecy and myth.

8. The Judgment of Genghis Khan ([02:20:00 – end])

• Moral Accounting: Carlin discusses historical tendency to “balance the ledger” by downplaying the massive suffering wrought by Genghis Khan, likening this to excusing the crimes of Hitler or Stalin in the service of “greater good.”
  • Quote:
    “All you have to do is take all the dead people that Hitler was responsible for off the balance sheet, and it looks like a net positive.” (02:29:00)
• Qualities and Legacy: Carlin describes the Khan’s intelligence, charisma, and administrative sense, but ultimately questions whether these can justify the suffering.
  • Quote:
    “How much good would this historical arsonist have had to accomplish to make the lives of between 10 and 80 million people worth it?” (02:32:20)
• Perspectives: To survivors, the “unification” under Mongol rule was a nightmare, not a benefit, as history sometimes paints it.
• Genghis Khan on posterity:
  • “After us, the people of our race will wear garments of gold... and they will forget that they owe these things to us.” (02:36:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Subedai’s Scouting Raid:
  • “Subadai's reconnaissance into Russia was history's longest cavalry ride with over 5,500 miles in about three years.” (02:01:30)
• Mongol Attitude towards Non-Mongols:
  • “Are you going to weep for the people? Again?” – Ogedai to a Chinese advisor (02:34:00)
• On Historical Perspective:
  • “The longer you go from these events, the more easily the dead are forgotten and the more easily atrocities are explained away.” (02:33:20)

Timeline of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|----------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Introduction, context, Khwarezmian buffer folly | | 05:49 | Fall of Kara-Khitai as a protective barrier | | 13:25 | Mongol conquest seen as biblical apocalypse | | 19:23 | European rumors, Prester John myth | | 26:10 | Mongol campaign in Iran, devastation of Hamadan | | 35:00 | Mongols meet the Georgians, the Cuman alliance | | 47:20 | Detailed breakdown of Mongol tactics vs. the Georgians | | 01:06:00 | Mongol diplomacy breaks allied forces in Caucasus | | 01:21:00 | Mongol incursion into Kievan Rus lands, Russian response | | 01:44:00 | Atrocity at the Kalka River, Mongol feast on dead Russians | | 01:55:00 | Genghis Khan’s reforms, last campaign | | 02:13:45 | Extermination of the Tanguts/Xixia | | 02:20:00 | Genghis Khan’s death, secret burial | | 02:29:00 | Carlin’s judgment of historians who excuse atrocities | | 02:32:20 | Questioning the “ledger” of Genghis’s achievements | | 02:36:10 | Reflections on legacy, preview of the next episode |

Takeaway

Carlin’s deep-dive dramatically underscores the shattering impact of the Mongol invasions, not just in terms of military conquest but in how they fundamentally destabilized world orders and traumatized societies from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. The legacy of Genghis Khan is, for Carlin, a profound question of moral calculus: does achievement ever balance out atrocity? As Genghis fades from the scene, his empire will not crumble, but rather his sons and heirs will unleash even greater storms upon the world.

“The sons of Genghis Khan are going to deliver the main course, and it is served raw.” (02:39:00)