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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More
Genghis Khan: The Man Who Built the Mongol Empire
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Born into hardship on the Mongolian steppe, a boy named Temujin rose from exile, betrayal and captivity to unite the fractured tribes of Mongolia under a single banner. Having been granted the title of Genghis Khan, he built an army unlike anything that the world had ever seen and launched an empire that would reshape Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Learn more about Genghis Khan, the man who built the Mongol Empire, on on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by Quince. I recently moved into a new, larger place and I faced the challenge of decorating it. I of course, am turning to Quince to help get the job done. In addition to clothes, Quince offers stylish home furnishings that makes my place look great at affordable prices. And I've also recently picked up a second cashmere sweater that I've talked about before just because I like it so much. The great thing about Quince is that their prices are 50 to 60% lower than those of similar brands. 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Use your own phone and number, activate with ESIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts and no hassle. That's why I recommend Mint Mobile. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans@mintmobile.com eed that's mintmobile.com eed upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees. Mint Mobile for details. The man the world would know as Chinggis Khan, or Genghis Khan in English, was born as Temujin around the year 1160 to 1162, near the border between what is today Mongolia and Siberia. Legend holds that Temujin was born under an auspicious sign. The British historian Peter Frankipan noted Genghis Khan came from a leading family within the tribal union, and his destiny had been foretold from the moment he was born, clutching in his right hand a clot of blood the size of a knuckle bone. Seers within the Mongol community interpreted this as a sign of the boy's greatness. Historians often grasp at straws when it comes to the Mongols, as facts about early leaders are scarce. The Mongols did not have a system of writing until Temujin introduced one. After conquering Central Asia, historians depend on the writing of outsiders to shape their understanding of the Mongols. Much of our information on the early life of Temujin comes to us from the Secret History of the Mongols, which was written after the end of Temujin's life. The source is complicated, as it's a compilation of Arab and Chinese accounts that rely largely on rumor and innuendo. It's hard to know what to believe about Temujin's life. We have no idea what he looked like, as every image of him was created after his death by people who never met him. Outsiders depicted Temujin as ruthless and obsessed with violence. However, the reality surrounding him is far more complex. Temujin was born to a noble family of the Steppes. Temujin's father, Yasugi, was poisoned by a rival under a flag of hospitality, leaving his clan leaderless and vulnerable. Yasuke's death was devastating to Temujin and on his mother, Hoelun. The clan abandoned Temujin and his mother, leaving them to die in the steppes. With only their will to survive, Temujin learned a brutal on the Steppes, death settled all political scores. Legend has it that Temujin killed his older brother while hunting to consolidate his rising power. Temujin seems to have had considerable political acumen. Historical stereotypes portray him as impatient, quick to act and slow to judge. But the reality of his accumulated power suggests otherwise. As his power and influence grew with each victory, Temujin eventually won over his rival chieftains. At a kuriltai, a meeting of the leaders of the Mongol confederacy, Temujin accepted the title that would define him for the rest of his life. Universal Ruler, or Khenghis Khan. He was 46 years old and just getting started. The Secret History of the Mongols Claims that a spiritual revelation drove Genghis Khan to conquer the known world. As a leader, his actions suggest he was quick to reward bravery and to provide handsome rewards for loyalty. He kept his most loyal associates as his inner circle, establishing an inner council of warriors known as the Nokurs. Mongol society traditionally tied leadership to aristocratic bloodlines. Genghis turned that system upside down, revolutionizing the Mongol social system into one based on warrior skill. Before Genghis, Mongol society operated on a rigid two tier system. The white Bones, who claimed ancestry from the original leadership clans, and the Blackbones, who possessed no noble lineage. A member of the black bones could expect to remain powerless, with no hope of rising in status. But by promoting and extending patronage via battle performance, every soldier now had a stake in the military's success. Genghis Khan's system enabled him to build a fiercely loyal army. As the Mongols expanded outward and began conquering their neighbors, they faced a huge problem. There just weren't that many Mongols. Without a census or any writings, it's difficult to determine the size of the Mongol army. Historians estimate that at the time of Genghis Khan's ascension, there were approximately 700,000 Mongols in total. But only a fraction of that number were fighting men. A common estimate is that he may have had roughly 100 to 130,000 warriors available. After uniting the Mongol tribes, because the population base was too small for Khan's mission, they expanded the army by recruiting non Mongols. To do this, Genghis devised a cunning strategy. A conquered soldier entered a unit called an arban and a group of 10 with mostly Mongols and possibly another foreign recruit. Foreign soldiers were divided up and never allowed to be in an arban with another soldier from their region. According to Mongol military organization, if anyone in a unit of 10 refused to cooperate or fled a battle, the Entire unit of 10 was executed. Collective responsibility enforced absolute discipline. One of Genghis Khan's highest priorities was an invasion of China. Conquering the world's most advanced society required the Mongols to adapt their traditional nomadic cavalry tactics. Adaptability and flexibility were two of Genghis Khan's great strengths. When facing heavily fortified walled cities, as they did in Zhongdu, Genghis Khan created a new Mongol strategy, one built on patience and brutality. Faced with fortified walls and not yet having acquired Chinese siege technology, the Mongols simply blockaded the city. Determined to wait out the defenders, the Mongols maintained the blockade for more than a year. The situation in Zhongdu reached apocalyptic proportions as the citizenry inside the city resorted to cannibalism when the gates finally opened, Genghis Khan's forces massacred the entire population, sparing only those with specific skills that the Mongols could exploit. A diplomat from the Central Asian kingdom of Khwarezm reported the ghastly results from the Mongol siege of when we arrived at one stage of the city, we saw a high hill which was entirely white. They told us it was the bones of the people whom the Mongols had slain. Perhaps Genghis Khan's most brilliant strategy during the invasion of China was the systematic capture and assimilation of foreign thousands of Chinese engineers who taught the Mongols how to build and use siege weapons. The Mongols employment of foreign technology strengthened their military in ways they never could have developed on the Asian steppe. What Genghis Khan did provide was the framework for the Mongols to use the tactics of other states against them. According to historian Mark Cartwright. On top of that, the Mongols never turned down an opportunity to employ enemy tactics and technology themselves. They not only brought ferocious mobility to Asian warfare, but they were, thanks to their flexibility, quickly adept at other types of battle too, like siege warfare and the use of gunpowder, missiles and catapults. A prime example of this technological assimilation was the Mongols use of Chinese silk. Before Genghis Khan, the Mongols treated silk as a rare luxury, restricting its use to the tribal elite. As Genghis Khan marched deeper into China, he prioritized the acquisition of silk. Understanding its value as armor, Khan encouraged his generals to obtain as much of it as possible. The Mongols developed a unique use for silk. The fiber's strength allowed them to wear multiple layers and to twist it to pull out arrowheads. Historical accounts suggest that the Mongols acquired enough silk to outfit thousands of warriors. Blanket images of Genghis Khan as a barbaric destroyer are often overblown or at least misunderstood. As Peter Frankapan noted, the Mongols cultivated such fears carefully, for the reality was that Genghis Khan used violence selectively and deliberately. The sack of one city was calculated to encourage others to submit peacefully and quickly. Theatrically, gruesome deaths were used to persuade other rulers that it was better to negotiate than than to offer resistance. By projecting an image of overwhelming power through violence, the Mongols successfully concealed their primary strategic vulnerability, their limited manpower. The view of Genghis Khan as a bloodthirsty tyrant tends to hide the skill with which he administered his growing empire. Governing an empire of diverse cultures, religions and languages is a daunting task, particularly without a central administration or language to anchor it. To oversee the administration of his empire, Genghis needed a written language which he adopted in 1204 after capturing a Tartar official in western Mongolia. The captured official carried an array of documents that intrigued the khan. He interrogated him until the man delivered a comprehensive introduction on how a written language could manage a state. Genghis commanded the official to stay and instruct the Mongol princes in the art of reading and writing. The script originated among the Uyghur peoples of western Asia, and from there, traders carried it across the Silk Road, where it dominated commerce for centuries. Scholars and merchants across vast parts of Eurasia recognized the Uyghur script immediately, allowing the Khan's decrees to move seamlessly across borders. Genghis Khan also knew that his empire needed a capital as well. In the year 1220, he established Karakorom as his administrative city. Located in Mongolia's Orkhon Valley, Karakorom was not your typical capital. Many Mongol elites still lived in gurs or felt tents around the city. So Karakorom was a hybrid, part fixed capital, part imperial camp, and part international trading and administrative center. Ghengis Khan established the Yam system to ensure communication amongst Mongol leaders. The Yam system was a series of interconnected postal and rest stops about 20 to 30 miles apart. You can think of it as the Mongol version of the pony Express. At a yam, Mongol leaders and sanctioned non Mongol officials could travel to obtain a new horse, exchange information and rest. During the age of Genghis Khan, caravans traversed the Silk Roads with complete security as the Mongols had extinguished the threat of theft and banditry. The Pax Mongolica was engineered by Genghis Khan and was a direct result of their conquests. As paradoxical as it might seem, Genghis Khan died in 1227, around the age of 65, while campaigning against the Tanguk kingdom of Xisha in northwestern China. His exact cause of death is unknown. Later accounts offer several possibilities, including illness, injuries from a horse, fall, wounds in battle, or more legendary stories involving a Tangut princess. The most likely explanation is that he died from illness or injury during the campaign. But the Mongols kept the news quiet until the campaign was completed. The tomb of Genghis Khan is one of history's great unsolved mysteries. According to tradition, his body was returned to Mongolia and buried in a secret location, likely near the sacred mountain of Burkhan Khaldun. The burial party supposedly killed anyone who saw the procession, and horses were driven over the grave to hide all traces of it. Whether those details are true or legend, the location of Genghis Khan's tomb has never been found. At his death. The Mongol empire covered roughly 12 to 14 million square kilometers, or about 4.6 to 5.4 million square miles. Yet this was far from its peak. It would be another 50 years until his descendants ruled an empire that stretched from Korea to Eastern Europe. Genghis Khan began life as Temujin, an outcast on the Mongol steppe. But through force, strategy, and an extraordinary ability to command loyalty, he created an empire that changed the course of world history. His conquest brought devastation on a staggering scale, yet also connected east and west in ways that reshaped trade, warfare, diplomacy, and culture for centuries. Genghis Khan wasn't just the founder of the Mongol Empire, he was one of the rare individuals whose life altered the trajectory of the entire world. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Joel Hermanson. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible, and I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord, as this is where everything happens outside of the podcast. As always, if you leave a review on any of the major podcast apps, you too can have it running. The show.