Widespread violence and power-grabbing sparked by peasant revolts against oppressive landlords spelled the end for the Han Dynasty from the late 2nd to early 3rd centuries, ushering in a period characterized by instability lasting until the rise of the Tang Dynasty in 618. Founded by Li Yuan, the Tang Dynasty got off to an inauspicious start however. Li Yuan was a cousin of the preceding Sui Emperor Yang, and Li took the title of emperor after directing the appointment of a child Sui emperor the previous year. But, the questionable dealing continued, and within ten more years Li Yuan’s son, Li Shimin, killed two of his own brothers and persuaded his father to abdicate the throne to him.
Despite killing his way to the top and warring to expand his territory, Emperor Taizong, as Li Shimin was officially known, was a declared Buddhist who had monasteries built to commemorate battle sites and pray for the fallen of both sides. He also instituted standardized testing to fill government posts, and made land distribution more equitable than under the old feudal systems. And once again, stability and liberty, this time under the Tang Dynasty, allowed a golden age of literature and art to flourish.
Science was significantly advanced as well, with one of the more important inventions being a clockwork escapement mechanism developed by Yi Xing in 725. More importantly, in sharp contrast to the modern world of intellectual property rights and trade secrets, Tang Emperor Gaozong commissioned classification and publication of medicinal substances in the year 657 to share and expand the knowledge of medicine. And that kind of effective organization and management extended to many other aspects of life under the Tang Dynasty as well, such as the publication of a building code to advance public safety and promote best building methods.
Increasing autonomy of regional military governors eventually brought about the decline of the Tang clan, signaling what has come to be known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. But it would take less than a century for China to be united once again under Emperor Taizu of Song circa 960. During the following three centuries the population of the Song Empire grew to 100 million people. And to the credit of sufficient organization and freedom, the growing nation prospered, even after loss of considerable territory in the north, including the capital city of Bianjing, now Kaifeng, to the Jin Dynasty in the 12th century.
About the same time that the Byzantines were first using Greek Fire, the Song army and navy was the first to make use of crude bombs, cannons and other fire weapons using the Chinese invention of gunpowder. But peaceful pursuits also advanced under the Song Dynasty, perhaps most evident in printing when Bi Sheng invented movable type in the eleventh century. The earlier invention of woodcut printing allowed for mass production, but movable type allowed rapid textual modification without the burden of carving new printing blocks. Also early in the second millenium Shen Kuo described the use of a compass and the concept of magnetic north. And Shen Kuo’s simple compass was complimented by continued development of elaborate mechanical devices such as Su Song’s astronomical clock tower that used an escapement mechanism, circular chain drive, and complex differential gearing to represent complex relational astronomical movements.
But a dark storm brewing in the cold hills and plains of Mongolia would move down and cast its shadow on the Song Dynasty. It was there a boy was born to a group of nomads with no grand palaces, no public works worthy of note, and little more than the horses under their seats, that would earn a reputation as the most accomplished warrior in history. When Genghis Khan was born in Mongolia in the latter part of the twelfth century with the name Temujin, the area of his hometown was under the loose control of the Jin Dynasty of Northern China. The Jin and Turkic Tatars had combined to defeat Temujin’s great-grandfather Kabul Khan prior to Temujin’s birth. And since he was born the eldest son of a tribal leader in a time of persistent tribal fighting, Temujin’s future direction was very predictable; though the ultimate destiny of his journey would leave much of the iron age world in a state of shock.
When he was nine he was sent to live with the parents of his arranged future wife, Borte of the Konkirat tribe, and was to help her family until he reached the marital age of twelve. But before that time, his father was poisoned by the Tatars and died. When Temujin’s clan wouldn’t let him assume control because of his youth, his family was left in poverty, having to rely on their own devices. They were no more than predators, eating mostly small animals for survival. And at the age of thirteen Temujin killed his half-brother Bekhter over a dispute in dividing some animals they killed.
Temujin was captured by a rival tribe, the Ta'yichiut, when he was about twenty years of age, but soon escaped with the aid of a sympathizer. His wife Borte was also kidnapped, by another tribe, the Merkits, and Temujin was able to rescue her with the help of his blood brother Jamuqa and some warriors from the Kerait tribe. After Borte’s return she bore him a son, the timing of which called into question his paternity; and eventually Borte had three more sons. Though he had children with other women, Temujin gave to the children of Borte the sole right of inheritance.
Temujin served a tribal ruler named Toghrul, but in time Temujin’s ambition for power brought the two into conflict and Temujin defeated Toghrul in a clan war. In the conflict Jamuqa, Temujin’s former friend and blood brother, had sided with Toghrul, and in defeat went to the Naimans seeking refuge. It was there with the Naimans that Jamuqa’s own desire for power elevated him through the Naiman hierarchy and he eventually led them and other tribes in battle against Temujin. In 1206 however, after numerous battles, the tribes that were led by Jamuqa turned on him and handed him over to Temujin. But disloyalty wasn’t something Temujin was prepared to reward and he had the betraying subordinates executed along with his childhood friend Jamuqa. Not long thereafter Temujin defeated the Merkits and Naimans, and took the title Genghis Khan as leader of the Mongols.
The first conquest of the Mongols united under Genghis was the Western Xia Dynasty, which they conquered by 1209. In 1211 they went to war with the Jin Dynasty that had rested control of Northern China from the Song; capturing the capital of Janjing, later called Beijing, in 1215. Then Genghis turned his ambitious eyes westward and attacked the Kara-Khitan Khanate which extended from approximately modern Mongolia to Lake Balkhash and the border of the Muslim Khwarezmid Empire near present day Kyrgyzstan.
Genghis Khan was aided in his efforts by possessing the genius of single-mindedness. War was his passion, his life; as it was for his commanders and army. They knew neither peace nor the desire to build prosperity, but rather to take it from others. Their singular commitment and dedication quite naturally fostered success in war; the lifestyle of their choosing which they embraced so enthusiastically. As a culture they did little, but what they did, they did well. Before being indoctrinated into the army, Mongols grew up hunting from their horses. And no animal on terra firma was safe from the speed of their horses and range of Mongol bows. Tradition tells of large numbers of Mongols riding their horses in great circles and then bringing their circles tighter together, driving all the animals before them toward the center, where an orgy of slaughter ensued. In its time it was the pinnacle of achievement – for the most base activity of human immaturity.
The lethal archery and equestrian skills they honed from childhood prepared them well to be hunters of men. For this task they equipped themselves well; an army of horsemen ready to battle armies of infantry, with knowledge accumulated through years of experience. Each warrior didn’t just have one horse, he brought reserve horses to alternate mounts on long rides and replace those that were sure to fall in battle. The Mongol horse was equipped with stirrups to steady the rider and allow shooting on the run and in any direction, something long in existence, but still not widely utilized at the time. And the horsemen were lightly armored to enhance the speed, stamina, and agility of both horse and rider.
As nations in their path learned, the Mongol war machine was well rounded, with few weaknesses. Their dedication to the cause of war was so great, Mongol spies sometimes spent years observing the infrastructure and strengths and weaknesses of potential countries of conquest. Even though most wars were initiated substantially quicker, extensive planning and preparation was a characteristic of their invasions. Mongol leaders, committed to the craft of war, were excellent strategists.
Neither pride nor dignity encumbered their performance of the most horrific atrocities and scandalous breaches of honor. They didn’t hesitate to attack and run, and they weren’t above promising safe haven and then butchering the residents of a surrendered city. In their pursuit of riches the primary Mongol weapon was the composite reflex bow: absolute state of the art in period weaponry. Mongol bows were compact, powerful and accompanied by different styles of arrow for different fighting situations. The power of their reflex bows gave them greater range than their adversaries, and the compact size allowed for versatile usage from the back of a horse. With superior mobility and range, Mongol maneuvers flowed with an organic style providing a wide range of options for attack and defense.
Mongols could maintain a safe distance from large armies of infantry and attack at will by utilizing the range of their bows or descending on the enemy and then pulling back. Mongol armies could hit opposing forces like a hammer, sting them like elusive hornets, or immobilize them like spiders in a silken web. Their nimble, mobile actions could completely surround opposing forces before the opposition could maneuver to meet the frightening, and confusing onslaught. But, no encircling maneuver was as effective as that volunteered by an enemy charge; perhaps the most successful Mongol tactic was to pull back the center of the fast moving formation in feigned retreat. Opponents stretched out in pursuit of the Mongols were left vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, often from Mongol units kept hidden in reserve. Such pincher maneuvers frequently scattered the native forces in disorganized panic, exposing them as easy targets to the faster horsemen.
Even mounted cavalry units were ill-prepared to compete with the “devil’s horsemen” as they were called. Horses simply weren’t as commonly used by agrarian societies. Many cavalries consisted of heavily armed knights or other warriors trained in close combat tactics, but the heavy armor impeded their agility, and they were woefully lacking in the range and speed of their offensive weaponry compared to the reflex bows of the Mongols. Of course the ravages of war bore most heavily on the abused innocent horses, and oftentimes the Mongols simply shot the horses out from under the opposing cavalry, leaving slow moving men weighed down by armor easily slain by mobile archers and lancers.
The Mongols had other weaponry besides composite reflex bows of course, such as lances, swords and battle axes; which they put to fierce use in hand-to-hand combat. And they even used frightful incendiary devices borrowed from the Chinese, and effective siege equipment, often designed by prisoners of war and enscripts from vassal kingdoms. But the great advantage Mongols had over other armies of their time lay in the speed, savagery and coordination of their war machine, the likes of which wouldn't be seen again until the twentieth century.
One nation that felt the fury of the Mongol horde was Khwarezm, covering a vast territory extending from the Aral and Caspian Seas to the Persian Gulf, in roughly the area of modern Iran, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. When Genghis Khan assembled a large force and invaded Khwarezm in 1219 the Mongols swept through the country, destroying its armies and laying siege to the cities. Looking back now, it’s unclear whether Genghis and his army was brutally violent simply because they took joy in great, wanton slaughter, or if it was more a measure of terror to break enemy will and precipitate mass surrender. The general impression is that it was a full union of bloodlust and frightful warning.
When the large city of Urgench fell, the Mongols took what slaves they wanted of the craftsmen, young women and children. And then butchered the rest of the population, told to number in the hundreds of thousands. Elsewhere, after a weeklong siege, the city of Merv surrendered to Genghis’ youngest son Tolui under promise of safety for the citizens. But when the city was secured Tolui broke his promise and ordered all the city’s inhabitants killed. And again later, at Nishapur, Tolui ordered all the people put to death, along with all the animals as well.
After thoroughly terrorizing and brutalizing Khwarezm, leaving the survivors shaking in fear, the Mongols split up, with Genghis Khan leading an army on a path of destruction and plunder southwest through Pakistan and India before returning to Mongolia. Generals Jebe and Subutai led another army on a rampage northeast through Georgia and Russia before heading back to Mongolia. Having stretched Mongol control over western Asia, the reunion in Mongolia was just long enough to gather together and prepare to invade China again, with the campaign launched in 1226. And true to form as one of the most vile and horrid native plagues of human history, the Mongols butchered the inhabitants of the Tangut capitol Ning Hia after a surrender had been worked out. Then finally in 1227, while ravaging northern China again, Genghis Khan fell ill and died before he could return home. Legend has it that his escort killed everything in its path on his final journey back to Mongolia.
Temujin never outgrew the cruel ways he learned as a youth, he only excelled at perfecting them. And his distinction for mass destruction and carnage is recognition as the man who conquered more territory than any other person in history. The empire he presided over would grow to be the largest non-colonial, the largest contiguous, and the second largest empire by area the world has ever known. And he ruled it all from a tent. His life was spent on the back of a horse violating the universal laws of health and happiness. And his reward for wanton slaughter was grassland enough for more horses than he could ever ride, and more slave girls than he could ever bed. As the victims of the Mongol brutality could attest, that savagery and suffering that bought one man and his band of killers a life of indulgence and infamy, is rarely seen outside mankind's unspoken war on our fellow earthlings.
But no one lives forever, and upon his death, per his desire, control of his empire passed to his son Ogedei who presided over territories divided into khanates ruled by lesser khans. His descendants continued to rain havoc on bordering territories and expand the Mongol empire in decades of more conquest that brought all of China, Tibet and Korea under Mongol dominion, eventually forming the Yuan Dynasty in China under Genghis’ grandson Kublai Khan.
On the other side of Asia, it was Batu Khan, another grandson of Genghis, who was largely responsible for subduing Russia and parts of Eastern Europe. He was leading a campaign in Europe including Poland, Hungary and Austria with the old “dog of war” Subutai when news of Ogedei’s death reached him and he withdrew his forces to return to Mongolia. In the years after that kurultai, wherein Mongol leaders elected Guyuk to be the great Khan, Batu finally had concerns other than conquering Europe. Tensions between Batu and other heirs of Genghis prevented Batu from completing the planned expansion of the Mongol empire through Europe all the way to the Atlantic. Were it not for one simple change in individual priority, all of continental Europe would have quite likely been another part of the Mongol Empire that would have stretched across Eurasia from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
The rift between Batu’s Golden Horde and the other Khanates continued to grow; to the point that Guyuk died planning a campaign against Batu. The threatened invasion didn’t materialize during Batu’s lifetime, but still the animosity between the Khanates didn’t go away. When Batu’s brother Berke came to power he had a score to settle with the Il-Khanate of Hulagu. And that was due in part to the fact that by that time the major rival western religions had influenced the course of Mongol history. Berke had accepted Islam, and Hulagu, brother of the contemporary Great Khan Mongke, was married to a Christian.
That was no hindrance to their desires of conquest because Berke was bordered by Christians in Europe, and Hulagu was subduing Muslims in the area of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. But when Hulagu crushed Baghdad in early 1258 the Muslim Berke was outraged. Even without Berke’s assistance, the Islamic capital, or caliphate, of Baghdad had been confident in Allah’s protection of Baghdad, but the Mongol army exposed the danger of that fantasy in terrifying manner. Hulagu’s army of warriors, from lands of the Mongol Empire near and far, attacked and then ravaged the city and its inhabitants after they surrendered. They burned libraries of knowledge collected over centuries, they utterly destroyed buildings and structures of significance and antiquity; even raping and killing with wicked delight. And likely worst of all in the eyes of Berke, Hulagu had the supreme earthly leader of Islam, the caliph Al-Musta’sim and most of his family executed.
After sacking Baghdad, Hulagu went on to conquer Syria and then set his sights on Egypt. But before descending like a plague on Egypt, word came of Mongke Khan’s death and Hulagu returned to Mongolia for another kurultai, leaving only a part of his army to move on Egypt. Saif ad-Din Qutuz however, not wanting to pass on the opportunity to strike at the Mongol’s while they were at less than full strength and before they reached Egyptian soil, ordered his Egyptian army against the remaining Mongol force. The Egyptians were under the generalship of Baibars, a Mamluk. They were originally a group of slave-soldiers that had generally been captured or bought in the area of the Caucuses and Russian steppes, and forced to join the army of Islamic sultans. Baibars was said to be a large man with blond hair that may have been sold into slavery as a child by the Mongols.
The training and skills of the Mamluk cavalry were similar to those of the Mongols, being renowned horsemen and archers in their own right. The Egyptian forces numbered about the same as those of the Mongols, and on the way to confront the Mongols in the Levant they were allowed safe passage by the usually hostile Christians still holding territory from the Crusades. Baibars and the Mamluks met the Mongols near Ain Jalut in Palestine and cleverly used some typically Mongol tactics of retreating and flanking to beat the Mongols at their own brutal game, handing the feared Mongols a sound defeat. As part of the price of war the Mongol leader Kitbuqa was captured and executed.
What could have been a great victory for the Egyptian Qutuz was turned into catastrophe when he was killed by Baibars on the trip home. Baibars then assumed the throne of Egypt and established a Mamluk dynasty. Upon the return of Hulagu, Baibars might have been humiliated and executed by the full force of the Il-Khanate army. But the old adversary of empire, internal strife, reared its head and again altered the course of history. After Hulagu returned to Persia and readied his army, Berke, still seething over the destruction of the Abbasid caliphate, sent Nogai Khan on a series of raids in Hulagu's territory. And when Hulagu's army moved north of the Caucasus mountains to punish Berke, it was decisively defeated by the Golden Horde. That blood feud may have saved not only Western Europe, but also the small remnant of the Byzantine Empire and Egypt from falling under the Mongol yoke.
In the east, when Hulagu's brother Mongke died, another of his brothers, Ariq Boke was elected Great Khan, but yet another brother, Kublai wanted the title for himself. Kublai and Ariq Boke went to war with each other in 1260 and fought until Arik Boke was captured in 1263. Arik Boke was subsequently imprisoned, and died two years later. In victory, Kublai assumed the sole title of Great Khan, although his influence over the west was minimal at most. As previously stated, he did however establish the Yuan Dynasty, and complete the total conquest of China in 1279. After Kublai Khan died the Yuan dynasty was also cursed by power struggles and managed to stand as an empire for less than another century before falling to the Ming Dynasty in 1368.
Before that happened, the Mongols, of course, wanted to expand their rule from China, but Japan repelled two mistake-prone Mongol invasions across the Yellow Sea and Strait of Korea in which much of the Mongol invasion fleet was lost to storms at sea on both occasions. To the south of China, Vietnam also resisted capitulation. Unable to defeat the Mongols in direct confrontation, the Vietnamese evacuated their cities and retreated in the face of onslaught. Still, the Vietnamese were tenacious, at times they employed scorched-Earth tactics, fought stealthy guerilla warfare, and sought out small battles to their advantage. In three campaigns of invasion, always with superior battle forces, the Mongols never succeeded in subduing the Vietnamese people, and were eventually driven back every time.