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Introduction The Mongol warlords created the largest empire known to man. It was the largest empire ever created or will be created ever again by nomadic people.0This paper will study the methods and techniques used by the leaders of the army’s that created this empire. The Mongol Empire spanned from Egypt to Russia, all the way over to Korea and down to Vietnam. The empire lasted for many decades, had many rulers, and brought an unequaled peace to their realm.1 The realm was also the most populated empire of ancient times, even more so than the Persian Empire, or the empire of Attila the Hun, a thousand years before. They had the will to conquer, the way to conquer, and the means to conquer and to maintain control over a world population easily a hundred times their own.2 This paper will only cover the methods and circumstances used by the Mongols to initially conquer the world, not how they maintained it for so many decades. The Mongols were a civilization that built their entire life around the horse, and their interaction with it, not unlike the interaction with the Native Americans and their all-encompassing great spirit. They spent most of their life in the saddle, constantly moving, never staying still, like a speck of dust in the wind. This nomadic lifestyle led to a small population of hardy, proud, warlike yet honorable people unlike anyone on Earth.3 They had a general distain for the civilized people of China or even the slightly more primitive Korea. This distain led them to distance themselves from the world, except during times of war or need. It also proved to be the nesting grounds for the developing desire to change the world and the people of it. Being such hardy people, they saw the civilized world as weak, pompous, and ripe for the taking. The Mongol military machine is the basis for every military in the world today. They were disciplined, hard hitting, and have speed matched only by today’s modern armies of the United States, Great Britain, Russia, or any other first class nation of the world.4 The Mongol army, way of fighting, and their lifestyle lead to the inevitable capture of the most important nations in the world, relocation of civilized people, loss of enemy life, and finally peace among the largest and most advanced nation in the world.5 How these “primitive savages”6 managed to conquer half the world without destroying themselves is the topic of this paper.
0 David Nicolle, The Mongol Warlords, (New York Sterling Publishing Company, 1990), p7
The Mongolian Empire was built on the greatest series of battles and visionary tactics that ever existed. But, as with all things, luck played a part of the beginning of the greatest chapter of human history. The Mongols were a militaristic society of nomadic horse warriors.[2]They were the descendents of the Huns, their predecessors by a thousand years.[3]They were the strongest of the shattered nomadic tribes of the Mongolian steppes, primitive, but with a strong sense of national identity.[4] The world was in chaos and the dark ages of Europe were in full swing. Religious fervor had resulted in a Crusade, the first of many such defeats for the “ignorant” Christians.[5] Alchemy* was a popular science, and the Catholic Church’s power was absolute. The strongest of the Middle East dynasties was the Abbasid dynasty[6], the first such dynasty for the Muslims, the Sung (Song) ruled in Asia[7], a powerful empire that was superior to any in the world at that time. These empires were the only line of defense that civilization had. China was by far the most advanced and the most capable of handling the Mongols. The Mongols were nomadic horse warriors from the Mongolian steppe. They lived and fought with tactics that were unique, and used weapons that rival even those used in the modern era.[8] They fought with the sword, shield, armor, and the Mongolian recurve bow. Being horse warriors, they used hit and run tactics, raids, and every trick in the book to hit, get in, slaughter, and get out before the enemy could mount a successful defense.[9] They relied heavily on the bow, arrow, and speed of their hardy steppe ponies to get them in and out of trouble.[10] The tribes of Mongolia, lacked one element that would have made them a terrible force that would have soaked the Earth in the blood of civilization: Attila the Hun. He was the most feared man to ever ride a pony and he, who is considered to come from the depths of hell to pillage and destroy; he so completely devastated the Western Europeans that even the Roman Empire was unable to stand up to him.[11] The man was so evil, that the pope changed the name of his tribe and even added a part of the Bible that described were Attila and his Huns came from.[12] Attila the Hun provided the unifying force that first transformed nomadic horse warriors into a disciplined fighting army. I think that I will let history speak for itself here.[13] Unfortunately for the civilized world, such a leader had been born. He was to be the father of the Mongolian Empire, and considered by some to be the last of the great conquerors.[14] His name: Temüchin. We know him better as Genghis Khan.[15] Genghis Khan Genghis Khan was the first one to fully unite the scattered hordes of Mongolia. He used their power to wield a weapon of power and accuracy, to create a nation that spanned from Korea and China to Turkey and Iraq.[16] The army of Genghis Khan was the first truly disciplined army in the world. They fought as one unit, battled as one army, and since every male between the age of 16 to 60 were expected to fight, they had with them a lifetime of experience in combat. Whereas European knights wore metal armor and carried big weapons,[17] the army of the Great Khan wore lamellar armor* on both their bodies and on their horses.[18] The main weapon of the horde was the Mongolian bow. This bow is more advanced than any other in history. They were smaller than Schythan bows, had more draw than British Longbows, more power than steel Chinese crossbows, and a faster reload than modern hunting bows.[19] Unlike the European “Mediterranean release”, the Mongols used a Mongolian thumb release that provided more draw, and hence, more force and velocity on the arrow, translating to more penetration power.[20] The bow was built not of one piece of wood, like European bows, or even plastic, like today’s common bows, but were made of many different components. These components were more commonly: a wood core with four pieces of rams horn; the belly of the bow was reinforced with sinew, and the whole thing was backed up with “fish glue”.[21] They often had angled ears to increase the tension on the string and its pulling power. Mongolian bows were ready for combat every day of the year. The construction of the bow meant that the tension on the string never abated, unlike European bows, or even the bows of today. This lack of tension loss meant that well constructed bows could last forever. The only drawback that the bows had was (and still is) the amount of strength required to pull the bow back to its full release point. They often require forty-five or more kilograms of pull. That is over ninety-one pounds of force. It takes a strong person to wield one of these bows.[22] The arrows that the army of the Great Khan used were also a factor in his great success. They were made of hollow reeds, which helped absorb the shock of firing and kept the arrow going straighter longer, which in turn helped it with its penetration power. They were able to achieve speeds similar to the bullets fired out of guns. It was much lighter than the arrows of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, or even today. They relied on their high velocity rather than weight for killing power.[23] One of the reasons the army of Khan was so feared was for its speed. His army was just as fast as armies of modern day first class nations*.[24] Easily covering two hundred miles a day, they were able to do this only with the support of their steppe ponies. The ponies were an integral part of their military. Small, incredibly tough, strong of neck and sure of foot, these ponies had great speed and superior endurance. Every warrior had a few extra ponies on hand, so they could switch to fresh mounts when the ponies got tired. They were able to outrun anyone but other Mongols.[25] The Mongols were well versed in the tactics of Attila the Hun and used them to devastating effect. “Have a fast lightly armored military machine capable of hitting at long range, and a small one for close combat.” The Mongols were revamped under Genghis Khan to be mostly lightly armored or unarmored horse archers with a small elite force of heavily armored, heavily armed close combat destroyers*.[26] These close combat finishing troops used straight edged swords, axes, maces, and the occasional lance or hook.[27] The army made full use of their military speed and strength, often using hit and run, feigned flight, ambushes, surprise attacks from unexpected directions, and even simple terrorism to draw their enemies together and encircle them.[28]They used a rather unique method of communication, flags, for sending messages, and orders. Everything else was to scare and unnerve the enemy.[29] It worked to a great effect.[30] Temüchins first real battle was against the Tatars (Huns) and the Taidjuts.[31] The Tatar force attacked the Mongol alliance of Khan’s horde, the Kiyat32, and the Keraits.[33] Khan had 13 000 warriors to the Tatars 30 000 warriors. The first thing that Khan did was to arrange his smaller force between his tents and a forest. He gave all the women and young boys weapons and had them fight from the tents, thereby turning them into a light fortress.[34] With his fortress and his archers, he was able to lay down as much arrow fire as the much bigger Tatar force. When the battle went to close combat, Genghis Khan sent out his heavy cavalry. They were able to decimate the enemy force, totally routing it.[35] He then launched an attack on, and absorbed the Tatars and Taidjuts, redistributing them in his army. That gave him the manpower needed to unite the remainder of the Mongolian steppe tribes under his banner of nine white yak tails.[36] Having united the Hordes of the Khan, he then gave them a purpose: world conquest.[37] Genghis Khan soon led his army against the people of North China. For the first time he was going against an enemy who was superior to him in every way. The cities of North China were great walled cities with many people. The Chinese had gunpowder, siege weapons, anti-horse infantry, and the Great Wall of China.[38] Genghis Khan had some horse archers, and his cunning. To invade China, he first went around the Great Wall, and attacked the Koreans, enemies of the Chinese. In doing so, he was making his way into China, and gaining knowledge of the military tactics of China and Korea.[39] Realizing that he needed better weapons, and siege equipment, Genghis Khan began to absorb the Koreans into the Mongolian culture.He took learned men and integrated them into his army. In doing so, he gained the secrets of flaming arrows, gunpowder, terrorism, and most importantly, siege engineering.[40] Genghis Khan began his road to world conquest with a four-army invasion of China. He sent his two trusted generals, Subutai Baotour, and Chèpe Noyon, each with a battalion of men to terrorize the countryside, using the rich technology of the Chinese empire against them.[41] Genghis himself declared his intention to conquer northern China, then called Cathay, and make the emperor powerless. He then took up the third invasion corridor, and attacked. The four armies used their incredible speed and the roads of the Cathay Empire to strike at every Chinese town and city, raiding, scaring the people, and moving before the royal army could mount a solid defense.[42] These scare tactics worked better than Khan could have believed. The people of Cathay, scared stiff, removed their emperor from the throne, and many deserted to the army of The Great Khan. He incorporated these people into his army and society.[43] The new emperor of Northern China was a weak man who could do nothing to stop the Mongols. He fled to the area we call South China, the Empire of the Sung, and hid there.[44] That left Cathay with no leader, and a little army. Genghis Khan was able to take over. His army now included many specialty units, but the core of it still remained a swift horse archery unit.[45] Having pacified the southern flank of his kingdom, Khan was able to turn his attention west, over the Silk Road. Genghis Khan soon led his military over the Mongolian steppes, and into the northern area of the Middle East. He appeared where modern day Afghanistan is. Stopping only to raze the towns there, he led his units down into the heart of the Abbasid Empire. Along the way, Genghis Khan slaughtered the inhabitants of every city he came across. His method of killing was cruel but efficient. The Mongols would kill off the people deemed “unnecessary”. In some cities, that was up to four-fifths of the population.[46] Khan and his army rode so fast, that they outran the very news of their arrival. They, however, were not able to move faster than their reputation as merciless killers.[47]That was the way Khan wanted it. His enemies became afraid, and his Mongolian army was able to often defeat militaries many times its size.[48] Genghis Khan found that his horses were unable to cope with the stress of the desert. He therefore had to change his strategy somewhat. He relied less on horses, and more on his reputation for invincibility. To reinforce that, he changed direction again and eliminated the Muslim sects near modern day Pakistan and in the Indus river valley.[49] He also sent his aides Subotai and Chèpe to decimate the Nestorian Christians up north, in Russia and in Hungary. They never lost a battle. Subotai was able to even beat the Princes of Russia and sack Kiev.[50] The Mongols have been the only ones to have a successful winter invasion of Russia. When he returned to the Middle East, Genghis decided to attack Egypt. The Muslim slave army combined with the desert heat was more than the army could bear. For the first time, they were severely beaten.[51] Khan never returned to Egypt. Instead he returned to Asia where he, Genghis Khan, had an encounter that not even he could win. Genghis Khan, the world conquer, finally met his Maker.* Kublai Khan Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan and the ruler of China. When he took over as ruler, the empire was little more than just the northern area, what the Great Khan had conquered. Being a Mongolian warrior, Kublai decided to rectify that situation. The first thing that he did was to gather a military. Horses could not thrive in the plains of Cathay, so the bulk of his army was Chinese infantry. He began his own legend with an invasion of the Sung. They had a weak army, but had the most advanced navy in the world. It was a powerful navy, one that protected all the major cities. In the wake of Genghis Khan’s invasion, the Sung established shipyards at Hang-chow, Canton, Ming-chow, and Wen-chow.[52] They also fortified their cities with a river navy under the command of the Yeh-hai chih-chih shih, or Military Commissioner of the River Defenses[53] and their sea ports with a navy under the control of a Yen-chiang-chih-chih-shih, or Military Commissioner of Costal Defenses.[54] Kublai attacked up the center of South China, then went and attacked the shipyards. At the same time, he sent trusted military commanders to siege the largest cities of the Sung. Kublai also built a navy, but being warriors of the steppes, the Mongols had next to no experience in ship building and piloting. Kublai brought in experts from Korea and the captured Sung areas. In time, his navy had skilled pilots, and weapons like the Sung. They had flaming arrows, rockets, flamethrowers*, crude bombs, and catapults on their ships.[55] The Khan of the Chinese was eventually able to unite both Northern and Southern China as one. He was only the second foreign ruler to rule in the history of China.[56] Unlike Genghis Khan, his army was mostly infantry, with little cavalry. He was also the first Mongolian ruler to have a navy. Once Kublai had pacified China, he turned his sights on other countries of Asia. He conquered the empires where Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia now stand.[57] He also invaded Korea and used that as a gather point* for his invasions of the “impudent” islands of Japan.[58] Kublai Khan only lost a few battles in his entire life. He lost two to Japan. The Kamikaze, or “Divine Wind” foiled his first invasion of Japan. It is a wind that blew a storm onto Khan’s ships, sunk most of them, and blew the rest off course. The Japanese, believing that their islands were sacred, ignored Khan.[59] The second invasion turned out just as bad as the first. The Japanese completely destroyed the Mongols. After the second attempt, Kublai never returned to Japan. Being raised in China, Kublai Khan had a distinct dislike for the nomadic lifestyle.[60] He spent his later years fighting in Siberia, the Gobi, and the nomadic tribes just to the west of China’s western border. He constantly fought against raiders and other nomadic people.[61] During the fighting, his army changed so that the horse cavalry took a more predominant role, but the bulk of it was still Chinese infantry. Tamerlane Timir-I Lenk, better known as Tamerlane, was the most cruel and savage of all the Mongolian warlords.[62] He overran large areas of Russia, India, central Asia, and Iraq.[63] In Europe, Tamerlane is known as the Scourge of God, the same name given to Attila the Hun.[64] Like Genghis and Attila, Tamerlane also massacred the population of many cities. His massacres were more frequent, bloodier, more sadistic than the massacres of any other Mongolian war leader*, and only served one purpose: to frighten his enemy.[65] Many Catholic scholars consider Tamerlane, the Scourge of God, to be Attila the Hun reborn, or Satan himself. There is an obvious likeness between Attila and Timir. Timir-I Lenk, was a true warrior, not a statesman and spent most of his life in the saddle.[66] His first true campaign was against the Golden Khanate in central Asia.[67] He pulled together a horse army very similar to Genghis Khans army. It was a fast, hard hitting military, where the people could hit hard, fight harder, and be beaten but never defeated.[68] He started by invading the area to the west of Afghanistan, and after razing their cities to the ground, he followed by totally destroying the Mongolian Golden Horde.[69] He then continued east, totally destroying the area of Mazandaran, destroying every city and turning the whole area into desert with the destruction of the towns and all their technology.[70] The horse army of Tamerlane then moved down and invaded the Muslim world. He razed any city he came across, and moved to the area of the Qara Qoyunlu, where he seized the capital, Van, bound the inhabitants, and threw them off a cliff.[71] Once he had massacred them, he turned his attention to Russia and the Golden Horde. He destroyed any military opposition that he faced, and in his usual sadistic manner, tried to foster civil war. After the battles in Russia, Timir went back down to Iran, and exterminated the Muzaffarids. He then laid a siege on the city of al Naja in Iran, returned to Iraq, massacred the citadel of Anatola, where he piled up the heads of the garrison, like a Muslim minaret.[72] He then returned to Russia and dealt a final blow to the Mongol-Turkish Golden Horde.[73] After he did that, he set his sights on China. On his way he sacked the trading cities of Tana, Sarai, and Astrakstan.[74] Once he had finished them, he made a quick stop in India. There he destroyed the Indian military and left the city of Delhi as a pile of heads.[75] He returned to the Middle East, invaded Anatola, destroyed the Jahlyuds and Mamluks and returned to deal with the Ottoman Turks. His Ottoman rival was the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Bayazit, who met him on the Plains of Ankara. The Sultan was among the greatest of the era’s military conquerors[76], and the battle between the Sultan and Timur would determine the future of history. Timur had a military composed of infantry, but there was still a large part that was mobile horse cavalry. His army was larger than that of Sultan Bayazit, and freshly rested.[77] The Sultan had a modern army that included Elite Janissary troops*, Anatolia cavalry, and Tatar horse archers, as well as infantry.[78] During the battle, the Tatar forces under the command of Sultan Bayazit defected and helped out Tamerlane.[79] That defection severely weakened the Sultan’s forces, giving Timir-I Lenk the upper hand. In the end, Timur was the victor.[80] He captured the Ottoman Sultan, who died in captivity.[81] Unfortunately for Tamerlane, the territory he conquered never did fully submit to him, and he often had to recapture cities that he had already captured. In that respect, empire building was one battle that he never won.[82]
Hülegü Hülegü was one of Genghis Khan’s grandchildren and is known as the Destroyer of Baghdad. When Hülegü was grown, he was assigned to be the viceroy of the Middle East. Things were looking pretty troubled for the Mongols. The Arabs had retaken many of their territories, and the current rulers were rulers in name only. The first task Hülegü was given was to destroy the fanatical Muslim sect called the Assassins. He gathered an army that consisted of two out of every ten Mongolian warriors, warriors from the Il-Khan empire, and a thousand engineers and skilled siege infantry that came from China.[83] Hülegü split his force up into four sections, and took a route from China to the home of the Assassins sect in central Asia. He attacked the well-defended Assassin castles, and took most of them before winter. He razed the defenses of Lammasar, Alamut, Girdkuh, as well as bases in Afghanistan and in Syria.[84] Having captured most of the bases, Hülegü then slaughtered over one-hundred thousand people.[85] Hülegü then turned his sights on Baghdad. The army of the Caliph was ill equipped, unskilled, and of doubtful loyalty.[86] Whereas Hülegü had a military that had been hardened by warfare in the mountains and reinforced by soldiers from Christian Georgia, as well as by groups of soldiers from the Golden Horde.[87] Hülegü led his force to Baghdad and put it under siege. They sieged for over a month before the garrison surrendered. The garrison was then eliminated, as was a large portion of the city population. Huge numbers of men, women, and children were simply killed.[88] The Caliph was wrapped in a rug and kicked to death.[89] Once he had consolidated his power, Hülegü then set out to conquer Syria and Egypt. For this conquest, he brought in a corps of Chinese infantry who were skilled in siege warfare. He divided his army into four parts and attacked. He massacred the citadel of Mayyafaqarin on his way to Syria. Once in Syria, they slaughtered the people of Aleppo. He then went and took over the city of Damascus. Damascus was spared the usual slaughter.[90] Hülegü’s general, Kit-Buqa, prepared for the invasion of Egypt.[91] When Hülegü suddenly returned to Asia, Kit-Buqa, sacked the Crusader city of Sidon and the fortress of Cavea de Tyron.[92] While the Mongols were away the Mamluks attacked. The forces of the Egyptian Mamluk army and that of General Kit-Buqa met near the city of Ayn Jalut, a battle that resulted in Mamluk victory and the death of Kit-Buqa. The Mongols had encountered Mamluk armies before, but never any from Egypt, a state that exists for the sole purpose of having such an army.[93] In revenge for his fallen general, Hülegü gathered a small force, attacked the recently liberated city of Aleppo in Syria, massacred many of the inhabitants and fought the Mamluks again near Hims.[94] This resulted in a second victory for the Mamluks.[95] Hülegü left the Middle East and took his army against the Golden Horde in Russia. The Golden Horde had set up a triple alliance between Genoese merchants and the Mamluks of Egypt. Hülegü rode north and after fighting the Golden Horde in Shirvan, near present day Kuba, and Darband, his army of mostly swift horse archers took the castle on the river Terek. They fought a bloody battle, in which neither side could claim victory.[96] This war would drag out until the death of Hülegü.[97] This war was the final deathblow to the Mongolian world empire. It crippled the military forces of the Il-Khanate, as well as weakening that of Hülegü, to the point of collapse. His empire was not strong enough to fight off the Crusader states and the armies of the Mamluks. End Notes *The science of Alchemy is the study of turning base medals into gold.[98] *Temüchin is the name given to Genghis Khan by his father.[99] *Lamellar armor was a style of armor that was made of overlapping plates of steel or rawhide leather sown together. It was very light and similar to the early European scale armor.[100] *The Mongols could move at speeds up to sixty miles per hour. That is as fast as the U.S. Army’s M1 tank, one of the fastest tanks in the world as of 1996. *The Mongolian close combat destroyers were heavily armed and armored troops that were deployed when total victory was needed. *Genghis Khan died. *The “flamethrowers” of Kublai Khan’s navy were pots filled with a flammable chemical similar to Greek fire, which was launched off the catapults. They also had hoses out of which they could squirt this chemical. *Gather point: a military term designating a specific meeting point for a military and its supplies. Used in conjunction with invasions.[101 ] *Tamerlane often desecrated the dead bodies of a city. He would most often leave the severed heads of a body piled together in big mounds outside the city walls. He once built a living wall by putting 2000 people into wet plaster.[102] *Janissaries were warriors that fought primarily with handguns. They got the best guns, and often hired themselves out as mercenaries. 1David Nicolle, The Mongol Warlords, (Sterling Publishing Company New York, New York, 1990) inside cover The Conclusion The Mongolian hordes created an empire that spanned from the modern day countries of Vietnam to the upper reaches of Russia. In order to fight well on this varied terrain, the Mongolian leaders of the different regions had to develop different techniques. These techniques ranged from using horse archers with a reputation of invincibility to creating a navy that could ravage the most advanced country in the world. Genghis Khan used the resources of the steppes of Mongolia to recruit an army that was unlike anything that had ever been seen before. His horse archers used ancient weapons and techniques to confuse their enemies and tire them out. He used trickery and deceit to gain knowledge about their enemies and he used learned scholars to provide his empire with the experience of settled civilizations. Kublai Khan used the vast resources of Cathay to raise an army and navy capable of defeating even the mighty Sung Empire. He continually refined the techniques of his military to be better suited for the jungles of Southeast Asia. He used his infantry to cripple Vietnam, Laos, and even Cambodia. Timur-I Lenk, better known as Tamerlane, used the vileness of his sadistic nature to destroy cities and inspire terror wherever he might show up. His army was similar to that of Genghis Khan. He did have the weapons of the Great Khans army, but he did not have the commanding presence of Genghis Khan. He massacred the populations of cities, or he destroyed them, making it impossible for him to find learned people among them. He could not, therefore, create an empire that lasted longer than his life. The last great giant among the Mongolian warlords was the mighty Hülegü. He was the one who captured the Holy land, and held it against the Turks as well as the Europeans. The army of Hülegü was the weakest of the armies of the warlords, however, they were also the most educated and had the best resources to draw on. Hülegü and his warlike army fought a lot with other Mongolians, and eventually were crippled because of the fighting that they got involved in. That opened up the Middle East for re-conquest by Arabs resentful of Mongolian rule. Out of all the Greatest Mongolian Warlords, I think that Genghis Khan was the most hardy and strong-willed of all. He went from having nothing to building the greatest empire that ever existed. He conquered civilized people from the saddle of a horse, defeating many empires that had more warriors, better technology, and the experience of education. It is my sincere hope that you have gained some knowledge about the greatest empire of all times, and the battle styles and military tactics of the greatest or most savage of the leaders of the Mongol Horde: Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Hülegü, and Kublai Khan.
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