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Genghis Khan: Difference between revisions
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He conquered and despoiled large parts of northern China, central Asia, and utterly destroyed the powerful Turkic Khwarazmian Empire, which governed some of the most important regions of the Silk Road, despoiling the country, killing millions of people, and burning whole cities to the ground. This being his response to the inhospitable murder of envoys Genghis had sent in an effort to establish trade ties. In one of his most brutal deeds, when the wealthy city of Urgench (in modern Turkmenistan) was conquered by the Mongols, Genghis ordered the enslavement of the women, children and artisans of the city, and had the rest of the population of the city executed in a single session. Some figures claim up to 1.2 million inhabitants were massacred. | He conquered and despoiled large parts of northern China, central Asia, and utterly destroyed the powerful Turkic Khwarazmian Empire, which governed some of the most important regions of the Silk Road, despoiling the country, killing millions of people, and burning whole cities to the ground. This being his response to the inhospitable murder of envoys Genghis had sent in an effort to establish trade ties. In one of his most brutal deeds, when the wealthy city of Urgench (in modern Turkmenistan) was conquered by the Mongols, Genghis ordered the enslavement of the women, children and artisans of the city, and had the rest of the population of the city executed in a single session. Some figures claim up to 1.2 million inhabitants were massacred. | ||
This brutality was mainly a result of the asymmetric warfare | This brutality was mainly a result of the asymmetric warfare strategy pursued by the Mongols. Frequently facing enemy armies many times their size in numbers, and subduing nations of millions, they could not afford to be bogged down in endless siege warfare. The Mongols relied on their reputation of terror to enforce rapid compliance among the enemies they faced and the people they conquered. This reign of terror allowed them to stay mobile, and use small detachments of men to occupy conquered territory. The men left behind, safe in the knowledge that if they perished in a rebellion, the tumens (Mongol divisions of roughly 10,000 horsemen) would soon be back to slaughter the rebellious population wholesale. | ||
==Claims of being the greatest reproductive success== | ==Claims of being the greatest reproductive success== | ||