2100 YEARS OR TRIBAL INVASION
400BC TO 1700AD
(See maps below how to use and where)

MONGOLS        Ghengis Kahn, leader of the Mongols died in 1227 AD, but managed to plan and initiate one of the most terrifying invasions in man’s history to this point in time.

About 1155 Temuchin, the future Chingis Khan, the Father and Founder of the Mongol nation is born into the Origin clan to his mother Hoelun and his father Yesugei at the bank of the river Onon, East of Lake Bajkal.

This momentous birth brought into existence a man who was to establish the largest empire in all of human history, and in the process to conquer the most advanced civilizations of the era, those of China and Khwarezm.  His ability and vision enabled him with a nation of less than 2 million to build the greatest land empire on this earth.  Most striking was Kahn’s philosophy and determination not to attack China until all the tribes in the area had been conquered and integrated into his Mongol nation in the Bajkal Region. 

When Temuchin became Chingis Khan in 1206, he was the leader of a traditional nomad army whose main weapon was the advanced compound bow.  Chingis Khan began his war against China in 1207 AD and invaded the mighty Chin Empire, capital at Peking, in 1211.  During the Chinese war and even more during later campaigns in Khwawrezm, the Mongols were equipped with advanced siege weaponry like mangonels, battering-rams and other technologically advanced weapons of the time.  The Mongols even had sappers who organized the undermining and blowing up of town fortifications.

Peking fell to Chingis Khan in 1215.  The Chinese had enjoyed superiority, using 600,000 defenders against the much more disciplined and morally strong Mongols numbering no more than 75,000 men.  The Mongols had been formidable in the field, but poor against fortified cities.  Kahn was aware of this weakness, and had wisely enlisted Chinese siege engineers and their equipment.

Ghengis Kahn was joined by Yeh-lu Chu’tsai, a Chinese of Mongol extraction, as his closest adviser.  With Yeh, the Mongol Empire managed to bridge the gap between its old world of the nomads and the world of knowledge, learning and science.

Shah Mohammned ruled Khwarezm, a major Empire of Afghanistan, (present-day Persia and Tyrkestan) the area between the Aral Sea and the Caspian.  When Khan’s caravan was annihilated, Chingis Kahn declared war on The Shah.  The Shah sent about 400,000 men to oppose Khan.  Chingis with Subedei as his chief of staff entered the Shah’s domain with 90,000 in from the north and sent Chepe, another of his great generals, with 30,000 over one of the world’s highest mountain ranges in from the east.  180,000 warriors were killed in the main battle, but The Shah escaped.  By 1221, the huge Khwaresmian Empire had been devastated.

Chepe and Subedei then made a famous raid around the Caspian Sea and into Russia before returning to Chingis’ main army.  Subedei returned in 1223 after smashing a large Georgian army.  Then he, with his 20,000 men almost destroyed a Russian army of 80,000 in the famous Battle of Khalka.  Chepe died during this campaign.  Subedei soon became the one survivor among Chingis Khan’s “dogs of war.” (Chepe, Jeime, Khubilai and Subedei)
Chingis Khan died in 1227.  The entire Chin Empire was finally subjugated in 1229.

The domains of the Golden Horde in 1389 with modern international boundaries in light brown. The Principality of Moscow is shown as a dependency, in light yellow.

Chingis Kahn’s Great Western Campaign   (1234 –   ?)
In 1235, Subedei was given and initiated the task of reconnoitering deep into the West in order to prepare for the great western campaign planned by Chingis Khan with his generals (they first reconnoitered in 1222-1223).  The political and economic structures of the West were investigated in great detail, even family connections.  The plan was to conquer all Christian Europe.

In 1236 Subedei, with Chi Khan’s grandson Batu as nominal leader started the great 1236-1242 campaign with 150,000 to subjugate all of Russia and Eastern Europe.  Subedei determined that the campaign start in the winter.  The Mongols were accustomed to the rigors of winter.  Temperatures of minus 60 degree were not unknown.  In 1237, they defeated the Volga Bulgars.  In 1240, The Mongols captured Kiev the largest city in Russia using catapults, mangonels, poisoned arrow, naptha while simultaneously bowmen ascended rooftops and lancers filled the streets.  The Russian land would now be dominated by the Mongols until 1480. 

Following Russia, in 1240, after having divided the great Mongol army into 3 parts, Subedei invaded Hungary and Poland.  After these invasions, it meant that the victorious Mongols had defeated several large armies and killed more than 200,000 of the finest European warriors during some few weeks in the 1241.  The Mongols crossed the Danube and consolidated gains before invading Austria. 
Ogodei, Khan’s son and 1st successor, died in Mongolia in 1241 .  The regency was  taken over by his widow Toregene to be ruler of the Mongol Empire in 1241.  With Ogodei dead, the position of Great Khan was vacant, and the Mongol religious and political custom was to return to their homeland in order to face the changed political situation and to elect a new Khan.  This was a decision that would prove to be fateful for the Mongols.  If the Mongols had not been bound by tradition, but continued the European campaign, Batu and Subedei might have conquered all of Europe to the Atlantic Ocean.  Because of subsequent disruptive developments, the Mongols never returned to fulfill their European mission.  The fact that Mongol reconnaissance troops penetrated the German Empire and reached the outskirts of Vienna lends considerable creditability to such an assumption.

Significantly, the principle of Chingis Khan to appoint leaders to their positions on the basis of ability alone was soon regularly violated and like many other Empires, greed and corruption returned as a characteristic of their behavior.  Many humans believe that there is an unbridgeable contradiction between solidarity, love and compassion on the one hand and competition, selection and polarized complementaries on the other.

A saying that is attributed to Yeh-lu Chu’tsai, Chingis Kahn’s closest advisor, is “There is no natural law that makes the world improve with time.”

THE MONGOLS AND PERSIA

In 1220 AD Genghis and his Mongol hordes attacked Persia with unparalled brutality, one of the worst catastrophes in the history of mankind.  In Persia’s northeastern provinces, his descendent Hulagu Khan razed almost every major city, destroyed libraries and hospitals and slaughtered entire populations,.  The death toll estimates ranged into the millions. 

The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 ending the Abbasid Caliphate rule.  The II-Khanid Dynasty gained control of the segment of the Mongol Empire covering Persia.

Shah Ismail united all of Persia under Iranian leadership after 9 centuries of fragmented rule.  Being a Shi’ite, he declared Sh’ism as the state religion and converted virtually all of Persia and other areas from Sunnism to Sh’ism.  Shi’ism became a medium for Persians to differentiate themselves from the rest of the Islamic world and in particular, from the Sunni Ottomans.