Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is a book detailing the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire that was published in 2004 and written by Jack Weatherford, a specialist in tribal peoples who spent years in Mongolia. Genghis Khan is an informative, novel, stunning read, for the narrative of Genghis Khan and the creation of the Mongol Empire is almost too fantastic to believe.
Genghis Khan begins with some recent historical context - in the 1930s, Stalin, in an attempt to break the spirit of the Mongol people, ordered much of their culture to be destroyed. Thirty thousand Mongolians were executed on his orders. However, the Soviet authorities potentially missed the Spirit Banner of Genghis Khan. In Mongol culture, the Spirit Banners of warriors are viewed as being so connected with their lives that they would never abandon it. Some Mongolians believed that when a person died, their spirit would remain in their Spirit Banner. Weatherford writes that “Genghis Khan had one banner made from white horses to use in peacetime and one made from black horses for guidance in war. The white one disappeared early in history, but the black one survived as the repository of his soul … the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism guarded the great banner, but they proved no match for the totalitarian politics of the twentieth century. The monks were killed, and the Spirit Banner disappeared” (xvi). Weatherford then wrote that Genghis Khan was an extremely important figure in history, and what made his life even more astounding was that he had to make his own destiny, seeing his unfortunate early beginnings. Rising from nothing, Genghis Khan founded an empire which, “At its zenith … covered between 11 and 12 million contiguous square miles, an area about the size of the African continent and considerably larger than North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean combined. It stretched from the snowy tundra of Siberia to the hot plains of India, from the rice paddies of Vietnam to the wheat fields of Hungary, and from Korea to the Balkans … on the modern map, Genghis Khan’s conquests include thirty countries with well over 3 billion people” (xviii). While the Mongols conquered much land, they numbered only a million.
Weatherford said that Genghis Khan’s accomplishments were so great that it would be as if “the United States, instead of being created by a group of educated merchants or wealthy planters, had been founded by one of its illiterate slaves, who, by the sheer force of personality, charisma, and determination, liberated America from foreign rule, united the people, created an alphabet, wrote the constitution, established universal religious freedom, invented a new system of warfare, marched an army from Canada to Brazil, and opened roads of commerce in a free-trade zone that stretched across the continent. On every level and from any perspective, the scale and scope of Genghis Khan’s accomplishments challenge the limits of imagination and tax the resources of scholarly explanation” (xiii). Indeed, Genghis Khan revolutionized the world, for when he rose to power and started his empire, he connected China with Europe through his conquests and the trade which followed, widely introduced the concept of a meritocracy, rejuvenated the Silk Road, abolished torture, made rulers accountable for their actions (especially impressive in that at the time he came up with the idea, the divine right of kings was still a popular opinion), granted complete religious freedom (in exchange for total loyalty - was still amazing, for at that time, religious persecutions, massacres, and pogroms were not only allowed but encouraged in areas like Christian Europe), and distributed wealth according to skill. While many conquerors like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon perished violently or miserably, Genghis Khan survived to old age and died in the presence of friends and family. Genghis Khan’s body has not been discovered as of yet, seeing that he was probably buried in the traditional Mongol way, which involved an indiscreet funeral.
Weatherford writes that Genghis Khan’s reputation was terrible because he himself never discouraged terrifying rumors of himself, seeing that fear was a great weapon. Also, the whole concept of destructive Mongol behavior was commonly used to rationalize the various failures of various countries. As Weatherford writes: “In due course, the Mongols became scapegoats for other nations’ failures and shortcomings. When Russia could not keep up with the technology of the West or the military power of imperial Japan, it was because of the terrible Tatar Yoke put on her by Genghis Khan … In the twentieth century, Arab politicians even assured their followers that Muslims would have invented the atomic bomb before the Americans if only the Mongols had not burned the Arabs’ magnificent libraries and leveled their cities” (xxvi-xxvii). Weatherford states that Genghis Khan was extremely progressive, and that he largely didn't deserve his soiled reputation. While it was true that the Mongols slaughtered many millions of people, quite a few people viewed today with high regards also had large body counts. For instance, two of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, each responsible for tens of millions of heinous murders, still find admirers today. The CCP continues to worship Mao Zedong, brainwashing hundreds of millions of people into viewing him as a hero, despite the fact that he was responsible for China’s worst famine which caused 45 million deaths, not to mention millions of other lives lost in labor camps. Weatherford discussed later on in his book that even though the Mongols are widely believed to have murdered 40 million people, that would require each soldier to individually kill hundreds of people. Weatherford believes that modern statistics are grossly overexaggerated, for if the previous statistic held true, the Mongols would have been easily overwhelmed by enemy forces.
Weatherford writes that two major developments made in the twentieth century helped scholars learn more of Genghis Khan. First, manuscripts were found which described the Mongols, such as The Secret History of the Mongols. Although the Communist authorities tried to keep the book from being translated, going so far as to commit mass murder, Mongol scholars were able to decipher the text. The second development was the collapse of the Soviet Union - with totalitarianism gone from Mongolia, people could freely do research. Weatherford then writes that he went to Mongolia to do research for his book, going there repeatedly over five years. Weatherford himself experienced life on the steppe, writing that temperature fluctuations were common to that land, and that zud, or animal famine, occurred at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He concedes that his life, compared to that of the herder centuries ago, was extremely easy, and that he never felt like he was actually in danger. He then writes of what he learned from the Mongolians, touchingly describing that “From riding nearly fifty miles in one day on a horse, I learned that the fifteen feet of silk tied tightly around the midriff actually kept the organs in place and prevented nausea. I also learned the importance of having dried yogurt in my pocket on such long treks, when there was no time to stop and cook a meal … Repeatedly, I learned how intimately the Mongols know their own world and how consistently and completely I could trust in their astute judgement, physical ability, and general helpfulness” (xxxv).
Weatherford begins his discussion on Genghis Khan by talking about his successful invasion of the town of Bukhara, and how he used strategy to win - before even entering the town, they used refugees to swarm the town, sowing panic. He made it clear that those who surrendered would be spared, and utilized his cavalry and the technology he had learned from his previous victories to siege the town. Weatherford writes that Genghis Khan knew that in order for a battle to be won by his side, they had to be the ones who made the first move, and this was done excellently by Genghis Khan through terror and shock. Weatherford writes that Genghis Khan, despite being an effective military commander, was still human, seen in his learning: “At no single, crucial moment in his life did he suddenly acquire his genius at warfare, his ability to inspire the loyalty of his followers, or his unprecedented skill for organizing on a global scale. These derived not from epiphanic enlightenment or formal schooling but from a persistent cycle of pragmatic learning, experimental adaptation, and constant revision driven on by his uniquely disciplined mind and focused will” (9). When Genghis Khan was a child, he was born to Hoelun, who had been kidnapped by his biological father (kidnapping was very popular at the time - if a man wanted a woman but lacked the resources to convince her parents to let them wed, he would commonly resort to forceful seizure). At that time, there was no order on the steppe - alliances were few, and when different tribes of Mongols encountered each other, battle would usually follow. The Mongols, to say the least, were disorganized and were obsessed with infighting. This owed its existence to the concept of retaliation, for tribes rarely forgot past wrongs, and seldom hesitated to exact vengeance. Genghis Khan was named Temujin (but i’ll still be calling him Genghis Khan) by his father, which meant “‘the look in the eye of a horse that is racing where it wants to go, no matter what the rider wants.’” (15).
Genghis Khan’s father was poisoned to death by a rival tribe, as he had killed one of their warriors before. After his death, he left two wives and seven children destitute. While he was the leader of his band, upon his death, the remaining members left, for they were loyal only to him, not his family. An event which would largely shape Genghis Khan’s view of the world was how an old man protested the people who were deserting the family of their previous leader. In response, “one of the deserting Tayichiud bellowed back to the old man that he had no right to criticize them, turned back, and speared the old man to death. Upon seeing this, Temujin, at this point a boy of no more than ten years, is said to have dashed up to try and help the dying man; unable to do anything, he just sobbed in hurt and anger” (19-20). Genghis Khan and the rest of his family, after being abandoned by their tribe, faced immediate starvation and exposure to the elements, but Hoelun stood up to the occasion and was able to save all their lives. She primarily did this by spending most of her time trying to get food, and was helped by the others. They barely survived the winters, seeing that their clothes were tattered and they ate whatever they could find, including decomposing corpses of wild animals. During this tumultuous time, Genghis Khan found a best friend in the form of Jamuka, who was slightly older than him. Jamuka and Genghis Khan befriended each other and made a blood oath which deemed them both as brothers, or andas. This also involved them swallowing each other’s blood. While Jamuka eventually left, their pact would have incredible ramifications years later. Genghis Khan’s home life, on the other hand, was very rough, seen in the precarious situation he was constantly in, not to mention that the oldest son traditionally had the right to do whatever he wished. The oldest son in the family was Begter, who eventually made the fatal mistake of insulting Genghis Khan by stealing his kill. Temujin, enraged, got the help of his brother Khasar to murder Begter by shooting him with arrows. When Hoelun learned of their crime, she became enraged. He was eventually captured by a tribe and became a slave, but escaped with the help of some people who sympathized with him.
Temujin soon married Borte, the daughter of the leader of another tribe. While he seemed to be content, the concept of retaliation destroyed his life once again - the tribe his mother was kidnapped from, the Merkid, wanted to exact vengeance on the tribe of Temujin’s biological father. When they appeared, they had no interest in Hoelun, who had become an old woman. Instead, they wanted Borte, Genghis Khan’s wife. They succeeded in their kidnapping, and Genghis Khan fled, knowing that there was no way he could win the battle. He escaped into the mountains, and upon surviving, thanked the spirits for helping him maintain his life. He then went to Ong Khan, his stepfather (prior Genghis Khan gave him a valuable fur coat, and when Ong Khan accepted it, he recognized him as his stepson) and requested help. Ong Khan, who had a feud with the Merkid before, gave Genghis Khan soldiers to rescue his bride. He also told Genghis Khan of Jamuka, his blood brother, who was in the Jadaran clan. Jamuka, upon learning of Genghis Khan’s predicament, agreed to help him. They succeeded in getting Borte back from the Merkid, and Borte eventually gave birth. Genghis Khan was concerned, for he did not know whether the child was his own, seeing that Borte was raped during her captivity. However, he accepted the child regardless, naming him “Jochi,” which meant “visitor” or “guest,” causing some to believe that he viewed the child as not his own. Jamuka and Genghis Khan eventually came into conflict, as Jamuka, paranoid of Genghis Khan’s popularity, told him to do the degrading task of leading the sheeps and goats while he would lead the horses. Genghis Khan, knowing a conflict was at hand, consulted his mother. Hoelun, upon hearing of this, became enraged, causing Genghis Khan to heed her advice and to leave in secret that same night. This would mark the beginning of a deadly conflict between the two former allies, as Jamuka and Genghis Khan would become sworn enemies for years afterwards.
When Genghis Khan broke off from Jamuka, he managed his own band in a way contrary to the previous structure. While most tribes managed their affairs through the court of the chief, nicknamed ordu or the horde, Genghis Khan got rid of that system and started a meritocracy: “In most steppe tribes, the khan’s ordu consisted of his relatives and served as a sort of aristocracy over the tribe, managing it and leading it. Temujin, however, assigned some dozen responsibilities to various followers according to the ability and loyalty of the individual without regard to kinship. He gave the highest positions as his personal assistants to his first two followers, Boorchu and Jelme, who had shown persistent loyalty to him for more than a decade” (40). One year after Genghis Khan’s breaking with Jamuka, Jamuka (who was very conservative, and viewed Genghis Khan as a threat to the established order) utilized the killing of one of his family members during a cattle raid by one of Genghis Khan’s men to initiate a massive battle. In the battle, Genghis Khan was beaten and some of his soldiers were captured. Jamuka then enacted a bloody show, for “To prevent their regrouping against him, Jamuka then perpetrated one of the cruelest shows of revenge ever recorded on the steppe. First, he cut off the head of one of the captured leaders and tied it to the tail of his horse. The spilling of the blood and the disgrace to the head, the most ritually sacred part of the body, defiled the dead man’s soul, and tying it to the most obscene part of the horse shamed his whole family. Reportedly, Jamuka then boiled seventy young male captives alive in cauldrons, a form of death that would have destroyed their souls and thus completely annihilated them” (41). Jamuka’s extreme attempts to intimidate people actually led to his own undoing - his people were so horrified at his actions and barbarism that they viewed Genghis Khan in a much higher light.
Genghis Khan, after his defeat, defeated the Jurkin tribe. He initially learned from them the importance of trade, and invited the leaders to a feast. During the feast, one of the Jurkin proceeded to insult Belgutei, Genghis Khan’s half-brother, by refusing to wrestle during a disagreement (seen as how to settle a score among equals). Instead, he took out a sword and cut him, drawing blood. When the guests heard of it, they began fighting. Genghis Khan proceeded to defeat the Jurkin, and, to show that aristocrats would receive no special privileges from him, he had them executed for betraying their promise to help him (not only did they refuse to aid him, but they stole from his band). Genghis Khan eventually came to fight Jamuka once again, and he actually won this time through psychological warfare and battle strategy: prior to the battle, he had many fires set around his camp, so when Jamuka’s spies noticed the vast amount of flames, they reported the supposedly colossal numbers of Genghis Khan’s tribe. Also, Genghis Khan was wounded by being shot in the neck with an arrow, but he survived. To use it to his advantage, he prevented Jamuka’s tribe from knowing of his wound, causing them to panic and escape. Furthermore, Genghis Khan at this time was under the protection of Ong Khan. It should be noted that Genghis Khan improved the tactics of his soldiers by instructing them that whenever they are to win a battle, they are to completely and utterly destroy the enemy before engaging in spoils. Before this was introduced on a widespread scale, it was a common occurrence for a battle to be won, only for the soldiers to be consumed by greed and to distract themselves by looting the area. Sometimes this would allow the enemy to regroup and win the battle. As Weatherford writes, “Temujin decided to order that all looting would wait until after complete victory had been won over the Tatar forces; the looting could then be carried out in a more organized fashion, with all the goods being brought under his central control and then redistributed among his followers as he determined fit. He distributed the goods along the same lines by which the hunting men of the forest traditionally distributed the kill at the end of the group hunt” (50). Genghis Khan also stated that a share of loot was to be given to the children and family of deceased soldiers to encourage them to fight, for they knew that even if they were to die, their families would be cared for - “This policy not only ensured him of the support of the poorest people in the tribe, but it also inspired loyalty among his soldiers, who knew that even if they died, he would take care of their surviving families” (50).
Genghis Khan’s strategies were immediately effective, for the rate of his army’s victories grew massively, alongside the wealth they absorbed. Genghis Khan eventually came across a dilemma - traditional Mongols would view those belonging to different bands as enemies. Now that his tribe had some bands, he needed to prevent infighting and potential insurrection. He then decided to enact a brutal policy on the Tatars by slaughtering every Tatar male “taller than the linchpin holding the wheels on a cart, which was not only a measure of adulthood but a symbolic designation of the nation itself … as a counter to the killing, Temujin wanted the surviving Tatars taken in as full members of his tribe, not as slaves” (51). After the slaughter, he then married two Tatar women to show his attitude, and encouraged intermarriage between various tribes. Genghis Khan then created arban, squads of ten soldiers who were supposed to be extremely loyal to each other: “No matter what their kin group or tribal origin, they were ordered to live and fight together as loyally as brothers; in the ultimate affirmation of kinship, no one of them could ever leave the other behind in battle as a captive … the eldest man took the leadership position in the Mongol arban, but the men could also decide to chose another to hold this position” (52). Ten akban formed a company, known as the zagun. Ten zaguns would form a mingan, a unit of a thousand soldiers. Ten mingan create a tumen, and the leader of each tumen is picked by Genghis Khan himself to ensure the quality of the leadership. Weatherford writes that it was an interesting coincidence that Temujin’s solution to ethnic fighting was similar to that of the Athenian lawmaker Cleisthenes who lived two millennia ago who had also “abolished the tribes and reassigned everyone to ten units of ten, thereby transforming a tribal city into a city-state that grew into the strongest military, commercial, artistic, and intellectual power along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea” (53). Genghis Khan, to reinforce the sense of unity, also referred to his tribe as “People of the Felt Walls.”
Ong Khan, who was master of the steppe for years, was nearing the end of his career. His successor would either be Genghis Khan or Jamuka. Ong Khan sided with Jamuka due to him being conservative and tried to assassinate Genghis Khan by falsely offering to give him a bride; in reality, he planned to use the ruse to murder him. Fortunately for Genghis Khan, he learned of the deception moments before he reached his destination, and he told his followers to flee in all directions. Genghis Khan and many of his followers survived and laid low for a while. While Ong Khan was celebrating his supposed victory over Genghis Khan, Genghis Khan’s army proved its efficiency and capability by coming to his defence: “Suddenly, Temujin, who was thought to be several days’ ride away, swooped down on the revelers; his men had surrounded the entire camp. Over the next three days of hard fighting the Kereyid retreated before the advancing army of Temujin. Many of the followers of Ong Khan deserted to Temujin’s banner, and, as was his known policy, he accepted them so long as they had not committed any act of treachery or harm to their former leader other than to abandon him in favor of Temujin” (59). Ong Khan’s army was absorbed into that of Genghis Khan, and he fled the area with his family and court. His son was abandoned by his servants in the desert and died of thirst. As for Ong Khan himself, the Mongols said that he met his end when a border guard, unbelieving that he was who he said he was, killed him. In the last crucial battle for dominance over Mongolia, Genghis Khan’s army crushed that of Jamuka’s. He won by first using row after row of archers - each row would fire an arrow before going to the back to repeat the process. Jamuka’s army then spread itself out in a long line to better meet the arrows, and Genghis Khan’s army funnelled their force on a weak spot of Jamuka’s army and subsequently broke through. Jamuka escaped with some of his followers and proceeded to hide in the wild. A year after the fateful battle, Jamuka’s followers, unwilling to live a life of exile, brought Jamuka to Genghis Khan as a prisoner. Genghis Khan, who valued loyalty, punished their treason with execution. Genghis Khan tried to reconcile with Jamuka, but Jamuka refused, saying that what’s done was done. He then asked Genghis Khan to kill him, but to do so in a manner fitting an aristocrat - execution without bloodshed. Some sources said that Genghis Khan granted Jamuka’s request by having his soldiers break his back, and it was speculated that “Temujin buried Jamuka in the golden belt that he had given to Jamuka when they swore the oath of andas” (64).
Genghis Khan, with the support of shamans and warriors, named himself Chinggis Khan, which would later be translated into “Genghis Khan.” Genghis Khan, upon ascending to ultimate power in Mongolia, forbade the slavery of Mongols, furthered the notion of meritocracy, passed the Great Law of Genghis Khan (which differentiated him from other rules, seeing that he did not say he got the right to rule from any divine authority), implemented a system to find lost livestock (as well as making animal rustling punishable by death), stated that children from concubines were still legitimate children, decreed complete religious tolerance (also exempted religious groups from taxation and public service), stated that adultery and sexual promiscuity should be handled by individual families and not the law, and decreased taxes for certain professions (teachers, scholars, doctors, lawyers, etc.). As seen in his previous policies, Genghis Khan was a very remarkable person, as few people were that progressive in that age. A major issue Genghis Khan had upon his consolidation of power was Teb Tengeri. Tengeri was the most revered shaman in Mongolia, and posed a threat to his power. Genghis Khan dealt with him by having him murdered (his back was snapped).
The Mongols, upon stopping their infighting, looked towards outside expansion. They were highly successful, for the soldiers were extremely disciplined, moved very quickly (carried basically nothing - only their horses and some food), were highly trained (could precisely shoot an arrow while riding a horse), and were familiar with strategy. Weatherford then writes that a major difference between Mongol armies and other ones at that time was that “Traditional armies of the era treated villages as resources to be looted and the peasants as a nuisance to be raped, killed, or disposed of in any convenient way” while the Mongols used them for strategy (92). In the Jurched campaign, the Mongols made more than a million people refugees, causing the Jurched army to kill around thirty thousand of their own countrymen. Although the Mongols were highly successful in the Jurched campaign, they severely suffered from the weather and geography: “The lower altitude and closeness to great rivers and the ocean made the air hold its moisture, and in the summer, the heat and humidity became nearly unbearable for the Mongols and their horses” (96). The Golden Khan of Jurched eventually surrendered, but upon Genghis Khan’s leaving, he escaped. Genghis Khan saw this as treason and went back to fight. Unsurprisingly, many soldiers who fought for the Golden Khan of Jurched viewed Genghis Khan as a better leader, for he fought with his soldiers, not to mention that the Golden Khan and many other rulers had largely abandoned them to their fates. Consequently, they joined the Mongols and helped them take the area. Upon the success of the Jurched campaign, a massive influx of luxury goods, steel, and other commercial items flushed into Mongolia and found themselves widely used by the Mongolian people. Genghis Khan, eager to continue trade, sent an envoy to the sultan of Khwarizm with the message that he wanted to enter a peaceful and productive relationship with him, seeing that he had no desire to take his land, seeing how he had so much already.
The sultan initially agreed, and Genghis Khan “assembled 450 merchants and retainers whom he sent from Mongolia to Khwarizm with a caravan loaded with the luxury commodities of white camel cloth, Chinese silk, silver bars, and raw jade. He sent an Indian at the head of the delegation with another message of friendship to the sultan, inviting trade so that ‘henceforth the abscess of evil thoughts may be lanced by the improvement of relations and agreement between us, and the pus of sedition and rebellion removed.’” (106). However, when the caravan arrived at Khwarizm, a greedy governor had the goods forcibly seized and slaughtered everyone in the caravans. Genghis Khan reacted reasonably upon hearing of the massacre, asking that the sultan punish the governor for his crime. Instead of listening, the sultan “rebuked the khan in the most publicly dramatic and offensive manner he knew. He killed some of the envoys and mutilated the faces of the others, whom he sent back to their master” (106). When Genghis Khan saw the remains of his envoys, he declared total war on the sultan. Genghis Khan’s army consisted of “about 100,000 to 125,000 horsemen, supplemented by Uighur and other Turkic allies, a corps of Chinese doctors, and engineers for a total of 150,000 to 200,000 men. By comparison, the Khwarizm ruler had some 400,000 men under arms across his empire, and they were fighting with the home advantage on their own territory” (110-1). Genghis Khan’s army defeated that of the sultan, for they offered surrender to every area before attacking - those who surrendered were guaranteed their lives, while those who resisted were mercilessly executed. When the Mongol Army encountered professionals, they would commonly send them to other parts of the empire in order to provide service, for the Mongols weren’t inventors - instead, they used the inventions of others to win victories. For instance, Genghis Khan had his army modernized to some degree upon finding some Chinese engineers who instructed them in the art of siege warfare. The Mongols, as stated before, were not aristocratic. This was clearly seen in how they ravaged the aristocrats of the areas they plundered, for they didn't want anyone competing with them for power. After the war was won, “The fate of the sultan’s mother, who had been the most powerful woman in the empire, showed the Mongol attitude toward aristocratic women. They captured her and killed most members of her court and some two dozen members of her family. Then they sent her off to live the remaining decade of her life in ignominious servitude in Mongolia, where she disappeared from history … she, like a captured man, was only as good as her skills, work, and service” (113).
The Mongols won so many foreign victories so quickly that many groups, including the Muslims and Christians, viewed him as some sort of invincible demon. Genghis Khan openly encouraged these rumors, for they were essential for a town or city to surrender. Weatherford then wrote that Genghis Khan’s army, despite their mass slaughters, were not as inhumane as many other armies at the time: “they deviated from standard practices of the time in an important and surprising way. The Mongols did not torture, mutilate, or maim. War during that time was often a form of combat in terror, and other contemporary rulers used the simple and barbaric tactic of instilling terror and horror into people through public torture or gruesome mutilation. In an August 1228 battle with Jalal al-Din, the son of the sultan, four hundred Mongol prisoners fell into enemy hands, and they knew well that they would die. The victors took the Mongol warriors to nearby Isfahan, tied them behind horses, and dragged them through the streets of the city to entertain the city’s residents. All the Mongol prisoners were thus killed as public sport and then fed to dogs” (115). In another incident, the Persian victors of a battle drove nails into the head of Mongol captives, and in another incident the sultan of Delhi had the Mongol prisoners crushed by elephants. Weatherford writes scathingly of so-called “civilized” areas, for he makes it clear that areas from China to Europe engaged in shocking brutality to maintain control. For instance, when “the Byzantine Christian emperor Basil defeated the Bulgarians in 1014, he had fifteen thousand Bulgarian war captives blinded. He left one man out of each hundred with one eye in order that he might lead the other ninety-nine homeward and thereby spread the terror. When the Christian Crusaders took cities such as Antioch in 1098 and Jerusalem in 1099, they slaughtered the Jews and Muslims without regard for age or gender, but merely because of their religion” (116). In yet another terrible incident, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, viewed as a hero, utilized terrible torture to conquer Lombard, a town located in the north of modern Italy. His soldiers decapitated their prisoners and used their craniums as soccer balls. They then brought out German prisoners and dismembered them. After that, they hung large amounts of prisoners. When the city saw this, they executed their own prisoners by hanging them in turn. “Instead of fighting each other directly, the two armies continued their escalation of terror. The Germans then gathered captive children and strapped them into their catapults, which were normally used to batter down walls and break through gates. With the power of these great siege machines, they hurled the living children at the city walls” (116).
Weatherford describes that the Mongols didn't use cruelty or barbarism to achieve their goals, for they mainly relied on speed, discipline, organization, and efficiency.
Weatherford then describes that the Mongols did commit their fair share of atrocities, seen in Nishapur, where most of those living in the city (including pets) were executed on the orders of Genghis Khan’s daughter, whose husband had been killed by an arrow after the city rebelled after surrendering. Weatherford then writes that the reputed body count of the Mongols was stunningly unrealistic. For instance, if the modern death tally is true, then every Mongol soldier would have to slaughter 350 people. Weatherford writes that the statistics are unrealistic, for even if the Mongols were to kill livestock, it would take them an extremely long time. Furthermore, “Inspection of the ruins of the cities conquered by the Mongols show that rarely did they surpass a tenth of the population enumerated as casualties. The dry desert soils of these areas preserve bones … yet none of them has yielded any trace of the millions said to have been slaughtered by the Mongols” (118). Genghis Khan did destroy many unimportant cities to spread fear, but he rarely wiped out the corresponding populations if they surrendered. Genghis Khan eventually encountered a problem, for his many sons were infighting. An especially contentious issue was Jochi’s parentage, for one of his sons declared that he shouldn’t be in the family. To deal with who should be his successor, Genghis Khan stated that Ogodei, who was a bit of an alcoholic and had an easy-going nature, should be next in line. This efficiently solved the problem. Genghis Khan, nearing the end of his life, instructed his family and advisors to conquer the rest of the world, for he couldn’t do it for them. Weatherford writes that Genghis Khan, despite his immense wealth and power, still didn't view himself as being somehow superior to those around him; he attributed his various victories to the faults of his enemies, not his own individual merit.
Upon his death, Ogodei opened the treasury to celebrate his ascension. Genghis Khan’s successors indulged themselves in luxury, for many, including Ogodei, enjoyed concubines, wine, good clothing, and mansions. The money eventually ran out, and Ogodei decided to invade Europe. One of their first stops was Russia, and Russia was swiftly defeated due to its lack of professional soldiers and sense of strategy - many of the soldiers were peasant farmers, not professionally trained warriors. Furthermore, they had little sense of organization and military strategy, were badly equipped, and easily fell for fake Mongol retreats. In response to the Mongol invasion, Christian authorities believed that they were being punished by God for their sins, causing them to commit massacres against the Jews, who they held accountable for the problem: “The Christians attempted to punish the Jews with the same treatment that they had heard the Mongols had used in their campaigns. The Christians set fire to Jewish homes and massacred the residents. Those Jews who managed to escape the cities fled from place to place in search of refuge, but in almost all communities, they found more persecution. To clearly identify which refugees were Jewish refugees and to prevent their entering new Christian communities, the church ordered that Jews had to wear distinctive clothes and emblems to mark them for all to see” (157). While the Mongols could have potentially taken Europe, they didn't, even after their numerous victories, due to the death of Ogodei. Another contributing factor as to why they didn't take over Europe was that European cities were so poor and produced so few educated people (due to religious fanaticism) that it simply wasn’t worth the time and effort to subjugate them. Despite this, the Mongols were able to make some money by selling prisoners of war to the Italians. Women played a large role in the Mongol empire, with many rising to high administrative positions. As stated before, the Mongols gave all their citizens complete religious toleration, and this was embodied in how they invited members of different religions to debate. In one instance, they invited Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists to debate. In the debate, the utter lack of objective facts and empirical evidence caused all three sects to start arguing in their own way, seeing that the Mongols forbade them from fighting. The Christians sung, the Muslims recited the Koran to drown out the singing, and the Buddhists meditated. Weatherford writes that “At the end of the debate, unable to convert or kill one another, they concluded the way most Mongol celebrations concluded, with everyone simply too drunk to continue. While the clerics debated at Karakorum, their religious brethren were hacking at each other and burning one another alive in other parts of the world outside the Mongol Empire … During the same time in both the Muslism and Christian kingdoms, the rulers made religious intolerance an official policy of the state … In 1255 the church sanctioned the torturing of people suspected of heretical beliefs, and priests, mostly Dominicans, began traveling from city to city to find and torture suspects” (173-4).
The Mongol empire eventually reached its peak in the western border as the Mongol army clashed with a slave army (composed of the same slaves they had sold to the Italians some years before) and were defeated. Khubilai Khan soon rose to power, and he focused on taking over China. When he took over large portions of China, he went to great lengths to portray himself and his family as Chinese. He also set many civil reforms, as he guaranteed property rights, reduced taxes for people, improved infrastructure and transportation, greatly decreased the number of capital punishments, forbade the application of torture before substantial evidence is produced, decreased the methods of torture (“By comparison, at the same time that the Mongols were moving to limit the use of torture, both church and state in Europe passed laws to expand its usage to an ever greater variety of crimes for which there need be no evidence. Unlike the variety of bloody forms of torture, such as stretching on the rack, being crushed by a great wheel, being impaled on spikes, or various forms of burning … Mongols limited it to beating with a cane”), introduced a system of parole, encouraged practical pursuits, established rules that were meritocratic (opening civil service and various professions to more people, not just the educated elite), vastly improved currency (the currency was so trusted that people took it without question), created public schools (20,166 were created in Khubilai’s rule), gave the peasantry more rights (peasants were organized in units of fifty known as she, and these units would oversee their own lives instead of being exploited by officials), and encouraged literacy (“Despite possible exaggeration by officials seeking to improve their record, the Mongol achievement is amazing considerably than no other country had attempted such an effort for universal education”), and rejected foot binding (201 and 206).
Khubilai Khan turned his attention to Japan, and he asked them to become a vassal state. The Japanese responded by rejecting the offer, causing the Mongols to invade. By a stroke of wild luck, the Mongols were repeatedly beaten by Japanese forces. A major factor leading to the Japanese victory was a massive typhoon that struck the Mongol fleet. They saw this as a sign from a divine entity, and nicknamed that wind the “Kamikaze.” After being defeated, Khubilai Khan decided to not take over Japan, seeing the potential costs for another invasion. In what became known as the Pax Mongolica, the Mongols connected China with Europe, facilitating trade and the spread of ideas. Some speculate that the Renaissance wouldn’t have happened without the Mongols, for when the Europeans learned that other civilizations were better than them from many standpoints, they decided to learn. The Mongol Empire eventually fell, but not because of a person, group, or army - the plague, the Black Death, was the culprit. While trade shared innovative ideas, technology, and culture, it also facilitated the mass movement of rats with fleas which carried the bubonic plague. It is most commonly believed that the Black Death originated from China and spread to other areas by Mongol soldiers. The Black Death also travelled quickly due to maritime travel, for fleas and rats were common passengers on ships. The Black Death itself was both infectious and lethal. As Weatherford describes, “A person could appear healthy in the morning, but suddenly break into hot fever that rapidly gave way to chills accompanied by both vomiting and diarrhea. The bodies of individuals who had only a short time earlier appeared active and robust suddenly and inexplicably broke down and began to dissolve before the horrified family observers. Blood began to ooze beneath the skin, which discolored the skin, lumps formed and oozed blood and pus in the groin. The lumps, subsequently called buboes from the Greek word for groin, then formed in the armpit and neck, and from them came the medical term for the disease: bubonic plague. When the lumps grew too large, they burst open … After only a few agonizing days of tortured pain, the person usually died” (242).
The plague itself was one of the worst pandemics in human history, for it wiped out the vast majority of populations in some areas while decimating others. Weatherford writes that “In 1331, chroniclers recorded that 90 percent of the people of Hopei Province died. By 1351, China had reportedly lost between one-half and two-thirds of its population to the plague. The country had included some 123 million inhabitants at the beginning of the thirteen century,but by the end of the fourteen century the population dropped to as low as 65 million” (243). The Black Death soon spread to Africa, and from 1340-1400, Africa’s population went from 80 to 68 million. The Black Death, upon reaching Iceland, possibly killed 60 percent of the settlers, which was the final nail in the coffin for the Vikings in Greenland. Weatherford writes that the total world population dropped by at least 75 million from 1340-1400. Europe’s population dropped from 75 to 52 million, meaning that the Black Death killed more people in Europe in a few decades than AIDS killed globally. The Black Death, like the Mongol invasions, caused pogroms and the massacre of Jews, giving credence to Bertrand Russell’s quote that “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” In just one incidence, “On Valentine’s Day in 1349, the authorities of Strasbourg herded two thousand Jews to the Jewish cemetery outside of the city to begin a mass burning. Some Jews were allowed to save themselves by confessing their crimes and converting to Christianity, and some children were forcefully converted. More than a thousand perished over the six days that it took to burn them all … City after city picked up the practice of publicly burning Jews to thwart the epidemic … between November 1348 and September 1349, all the Jews between Cologne and Austria had been burned. In the Christian parts of Spain, the people initiated similar persecutions against the resident Muslim minority, driving many of them to seek refuge in Granada and Morocco” (246-7).
The Black Death, aside from killing tens of millions and causing social tensions, also changed the basic structure of Europe. Feudalism, which reigned before, emphasized a small aristocracy which is supported by a large peasantry. When the Black Death struck, so many peasants died that the aristocrats had to give privileges to the survivors, including higher wages. The Black Death also largely ended Mongol rule, for during the Pax Mongolica, most people were fine with foreign rulers due to the large increase in the quality of life and the economic benefits. However, when huge numbers of people began dying, causing trade to fall apart, they turned upon the Mongols. At that point, many of the Mongols had largely integrated into their respective societies, and were eventually fully absorbed into their communities. In China, the Ming rulers got rid of many of the reforms brought by the Mongols and forbade dressing like a Mongol. Years later, Timur the Lame (otherwise known as Tamerlane) claimed to be a descendant of Genghis Khan, and conquered some lands. However, he didn't act like Genghis Khan, for “He slaughtered without reason and seemed to find a perverse but persistent pleasure in torturing and humiliating his prisoners. When he seized the sultan of the Ottoman kingdom of Turkey, he forced him to watch as his wives and daughters served Timur naked at dinner and, in some reports, satisfied his sexual demands” (252-3). Because of Timur’s alleged claims of his connection with Genghis Khan, people viewed them as being one of the same, a major contributor to the latter’s negative reputation. Timur’s descendants were the Moghuls and they ruled India. Weatherford writes that a descendant of Genghis Khan, Akbar, was a great ruler, for he ruled from 1556 to 1608 and “He had Genghis Khan’s genius for administration as well as his appreciation of trade. He abolished the hated jizya tax, the tax on non-Muslims. Akbar organized his cavalry … and instituted a civil service based on merit … the Moghuls made India into the world’s greatest manufacturing and trading nation and-contrary to both Muslim and Hindu traditions-raised the status of women. He continued the universalist attitude toward religion” (253).
The influence of the Mongols stretches to the current day. When evolution became a popular field, some scientists deemed those who were handicapped as “Mongoloid,” as they supposedly carried Mongolian DNA. During WWII, Stalin utilized Genghis Khan’s strategy of retreat, luring German forces deep into Russia before turning around to counterattack. Stalin’s efforts to destroy Mongolian culture destroyed a whole generation of researchers and scholars, but the main goal had failed: the Mongolians still knew Genghis Khan, and they continued learning about their past when the Soviet Union finally collapsed. Genghis Khan continues to be a figure that is both controversial and important, and no matter one’s opinion of him, the sheer scope of his influence cannot be understated. After all, he had so many children that one in every 200 men today are related to him.
Personal thoughts:
Genghis Khan by Jack Weatherford is a fantastic, illuminating, descriptive, entertaining read. Before I read the book, I knew little of Genghis Khan. After reading it, my entire perspective of him has changed dramatically, for, as stated numerous times, he was a brilliant, open-minded military commander and an ardent progressive. When it comes to his reputation, I am still ambivalent, for millions indeed were slain by the Mongols. But again, which conqueror in history who may still find admirers today didn't use force to acquire their wants? This is not to excuse his actions; instead, it gives them more context - Genghis Khan grew up in a chaotic, dangerous world, and he completely changed it, for better or for worse. I highly recommend Genghis Khan to anyone interested in the Mongols, military strategy, and books that read like fast-paced narratives.
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