B. Summary of Evidence Before Genghis Khan’s leadership, the Mongols were simply a group of diverse tribes. Constantly hostile towards China, the Mongols went through the Bronze Age and Iron Age as separate tribes. However, during the 12th and 13th centuries, this would change. Thought to be born in 1155 or 1162, Temujin (later known as Chinggis and Genghis Khan) was one of six siblings and a violent nomad. Coincidently, he had a blood clot in his arm - to the Mongols, this was a sign meaning he was destined to become a great leader. At the young age of nine, Temujin’s father arranged a marriage for him and delivered him to a new family where he would later be married. Not a long time after this event, his father was poisoned by an enemy tribe. Wishing to be a leader, he returned home to claim his father’s old position. After being declined to lead the tribe, he was banished and left amid poverty along with his mother and siblings. Surviving on wild berries and ox carcasses, his family looked up to him. Often shunned by the rest of his family, Temujin lived a difficult life. It wasn’t until he killed his brother when hunting for game that his position in the family became concrete. Later, on the year of 1177, the young boy was captured by one of his father’s old tribes, the Tayichiud. These men enslaved and tortured him. It wasn’t until a father of the tribe, Chilaun, helped him escape. He soon joined forces with other men and his name spread quickly around the Mongols. At this time, he started studying the “difficult political climate” between the tribes and grew up to learn the truth of society which included tribal warfare, thievery, raids, corruption, and continuing acts of revenge. In order to create an alliance... ... middle of paper ... ...ws can be interpreted in a couple different ways. First of all, the most common way one can interpret these views is to view them as a product of Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory. During this time period, it was well-known that one must fight to live. Especially before Genghis Khan introduced the act of mercy to the Mongols, society was particularly violent, uneasy, and backstabbing. This means that people would rarely allow others to dominate and would, instead, create an opposition. Finally, these views can also be interpreted by believing that Genghis Khan actually fought to impress his parents. A few recovered documents suggest that he built his army due to his love towards his family and out of familial pride. However, other evidence, such as his hatred towards particular family members, proves this interpretation to be somewhat false.
To start, the mongols were able to used brutal and strategic military tactics that helped them conquer more than 4,800,000 miles of land. The Mongols leader “Genghis Khan” was a very smart and strategic leader. He organized his army into groups of ten, hundred, and one thousand. If such groups runs away or flees, the entire group was put to death. Genghis Khans army was able to succeed in conquering land due to horses. His army
The most important constituent to the Mongols success was ‘a ruthless use of two psychological weapons, loyalty and fear’ (Gascoigne 2010). Ghengis Khan, the Mongol leader from 1206-1227, was merciless and made a guileful contrast in his treatment of nomadic kinsfolk and settled people of cities. For instance, a warrior of a rival tribe who bravely fights against Ghengis Khan and loses will be r...
Unlike Attila, Genghiz Khan also known as Temujin and founder of the Mongol Empire in 1206, fought his way to the top after being exiled from his people at an early age. He was known to be just because he ensure that the spoils were distributed evenly among his warriors and he refrained his warriors from harming the innocents without his permission. Due to his fairness, he lost some friends that fought along with him to retrieve his wife, which the Merkits kidnapped. He was very diplomatic and laid down a solid rule for his army to abide by. He also came up with a good defense mechanism of dividing his army into “arbans (10 people), zuun...
The military exploits of the Mongols under Ghengis Khan as well as other leaders and the ruthless brutality that characterized the Mongol conquests have survived in legend. The impact of the invasions can be traced through history from the different policies set forth to the contributions the Mongols gave the world. The idea of the ruthless barbarian’s intent upon world domination will always be a way to signify the Mongols. Living steadfast upon the barren steppe they rode out of Mongolia to pursue a better life for their people.
The Mongols emerged from the Steppes of Central Asia that stretched from Central Europe, Siberia, India and Arabia, expanding some 33,000,000 square kilometers (22% of the Earth's total land mass). As Janhunen (2000) asserts, “The Mongols were the descendents of a variety of tribes that inhabited the Steppes of Central Asia for over 850,000 years, spanning as far back as the prehistoric period” (as cited in Hildinger, 2001, p. 40). During the early 13th century, Genghis Khan (born Temüjin) united the different tribes, forming tribal alliances under his control to establish the Mongol Empire. From these tribal alliances, Genghis Khan was able to form an effective military force which enabled the Mongol Empire to conquer nearly all of continental
Born in 1162, Khan's birth name was actually Temujin. The name we come to know him as today he acquired In 1206 when he came to power as leader of the Mongolian people, he was given the name Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) which means universal ruler. Before this time, Khan had a hard life living in the wilderness with his mother and siblings after his father had been murdered by his tribe's enemies and his own clan had abandoned his family to die. While struggling to survive in the Mongolian wilderness, Temujin (Khan) met one of the most influential friends and adversaries he would ever have in his life, Jamuka. (Beckwith-185) He eventually became the leader of a small clan, but quickly turned into a warrior when his wife was kidnapped by a neighboring tribe. With his friend and ally Jamuka, Khan led a war party to the neighboring tribe to get his wife back and this started his military exploits. (Weatherford-51)
In 1189, when Temujin was 22, he was elected new leader of the Kiyat tribe. His rise to power came when a rival clan, the Merkit, captured his wife, Borte. The Khan of the Kereit tribe, Toghril, helped him by providing him with 20,000 soldiers. Also, Jamuka, a childhood friend provided an army. With their help Temujin destroyed the Merkit tribe. Soon after this victory his allies abandoned him and plundered his property, but he ‘tactfully’ captured them, taking their men and turning them into his soldiers and servants.
... were positive, one may argue that these individuals only saw the tolerant and fair-minded side of the Mongols, and not the relentless warrior part of the society who was known for its “dirty” tactics of war, which went as far as launching diseased-ridden corpses over the walls of castles during sieges. Alternatively, one may argue that the scholars who provided negative documentation of the Mongols only saw the destructive side, not the open-minded side of the society who were known for their cultural acceptance. Although these accounts allowed for an adequate idea of the nature of the Mongols, a record from a peasant who was not a member of the upper class in their society, as all reports presented were from historians, scholars, and political leaders. This would allow for a different perspective on the issue and would produce a better understanding of the topic.
Hartog, L. D. (2004). Genghis Khan: conqueror of the world (vii ed.). [eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)]. http://dx.doi.org/AN 112269
In the 13th century BC, the Mongols rose to power and conquered an empire whose size still has yet to matched. The Mongols conquered lands such as China, leaving such a lasting influence on them that their legacy still lives on. However, despite the Mongols success, their actions have left a constantly ongoing debate on whether they were barbarians, seen and portrayed by different societies of their time as people with no morale or modern civilities, or civilized people who were just feared by other societies. Although the Mongols are generally now seen as Barbarians because of their violent and barbaric war tactics they used to instill fear in people, they are actually civilized because they had a strategically organized army, and because they were accepting of the customs of other peoples. These two elements would eventually lead them to their success.
Genghis Khan wasn’t his real name, it was a sort of nickname meaning “Universal Leader.” But when his father was poisoned by an enemy of the Mongolians, Genghis and his brother were the next ones in line to rule even though there wasn’t much land at the time to rule at the Mongolian steppe. When winter came around and Genghis Khan was only about four or five years old, he had killed his own brother over a rabbit which he would not share. Khan had killed his brother with a bow and watched him die right before his eyes and this was only the beginning of the violent terrors ahead.
After his warlord father was killed by a rival tribe, Temujin and his family were exiled to the steppes and into poverty. Temujin’s “personal magnetism and courage and his inclination to rely on trusted friends rather than kinship allowed him to build up a small following and to ally with a more powerful tribal leader” (Strayer, 2009). From an early age, his charismatic form of leadership brought many warriors into his fold, including warriors from defeated enemies, where they were rewarded for their skill and loyalty as opposed to their bloodlines. The warriors were all accountable to one another “by the provision that should one or two members of a unit desert in battle, all were subject to the death penalty” (Strayer, 2009). This system of punishment and rewards helped hold the Empire armies together and contributed to its success.
Upon appointment of tribal chieftain, Temujin set out to unify all the warring tribes in the steppes. Temujin managed to unify the tribes via conquest and a network of alliances tha...
First of all, Genghis Khan lived a very sad life full of death and betrayal. When he was believed to be around nine years-old, and still called by his birth name Temujin, his father arranged a marriage for him. His father took Temujin to live with the tribe, Onggirat, where his future wife lived. When his father was on the way back to his own tribe, he encountered the Tatars. The Tatars recognized him as a threat and offered poisoned food to him. Upon eating it, Yisugei was poisoned and died. When Temujin heard of the news, he went back to his tribe to take the position his father held. The tribe did not like the idea of suc...
This story can be summarized by dividing the story into three major sections that represent a genealogy of the Genghis Khan ancestors, the lifestyle of Genghis Khan and the story of Genghis son and Ogodei his successor. This piece of early time’s literature was translated and edited by Jack Weatherford and it was not released until 16th February, 2010. The piece of work restores early history’s most prominent figures to the positions they rightfully deserves. It clears the picture of the nomadic lifestyle of the Mongols and it is rich with information regarding the society of the Mongols in the 12th and the 13th centuries” (Kahn, 2005).