“We are the silver people, the Mongols. When they ask, tell them there are no tribes. Tell them I am khan of the sea of grass, and they will know me by that name, as Genghis.” This is the last quote from the book “Genghis Birth of an Empire” by Conn Iggulden. The quote completely represents a vision of one of the most ruthless conquerors of the 20th century, Genghis Khan. The true leader, who united all separated Mongol tribes under one banner, his banner, and established the great Mongol empire. The story begins with his happy childhood years and takes us through different stages in Genghis Khan’s life that formatted him as a leader and the future khan of all Mongols.
Genghis Khan, born as Temujin, he was the second son of Yesugei, the khan of Wolves, one of the many Mongol tribes. After his bright childhood, surrounded by his loving family, four brothers and sister, at age 12, he left the tribe, along with his father, to his mother’s tribe to find a wife. On the way back, Tartars, Yesugei’s old enemies, ambushed and deadly wounded him. After his father’s death, Yesugei’s bondsman claimed the Wolves tribe, and new khan left Temujin without any resources or weapon along with his entire family on the open plains, so that they would die. This circumstances and the wish to revenge his father’s death, force him to grow up very quickly. Temujin had known that they need to survive, and without any doubt, decided to kill his elder brother, when he caught him stealing the food that belongs to the whole family, despite the fact that they were of the same blood. He became a new leader for this small family, and he claimed it with this decision. After four years in a harsh environment like Mongol plains, surrounding with wanderers and herd...
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...the respected, feared and uncompromising leader of the great Mongol horde. This book ends when Temujin declaring himself as Genghis Khan and this was the birth of the Great Mongol Empire.
This story covered the first years in the life of Temujin, the young boy who will become Genghis Khan. The story filled with treachery, revenge, love and honor. Conn Iggulden not only learned from the ancient texts about Genghis Khan, but he spent time amongst the Mongolian people before writing the book. In my opinion, this is why he was able to describe very accurately all the nuances of the daily life in tribes. I found this book very interesting from the opening scene, when we met Temujin riding with his brothers on the Mongol plains to the last page when he announced himself as Genghis Khan. I would recommend this book for anyone, especially for fans of historical fiction.
This book is a study of the personal tales of many single mothers, with intentions to understand why single mothers from poor urban neighborhoods are increasingly having children out of wedlock at a young age and without promise of marrying their fathers. The authors chose to research their study in Philadelphia’s eight most devastated neighborhoods, where oppression and danger are high and substantial job opportunities are rare. They provide an excellent education against the myth that poor young urban women are having children due to a lack of education on birth control or because they intend to work the welfare system. Instead, having children is their best and perhaps only means of obtaining the purpose, validation and companionship that is otherwise difficult to find in the areas in which they live. For many of them, their child is the biggest promise they have to a better future. They also believe that though their life may not have been what they want, they want their child to have more and better opportunities and make it their life’s work to provide that.
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...
When the word “Mongol” is said I automatically think negative thoughts about uncultured, barbaric people who are horribly cruel and violent. That is only because I have only heard the word used to describe such a person. I have never really registered any initial information I have been taught about the subject pass the point of needing and having to know it. I felt quite incompetent on the subject and once I was given an assignment on the book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Age, I was very perplexed for two reasons. One I have to read an outside book for a class that already requires a substantial amount of time reading the text, and secondly I have to write a research paper in History. I got over it and read the book, which surprisingly enough interested me a great deal and allow me to see the Moguls for more than just a barbaric group of Neanderthals, but rather a group of purpose driven warriors with a common goal of unity and progression. Jack Weatherford’s work has given me insight on and swayed my opinion of the Mongols.
Hartog, Leo de. Genghis Khan: Conqueror Of The World. London: Taurisparke Paperbacks, 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
The Mongols; a vicious and destructive military force, feared throughout its empire and under the rule of one man, Chinggis Khan. This picture of the Mongols and their empire is one often painted by our modern society. However, much of what we think we know about the Mongols has been exaggerated and biased from the point of view of the people that were conquered. In reality, the Mongols, although at times violent and destructive, bore many similarities in tactics and practices to the classical empires that had preceded them. They were not just simple barbaric savages looking to destroy whatever they could. They were a people united for a common purpose, trying to achieve it the same way that prior civilizations had done so: military force. Even though a Western perspective may find the actions of the Mongols objectionable, it must be understood that this was not a Western society, nor did it house the same values as one. The Mongols were not the destructive barbarians they are often made out to be, but rather an effective military force working for unification.
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 Mongol Empire was a very powerful which conquered more land in two years than the Romans did in 400 years. Also, they controlled more than eleven million square miles. The Mongols were very important because they created nations like Russia and Korea, smashed the feudal system and created international law, and created the first free trade zone. In the beginning of the Mongol Empire, they mostly lived in foothills bordering the Siberian forests mixing heroing and hunting. They also became really good at archery and riding horses. The main reason the Mongols came to be so powerful was all because of a man named Genghis Kahn. Genghis was born around 1162 with the name Temujin. Due to the death of his father, Temujin was left under the control of his older brothers. Soon enough, he was married to a woman named Borte. Borte was later kidnapped, in which Temujin proved his military skills when saving her. Not to long after this, Temujin became the leader of his tribe. Yet, to unite the Mongol confederations it required a civil war, which Temijun ended up winning. After proving his skills and loyalty, Temijun was declared the Gr...
Genghis Khan, as it is well-acknowledged, is renowned for governing the extensively immense Mongol Empire. Despite the common argument that he indiscriminately (done at random or without careful judgement―by definition) slaughtered millions of people, Genghis Khan aspired to conquer new territories and, in accordance to their religion, animism, “the sky god made it their goal to unite the land under one sword.” How else would he have done the preceding? Just as the Mongol Government Official stated, “war is inevitable,” especially when capitulation is refused. Moreover, Genghis Khan noted that peace usually follows surrender. Though Prince Kiev attempted to confute the aforementioned, he was mistaken when he said that “war sparked between the two peoples” as a result of an attempt at peace. In response, Genghis Khan’s negation included that war arose as a consequence of their mistrust of him and the denial of a viable peace
Between the early 1200's and the mid 1300's the Mongol Empire, led by Genghis Khan, took control of around 9,300,000 square miles of Eurasia. Genghis Khan first started conquering neighboring clans before setting his sight on the rest of the world. When they would conquer a city, the Mongols would give the city a chance to surrender and if they declined and the Mongols succeeded in conquering them, then all of the citizens would be slaughtered. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire grew to encompass Central Asia, parts of the Middle East, and east to the borders of the Korean Peninsula. In 1227, Genghis Khan died, which led to the empire being divided into four khanates that would be ruled by his sons and grandsons. Genghis Khan's descendants
Hartog, L. D. (2004). Genghis Khan: conqueror of the world (vii ed.). [eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)]. http://dx.doi.org/AN 112269
The Mongol empire was the strongest during the 14th century out of any others in the world. This rise to power came largely as a direct result from their new ruler who would later be known as Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan is revered as one of the greatest military leaders in all of History. His numerous and at the time unheard of military strategies caught everyone he fought by surprise which may have been the most important factor. There are many factors that made Genghis Khan’s empire so successful such as the element of surprise, the unity of smaller tribes throughout Mongolia and the training of individual soldiers.
The Mongols are well known in history as the largest contiguous empire in human history. At the Empire 's height, the Mongols occupied 11 to 12 million contiguous square miles and Genghis Khan, the ruler of the Mongols, liberated the people of the land he conquered. With all of the land Genghis Khan had acquired, trade flow was crucial to the survival of the Mongols. As of with great powers, they fall as quickly as they rise. Following the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, unrest within the Empire grew. The end of the great Mongolian Empire was slow, but eventually it fell to its lowest by the early 14th century. The Mongols rose under a great Khan, who conquered most of what became the Mongolian Empire. After his death the leaders of the Mongol
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).
Weatherford, J. McIver. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2004. Print.