Under the leadership of the legendary Genghis Khan, the Mongols accomplished the formation of one of the most extensive empires in all of history. Culturally, the Mongols were endowed with a strong military tradition in which any dispute was resolved through fighting. It was from this that the future leader Genghis Khan undertook the conditions necessary to organize this empire.
It all started when, in the last decades of the 12th century, Temujin Borgjin, the future Khan, had his wife kidnapped by the Merkite tribe. With the incident, Temujin joined militarily with two other tribes to retrieve his wife. After the victory, the precariousness that characterizes the military collusion among the Mongols came to the fore. Jamuka, one of his fighting companions, ended up seeking strength to take the lands of Temujin Borgjin.
In this confrontation, Temujin ended up using his later victory to expand his ties with various Mongolian tribes. In 1206, reunited with several chiefs of the steppe tribes, Temujin Borgjin was transformed into Genghis Khan. With political unification, he began to impose automatic summons to all young people who were under the control of their territories.
Focusing on the formation of an army of soldiers who mastered the mount and the bow, Khan carried out a violent expansionist policy in search of wealth, land and slaves. Throughout his life, this legendary military man managed to dominate Chinese, Muslim and Russian territories. In 1227, when his army was subordinating some cities in southern Russia, Genghis Khan was stricken with a terrible fever (probably malaria) that claimed his life.
After that, Ogedei (1186 - 1241), third son of Genghis, took over the Mongol government and undertook new military conquests. It overcame the Jin dynasty in northeast China, took over Poland and the city of Moscow, and virtually all of Hungarian territory. At that moment, the triumphant Ogedei reinforced the possibility of invasion of the Mongols in Europe. However, in 1246, already very close to the Italian Peninsula, the Mongolian military command was left vacant with the death of its main leader.
The delay in defining who could take over the Mongol Empire ended up weakening the organization of an advance on Europe. In the year 1294, the death of Emperor Kublai Khan established the political division of Mongolian territories between four heirs. The disarticulation opened doors for other nations to conquer Mongolia. In the 17th century, the Chinese became the absolute masters of the entire Mongolian world.
In the year 1911, the Mongols managed to regain their political independence from China. In the following decade, a communist revolution made Mongolia politically and economically influenced by the Soviet regime. The democratic regime in the country only came into force in 1990, as a result of the disarticulation of the entire socialist bloc. Currently, the Mongols face different difficulties and are economically subordinate to the Chinese.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Brazil School Team
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/a-trajetoria-imperio-mongol.htm