Mongols Conquest

The Mongolians conquest is one of the most peculiar parts about history. How horse nomads from the steppes were able to create the largest land empire in human history is a question that historians have tried to address for a long time. Mongolians were so successful in their conquests because they were created from their steppe lifestyle of horse and bow and received the uniting leader that they needed in 1204, Genghis Khan. The Mongols were first recorded in 618-907 in China. Their word for "Mongol" means brave fighter who knows no fear ("The Mongols Conquests..." 9). The Mongolian lifestyle was one of great hardship and contributed to their success. Mongolians were shamanistic like many other steppe tribes and worshipped the gods of the
According to Barnes, probably the most effective tactic was "nerge". This was an encirclement and was used to instill fear. This was practiced both on the battlefield and on a large, regional, scale. the "Arrow Storm" was another great tactic developed by Genghis Khan. This would be the Mongols using their skill with bow and arrow to keep distance from the enemy and raining arrows into a "kill zone". It created chaos on the battlefield and rained terror down on to their enemies. With the agility from their amazing skill with horses, the Mongolians moved so fast that the Chinese believed that Mongolian forces were 10 times larger than they actually were. This instilment of fear is one of the most famous and most genius of Mongol tactics. The terror of the Mongols is what sets the Mongolians apart from any other famous conquerors. Everywhere the Mongols went, the local populace was quick to either die or surrender (Barnes). Genghis ' terror is shown throughout all of the staging ground of wars and battles that were fought. Local populaces that fought back were massacred. This destruction is shown in Hungary, in that 50% on the total population there were killed (Barnes). A quote from Genghis Khan that shows is attitude towards conquering is, “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in
As we can see with accounts from those conquered and who met face to face with the Mongolians, they were the most terrifying conquering force because of their agility with the horse and accuracy with the bow. None of this would have been possible without an amazing leader and tactician that is Genghis Khan. He revolutionized the already great warriors of the Steppe with tactics such as the nerge and arrow storm and led them into a storm of terror across the Eurasian