Genghis Khan
Introduction
Genghis Khan, officially also known as Genghis Emperor, a founder and the first Great Khan and Emperor of the Mongol Empire, which became contiguous yet the largest empire in history after his death. Among his many achievements was his power to unite many tribes from the nomadic sides of Northeast Asia. He led the nomadic group from the year of 1162-1227. The leader rose from a humble beginning into the establishment of the largest land empire in history. His other great achievement was the conquering of considerable chunks in central Asia and China, after which his descendants were able to expand his empire even further. The advanced expansions include far-off places such as Poland, Vietnam, Syria, and Korea. During the period when the Mongols were at their peak, they were able to control between 11 to 12 million contiguous square miles; this is an area estimated to be the size of Africa. During this period, many were slaughtered as the Genghis Khan’s invaded the areas. The positive thing about the leader is that he granted freedom of worship and religion to his subjects; he also abolished torture; he encouraged trade. He created the first international Posta system. Unfortunately, Genghis Khan died in 1227; this was during a military campaign against the kingdom of China that belonged to the group of Xi Xia. Unfortunately, no one knows where he was buried; it’s a mystery yet to be solved.
The early years of Genghis Khan
As earlier stated, Genghis Khan, previously known as Temujin, was born in 1162. He was born near the border between modern Mongolia and Siberia. The tremendous ancestral legends that Temujin explains that came from his mother’s womb holding a clutching blood clot in his right hand. The same legends also say that Genghis’ mother was kidnapped by his so-called father, who later forced her to marry him. During those times, there were constant wars and fights from dozens of tribes from the nomadic people among the central Asia steppe; they fought each other with these continuous wars, life for Genghis became unpredictable and very violent. Unfortunately, just before Genghis’ tenth birthday, his father was poisoned by an enemy clan, to death. The clan that Genghis belonged to, to avoid feeding both his mother and his six siblings, disowned them.
This situation led Temujin into killing his older, half-brother, and then he took over as the head of his family. By this time, his family was heavily poverty-stricken. After a couple of years after, the clan that still disowned his family captured him and put him into captivity, but eventually, he was able to escape. In the year 1178, Genghis married a beautiful lady by the name Borte, together; they bore four sons and an unknown number of daughters. Later, it explained that Borte was kidnapped, but Temujin daringly launched a rescue team to find his wife. He then began making alliances. He builds his reputation as a warrior by which he attracted several warriors, and the number of warriors seemed to increase each day. Through competent allies, Tumujin went against his custom and executed the leaders of his enemy tribes rather than relatives in a key position. He also incorporates the remaining members into his clan forcefully. Looting was, therefore, to wait until Temujin won a victory incomplete.
Temujin was able to organize his warriors in a group of 10 without regarding which kin they each belonged. Temujin was regarded as an animist though his followers included Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. In the year 1205, Temujin was able to defeat all his rivals, and unfortunately, his former best friend, Jamuka, was among his opponents. Temujin called a meeting the following year; the meeting involved representatives from every part of the established territory. After this meeting, he was able to establish a nation similar in size to the Mongolia modern. Through all these scenarios, Temujin was then proclaimed, Chinggis Khan, which translates roughly to “Universal Ruler.” This name became well associated primarily with the people in the West as Genghis Khan.
Establishment of His Empire
Genghis Khan was able to unite a steppe of tribes; he was able to rule over some 1 million people. The ruling of this people made him abolish the inherited aristocratic titles, through the suppression of tribal warfare. He also gave orders that it was forbidden to kidnap and sell women; the enslavement of any Mongol was banned, and finally, among the many punishable deaths was the theft of livestock. Moreover, Genghis Khan also made more positive changes by ordering the adoption of the system of writing; the regular census was conducted. He also granted diplomatic immunity to the ambassadors from Othe foreign countries. Finally, he allowed the freedom to worship or rather religion before the idea was passed into other foreign lands. Genghis took a step forward into campaigning for the first time outside the eland of Mongolia against the kingdom of Xi Xia of Northwestern China. However, several of the known raids, launching from the Mongols, took significant progress in the year 1209. This initiative brought the people of Mongolia to the doorstep of Yinchuan, which was the capital of Xi Xia. The Mongols traveled with a large reserve of horses and no supply trains, this was unlike other armies.
The army of Genghis consisted and entire cavalrymen, these men were known to be expert riders who always carried a bow and arrows. They were considered to be very deadly. One of the signature tactics the Mongols deployed at Yinchuan was a false withdrawal, which later a siege was initiated. Unfortunately, their attempt to flood the city failed though the Xi Xia ruler submitted, and a tribute was presented. The next attack by the Mongols was the attack on Jin Dynasty of Northern China. The attack was caused by mistake caused by the demand for the submission of Genghis Khan. Therefore from the year o1222 to 1214, the Mongols largely outnumbered the countryside through a ravage; this sent refugees pouring into cities. This raveled to shortages of food, and the army than belonged to Jin ended up killing several peasants. The Mongols, in the year of 1214, besieged the capital of Zhongdu, currently known as Beijing, which forced the ruler of Jin into agreeing to hand in large amounts of silk, horses, and even gold. Later in the same year, Jin ruler took the initiative of moving his court into the south of his city of Kaifeng; still, Genghis Khan took advantage of an agreement. They breached, and with the help of the deserters that formerly belonged to Jin, they were able to sack Zhondgdu to the ground.
In the year 1219, Genghis Khan Set up the war between his empire and the Khwarezm (in present-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran combined.) Khwarezm’s sultan had previously agreed on a trade treaty, unfortunately, when the first caravan arrived with goods, the merchants were killed, and assets from the caravan were stolen. This led the sultan into murdering of the ambassadors that belonged to Genghis Khan. This incident led the people of Mongol to rage through war to the people of Khwarezm, despite being outnumbered. This war also lp the Mongol warriors to fight against the people of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Urgench. The skilled workers were very fortunate while the aristocrats and soldiers who resisted were always killed. The unskilled workers, majorly the non-carpenters and, non-jewelers were the human shields in times of assaults. It is not mentioned how many people died during the war that was led by Genghis’ warriors because they were always occurrences’ of war that were influenced by Mongols as they still propagate their vicious image as a way of spreading fear.
Genghis Khan’s Death and Empire continuation
The return of Genghis Khan to Mongolia in the year 1225, a vast swath of territory, was in control of the land that belonged to the Japan Sea to the Caspian Sea. Nevertheless, Genghis Khan’s primary attention was focused on the Xi Xia kingdom. The kingdom had refused to contribute troops to the invasion from the Khwarezm. Therefore in early 1227, a horse threw Genghis Khan to the ground. The incident caused internal injuries to Khan. The terrible event did not cause him to halt his campaign; instead, he continued to press on; unfortunately, his health desecrated, and he never recovered. Finally, Genghis Khan died in the year 1227, August 18th, just before the crush of Xi Xia.
Conclusion
Genghis Khan was able to conquer more than twice land as compared to any of their person in history. This brought the Eastern and Western civilizations in the process of contact. His descendants include the people of Ogodei and Khubilai, also known as conquerors that were prolific. His descendants took control of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the rest of China, among other known places. It is also marked that the Mongols invaded Japan and Java as well before their empire broke in the 14th century. The last ruling of Genghis Khan was deposed finally in the year 1920.
Bibliography
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