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    The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor
    The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor
    The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor

    By Borja Loma Barrie

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    About this ebook

    Historical novel. Biography. Life of Genghis Khan, first emperor of the Mongols. The empire of the Three Kingdoms. Conquest of China. The sack of Samakarand.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBadPress
    Release dateMay 15, 2017
    ISBN9781547500901
    The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor

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      Book preview

      The Demon of the Steppes. The Life of Genghis Khan, Mongol Emperor - Borja Loma Barrie

      I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.

      Genghis Khan

      INTRODUCTION

      Temujin, as Genghis Khan was known until his proclamation as lord of the Mongols in 1206, was born on an icy winter night in a year close to 1162.

      It was in a zone in northeastern Asia that was at that time the little territory dominated by the Mongol clans and tribes, that he gradually unified over the course of 20 years.

      This territory was located northeast of China, southeast of actual Russia and also to the northeast of actual Mongolia.

      The original regions of the ancient Mongols cover areas over these three present-day independent states.

      To the West there was and remains the large Lake Baikal (nowadays in Russia) and to the East was and are the Jingshan Mountains (nowadays in China), that divides Little Jingshan in the North from Big Jingshan in the South.

      The Yablonoi Mountains (Russia) stretched out through the centre of his ancestral territory, in the northern part of which stands the Stanovoy Range (Russia).

      But the Mongols knew no borders.

      And their scattered clans could easily emigrate (and pillage) east, through the Manchurian Plain (China) until they reached the frozen coasts of the Strait of Tartary (Russia).

      They could also pillage west, bordering or entering the Gobi Desert they dominated (today shared by Mongolia and China) until reaching and passing the Altai Mountains, which spread in a north to south line from Kazakstan to the west of actual Mongolia, founded centuries later under the name Outer Mongolia (1911) to distinguish it from the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia.

      These areas the Mongols initially assembled in made up a gigantic empire that at one point covered all of Central Asia, part of the Arabian Peninsula and the Deccan Plateau in India, as well as almost all of Russia and Eastern Europe, becoming one of the most terrifying warring empires in the history of humanity. It was at the time the largest empire that had even been, but in the year that Temujin was born these areas were a mere ensemble of desert steppes, cold and dry, on which it was impossible to develop a moderately productive agriculture.

      The Mongols settled in this zone from the V century BC, displacing the Avars that lived there.

      And, as we said, they turned into one of the most terrifying civilisations in history due to their cruelty, their lack of qualms and their formidable fighting strength.

      This strength turned out to be invincible.

      The Mongols that settled between Lake Baikal and the Jingshan Mountains were a backward people, with no cohesion nor organisation whatsoever.

      It was composed of numerous differentiated ethnicities, of which the two main ones, the Khalkha and the Khitai, proceeded others, such as the Oirats, the Jurchen, the Borjigins, the Tartars, the Merkits, the Taichi'ut, the Naimans and the Huns.

      All these lineages were nomads. And they were chiefly engaged in pastoralism.

      All these Mongol lineages also had bad relationships with each other. And they were engaged in war.

      These fratricidal wars were almost exclusively due to economic reasons.

      The zones they had settled in were wild and rugged. There were and are few pastures for livestock to graze. Therefore wet prairies became coveted. And war against everyone became the norm for around a thousand years.

      In this way, the Mongols became warrior people in which the horse, small, wiry, fast and sturdy, became their most loyal companion and their most valuable weapon.

      Those thousand years of belligerence continued to make the Mongols expert warriors in the use of bows and arrows, in addition to experienced riders.

      These weapons were also small.

      But deadly.

      In a certain way, the Mongol short bow gave the arrows they fired off an unheard of speed and strength, capable of piercing enemy breastplates in the era of Temujin’s birth, the first great lord that unified the Mongols under the name of Genghis Khan.

      A third ability was added to these two Mongol abilities of riding and archery that was decisive in making them a frightful military force, and that resulted from the practice of them both: the Mongols were the first riders in the world capable of hitting precise targets with a bow whilst galloping.

      The unstoppable Mongol force was due to this unique particularity.

      This is why infantry was not so important for them.

      Horses, however, were fundamental.

      And so daily life of the Mongols revolved around horses and nomadism.

      The Mongols did not rise due to villages or towns.

      Nor houses.

      Not even huts.

      They lived under stretched felt reinforced with wicker that they could set up and take down in little more than five to ten minutes.

      They ate what they got out of the livestock: meat and milk.

      And they dressed with the skins of the sheep and goat they herded.

      They were one of the first peoples to eat yoghurt that they made from fermented milk.

      The Mongols, enemies among themselves, became everyone’s enemies.

      It is clear that among their neighbours, especially the Chinese, they were a superiorly developed and more knowledgable people who adopted stirrups for example, which were the element that enabled them to perch on galloping horses to shoot in such a deadly manner with their small bows.

      The Mongols consequently became true outlaws, as were most nomadic and pastoral people who could not find peace in the immobility entailed by agriculture.

      And as they realised they got better results from pillaging the Chinese than from battling each other for pastures, they focused on intensifying their raids south with zeal.

      For which they terrorised the north of China.

      For centuries.

      The Mongols did not beat about the bush.

      They approached a village

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