CHAPTER VI
MONGOLIA- LAND
OF CONQUERORS
PREPARED BY: RICARDO D. FERNANDEZ
GEOGRAPHY
Mongolia, a landlocked country lies at the center of
Asia between Russia on the north and china on the
south. It has an area 604,247 square miles. Though it
is one nation, it is divided into two parts. One part
called INNER MONGOLIA, belongs to china. The
other part called OUTER MONGOLIA , or the
Mongolian Peoples Republic, is closely linked with
Russia. The capital city is ULAN BATOR. The
country’s population is 2,578,530 in 1998.
GEOGRAPHY
The cold and arid GOBI DESERT in southeast
Mongolia occupies one third of its territory.
North and West of the desert are found rugged
mountains rising to more than 13,00 ft. In this
grasslands where most Mongolians can herd their
sheep, cattle horses.
Meat, wool, butter, leather and furs make up about 90%
of Mongolia’s exports. With Russian help, copper and coal
mining, cereal production, fishing and food processing
industries were developed.
The TRANS-MONGOLIAN railroad links both
BEIJING and MOSCOW to ULAN BATOR.
PEOPLE
The modern Mongolians are the
descendants of the nomadic Mongols, a
race of fierce warriors and excellent
horsemen.
The Mongol conquerors were known “to
travel long distances with their horses”
Their famous hero was GENGHIS KHAN
,history’s greatest conqueror.
The dominant religion is TIBETAN
BUDDHISM, although a great number of
Mongolians are pagans and others are
Marxists.
The language is Mongolian, written in
Russian Cyrillic script.
HISTORY
The colorful history of the Mongols is entwined with the history of the more than a dozen
nations they conquered and subjugated.
All the greatest achievements of the Mongols did not happen inside Mongolian territory – it
occurred outside it; in countries, which were once part of the Mongol empire.
During the 1st century AD, Tartar tribes settled
in the grasslands of Mongolia. One of these tribes
was the war like Mongols, a ruthless nomadic race
who later on succeeded in controlling the religion.
They lived in tents made of animal skin and they
herded sheep, cattle, and horses. The Mongols
fought sporadically against the other tartar tribes
and against each other, until all the tribes were
united under a single rule.
GENGHIS KHAN
Genghis khan (Greatest ruler) was originally called
TEMUCHIN .
He was an illiterate but a brilliant organizer, and a great
general.
According to Mongol tradition, when he was born, Genghis was
clasping a clot of blood in his right fist- a portentous sign of a
successful bloody career.
At the age of 21, he defeated all opponents and assumed
lordship over his tribe.
In 2006, at the age of 39, Genghis Khan united all the Mongol
tribes under a military confederacy.
His capital at Karakorum, he began his extraordinary career of
conquest first of northern China and then of southern China.
Genghis Khan’s descendants expanded the frontiers of the
Mongol Empire.
Its height, the empire extended to all of Center Asia, China,
Burma, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, and parts of eastern
Europe.
Mongol Empire was the largest land empire the world had ever
known, eclipsing those of the Greek and Roman empires.
MONGOL EMPIRE
During the time Mongol rule, the Russians were
The Mongols in Russia cut off from Western Europe .There was a religious
conflict between the Poles, who had been converted
The Mongols first attacked Russia in 1237, to Roman Catholicism and the Russians, who clung
Russians defenders were not strong enough to to their Orthodox religion.
repel the fierce onslaught, and Russia had
fallen by 1240.
The Mongols who swept Russia belonged to the By the time of Ivan lll, the
Golden Horde led by Batu Khan. Grand Prince, Moscow was
They crossed the Carpathian Mountains into powerful enough to refuse
Hungary and into Poland, defeating the to play tribute to Mongols.
Hungarian and Polish armies. The Mongols were finally
Russia remained under the Mongols for more expelled in 1480.
than two hundred years.
The Russian live under their own princess and
keep their own customs and religion.
The Mongols established their capital at Sarai,
on the lower Volga River, far from Kiev and
other cities.
CHINA UNDER THE MONGOLS
In the 1100’s, the Sung emperor lost Northern China to the Jurchen
(Tartars), who established the Chin dynasty there.
Genghis Khan returned to the east, but died in 1227 before he could
continue his conquests.
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, establish the Mongol (Yuan)
dynasty and set up his capital at Peking.
In 1270, the last Sung ruler in southern China was killed, and the
mongols became the master of all china.
The French King LOUIS IX and the Pope in the Rome sent envoys to
china during the 1200’s.
Marco Polo, a Venetian traveler, wrote his accounts about the Mongols
in China.
When Kublai Khan died in 1294, he left his dynasty to weak successors.
LATER MONGOL CONQUERORS
In 1256, the Mongol Halagu defeated the Seljuk Turks in Persia and
Mesopotamia and founded the Khanate of Iran.
Tamerlane (Timur the Lame) a descendant of Genghis Khan revived Mongol
glory by capturing Delhi in northern India in 1398.
As ferocious as his ancestor, he slaughtered 100,000 Delhians.
In 1402, he defeated the Ottoman Turks at Ankara, Asia Minor taking the
Sultan Bayazid as hostage.
In 1526, Tamerlane’s descendant, Babur, the tiger invaded and conquered India.
He establish the Mogul empire, which lasted for more than three centuries.
Babur’s grandson, Akbar the Great, become one of India’s greatest rulers.
THE MONGOLS IN
HISTORY
Germanic barbarians that sacked the cities of the Roman Empire and the Vikings that
ravaged northern Europe before them, the fierce and ruthless Mongols were regarded as
the world’s first terrorists of sorts.
They destroyed and plundered cities crossing their path and slaughtered hundreds of
thousands of the vanquished peoples.
During the 12 years campaign in China of Genghis Khan, the Mongols killed about 15
million people.
In Persia, they massacred more than half of its defenders and tortured thousands who
surrendered.
Genghis Khan promulgate the Yassa, the Mongol Code of Laws for the Mongol empire.
The Yasa ordered the belief in one God whose power over all things is absolute.
Kublai Khan, the emperor of China (Cathay) opened the Mongol empire to world trade.
The Moguls gave India Akbar in Great, one of the world’s greatest monarchs.
CONTEMPORARY PERIOD
After the Chinese Revolution of 1911, the northern mongol princes expelled
the Manchus and declared independence under Jebtsundana Hutukfu, or “ the
living Buddha”, Czarist Russia helped the northern princes retain their
independence from China.
During the Russian Civil war (1920-21), Mongolia became a bloody front of
bitter fighting between Bolshevik forces and the White Russian Tsarist
loyalists.
The Mongolian communist leader Sukhebator (“Red Warrior”) proclaimed
the independence of outer Mongolia on March 13, 1921 and restored “the
living Buddha” as ruler.
The former USSR developed Mongolia’s economy. It injected into its
infrastructure projects $1 billion dollars.
During the Sino- Soviet split, the Solviet Union stationed about 60,000
Russian troops Mongolia to protect the border with communist China.
POST- SOVIET ERA
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 90’s radical changes swept
over Mongolians together with the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. In
march 1990 the first democratic elections were held and new government was
established the newly elected leaders, the withdrawal of Russian troops,
military bases and nuclear missiles Mongolian soil.
Free elections are now practiced. Civil, political, and religious freedoms are
now exercised. Pluralism is being recognized as there are numerous political
parties competing during parliamentary elections. 1996, a coalition of these
parties ended the monopoly od power of the communists..
Thank You !
