By Jack Weatherford

Impressions

The Mongols had an enormous impact on the world around them. They proved that a Steppe people could conquer better due to their speed on the battlefield. They also took skills from all areas of their empire to expand capabilities, commerce, and improve the lives of all their subjects. They fell prey to internal rivalries and losing their military ways after a few generations.

Actionable Notes

  1. Always learn from adversaries and do not be afraid to try new tactics.
  2. Controlling propaganda and the narrative around a goal is just as important as the tactics used to achieve the goal itself.
  3. Do not allow enemies a chance to regroup and learn from an initial assault.

Good Quotes

  • Whether measured by the total number of people defeated, the sum of the countries annexed, or by the total area occupied, Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much as any other man in history.
  • In order to cut through traditional rivalries and feuds in Athens, Cleisthenes abolished the tribes and reassigned everyone to ten units of ten, thereby transforming a tribal city into a city-state that grew into the strongest military, commercial, artistic, and intellectual power along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Virtually the same reform would produce even more astonishing results for the Mongols on the steppes of Inner Asia.
  • The postal service ranked alongside the military in importance for the Mongols, and individual Mongols were allowed to serve in it in lieu of regular military service.
  • In contrast to the massive infantry armies that moved slowly and fought along a particular front or on a specific battlefield, the Mongols practiced warfare across the entire territory, and the ensuing turmoil and confusion allowed the Mongols to employ clever trickery of all sorts.
  • You may conquer an army with superior tactics and men, but you can conquer a nation only by conquering the hearts of the people.
  • Mongke recognized the dangers incurred by earlier administrations that issued paper money and debt on an ad hoc basis, and in 1253 he created a Department of Monetary Affairs to control and standardize the issuance of paper money. The superintendent of the agency centralized control to prevent the overissue of paper money and the erosion of its value through inflation.
  • Supposedly, because of the importance of narcotics for the Ismailis, the people around them called them hashshashin, meaning “the hashish users.” Over time, this name became modified into the word assassin. Whether the killers had actually used hashish to inspire them or not, the name spread into many languages as the word for the murderer of high officials.
  • The Mongol army had accomplished in a mere two years what the European Crusaders from the West and the Seljuk Turks from the East had failed to do in two centuries of sustained effort. They had conquered the heart of the Arab world. No other non-Muslim troops would conquer Baghdad or Iraq again until the arrival of the American and British forces in 2003.
  • The cities of the Khwarizm empire had been a particularly important center for mathematic scholarship; the word algorithm was derived from al Khwarizm.
  • General literacy increased during the Mongol dynasty, and the volume of literary material grew proportionately.
  • The Mongol armies destroyed the uniqueness of the civilizations around them by shattering the protective walls that isolated one civilization from another and by knotting the cultures together.