Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World [Paperback]

Whet your appitite:
-The Mongols had an aversion to physical contact with their dying enemies.
-Both the Russians and Nazis used Mongol military tactics on the Russian front in WWII.
-The Mongols connected the known world inadvertently spreading the bubonic plague.

A few things to note:
-Genghis Khan dies half way through the book. The remainder of the book discusses the man as defined by his legacy which is the influences he had on the future of government, religious tolerance, military tactics, commerce, science and exploration.
-Khubilai Khan rightly takes up a fair number of pages. It is interesting how Khubilai Khan succeeded in conquering the Sung using politics where Genghis Khan had failed with military force.
-I would have like to have seen a family tree starting with Temujin's (Genghis Khan as a boy) parents. The lineage is well covered in the book and I was easily able to draw out the tree myself.

This was a very enjoyable and easy to read book that took many of the myths about the Mongols and either laid them to rest or explained them from the Mongol perspective. It turns out the 'Mongol horde' was actually a well organized society driven with the purpose of increasing trade in manufactured goods.

When one thinks of great historical figures, the Mongols and Genghis Khan are not the first names that pop into your mind. But here is a boy, raised in dire poverty and living right on the edge of survival in central Asia approximately 800 years ago, that somehow survives, and then who rose from insignificance to become a leader of the region. He started a family that conquered most of Asia from Hungary to Korea, from India and China to Russia and south to Israel - and all areas between, and left huge foot prints that lasted hundreds of years in an area of the globe where most people (60%) of the earth lived. He did this with a small group of peoples - the Mongols - and they became the masters of all they could find. It is sort of similar to someone conquering Asia and Europe with the Swiss army, and then changing the histories of these vast regions forever. He amalgamated Russia and China from a series of provinces, created Korea, among other things, and left in place an organization that lasted over 200 years.

Khan and his sons succeeded through a combination of mobile forces, quick action, and later propaganda. Many peoples when hearing that they were coming simply surrendered. The Mongols were known as a small tribe of scavengers on the northern Asian steppes near the Siberia forests, and are descendents of the Huns that had attacked Rome. "Hunting, trading, herding, and fighting formed a seamless web of subsistence". The author tries to paint a very detailed picture in the format of a semi-biographical novel all in chronological order that must contain a certain amount of fiction to fill in all the biographical details (see Secret History reference in the book). But it all seems realistic and is compelling reading.

The book tells the story of the rise to power, seemingly year by year, battle by battle. At age 48 he controls Mongolia, but then with a change of power in Beijing, they (the Jurched) demand that he show submission to their power. That was not in his nature. Instead, he gathered his forces, crossed the vast Gobi region and invaded in groups of 10,000 men (like mobile divisions). The men took no "honor in fighting; they found honor in winning". Starting in 1211 it took him three years to reach the walls of Zhongdu (Beijing). Once that region was conquered he returned to Mongolia very wealthy and was content to stay there. But as his trade and other activities increased, the reach of the Mongols expanded and encountered hostile neighbors. When he sent friendly commercial travelers westward loaded with commercial goods, they were met with death by their unsuspecting neighbors - the Khwarizm campaign (Kazakhstan). The neighbors did not appreciate the retribution that would be unleashed by their actions. Incensed by their deeds, Khan invaded killing their soldiers and aristocrats, and then running the societies according to his own laws.

Next he tried to pass his holdings onto his sons. But when they were divided and quarreling, so he sent them out to conquer new areas covering much of Asia and Europe. The story continues on into the middle of the 14th century and the great plague when the role of the Mongols diminished.

We can all learn a lot by reading this book including part of Khan's philosophy, i.e. you can conquer an army by force but one can only win a nation by winning the hearts and minds of the people - to paraphrase. It still seems to be applicable.

Excellent book. Five stars.

Jack in Toronto