Mongol
The Mongol Reduction of Northern China I
Just as the Jin were being challenged by the Song on their southern border, the man whose ambition would bring about their destruction was being hailed as universal ruler or great khan by a confederation of Mongol tribes to their north. Chinggis Khan was not a great general or warrior, but he was a skilled and compelling political strategist who…
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Cipangu
With the two great Mongol-Chinese-Korean fleets attempting an invasion of Japan, turned back by the brave resistance of the samurai, who were for once fighting a foreign enemy instead of each other. But the resistance to the Mongols, although successful, ended with a vast expenditure of resources and no real…
The Mongol threat to the Latin West down to 1323
In its interventions in each of these areas, the Golden Horde was active on behalf of, or exerting pressure upon, schismatic rulers, and hence constituted an additional obstacle to the ambitions of popes and Western secular princes. But to what extent did the Mongols threaten the security of Latin states…
Mongol Invasions of Vietnam and Java
The Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288) during the Third Mongol invasion. Map depicting Mongol campaign in Đại Việt in the north and Champa in the south. In order to conquer south China, Mongols took the city of Yunnan and sought Trânsit via Dai Viet (modern North Vietnam), in 1257, to…
Mongol Otrar Campaign 1219-20
Khwarezmid Empire (1190–1220), on the eve of the Mongol conquests It is sometimes said that Genghis’s reponse to the Otrar atrocity was tardy and that two years went by before he made his move. In fact his riposte was remarkably rapid. While making elaborate plans for a grand rendezvous of…
A Brief History of WMDs before 1900
This is a Mongol style siege but not the siege of Kaffa from the early 14th century Jami al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) by Rashid ad-Din. Edinburgh University Library Transmission from Kaffa. (Wheelis, 2002) In terms of referring to nuclear, chemical-and by inference, biological-weapons, the term “weapons of mass destruction” first…
Russia and the Mongol Empire
The Golden Horde. Russian name for the Mongol domains of Russia and neighboring areas. The name derives from a nickname for the palace tent (Middle Mongolian hordo) of the Golden Horde ruler. The Mongol conquest of the Russian duchies ironically led to the emergence of Muscovy as the center of…