The name of Genghis Khan has long become a household name. It is a symbol of devastation and colossal wars. The ruler of the Mongols created an empire, the size of which struck the imagination of his contemporaries.
Childhood
The future Genghis Khan, whose biography has many white spots, was born somewhere on the border of modern Russia and Mongolia. They named him Temujin. He adopted the name Genghis Khan as a designation for the title of the ruler of the vast Mongol empire.
Historians have not been able to accurately calculate the date of birth of the famous commander. Various estimates place it between 1155 and 1162. This inaccuracy is due to the lack of reliable sources relating to that era.
Genghis Khan was born in the family of one of the Mongol leaders. His father was poisoned by the Tatars, after which the child began to be persecuted by other contenders for power in his native uluses. In the end, Temujin was captured and forced to live with stocks on his neck. This symbolized the slave position of the young man. Temujin managed to escape from captivity by hiding in a lake. He was underwater until his pursuers began looking for him elsewhere.
Unification of Mongolia
Many Mongols sympathizedescaped prisoner, who was Genghis Khan. The biography of this man is a vivid example of how a commander created a huge army from scratch. Once free, he was able to enlist the support of one of the khans named Tooril. This elderly ruler married Temuchin his daughter, thereby securing an alliance with a talented young military leader.
Very soon the young man was able to meet the expectations of his patron. Together with his army, Genghis Khan conquered ulus after ulus. He was distinguished by uncompromising and cruelty to his enemies, which terrified the enemies. His main enemies were the Tatars, who de alt with his father. Genghis Khan ordered his subjects to destroy all these people, except for children whose height did not exceed the height of a cartwheel. The final victory over the Tatars occurred in 1202, when they became harmless to the Mongols, united under the rule of Temujin.
Temujin's new name
In order to officially consolidate his leading position among his fellow tribesmen, the leader of the Mongols convened a kurultai in 1206. This council proclaimed him Genghis Khan (or Great Khan). It was under this name that the commander went down in history. He managed to unite the warring and scattered uluses of the Mongols. The new ruler gave them the only goal - to extend their power to neighboring nations. Thus began the Mongol conquests, which continued after the death of Temujin.
Reforms of Genghis Khan
Reforms soon began, initiated by Genghis Khan. Biography of this leaderis very educational. Temujin divided the Mongols into thousands and tumens. These administrative units together made up the Horde.
The main problem that could interfere with Genghis Khan was the internal hostility among the Mongols. Therefore, the ruler mixed numerous clans among themselves, depriving them of their former organization that had existed for dozens of generations. This has borne fruit. The Horde became manageable and obedient. At the head of the tumens (one tumen included ten thousand soldiers) were people loyal to the khan, who unquestioningly obeyed his orders. The Mongols also attached themselves to their new units. For going to another tumen, the disobedient were threatened with the death pen alty. So Genghis Khan, whose biography shows him as a far-sighted reformer, was able to overcome the destructive tendencies within Mongolian society. Now he could turn his attention to external conquests.
Chinese campaign
By 1211, the Mongols managed to subjugate all the neighboring Siberian tribes. They were distinguished by poor self-organization and could not repulse the invaders. The first real test for Genghis Khan on distant frontiers was the war with China. This civilization had been at war with the northern nomads for many centuries and had colossal military experience. Once, the guards on the Great Wall of China saw foreign troops led by Genghis Khan (a brief biography of the leader cannot do without this episode). This fortification system was impregnable for previous intruders. However, it was Temuchin who was the first to seizewall.
The Mongol army was divided into three parts. Each of them went to conquer hostile cities in their direction (in the south, southeast and east). Genghis Khan himself reached the sea with his army. He made peace with the Chinese emperor. The losing ruler agreed to recognize himself as a tributary of the Mongols. For this he received Beijing. However, as soon as the Mongols went back to the steppes, the Chinese emperor moved his capital to another city. This was regarded as treason. The nomads returned to China and again filled it with blood. After all, this country was subdued.
Conquest of Central Asia
The next region that was under attack from Temujin was Central Asia. The local Muslim rulers did not resist the Mongol hordes for long. Because of this, the biography of Genghis Khan is being studied in detail in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan today. A summary of his biography is taught in any school.
In 1220, the Khan captured Samarkand, the oldest and richest city in the region.
The next victims of the aggression of the nomads were the Cumans. These steppe people asked some Slavic princes for help. So in 1223, Russian soldiers first met the Mongols in the battle of Kalka. The battle between the Polovtsy and the Slavs was lost. Temujin himself at that time was in his homeland, but closely followed the success of the weapons of his subordinates. Genghis Khan, whose interesting biography facts are collected in various monographs, accepted the remnants of this army, which returned to Mongolia in 1224.
Death of Genghis Khan
In 1227, during the siege of the Tangut capital, Khan Genghis Khan died. A brief biography of the leader, set out in any textbook, necessarily tells about this episode.
Tanguts lived in northern China and, despite the fact that the Mongols had long subdued them, revolted. Then Genghis Khan himself led the army, which was supposed to punish the disobedient.
According to the annals of that time, the leader of the Mongols received a delegation of Tanguts who wanted to discuss the conditions for the surrender of their capital. However, Genghis Khan felt unwell and refused the ambassadors an audience. He soon died. It is not known exactly what caused the death of the leader. Perhaps it was the age, since the khan was already in his seventies, and he could hardly endure long campaigns. There is also a version that one of his wives stabbed him. The mysterious circumstances of death are also supplemented by the fact that researchers still cannot find Temujin's grave.
Legacy
There is little reliable evidence left about the empire that Genghis Khan founded. Biography, campaigns and victories of the leader - all this is known only from fragmentary sources. But the significance of the Khan's deeds is difficult to overestimate. He created the largest state in the history of mankind, spread over the vast expanse of Eurasia.
Descendants of Temujin developed his success. So, his grandson Batu led an unprecedented campaign against the Russian principalities. He became the ruler of the Golden Horde and overlaid the Slavstribute. But the empire founded by Genghis Khan proved to be short-lived. At first, it broke up into several uluses. These states were eventually captured by their neighbors. Therefore, it was Genghis Khan Khan, whose biography is known to any educated person, who became a symbol of Mongolian power.
