The Mongol Empire was significantly larger than any previous Inner Asian Empire

The intriguing story about the Mongolian empire ranks as one of the most extraordinary chapters of the world history, the Mongols (inhabitants of Mongolia proper) numbering no more than one and a half million ended up ruling a hundred million people. The superiority of the Mongols over the other Inner Asian Empires can be attributed to their astute leadership - essentially of Chingis Khan and to their dominant army - both in terms of tactics and physical strength.

Before the Mongols would invade a country, they would send spies in to find out information about the leaders and people, roads, cities, good ambush points and strengths and weaknesses of the armies and forts (Saunders p.65). No other army of the time used this type of information gathering, instead preferred to just charge in.

In sharp contrast to the other steppe conquerors, Chingis (xyz) was not primarily guided by greed and material riches or other allurements of the world. His was a soaring military ambition (xyZ),an almost supernatural ability to plan ahead and (xyz) all his moves were directed at political aims that represented the formation of a political structure that was capable of being extended in time and space . Most striking was the determination not to attack China before he had subdued all the tribes in the Baikal region and the areas south east of it, and integrated them in his Mongol nation. Earlier, nomadic conquerors had always failed to eliminate the risk of rivalries before the raids against China, which made it easy for the Chinese to divide and rule, to play the rival tribes out against each other in order to disunite and finally break their power.

The Mongol emperors, unlike the other emperors of the time, tolerated all religions (Saunders p.68). This ensured minimum of revolts from the people within, thereby allowing them to perpetuate their rule. Unlike the case in most of the other societies at that time where birth and social origin solely determined rank, promotion to high positions in Mongol was determined by ability and merit; this resulted in an unmatched quality of troops from the ordinary soldiers to the top command.

Furthermore to ensure that the foes do not rise against him, Chingis took under his control the interior lines of Central ...

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Furthermore to ensure that the foes do not rise against him, Chingis took under his control the interior lines of Central Asia (Saunders p.66), thus disabling the contact between the rivals, so that China, for example, could not ally with Persia or Russia. In addition, Chingis used trade both as a means to generate revenue via customs duties and to bind together different regions won by the Mongol sword. To bolster trade he made the highways of Asia as secure as possible and made rest houses on the way.

The transition of power in Mongol empire was rather smooth as compared to other empires of the time. In Mongol empire the power was transferred through kuriltai (assembly) in which nobles of the whole empire had their say, since the new leader required the consensus of the kuriltai, the differences were minimal if not completely eliminated.

The Mongols enlisted military and other experts (craftsmen and engineers etc) from occupied areas (Saunders p.64), as a result, conquered fortified cities something that other nomads were not able to do.

In the 13th century the Mongol army was best in the world. Its organization, tactics and structure of command would not be unfamiliar to the soldier of present era. Mongol’s army like the Turk’s army was based on the decimal army, but in the case of Turks this had been bound up with the old tribe and clan order; whereas Chingis broke this up, and created new units made up of mixed races and tribes.

Chingis was an expert at psychological warfare of the most horrific kind. He

deliberately sent out to create a reputation for ferocious terror, in the expectation (often realized)of frightening whole nations into surrendering without resistance.(Saunders p65)

The Mongols were excellent horseback riders. Although the army never numbered more than 200,000 cavalry, they had as many as 800,000 thousand horses, this allowed them to move in excess of 100 miles a day, and extra horses also ensured each horse was not taxed more than it could take. Furthermore they also had keen physical senses and highly developed intuition, they could discern smoke from fire at very great distances and if the weather conditions were favorable they could see people and horses at a distance of 25 Km, this certainly gave them an upper hand in battles. (www.coldsiberia.org/webdoc5.htm)

In addition they were endowed with powers of endurance not seen else where in history. On minimum of food they would continue to ride for weeks, under such circumstances, they frequently resorted to drinking blood of their horses.

The Mongols wore silk shirts under their amour which gave them additional protection, since the silk holds together, it prevented the poison tipped arrow to penetrate the bloodstream - an innovation unique to the Mongols. ()

The Mongols were no doubt an intelligent, culturally rich and militarily powerful people. Nevertheless, their incisive leadership and dominant army proved inadequate to counteract the centrifugal forces that eventually tore the empire apart. Religious differences appeared soon, followed by the political ones and sedentary influence proved detrimental for the Mongol Empire. However, the Mongol Empire, while it lasted, was indeed the largest land based Empire in the world.

Bibliography

"Mongol Empire." Microsoft Encarta 98. N.p.: n.p. CD-ROM. 1998

The extraordinary physical abilities of the Mongols. 5 Sept. 1999. 18 June 2004
<http://www.coldsiberia.org/webdoc5.htm>.

The Mongol military might. 18 Jan. 2002. 19 June 2004
<http://www.coldsiberia.org/monmight.htm>.

The Rise and Rule of Chinggis Khan

Saunders, J.J. The History of Mongol Conquests (London:Routledge,1971)