The emergence of the power of Genghis Khan

During the period of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Mongol-speaking tribes lived in a forest zone stretching from Baikal to the Amur. Their main occupation was hunting and fishing. Gradually, with the transition to cattle breeding, they began to develop the adjacent steppe expanses, absorbing other nomadic peoples.

In the XII century, the Mongols retained many features of the tribal system. The main issues of the life of the tribe were decided by the kurultai - the council of elders of the tribal nobility. He elected a commander (noyon), to whom the squads of nukers (friends) were subordinate, who defended the tribe in frequent clashes over pastures, and also raided neighbors.

Pastures and hunting grounds were considered the common property of the tribe. At the same time, most of the cattle belonged to tribal nobility, leaders. Ordinary community members (arats), who did not have the means to feed themselves, gradually fell into debt dependence on the nobility, working off their debts by performing various kinds of duties. The labor of slaves was also used - prisoners captured in clashes with other tribes, during raids. The Mongols lived and roamed as a whole tribe. Fortified camps (kurens) were set up in the parking lots, the center of which was the yurt of the head of the clan. With the growth in the number of tribes, they began to be divided into large families, settling in ails (“ail” - “big family”).

Unions of tribes, headed by a leader (khan), often fought with each other. The vanquished pledged to obey the victors, bringing a kind of vassal oath. Gradually, large associations of tribes (uluses) took shape, the noyons of which began to raid China.

Temujin (1155-1227), who headed one of the uluses (destinies), after a series of successful wars, united all the Mongol tribal unions under his rule. In 1206, the kurultai of the khans proclaimed him Genghis Khan (ruler of the strong).

The laws (Yasa) of Genghis Khan consolidated the orders of the late stage of the collapse of the tribal system, gave the society the character of a military organization.

“Dozens”, “hundreds”, “thousands” and “tumens” became administrative units, i.e. associations of villages, putting up respectively 10, 100, 1000, 10000 soldiers. Each ten wagons (families) exhibited up to three warriors and had to provide them with food during the campaign. Weapons were considered common property and were issued only in wartime. The warrior did not receive payment, but could be rewarded at the expense of military booty. The military leaders, mainly from the tribal nobility, simultaneously managed the affairs of the villages. Transitions from one tumen to another were forbidden, in other words, each unit consisted of fellow tribesmen.

Great place in the laws of Genghis Khan was given to ensuring the security of trade. Strict punishments were established for the robbery of caravans.

Genghis Khan's conquests in Asia

In 1207-1209. Mongols subjugated the tribes living in the Yenisei valley and East Turkestan (Buryats, Yakuts, Uighurs, Tungus), defeated the Tangut kingdom in Northwestern China. In 1211, the main forces of the Mongols, having crossed the Gobi steppe, invaded China, the situation in which at that time was favorable for the conquerors.

China only by the VIII century overcame the consequences of the crisis that engulfed it during the Great Migration of Peoples. According to the census of 754, the taxable population recovered in the country, amounting to 52.88 million people. Science and technology developed. Woodcut printing was invented - printing books from engraved boards. Chinese porcelain has become world famous. Large state-owned workshops sprang up, some of them employing up to 500 people. In the 10th century, a compass appeared, which soon became known to Arab merchants, and through them to Europeans. From the 11th century, gunpowder began to be used.

At the same time, with the restoration of a single, centrally controlled empire (it was named after the ruling dynasty, from 618 to 907 - Tang, from 960 to 1279 - Song), traditional problems for China also revived. The arbitrariness of provincial governors, officials, exactions from the ruined peasantry, which fell into dependence on usurers, and the growth of large landowners were the cause of frequent peasant uprisings. They were combined with nomadic raids and attacks by Manchurian tribes.

At the beginning of the 12th century, the growing Manchu tribes of the Jurchens began a war against China. It was extremely unsuccessful for the Song Empire, which in 1142 was forced to admit the loss of all its territory north of the Yangtze River and pay tribute to the victors.

The power of the conquerors over Northern China, where the Jurchens created their own state, called Jin, was fragile. It was weakened by peasant uprisings, the discontent of the local nobility. Nevertheless, the attempt of the Song Empire in 1206 to regain the lost lands ended in failure.

The Jurchens, who did not enjoy support in the provinces of China they had conquered, were unable to organize a defense against the Mongols. Having captured the central provinces of the Jin state, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia in 1216 with abundant booty and many slaves. Among them were Chinese craftsmen who knew how to make siege engines.

In 1218, the Mongols began a campaign in Central Asia, most of which at the beginning of the 13th century was part of the vast state of Khorezm, which also owned the lands of northern Iran and Afghanistan. Numerous troops of Khorezm, which was a very fragile, multi-tribal state formation, were dispersed among the garrisons. Shah Khorezm Mohammed (reigned 1200-1220) was more afraid of his own subjects and commanders than the conquerors and was unable to organize serious resistance. The largest cities of Khorezm - Urgench, Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv, Herat - were taken by the Mongols in turn. The townspeople were mercilessly beaten, many were driven into slavery.

In 1222 part of the Mongol forces invaded the Caucasus. They defeated the Georgian troops, defeated the Alans, Lezgins, Circassians, reached the Crimea and attacked the Polovtsy, who turned to the Russian princes for help. In 1223, in the battle on the Kalka River, Russian squads first encountered the Mongols.

The inconsistency of the actions of the Russian princes, the flight of the Polovtsians from the battlefield allowed the Mongols to achieve victory. However, not daring to continue the war with a new enemy, they retreated deep into the steppes of Asia.

In 1227, after the death of Genghis Khan, his son Ogedei was elected great khan, who sought first of all to strengthen the created empire. The conquest of the Tangut was completed. In 1231, the Mongols, in alliance with the Song Empire, again opposed the Jurchens. The Jin state collapsed, its entire territory came under the control of the conquerors.

Mongol invasion of Rus'

In 1236, the Mongol troops, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu (Batu), set out on a campaign to the west. Having defeated the Volga Bulgaria, having subjugated the Polovtsy and the Mordovians, in the winter of 1237 the Mongols invaded the Ryazan lands. Despite the fact that the neighboring principalities refused to jointly oppose the conquerors, Ryazan did not surrender to the mercy of the enemies.

Having ravaged Ryazan, the Mongols defeated the troops of the Vladimir principality, stormed Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir, Rostov, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Kolomna, Uglich, Torzhok. Then Batu moved to Novgorod, but, not reaching it, turned south.

What saved Novgorod from ruin is unknown. There are suggestions that the Mongols were stopped by the spring thaw that began, fears that the forces remaining after the battles would not be enough to storm a large city. It is also possible that the Mongols, having learned about the war between Novgorod and the Livonian Order, did not want to make it easier for the Crusaders to conquer Russian lands.

The question of with what forces the Mongols invaded Rus' is one of the controversial ones in science. According to chronicle evidence, most likely greatly inflated, there were 350-400 thousand horsemen in the horde of Batu. At the same time, the Mongols themselves made up only a small part of this army. One of the forms of collecting tribute from the conquered peoples was that they supplied young people to the army of the conquerors. The hordes of Batu largely consisted of warriors of the conquered Turkic tribes (Polovtsy, Volga Bulgars), who later became known in Russia as Tatars.

The victories of the Mongols were explained, first of all, by the underestimation by the Russian princes of their strength and capabilities. Russian lands have long been subjected to raids by nomads. Experience with them showed that, although their cavalry was difficult to defeat in the open, the wooden walls of the cities provided ample protection. That the Mongols were bringing with them Chinese siege engines, including those capable of throwing incendiary projectiles like Greek fire, was an unpleasant surprise.

The military experience accumulated by the Mongols also played a role. Their army was well organized, the invasion was preceded by thorough reconnaissance, taking into account the peculiarities of the terrain and climate. In Rus', the Mongols preferred to fight in winter, using frozen rivers instead of roads and supplying the army with food and fodder captured in Russian villages.

The refusal of the Mongols to continue their conquests in Europe was associated with the heavy losses they suffered during the war with the Russian principalities, Hungary and Poland, with the need to drink power over the devastated lands of Russia. The struggle for the Khan's throne that began in Mongolia itself in 1241-1251. also diverted the attention of Batu.

Golden Horde and Russian lands

The huge Mongol state, which included lands from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean, united exclusively by military force, could not maintain unity for a long time. It broke up into uluses, headed by the Genghisids (descendants of Genghis Khan). Ulus Chzhuchi (Golden Horde) included the Volga region, the North Caucasus, Crimea and Central Asia. Iran, Iraq and Transcaucasia entered the Khulagu ulus. The region of Altai, Tien Shan, Central Asia to the east of the Amu Darya was considered the ulus of Ogedei. The ulus of the Great Khans, whose capital was Karakorum on the Orkhon, were Mongolia, Manchuria and Northern China. By 1276, the Mongols managed to subjugate the entire territory of China.

In most uluses, relatively few conquerors soon merged with the top of the local nobility, adopting its customs, religion and writing.

Before the beginning of the conquests, the Mongols did not have their own written language and borrowed it from the Uighurs. Only in 1269, in the ulus of the great khans, a system of Mongolian writing based on the Tibetan alphabet was developed.

Initially, the Mongols were indifferent to religion, did not interfere in the affairs of churches in the conquered lands, even provided them with benefits when collecting tribute. However, at the turn of the XIII and XIV centuries. the khans of the three western uluses converted to Islam and finally ceased to recognize the power of the great khans, which before that had been purely nominal.

The Russian principalities were not part of the Golden Horde, being in the position of states dependent on it (vassals). They were obliged to annually pay tribute, trade duty, to expose soldiers at the request of the khans. The Horde conducted a population census on Russian lands. Horde detachments led by Baskaks (tribute collectors) settled in the cities. They simultaneously followed the princes.

The Mongol invasion caused enormous damage to the Russian principalities. According to archaeological research, 49 cities were destroyed, 14 of them were never rebuilt. Human losses are difficult to estimate even approximately.

The need to pay tribute led to a constant drain on resources. This hindered the economic development of the Russian lands. The policy of the Horde khans fueled the rivalry between the specific princes, which prevented the achievement of the unity of the Russian lands. Their dependent position in relation to the Horde excluded for them the development of equal relations with neighboring states.

Some scholars, in particular L.N. Gumilyov, sought to find positive aspects in the Mongol conquest. One of the arguments was that submission to the Horde, who did not interfere in the spiritual, religious life of the Russian lands, prevented their conquest by the Catholic countries of Europe. However, on the one hand, we must not forget that Novgorod quite independently, without the help of the Mongols, repelled the attack of the Teutonic Knights on North-Western Russia. On the other hand, the Horde khans could not prevent the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from seizing one Russian principality after another in the 14th century.

The two-hundred-year stay under the rule of the Golden Horde left a significant imprint on the culture, customs of the inhabitants of the conquered lands, many Mongolian and Turkic words and expressions entered the Russian language. This served as the basis for a number of science fiction versions of Russian history, in which the fact of the Mongol conquest is generally denied. It is alleged that the “horde” of mounted warriors was allegedly used by the Russian grand dukes themselves to unite the Russian lands and subsequent conquests. These versions, however, are considered frivolous by modern historical science..

MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS 13th c.

major hikes from the Center. Asia to the countries of Asia and Europe, organized by Mong. feudal lords in order to subjugate and rob peoples. Decomposition of the primitive communal system among the nomadic (partly hunting) Mong. tribes led to the con. 12th c. to the allocation of large nobility, who owned cattle, pastures, slaves and subjugated the mass of ordinary pastoralists, hunters and fishermen. There was a fierce struggle between the tribal unions that arose, in which Temujin moved forward, uniting the Mongols under his rule and recognized in 1200 at the congress of the nobility as the leader of the Mong. tribes (under the name of Genghis Khan). Mong aspiration. nobility to enrich at the expense of the military. booty and tribute, the acquisition of vast territories for pastures, as well as the need to consolidate power over the mass of the population led to the transformation of the Mong. society in a huge military. organization and to big wins. campaigns, in which all the people took part. In mong. The army, divided into "darkness" (tens of thousands), "thousands", "hundreds" and "tens", was dominated by the strictest discipline, to maintain which the death penalty was applied even for a small amount. misdemeanors. There was a special "next guard", that is, the personal guard of Genghis Khan, used to support his despotism. authorities. M. h. carefully prepared in the military. relation: information was collected about the countries and peoples chosen as the object of campaigns, technical equipment was used. achievements of other countries (for example, wall-beating machines), etc. Strong military. the organization of the Mongols, the experience and art of the Mongo. generals, incitement and use of internecine conflicts among the enemy allowed the mong. conquerors to make a number of major campaigns and subjugate a vast territory to their power.

In 1207, having subjugated the tribes to the north from the river. Selenga and in the upper reaches of the river. Yenisei, and in 1209 - the Uighurs in Vost. Turkestan, the Mongols began to conquer big. hiking. In 1211, Genghis Khan invaded the North through the Gobi desert. China and in 1215 captured Beijing (Yanjing). It was destroyed approx. 90 cities, almost all of their population was exterminated, rich booty was captured. In China, the Mongols met with some technical. achievements. These achievements, as well as admin forms. and owner The Mongols used the control of China to strengthen their dominance in the conquered countries. In the autumn of 1218 from the banks of the river. Irtysh offensive began on Wed. Asia. Heroic the resistance of the defenders of Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv, Urgench, Khorezm was broken, the rich material and spiritual culture perished. Asia. Mongolian group. troops, pursuing the son of Khorezmshah Muhammad - Jalal-ad-din, penetrated into the North-West. India, but was stopped on the river. Ind. Conquest Wed. Asia was completed in 1221. Mong. troops led by Jebe and Subedey invaded in 1220 in the North. Iran, then, having bypassed the Caspian Sea from the south, penetrated into Transcaucasia and further (in 1222) to the North. The Caucasus and the Crimea, producing everywhere will devastate. destruction. In 1223 the Mongols defeated the river. Kalke, the scattered troops of the Polovtsians and Russians. princes. They set off to conquer the Volga Bulgarians, but, having been defeated, they turned back. In 1226-27 Genghis Khan destroyed the Xi-Xia Tangut state. After the death of Genghis Khan (1227), the Khural elected led. Khan of his third son Ogedei. Dr. the sons of Genghis Khan were given special uluses. At the Khural, it was decided to continue the conquests, starting with the conquest of the state of Jurchzhzpei (the state of Jin). In 1231 Mong. troops led by Ogedei and Tolui again invaded the North. China, but met with stubborn resistance. The Mongols managed to conquer the state of the Jurchens in 1234 with the help of the imp. The South Sung dynasty, which ruled in the South. China.

After careful preparation, the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu, in 1236 began a new campaign to the west, to Vost. Europe. Having captured the Volga Bulgaria, the Mongols in the con. 1237 approached the Ryazan Prince. Dec 16 1237 Batu began the assault on Ryazan (now Old Ryazan). After a six-day assault, Ryazan was taken and completely destroyed. There are legends about the heroic. exploits of the defender of the Ryazan land Evpaty Kolovrat. Then the Mongols, having defeated the army of the Vladimir, Ryazan and Chernigov princes, took Kolomna, Moscow, and on February 7. 1238 - the capital city of the great reign of Vladimir; Suzdal was taken at the same time, March 4, 1238 in the battle on the river. City was defeated by the united army of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes, led by led. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, who fell in this battle. After the victory, the Mongols occupied and destroyed at least 14 cities of the North-East. Rus'. An attempt to move to Novgorod was unsuccessful. On the way back, Batu's movement was heroically delayed. defense of the city of Kozelsk, which resisted the invaders for 7 weeks. In the same year 1238 a devastation was committed. invasion of the Caucasus. In 1239 ch. Batu's blow was directed to the South-Russian. land (at the same time, in the winter of 1239/40, part of the forces subjected the North-East Rus' to a second attack). Having captured Pereyaslavl and Chernigov, the Mongols laid siege to Kyiv. After a stubborn battle that continued on the streets of the city, Kyiv was taken to the horse. 1240. Then, continuing to move to the west, the Mongols invaded Hungary, and in 1241 defeated the Polsk. and German. princes. Encountering Czech resistance. and German. forces near Olomouc and not risking leaving the conquered Russians in the rear. land, Batu returned to Nizh. Volga. The extreme point of his advance to the west was the Adriatic. m. Russian wrestling and other peoples exposed to mong. invasion, saved the peoples of the Center. and Zap. Europe from a devastating invasion. The death of Ogedei, and soon his successor Guyuk (1246-48) and the ensuing struggle for the khan's throne, interrupted for a while M. z. They resumed under Mongke Khan (1251-59). His brother Hulagu led the conquests in the west. The Mongols invaded Iran, and then into Mesopotamia, in 1258 Baghdad, the capital of the Arabs, fell. Caliphate. The advance of the Mongols in this direction was stopped in 1260 when they were defeated by the Egyptians. troops. The conquests in the East were led by Möngke's other brother, Khubilai. The Mongols invaded Sichuan, then Dali; The Mongols also conquered the province of Hubei. By 1279 they had completed the conquest of the South Sung Empire. The attempt of the Mongols to invade Japan (1281) ended in failure, the Mongols did not strengthen in Indochina either.

M. h. 13th c. led to the formation of a huge Mongol feudal empire, which occupied most of Asia and means. part of the East. Europe. The largest size of its territory. reached in the 50s of the 13th century.

M. h. were the largest catastrophe for the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. These conquests and the rule of the Golden Horde and other states established as a result of them. formations that inherited the empire of Genghis Khan, for a long time delayed the economic. and the cultural development of the countries subject to the Mongols, led to the death of huge material and spiritual values, the destruction and enslavement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Lit .: Vladimirtsov B. Ya., Society. formation of the Mongols. Mongolian nomadic feudalism, L., 1934; Bartold V.V., Turkestan in the era of the Mong. invasions, Soch., vol. 1, M., 1963; Nasonov A. N., Mongols and Rus', M.-L., 1940; Petrushevsky I.P., From the heroic. the struggle of the Azerbaijani people in the XIII-XIV centuries, Baku, 1941; Grekov V. D., Yakubovsky A. Yu., Golden Horde and its fall, M.-L., 1950; Maisky I.M., Genghis Khan, "VI", 1962, No 5; Merpert N. Ya., Pashuto V. T., Cherepnin L. V., Genghis Khan and his legacy, "ISSSR", 1962, No 5; Strakosch-Grassmann G., Der Einfall der Mongolen in Mitteleuropa in den Jahren 1241 and 1242 Innsbruck, 1893. See also lit. under the article Mongolian People's Republic.

A. M. Sakharov. Moscow.

Mongol conquests of the 13th century.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .

See what the "MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS of the 13th century" are. in other dictionaries:

V., a series of major wars of conquest and individual campaigns organized by the Mongol feudal lords with the aim of seizing military booty, enslaving and robbing the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. The Mongolian feudal lords, having created a military organization, involved ... ...

MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS, wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and East Turkestan were subjugated. In 1211 34 Northern China was conquered, in 1215 Semirechie, in 1219 21 Middle ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

Wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and East Turkestan are subordinated. In 1211 34 years. Northern China was conquered, in 1215 Semirechie, in 121921. Middle Asia. In 1222... Historical dictionary

Mongol conquests- The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century MONGOLIAN CONQUESTS, wars and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the 13th century. in Asia and Eastern Europe. In 1207 11 many peoples of Siberia and the East were subordinated ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Mongol conquests- The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century The siege of the Mongol Tatar troops of the city of Kozelsk. 1237. Miniature of the facial vault. 16th century Mongol conquests of the war and campaigns of the armies of Genghis Khan and his descendants in the XIII ... Encyclopedic Dictionary "World History"

A series of major wars of conquest and separate campaigns organized by the Mongol feudal lords with the aim of capturing military booty, enslaving and robbing the peoples of Asia and East. Europe. Mongolian feudal lords, having created a military organization, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Mongol Empire Mongol Ezent Guren 1206 1368 ... Wikipedia

The formation of the Mongol state and the Mongol conquests- At the beginning of the XIII century. in the steppes of Central Asia, a strong Mongol state was formed, with the formation of which a period of Mongol conquests began. This entailed consequences that were of world historical significance. Affecting all countries ... ... The World History. Encyclopedia

The Mongol detachments, united by Genghis Khan, conquered the neighboring peoples - the Yenisei Kirghiz, Buryats, Yakuts and Uighurs, defeated the civilization of Primorye, and by 1215 conquered Northern China. Here, the Mongol generals adopted siege equipment from Chinese engineers to storm the fortresses. In 1218, the commanders of Genghis Khan conquered Korea, and the next year, an army of 200,000 attacked the cities of Khorezm. During two years of hostilities, the agricultural regions of Semirechye were turned into pastures, most of the inhabitants were destroyed, and the artisans were taken into slavery. In 1221, Genghis Khan subdued all of Central Asia. After this campaign, Genghis Khan Divided his huge power into uluses.

In the spring of 1223 A 30,000-strong detachment of Mongols led by Jebe and Subedei, having passed along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, invaded Transcaucasia. Having defeated the Armenian-Georgian army and devastated Georgia and Azerbaijan, the invaders broke through the Derbent passage to the North Caucasus and defeated the Alans and Polovtsians.

The Mongol-Tatars were able to conquer the states that were at the highest stage of development, because:

1) excellent organization of the troops (decimal system)

2) borrowing military equipment from the Chinese

3) the number of troops

4) well-organized intelligence

5) rigidity in relation to the resisting cities (they destroyed the recalcitrant cities, burned, destroyed, and the inhabitants were either taken away into captivity (artisans, women, children), or exterminated). Consequently, the cities surrendered voluntarily.

6) psychological factors (use of sound elements).

Battle of the Kalka (1223)

The Polovtsians, led by Khan Kotyan, centuries-old enemies of Rus', turned to the Russian princes for help against the Mongol-Tatars. At the initiative of Mstislav Mstislavich Udaly (Prince of Galicia, was married to the daughter of Khan Kotyan), at the congress of South Russian princes in Kyiv, it was decided to come to the aid of the Polovtsy. A large Russian army led by the three strongest princes of Southern Rus' entered the steppe: Mstislav Romanovich of Kyiv, Mstislav Svyatoslavich of Chernigov and Mstislav Mstislavovich of Galicia. In the lower reaches of the Dnieper, it united with the Polovtsian forces. On May 31, 1223, a battle took place near the Sea of ​​Azov, on the Kalka River, in which the Russian-Polovtsian army was defeated as a result of uncoordinated actions and intra-princely strife: against the enemy, Mstislav of Kiev stood with his forces on one of the hills and did not participate in the battle. The Mongols managed to withstand the blow, and then went on the offensive. The Polovtsy, who fled from the battlefield, were the first to be defeated. This put the Galician and Volyn rati in a difficult position. The Mongols broke the resistance of the Russians.

Now it is the turn of the most powerful part of the Russian army - the Kyiv rati. An attempt to take the Russian camp by attack, the Mongols failed, and then they went to the trick. Dzhebe and Subede promised Mstislav of Kyiv and other princes peace and the passage of their troops to their homeland. When the princes opened their camp and left it, the Mongols rushed to the Russian squads. All Russian soldiers were captured.

During the battle on the Kalka, 6 princes died, only every tenth of the soldiers returned. Only the Kiev army lost about 10 thousand people. This defeat turned out to be one of the most difficult for Rus' in history.

Batu's invasion of Rus'

In 1227, the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan, died. The ulus of the eldest son of Jochi, who died in the same year as his father, Dostal to the grandson of the conqueror - Batu Khan (Batu). It is this ulus, located west of the river. The Irtysh was supposed to become the main springboard for the aggressive campaign to the West.

In 1235, at the next kurultai of the Mongol nobility in Karakorum, a decision was made on a general Mongol campaign in Europe. The forces of one ulus of Jochi were not enough. Therefore, troops of other Genghisids were sent to help Batu. Batu himself was put at the head of the campaign, and the experienced commander Subedei was appointed adviser.

The offensive began in the autumn of 1236, and a year later the Mongol conquerors conquered the Volga Bulgaria, as well as the Polovtsian hordes that roamed between the Volga and Don rivers.

Late autumn 1237. the main forces of Batu were concentrated in the upper reaches of the river. Voronezh for the invasion of North-Eastern Rus'. In Rus', they knew about the formidable danger, but the princely feuds prevented them from joining forces to repel a strong and treacherous enemy. There was no unified command. Fortifications of cities were erected to defend neighboring Russian principalities, and not from the steppe nomads. The princely cavalry squads were not inferior to the Mongol noyons and nukers in terms of armament and fighting qualities. But the bulk of the Russian army was made up of the militia - urban and rural warriors, inferior to the Mongols in weapons and combat skills.

The defeat of Ryazan

The first principality to undergo ruthless ruin was the Ryazan land. The sovereign Russian princes had nothing to oppose to this invasion. Princely feuds did not allow united forces to be put up against Batu. The princes of Vladimir and Chernigov refused to help Ryazan. Approaching the Ryazan land, Batu demanded from the Ryazan princes a tenth of "everything that is in your land."

In the hope of reaching an agreement with Batu, the Ryazan prince sent an embassy to him with rich gifts, which was headed by the prince's son Fedor. Having accepted the gifts, the khan put forward humiliating and impudent demands: in addition to a huge tribute, to give princely sisters and daughters as wives to the Mongol nobility. And for himself personally, he looked after the beautiful Evpraksinya, Fedor's wife. The prince answered with a decisive refusal and, together with the ambassadors, was put to a painful execution. And the princess, together with her little son, in order not to get to the conquerors, rushed down from the bell tower. The Ryazan army went against Batu, and "met him near the Ryazan borders." The battle was very difficult twelve times the Russian squad left the encirclement, “one Ryazan fought with a thousand, and two with darkness (ten thousand)” - this is how the chronicle writes about this battle. But Batu's superiority in strength was great, the Ryazanians suffered heavy losses. It was the turn of the fall of Ryazan. Ryazan held out for five days, on the sixth day, on the morning of December 21, it was taken. The entire city was destroyed and all the inhabitants were exterminated. The Mongol-Tatars left behind only ashes. The Ryazan prince and his family also perished. The surviving residents of the Ryazan land gathered a squad (about 1700 people), headed by Evpaty Kolovrat. They caught up with the enemy in the Suzdal land and began to wage partisan struggle against him, inflicting heavy losses on the Mongols.

The defeat of the Vladimir principality

Having ruined the Ryazan land, in January 1238. Mongol invaders defeated the grand duke guard regiment of the Vladimir-Suzdal land near Kolomna, led by the grand duke's son Vsevolod Yuryevich.

Strong resistance to the enemy for 5 days was provided by the population of Moscow, led by the governor Philip Nyanka. After the capture by the Mongols, Moscow was burned, and its inhabitants were killed.

Then the Mongols captured Suzdal and a number of other cities.

February 4, 1238 Batu besieged Vladimir. The distance from Kolomna to Vladimir (300 km) was covered by his troops in a month. On the fourth day of the siege, the invaders broke into the city through gaps in the fortress wall near the Golden Gate. The princely family and the remnants of the troops closed in the Assumption Cathedral. The Mongols surrounded the cathedral with trees and set it on fire. After the capture of Vladimir, the hordes of conquerors scattered throughout the Vladimir-Suzdal land, plundering and destroying everything in their path. (14 cities were destroyed)

March 4, 1238 beyond the Volga, on the river. City, a battle took place between the main forces of North-Eastern Rus', headed by the Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich and the Mongol invaders. The Russian army was defeated, and the Grand Duke himself died.

After the capture of the "suburb" of Novgorod land - Torzhok, the road to North-Western Rus' was opened before the conquerors. However, the approach of spring thaw and significant human losses forced the Mongols, not having reached Veliky Novgorod about 100 miles, to turn back to the Polovtsian sepia. On the way, they defeated Kursk and the small town of Kozelsk on the river. Zhizdra. The defenders of Kozelsk put up fierce resistance to the enemy, defending themselves for seven weeks. After its capture in May 1238. Batu ordered to wipe out this "evil city" from the face of the earth, and to exterminate the remaining inhabitants without exception.

Summer 1238 Batu spent in the Don steppes, restoring the strength of his troops. However, already in the fall, his detachments again devastated the Ryazan land, capturing Gorkhovets, Murom and several other cities. In the spring of the following year, 1239, the Batu troops defeated the Principality of Pereyaslavl, and in the autumn the Chernigov-Seversk land was devastated.

Autumn 1240. Mongol rati moved to conquer Western Europe through South Rus'. In September they crossed the Dnieper and surrounded Kyiv. After a long siege on December 6, 1240. the city fell. The South Russian princes were never able to organize a united defense of their lands. In the winter of 1240 - 1241. Mongolian tumens captured almost all the cities of Southern Rus', with the exception of Kholm, Kamenets and Danilov.

Batu's campaign in Europe

After the defeat of Rus', the Mongol hordes moved to Europe. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the Balkan countries were devastated. The Mongols reached the borders of the German Empire, reached the Adriatic Sea. However, at the end of 1242 they suffered a series of setbacks in Bohemia and Hungary. From the distant Karakorum came the news of the death of the great Khan Ogedei - the son of Genghis Khan. It was a convenient excuse to stop the difficult campaign. Batu turned his troops back to the east. A decisive world-historical role in the salvation of European civilization from the Mongol hordes was played by the heroic struggle against them by the Russian and other peoples of our country, who took the first blow from the invaders. In fierce battles in Rus', the best part of the Mongol army perished. The Mongols lost their offensive power. They could not but reckon with the liberation struggle unfolding in the rear of their troops. A. S. Pushkin rightly wrote: “Russia was assigned a great destiny: its boundless plains absorbed the power of the Mongols and stopped their invasion on the very edge of Europe ... the emerging enlightenment was saved by torn Russia”

Upon his return in 1243. Batu formed the westernmost ulus - the state of the Golden Horde with the capital Sarai-Batu. The state created by Batu occupied a vast territory: from the Siberian rivers Irtysh and Ob - in the east to the Carpathians and Danube - in the West and from the Caspian steppes and the Caucasus Mountains - in the south to the black earth strip and the upper reaches of the Volga and Kama - in the north.

I want a girl with a golden dish to be able to go from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea without fear for the dish or for her honor.

Genghis Khan

In the wild steppes of Transbaikalia

Today a carrier, tomorrow a warrior,

And the day after tomorrow, God's spirit,

Mongol really was worthy

And live, and drink, and eat for two.

N. Zabolotsky,
"Moving wagons of the Mongols"

Tribes speaking various dialects of the language, later called Mongolian, appeared in the steppes of Mongolia and Transbaikalia around the 8th century. Beginning in the 10th century, Chinese sources sometimes use the word "mon-gu-li". However, until the thirteenth century this collective name was not widely used. Each Mongol considered himself a member of a particular tribe, not a large people.

The largest and most powerful tribes were Tatars, Taichiuts, Keraits, Naimans And merkits. The Chinese most often dealt with the Tatars, so they called all other Mongols black Tatars, and actually the Tatars - white Tatars. Following the Chinese, the name "Tatars" began to be used by all other peoples, including Europeans.

Most of the Mongols lived in the steppe and were engaged in nomadic pastoralism. But there were also "forest tribes", who lived in the northern part of Mongolia and hunted mainly by hunting and fishing. Over time, however, many "forest tribes" also took up cattle breeding. It was cattle that was the main wealth and measure of value for the Mongols.

The nomads raised horses, as well as large and small cattle. They were active in trade with neighboring tribes, exchanging livestock products for handicrafts and grain. Intermediaries in this trade were Uighur merchants. Before the invention of their own script, the Mongols used the Uighur script.

By the XIII century. most of the Mongols were pagans. They worshiped the "eternal blue sky", the deity of the earth and the spirits of their ancestors. Each clan had its own shaman. However, back in the 11th century. the Keraite nobility accepted Nestorianism(one of the varieties of Christianity). Among the Mongols there were also Buddhists and Muslims. In general, the Mongols have always been distinguished by amazing religious tolerance.

This is interesting: in the Middle Ages in Europe there was a legend that somewhere far to the east there was a powerful Christian kingdom of “prester John”, created by Nestorian heretics who had fled from Byzantium. The presence of Nestorians among the Mongols made many Europeans mistake them for the subjects of "Prester John".

The envoy of the Pope Plano Carpini, who visited Mongolia in the middle of the 13th century, described this people as follows: “The Tatars were small in stature, broad-shouldered, shaved bald, with wide cheekbones, they ate various meats and thin millet porridge. Koumiss (horse milk) was a favorite drink. The men of the Tatars looked after the cattle, were excellent shooters and riders. The household was in the hands of the women. The Tatars had polygamy, each had as many wives as he could support. They lived in wagons-yurts, which were easily dismantled.

The Mongols usually roamed the whole family. During the camp, the nomads put their yurts in a ring around the leader's yurt. This camp was called smoking. Over time, the genera lost their unity and broke up into many separate ailov(i.e. large families).

At the head of each tribe was khan. Below him were noyons(noble leaders of the clans). Each noyon (not to mention the khan) had his own detachment of warriors - nukers.

Mongol: Genghis Khan's War. A camp of still friendly Keraites.

This is interesting:"Nuker" in Mongolian means "friend". Thus, the military servants of the rulers of the Mongols were called the same as the Russians (“team”).

Formally, pastures belonged to the whole family. But by the thirteenth century their actual owners were khans and noyons. They also owned most of the livestock. Almost all ordinary Mongols ( haracha- mob) gradually turned into dependent shepherds- arats, to whom the nobility gave out part of their livestock for use. Sometimes a noyon gave several arat families to one of his nukers as a reward for faithful service. This reward was called hubby.

The noble Mongols had slaves, into which all prisoners of war turned. Slaves could be domestic servants or shepherds, but slaves who knew a trade were most valued. Indeed, among the Mongols there were almost no skilled artisans.

War played an important role in the life of the Mongols. It was conducted for the sake of robbery and the capture of slaves. Moreover, initially the wars were fought mainly between various Mongolian tribes: the neighboring peoples were still too tough for the divided Mongols. But soon the situation changed.

Unification of Mongolia

Let your nickname be Genghis. You have become the King of kings. The Almighty Lord commanded that your name be: Genghis Khan, King of Kings, Sovereign of Sovereigns.

Shaman Kaekchu

In the XI and XII centuries. in the Mongolian steppes there was a humid climate that favored nomadic pastoralism. The number of herds and herds was constantly growing, and after them the Mongols also multiplied. However, by the beginning of the 13th century, the climate became more arid. The steppe could no longer feed all its inhabitants.

Sid Meier's Civilization III. Here he is, Temujin, the father of all Mongols.

A direct consequence of climate change was the bloody feuds between the Mongolian tribes. Naimans, Keraites, Tatars and others, not finding sufficient food on their own pastures, went to war against their neighbors. According to one Arab historian, at the beginning of the XIII century. the Mongol khans "most of the time ... fought with each other, were at enmity, bickered and competed, robbed each other." As a result of internecine wars, the defeated tribes became dependent on their winners. Soon several large tribal unions arose in Mongolia, or uluses. Separate uluses were already strong enough to raid China and other neighboring peoples. Before the unification of all the Mongols under the rule of one khan, there was only one step left to take.

This step was destined to be taken Temuchin.

Temujin was not a khan by birth. His father Yesugei-bagatur was a noble noyon from the Taichiut tribe. He led his genealogy as far back as 254. Yesugei was a good commander. He even managed to put together his own ulus. In 1164, when Temuchin was only 9 years old, Yesugei was poisoned by the Tatars, and his ulus fell apart. Dispersed to other noyons and his once faithful nukers. Khan Taichiut Targultai took all the cattle. The Yesugei family (his two widows and children), abandoned by everyone and deprived of their livelihood, wandered around Mongolia for several years. Temujin himself even spent some time as a slave to Targultai.

This is interesting: Yesugei-bagatur named his son Temuchin in honor of one of the Tatar leaders, whom he killed shortly before the birth of the boy.

Finally Temuchin was lucky. His patron was Togoril, a powerful head of the Kerait tribe and an old friend of Yesugei. Relying on the support of Togoril, Temuchin gathered a strong detachment of nukers and with his help began to create his own ulus.

Having accumulated enough strength, Temuchin, together with Togoril and his named brother, the leader of the Jajirat tribe Jamugoy defeated the Merkits and their Taichiut allies. Soon, Jamugi's brother was killed by Temujin's people while trying to steal a herd. After that, the named brothers quarreled and became mortal enemies.

In 1197, Temuchin and Togoril, acting with the support of Chinese troops, attacked the Tatars and inflicted a severe defeat on them. For this "operation" Temujin received from the Chinese emperor the title jauthuri, and Togoril is the title van. Since that time, Togoril began to be called Wang Khan.

In 1201, the Tatars, Merkits, Taichiuts and some other tribes united against Temujin. Jamuga stood at the head of this coalition. The struggle between Temuchin and Jamuga dragged on for several years. There were several major battles, the winner of which was Temujin. Finally, in 1206, Jamuga was captured by five of his arats and handed over to Temuchin. Araty hoped to receive a rich reward from the winner. But instead of a reward, Temujin ordered the execution of the arats together with their families in front of the captive Jamugi, saying: “Is it conceivable to leave alive the arats who raised their hand against their natural khan?” After that, according to legend, Temujin offered Jamuga to forget old grievances and become friends again. However, Jamuga chose to die and asked to have his back broken. Such a death was considered noble among the Mongols, since it did not require bloodshed.

The Tatars, repeatedly beaten by Temuchin, were eventually slaughtered by him without exception. Ironically, for a very long time the Mongols around the world were called exclusively Tatars. The name of this tribe passed to the Crimean and Volga Tatars, although not a single real Tatar, most likely, reached the Crimea and the Volga region.

Genghis Khan.

Borte, beloved wife of Genghis Khan.

When the ulus of Temujin became equal in strength to the ulus of Van Khan, a war broke out between the former comrades-in-arms. Temujin emerged victorious from it. Soon Temuchin managed to defeat the Naiman tribe in battle and kill their leader. Dayan Khan. Dayan Khan's successor Kuchluk together with part of the Naimans, he fled to the Kara-Kitay Khanate, located southwest of Lake Balkhash.

Finally, in 1206, the kurultai(congress of the Mongolian nobility), proclaiming Temuchin the great khan of all the Mongols and giving him the name Genghis Khan. Then the great khan began to be called kagan. Khagan is the highest title, roughly equivalent to a European emperor. Before Genghis Khan, the Mongols used this name only for Chinese rulers. Under the rule of Genghis Khan were all the Mongol tribes, which only from that moment began to feel and call themselves not Keraites or Naimans, but Mongols.

Attention is a myth: in some books you can find one or another unambiguous interpretation of the name Genghis Khan. Somewhere he is translated as "ocean-khan", somewhere - as "true ruler". In fact, the meaning of this name has not yet been precisely established.

The long-awaited peace reigned in the Mongolian steppe. However, the new lord of the Mongols was faced with the old question: what to do with the surplus population, which no longer had enough space on the old pastures? Genghis Khan intended to solve this problem by robbing his neighbors and seizing their lands. Basically, there was no other way.

The beginning of the conquests

We Mongols have discipline,

Killed - and go under the sword yourself.

N. Zabolotsky,
"How Rubruk said goodbye to Mongolia"

The key to successful conquests was to be the highly effective internal organization of the young Mongolian state. Genghis Khan carried out a number of reforms, reflected in Great Yasa. Usually Yasa is called a code of laws, but it was more like a collection of sayings of Genghis Khan, made by him at different times and on different occasions. The idea of ​​such a collection was borrowed from China, where they have always been very popular. The last example is Mao Zedong's quote book. Yasa was created for a long time and finally took shape by the end of Genghis Khan's life.

Banknote in denomination of 1000 Mongolian tugriks with a portrait of Genghis Khan.

In Yasa, loyalty and courage were considered “good”, and cowardice and betrayal were considered “evil”. If a warrior fled from the battlefield or betrayed his khan, he was executed. If the enemy, even being captured, remained faithful to his master, he was spared and accepted into the ranks of the Mongol army.

Genghis Khan divided the entire population of Mongolia into "tens", yaguns(hundreds) mingans(thousands) and tumens(tens of thousands). These were both administrative units of the Mongolian state and units of the Mongolian army. The entire male population of Mongolia served in the army. In one "ten" usually served close relatives, members of the same village. There was a rule according to which, in case of cowardice or betrayal of one warrior, the entire “ten” was executed. Thus, for the sake of their own survival, each ail was forced to raise their children as brave warriors, completely devoted to the khan.

Noyons were at the head of the divisions. Noyon not only commanded a unit on the battlefield, but also received some income from the families whose members served in that unit. Under pain of death, the Mongol was forbidden to move from one “ten” to another, that is, in fact, from one noyon to another. Khan appointed commanders of detachments from among the noyons most devoted to himself, although usually the commander and subordinates were members of the same tribe.

The basis of the Mongol army was the cavalry, divided into light and heavy. Each light cavalry warrior had two horses, a saber, a battle axe, two bows, 20 arrows, a light spear and leather armor. The heavy horseman, in addition to all this, also wielded a heavy spear and sword. Typically, light cavalry fired their bows at the enemy, and then pretended to retreat, luring the enemy into an unexpected blow from heavy cavalry.

Genghis Khan created two special forces. The first of these, the so-called keshik, was a detachment of personal bodyguards of the great khan. Keshiktens were recruited from among the young noyons and enjoyed huge privileges. Their main task was to fight the enemies of the khan among the Mongols themselves. During the time of Genghis Khan, the keshik numbered 150 warriors. In addition, it was created detachment of bagaturs in which the best warriors were recruited. Bagaturs were always in the forefront and were the first to engage in battle with the enemy.

XIII century: glory or death. The light cavalry is the vanguard of the Mongolian army.

Genghis Khan also created intelligence and a well-functioning courier service. After the conquest of Northern China, the Mongols began to actively use siege weapons, serviced by Chinese engineers. As for the Mongol generals, they were instructed to lead their army from the rear and, unless absolutely necessary, not risk their own lives. After all, after the death of the leader, the army turned into an unorganized crowd and was doomed to defeat. Therefore, the commander was required not personal heroism, but a well-functioning head. At the same time, there is a legend according to which Genghis Khan himself always fought in the forefront of his army, along with the bagaturs. Most likely, it is not true.

Yasa established the following procedure for the division of military booty: 60% of the loot went to the army, 20% - jihangiru(to the leader of the campaign), 20% - to the kagan. Since Genghis Khan usually led all the conquests himself, by the end of his life he possessed two-fifths of all the wealth of Northern China, Central Asia and some other countries. This makes him one of the richest people in world history.

The first victims of the Mongol army, numbering, according to some estimates, about 100 thousand soldiers, were the Buryats, Yakuts and some other peoples of southern Siberia. These conquests were led not by Genghis Khan himself, but by his son Jochi. After the war with the Mongols, the Yakuts went north, to the areas of their current habitat. The capture of Southern Siberia handed over to the Mongols the local iron deposits, necessary to provide a huge army with weapons.

In 1207 the Mongols attacked the Tangut state Western Xia located between China and Mongolia. The Tanguts offered stubborn resistance to the Mongols, which Genghis Khan managed to break only by 1209. The remnants of the Tanguts fought against the Mongols until 1227. In 1209, Genghis Khan managed to subdue the Uighurs. By 1211, the lands of the Kirghiz and Primorye also fell under the rule of the Mongols.

This is interesting: Before the Mongol invasion, Primorye had a fairly advanced civilization that built cities and even developed its own script. The warriors of Genghis Khan wiped it off the face of the earth, leaving no trace. This civilization was discovered by archaeologists only at the end of the 20th century.

Golden Horde. The construction of the mine is in full swing.

After that, it was China's turn. Strictly speaking, at that time there were two Chinese states: northern Jin empire and southern Song empire. These two empires were constantly at war with each other, since the Song Empire was ruled by the Chinese dynasty itself, and the Jin Empire arose as a result of the conquest of Northern China. Jurchens. The Jurchens, who came to China from Manchuria, behaved there like conquerors, and the ethnic Chinese hated them fiercely. Thus, all the forces of the Jin dynasty were focused on the fight against southern China and against their own subjects. This made it easier for Genghis Khan.

In 1211, the Mongol army attacked the Jin Empire. The Jin army took up a defensive position at the exit of Badzher Gorge and did not attack the Mongols at the moment when they passed through the gorge and were most vulnerable. Moreover, the Jin commander informed Genghis Khan about the disposition of his troops. As a result, the Mongols won an easy victory, destroying the Chinese army of many thousands. In 1213, the army of Genghis Khan overcame the line of the Great Wall of China, and in 1215 stormed the capital of the Jin Empire Yanjing(modern Beijing). By 1217, the Mongols had conquered all Chinese lands north of the Yellow River and destroyed about 90 cities. The Jin emperor, in whose hands only a relatively small territory remained south of the Huang He, settled in Kaifeng. After that, Genghis Khan suspended the onslaught on Jin and turned his gaze towards Central Asia.

Conquest of Central Asia

In the wilderness of the eastern territories,

Where the wind beat in the face and chest,

Like a primeval crematorium

The Genghis Way was still on fire.

N. Zabolotsky,
"The Road of Genghis Khan"

As mentioned above, after the defeat of the Naimans, their Khan Kuchluk, together with the remnants of his army, fled to Qara Khitai Khanate. In 1208, at the height of the Mongols' war with Western Xia, Kuchluk's troops attacked Genghis Khan's army. After losing the battle on the banks of the Irtysh, Kuchluk calmed down for a while, but by 1218 he again began to pose a serious danger to Genghis Khan. By that time, Kuchluk had already managed to become the Khan of the Karakitays.

XIII century: glory or death.
These brave bagaturs will sweep everyone out of their way.

Deciding to put an end to the Kara-Chinese threat, Genghis Khan ended the war against the Jin. However, his army was so exhausted by the long war that he was able to allocate only two tumens for the campaign against Kuchluk. One of the best Mongol commanders stood at the head of these tumens. Jebe nicknamed "The Arrow".

Jebe's troops were much inferior in numbers to the Karakitay army. But the cunning Mongol managed to turn a significant part of his subjects against Kuchluk. After civil strife began in the Kara-Khitay Khanate, Jebe easily conquered this state. Kuchluk's army was again defeated, and he himself was executed. The sedentary population of the khanate, who professed Islam, went over to the side of the Mongols, since Kuchluk persecuted Muslims, and Jebe allowed them public worship. The city of Balasagun, inhabited by Muslims, surrendered to the Mongols without a fight, for which it received the name Gobalyk from them, that is, "a good city". Having conquered the Karakitays, the Mongols reached the border of a powerful Khorezm.

By the beginning of the XIII century. Khorezm was a strong Muslim state that united Iran and most of Central Asia. Such rich cities as Samarkand and Bukhara were located on its territory. However, the Shah of Khorezm Ala ad-Din Muhammad II had to fight against the strong Kipchak (Polovtsian) aristocracy, which occupied key positions in the government and in the army.

Apparently, Genghis Khan was originally going not to fight with Khorezm, but to conduct mutually beneficial trade with him. He sent a large caravan with goods to Khorezm, but the governor of the border town of Khorezm Otrar ordered to destroy the Mongol merchants, suspecting them of saboteurs. After that, Genghis Khan sent an embassy to the court of the shah himself, demanding an apology and extradition to him of the governor responsible for the murder of the merchants. However, the governor of Otrar was one of the leaders of the Kipchak party, and the shah, fearing to provoke a new uprising, rejected all the demands of Genghis Khan. Moreover, the shah ordered one of the Mongol ambassadors to be beheaded, and the rest to shave off their beards. The Mongol khan could not endure such an insult, and the war became inevitable.

Mongols under the walls of Samarkand.

The invasion of Khorezm, apparently, was the largest military operation of Genghis Khan. According to the sources, the Mongol army that invaded Khorezm in 1219 numbered 20 tumens, that is, about 200 thousand soldiers. Genghis Khan himself was at the head of the army, and his sons and the most capable commanders were at the head of individual tumens. Among the commanders of the tumens, the already mentioned Jebe and Subedey-bagatur. The campaign plan was developed taking into account intelligence data.

The Shah did not trust his troops and did not dare to give the Mongols a battle in the open field. Instead, he dispersed his warriors among the fortified cities. This made their task easier for the Mongols, since it ensured them a constant numerical superiority over the scattered troops of the Shah.

The Mongols took Otrar first. His governor, because of whom, in fact, the war began, was preparing for a stubborn defense. However, one of his commanders went over to the side of the Mongols and opened the gate for them. As you can see, the Mongols, intolerant of betrayal in their own ranks, at the same time willingly used the services of defectors. Most of the inhabitants of Otrar were killed, and Genghis Khan ordered the governor to pour molten silver into his ears.

In 1221, after a five-month siege, the Mongols took the capital of Khorezm Urgench. Bukhara and Khujand were soon taken. Samarkand and several other cities surrendered to the Mongols without a fight, believing in the promises that the inhabitants would be spared their lives.

If the city offered resistance to the Mongols, then its fate was always the same. First, all the townspeople were taken out into the field, after which the city was plundered. Having removed all valuables from the city, the Mongols demolished the city walls, and often destroyed the entire city, leaving a huge ashes in its place. Craftsmen with their families, as well as young women, were driven into slavery, while everyone else, as a rule, was killed. Sometimes the Mongols also spared healthy young men who were not trained in the craft. They were used to service siege engines.

Mongolian army.

Immediate surrender to the mercy of the winner, as a rule, saved the city from complete destruction. However, robberies and massacres occurred in this case as well.

Sometimes the Mongols slaughtered not only the townspeople, but also the inhabitants of the rural areas adjacent to them. Sometimes it was necessary to commit so many murders that there were not enough soldiers, and the slaves who followed the army were attracted to this terrible work. After one such massacre, only the count of the dead lasted as much as 13 days.

Before the arrival of the Mongols, Central Asia was a prosperous agricultural region. The Mongols, on the other hand, killed the farmers, cut down the gardens, trampled the fields and destroyed the irrigation system that had been created for centuries. Huge territories have turned into a barren desert. As for the enslaved artisans, at first they were driven to Mongolia. Later, the Mongols began to create large workshops in the conquered countries themselves, in which local artisans worked.

Ala ad-Din Mohammed fled to Iran and soon died there under unclear circumstances. His son became the new shah Jalal ad-Din. Genghis Khan did not go further than Samarkand, but sent troops to conquer Iran. Jalal ad-Din gathered the remnants of the Khorezmian army and gave the Mongols several battles. However, he was eventually defeated and fled to India. The Mongols tried to pursue him there too, but ran into fierce resistance and retreated. Jelal ad-Din, having settled in India, continued to attack the Mongols until he died in 1231. With his death, the dynasty of the shahs of Khorezm was cut short.

Battle on the Kalka

In the same year, due to our sin, the tongues came unknown, but no one knows them well: who are the essence and where the izidosha ... And they are called Tatars, and others say taurmeni, and others are pechenesi ... God alone knows who the essence is and where isidosha.

Novgorod Chronicle

Having done away with Khorezm, Genghis Khan, at the head of most of his army, moved back to Mongolia. At the same time, he sent two tumens, led by Jebe and Subedei, to the west to test the ground before a new campaign.

Golden Horde. The Mongolian avant-garde set foot on the Ryazan lands. What lies ahead for them?

Jebe and Subedei rounded the Caspian Sea from the south, devastated Azerbaijan And Armenia and in 1222 they inflicted a decisive defeat Georgia. Moving further north, the Mongols faced a strong coalition, which included Cumans(Kipchaks), Alans(Ossetians), Lezgins And Circassians. Unable to break this coalition in open battle, Jebe again used a technique that had already brought him success during the Kara-Khitay campaign. He presented rich gifts to the Polovtsian khans and swore eternal friendship. The Polovtsy believed and abandoned their allies. Having defeated the Alans, Circassians and Lezgins, the Mongols attacked the Polovtsians. Such perfidy, from the point of view of the Mongols, was completely justified, since it contributed to the victory.

Having fairly beaten the Polovtsy, at the very beginning of 1223 the Mongols invaded the Crimea and stormed the Genoese colony Surozh(Zander). After that, they again attacked the Polovtsians. In the face of imminent defeat, the Polovtsy turned to the Russian princes for help.

Attention is a myth: it is widely believed that the Russians and the Cumans were mortal enemies and fought each other all the time, with the Cumans always attacking first. However, in fact, the Russians and the Polovtsy not only committed against each other mutual raids, but also actively traded with each other. Many princes were friends with the Polovtsian khans and even married their daughters.

In the spring of 1223, several Polovtsian khans came to Kyiv, among whom was Kotyan, father-in-law of the Galician prince Mstislav Mstislavovich Udaly. Mstislav Udaloy was one of the best Russian commanders of that time and enjoyed the well-deserved respect of other princes.

Princes from all over southern Rus' gathered in Kyiv to listen to the Polovtsy. Kotyan asked them for help against the Mongols, saying at the same time: "Today the Tatars have captured our land, tomorrow they will take yours." At first, the princes did not want to embark on a dangerous adventure, but Mstislav Udaloy, using his enormous authority, convinced them to help the Polovtsy. The princes decided to meet the Mongols and attack them in the Polovtsian steppes. Mstislav Udaloy and 17 other South Russian princes, along with their squads, set out on the campaign. Grand Duke of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich sent a detachment of the prince to help them Cornflower of Rostov, but this detachment was late for the decisive battle.

Golden Horde. Mongolian scout in the camp of Russian soldiers.

Soon after the Russians connected with the Polovtsy, Mongol ambassadors came to them. According to the Russian chronicles, the ambassadors proposed the following: “We heard that you are going against us, but we did not touch your land - neither cities nor villages. We came, by the will of God, to our serfs and grooms - the Polovtsians. They have done you a lot of harm, for which we beat them. Better take the world with us, and drive them away. As you can see, the old fox Jebe again decided to use his favorite trick, quarreling the allies. But the Russian princes, taught by the bitter Polovtsian experience, did not fall for this deception. Moreover, they executed ambassadors, which was contrary to their own rules.

Having descended down the Dnieper, the Russian-Polovtsian troops, not far from Kherson, stumbled upon the advance detachment of the Mongols and utterly defeated him. After this first victory, the Russians became "dizzy with success." Leaving the banks of the Dnieper, they moved into the depths of the steppe, where on the banks river Kalka encountered the tumens of Jebe and Subedei.

It is very difficult to estimate the number of Russian and Mongolian troops in the ensuing battle. Judging by the fact that Jebe and Subedei initially had only 2 tumens, with which they withstood several battles and did not receive any reinforcements, the Mongols most likely had 15-20 thousand soldiers. As for the Russians, the princely squad usually numbered from 300 to 500 soldiers. Multiplying this number by the number of princes who participated in the campaign, we get 6-9 thousand people. Most likely, the forces of the Mongols and the Russian-Polovtsian coalition were approximately equal.

Differences arose between the Russian princes. Mstislav Kyiv wanted to give the Mongols a defensive battle. The Kievans and part of the Chernigovites began to dig in at a rocky height convenient for defense. All the rest of the princes, together with the Polovtsy, on May 31, 1223, crossed to the left bank and attacked the enemy.

Medieval II: Total War. Mongolian heavy cavalry in the battle of Kalka.

While most of the combatants were still preparing for battle, a detachment was sent forward Daniel Volynsky and Polovtsian Khan Yaruna. The Mongols took this detachment into the ring and defeated it after a fierce battle, and the Polovtsians were the first to flinch. Following that, the Mongols attacked the main forces of the Russians. This attack was completely unexpected for the Russians - most of the combatants did not even have time to put on their armor. As a result, the battle turned into a massacre. The surviving warriors, led by Mstislav Udaly and Daniil Volynsky, fled from the battlefield and galloped without stopping to the very Dnieper, pursued by the Mongols. Mstislav and Daniil eventually managed to escape, and here are six more princes, including Mstislav of Chernigov died at the hands of the Mongols.

Meanwhile, the Mongols besieged the fortified camp of Kiev. On the third day of the siege, the Mongols offered Mstislav of Kyiv to surrender on the condition that he and all his people would be returned home for a ransom. Mstislav believed the Mongols, but they, of course, deceived him. All the surrendered warriors were killed, and Mstislav and two other princes were laid on the ground, laying boards on top of them. On these boards, the Mongol military leaders arranged a feast on the occasion of the victory. The princes lying under the boards died a painful death.

Attention is a myth: such an unusual way of executing Russian princes is often attributed to the cruelty of the Mongols. In fact, Jebe and Subedei thus showed their respect for the defeated opponents. After all, the Russian princes died without losing a drop of blood, which means, according to Mongolian concepts, they died a noble death.

After their victory, the Mongols raided the Dnieper region, and then turned to the Middle Volga region. There, at the mouth of the Kama, they encountered the troops of the Volga Bulgaria and suffered a severe defeat from them. After that Jebe and Subedei turned back home and in 1225 reached Mongolia.

The Novgorod chronicler summed up the tragic events of 1223 in this way: “And there was a cry, and weeping, and sadness in the city and in the village ... The Tatars returned from the Dnieper River; and we will not know where the essence came from and where you sit down again.

Testament of Genghis Khan

In those days the composition of the peoples of the world

Was confused and crumpled

And he was for the commander

Asian invisible to the world.

All this world of living creatures,

People, tribes and entire countries

I paid taxes and tributes,

As Genghis Khan intended.

N. Zabolotsky,
"What did Karakorum live for"

Returning to Mongolia, Genghis Khan discovered that the Tanguts, defeated back in 1209, again raised their heads, revived their state and concluded an alliance with the Jin Empire against the Mongols. In 1226, Genghis Khan led a campaign against the Tanguts and in 1227 forced them to surrender, capturing all their cities, defeating all their armies and killing all members of the ruling family.

At the very end of the campaign against the Tanguts, on August 18, 1227, Genghis Khan died unexpectedly. The cause of his death is still unknown. According to one version, the great conqueror died by falling from a horse, according to another, he died of pneumonia, and according to a third, he was killed by a captured Tangut princess.

Golden Horde. This archer in front of the tent is Batu Khan in person.

The place where Genghis Khan was buried has not yet been discovered. He was buried in deep secrecy, and no sign was left on his grave. So demanded the customs of his native tribe, the Taichiut. It is assumed, however, that the great khan was interred near the river Onon, that is, in those places where he was born and where he was proclaimed the ruler of all the Mongols.

In less than 20 years, the Mongols managed to create a huge empire, which included many countries and peoples. The territory conquered by the Mongols was so great that they had to keep power in the hands of many defeated rulers. These rulers continued to rule over their peoples, but were required to pay tribute to the Mongols and sometimes to field auxiliary armed detachments. In addition, each new ruler was obliged to confirm his rights to power, receiving from the hands of the Mongol khan a special label.

Shortly before his death, Genghis Khan divided his possessions into four uluses, headed by his sons. Jochi, Ogedei, Tolui And Chagatai. Since Jochi died a few months before his father, his ulus, located in the west of the Mongol Empire, was divided between the two grandsons of Genghis Khan. These grandchildren were named Batu(Russians called him Batu) and Horde.

Dying, Genghis Khan bequeathed to his descendants to continue their campaigns of conquest and reach "last sea", or "Sea of ​​the Franks"(that is, the Atlantic Ocean).

In 1229, after two years of mourning for Genghis Khan, the Mongolian nobility gathered for a kurultai in the Mongolian capital Karakorum to choose a new great khan. According to Mongolian customs, Genghis Khan was to be succeeded by his youngest son Tolui. However, the kurultai chose Ugedei as the new great khan, since this was the dying will of Genghis Khan himself.

In 1231, the Mongols resumed their war against the Jin Empire. This time they acted in concert with the Song Empire. In 1234, the combined Mongol-Chinese troops took the capital of the Jurchen emperor, the city of Kaifeng. The Jin Empire ceased to exist. In 1231 the Mongols attacked for the first time Korea.

In 1232, the troops of Batu Khan, who by that time had become the sole ruler of the Jochi ulus, together with a large detachment of Subedei who had come from Mongolia, tried to conquer Volga Bulgaria. However, the Bulgars again repulsed the onslaught of the Mongols, and for Subedei this was the second defeat in a row from the Volga Bulgars.

Khan Ogedei.

This is interesting: Turkic-speaking Bulgarians at one time wandered in the northern Black Sea region. In the 7th century this people split into several groups. One of them went to the Danube and, having conquered the Slavs there, founded the Danube Bulgaria, which still exists. Another group migrated to the confluence of the Volga and Kama, establishing a powerful state there, known as the Volga Bulgaria. The largest cities of the Volga Bulgars were Bolgar and Bilyar. They also founded Kazan and Yelabuga, which at that time were small border fortresses. Kazan Tatars and Chuvashs are the descendants of the Volga Bulgars.

The Mongols realized that they could not conquer Europe with the forces of one Jochi ulus. At the kurultai of 1235, it was decided to send forces from other uluses to help Batu. In 1236, under the command of Batu, there was a large army, the exact number of which is unknown. The total number of Mongolian troops at that time did not exceed 150 thousand people, and a significant part of them were located in China. The forces of the Jochi ulus proper numbered about 40 thousand soldiers. Thus, the invasion forces in Europe totaled no less than 50 and no more than 120 thousand people.

In the autumn of 1236, the Mongols invaded Volga Bulgaria for the third time and finally defeated it. Finally, the resistance of the Bulgars was broken only by 1240. Part of the Bulgars fled to the Russian lands. The Mongols were joined by military detachments Mordovians, which before that paid tribute to the Russians and Bulgars.

In the autumn of 1237, Batu's troops concentrated in the area of ​​present-day Voronezh. Their goal was North-Eastern Rus'.

The death of the Russian land

In those days, by the grace of Batu,

Palms eaten to the bone,

Still smoking ancient Kyiv

At the feet of uninvited guests.

There are no more marvelous songs,

Yaroslav lay in the tomb,

And the maidens in hryvnias fell silent,

Danced the last dance.

N. Zabolotsky,
"The Beginning of the Journey"

In December 1237, the Mongols invaded the territory of the Ryazan principality. Batu sent an embassy to the Ryazan princes, demanding from them a tenth of all their property. Subsequent events clearly show that the Russians had no idea about the true strength of the Mongols and were not at all afraid of them.

First, the Ryazan princes rejected Batu's ultimatum. Secondly, when the people of Ryazan asked the Prince of Vladimir Yuri Vsevolodovich for help, he refused to support them, but decided "Individual scolding", that is, to defeat the Mongols, relying only on their own strength. Thirdly, the Ryazan princes, even without the support of the Vladimir people, decided to give the Mongols a battle in the open field!

One can only be surprised at such fearlessness, because, according to modern estimates, the Ryazan principality could put up no more than 7 thousand trained soldiers, and Vladimir - no more than 25 thousand.

According to the Russian chronicles, in the first clash between the Russians and the Mongols, the Ryazan warriors fought with extraordinary daring. For example, one of the princes cut through the entire Mongol army several times.

But, despite all the heroism of the Russian soldiers, they all died, and on December 21, after a six-day siege, fell Ryazan. As punishment for the fierce resistance, the city was razed to the ground, and most of its inhabitants died. The few surviving Ryazanians went to the small town of Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, which soon became known as Ryazan. Ryazan in the old place was never rebuilt.

After the fall of Ryazan, two detachments of Ryazan warriors survived. One of them, under the command of the boyar Evpatiy Kolovrat, began to partisan in the dense Ryazan forests, attacking small detachments of the Mongols. According to legend, Batu managed to destroy this detachment only by surrounding him and using throwing weapons. Another Ryazan detachment retreated to Kolomna, where he connected with the Vladimir border guards and gave the Mongols a new battle. Near Kolomna, the Russians again fought with a twinkle. They even managed to kill one of the commanders- Genghisides, and this happened very rarely.

Medieval II: Total War. Mongolian throwing guns do not shoot very accurately and often, but they are very far and scary.

At the end of January, the Mongols destroyed Moscow, and on February 4, 1238, they besieged Vladimir. Yuri Vsevolodovich had left his capital shortly before with a small retinue, leaving a strong garrison and his entire family in it. Vladimir had excellent fortifications, but they could not resist the Mongol siege weapons. On February 7, the Mongols broke into the city and killed all its defenders and civilians. In the same month, Batu's troops burned 15 more Russian cities, including Rostov, Suzdal, Yaroslavl and Tver.

Meanwhile, Yuri Vsevolodovich did not sit idly by. Lying on the shores River Sit, he began to gather there the squads of all the Vladimir-Suzdal princes. Apparently, the calculation was that the Mongols, exhausted by bloody assaults on well-fortified cities, would not resist the combined forces of the largest of the Russian principalities.

At the end of February, Batu divided his forces. One detachment approached Torzhok and took it after a two-week siege. The second detachment, led by the commander Burundai, attacked the troops of Yuri Vsevolodovich. March 4 on the banks of the City occurred "slashing evil" in which the Russians were utterly defeated. Grand Duke Yuri fell in battle, and Vasilko of Rostov, who at one time did not reach Kalka, was captured and put to death.

After that, the Mongols went to Novgorod, but, not having reached it only a hundred miles, they suddenly turned south. Why the Mongols turned down the opportunity to plunder a rich trading city is still a mystery. Perhaps the Mongols, who suffered heavy losses, were frightened by the powerful Novgorod fortifications. Or maybe they decided that they would not find enough food in the Novgorod land, which always imported grain from the Vladimir principality? Or were they stopped by the spring thaw, which turned the roads into an impenetrable mess? We do not know the answer to this question.

A few years later, the Mongols imposed tribute on Novgorod. Moreover, none other than the prince helped them to do this. Alexander Nevskiy later canonized as a saint. When the Novgorodians killed those who arrived in Novgorod Basques(Mongolian tribute collectors), Alexander Nevsky arrived in the city with his warriors and quickly suppressed the rebellion, executing all the instigators. After that, he helped the Mongols to hold the first in the history of Russia population census necessary for the needs of collecting tribute.

The devastation of Suzdal by the Mongols.

Alexander, who became famous for his victories over the Germans and Swedes, actively cooperated with the Mongols and, having received from them a label for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, he himself suppressed all anti-Mongolian actions. Apparently, he did not believe that Rus' could defeat the Mongols. Later, his policy of cooperation with the conquerors continued Moscow princes who collected tribute for the Mongols from the Russian lands (for a certain percentage) and helped the Mongols in their punitive expeditions. Another position was taken Tver princes who several times led popular uprisings against Mongolian yoke.

But let's get back to the events of 1238. Turning south, the Mongols again marched across the entire north-eastern Rus'. This time they divided their forces into many small detachments and moved on a wide front, plundering and destroying what they did not have time to plunder and destroy in the first run. One of these small detachments came across a small town Kozelsk and stood under its walls for seven whole weeks, suffering heavy losses. Only having received reinforcements with siege weapons, the Mongols were able to take this small town. The Mongols gave Kozelsk a nickname "evil city"(remember that "good city" located in the country of the Karakitais). After that, the Mongols returned to the Volga steppes.

In the spring of 1239, the Mongols attacked southern Rus'. Pereyaslavl fell in March. After that, Batu took a break, and in the fall he attacked the Chernigov principality. Having defeated the Chernigov squads in a field battle, the Mongols took the capital of the principality on October 18. The Mongols approached the walls Kyiv.

The Mongolian avant-garde did not dare to storm the big city at once and began to wait for the approach of the main forces. Meanwhile, the prince of Kiev, frightened by the Mongols, abandoned the city to its fate and fled to Hungary. Once upon a time, every Russian prince wanted to rule in Kyiv. Now, no one wanted to take on the defense of the doomed city. Finally, Daniel of Galicia, a participant in the Battle of the Kalka and a powerful ruler of southwestern Rus', became the prince of Kyiv. He sent a detachment to Kyiv, headed by the governor Dmitry.

At the end of November, the Mongols laid siege to Kyiv. After a multi-day assault, they broke into the city on December 6. The defenders of Kyiv fought for every quarter, but in the end were forced to retreat to tithe church. The church collapsed, burying the last defenders of Kyiv under its rubble. According to one version, the Mongols destroyed it, according to another, the church could not withstand the huge mass of Kyivans who sought refuge on its roof. Voivode Dmitr was captured by the Mongols, but they granted him freedom for his unparalleled courage.

Mongolian soldiers are escorting captured Russian artisans into slavery.

This is interesting: The Church of the Tithes was built by Prince Vladimir the Holy shortly after the baptism of Rus'. It was the first stone church in Rus' and before the construction of the Hagia Sophia was the main church of Kyiv.

Now on the path of Batu lay Galicia-Volyn principality, one of the strongest in contemporary Rus'. The Mongols were able to take the main cities of the principality Galich and Vladimir-Volynsky, but failed to take several fortresses located in the Carpathians. Apparently, Batu, mindful of Kozelsk, did not want to waste time and effort on the siege of these last centers of Russian resistance. Before the Mongols lay Western Europe, and behind it - the "sea of ​​the Franks", the ultimate goal of the campaign.

As for Rus', for many years it became dependent on Golden Horde(so in Rus' they called the ulus of Jochi). The Horde khans collected tribute from the Russian lands, pitted the Russian princes against each other, passing the label on the great reign to one or the other. Rus' suffered a terrible ruin: out of 74 Russian cities, 49 were destroyed, and 14 were never restored. Russian material and spiritual culture was thrown back for centuries, many crafts disappeared, and ties with Europe almost ceased.

In bloody battles, almost all combatants died. The surviving princes recruited new combatants from among the commoners and treated them not as their vassals, but as serfs. The Mongol invasion turned the Russian princes into despotic autocrats, predetermining the nature of power in Russia for many centuries to come.

Galloping through Europe

In the spring of 1241, the Mongol army, weakened in two Russian campaigns, but still very strong, crossed the Carpathians and invaded Hungary. This country is a huge and, moreover, extremely fertile steppe - an ideal road along which the Mongol cavalry could reach the very center of Europe. Therefore, Batu sent his main forces against the Hungarians, and threw a smaller detachment against Poland.

XIII century: glory or death. Forward to the last sea!

On April 11, 1241, the Mongols defeated the 60,000th army of the Hungarian king Bela IV in the battle for river Chaillot. After that, they took and destroyed the capital of Hungary, the city pest.

Meanwhile, the second detachment crossed the Vistula on the ice and on March 24 took Krakow. After that, the Mongols advanced further west, cutting off Poland from Germany and besieging a powerful fortress Breslau. They were met by the united Polish-German army, led by the prince of Poland and Silesia Henry II the Pious. A few days later, the troops of the Czech ruler were to join her. Wenceslas I.

Having learned from his scouts the exact position of the Czech and German-Polish troops, the Mongol commander Khan Kaidu immediately raised the siege of Breslau and attacked Henry's army. The Mongols approached the enemy under the cover of a dense smoke screen (set fired bundles of reeds were used as smoke bombs) and began to fire at them with bows. European archers also tried to shoot at the Mongols, but they could not see anything because of the smoke.

To seize the initiative, Henry decided to bring into battle his main striking force - the Teutonic and Polish knights. The knights attacked almost blindly, because they also did not see the enemy because of the smoke. However, they managed to overturn the light cavalry of the Mongols.

Battle of Liegnitz.

The Mongols retreated, luring the Poles and Teutons under the blow of heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry of both sides met in hand-to-hand combat, and the Mongols constantly shouted in Polish “Save yourself!”, Hoping thereby to sow panic in the ranks of the enemy. As a result of a fierce battle, the European knights were overturned, and Henry himself died. In the evening, the Mongols collected 9 bags of cut off enemy ears on the battlefield. This battle went down in history as battle of Liegnitz. After her, Kaidu's troops went to Hungary to join Batu.

The next year, in 1242, the Mongols tried to take Vienna, but failed. Then they turned south, to Croatia, and went to the coast of the Adriatic.

By this time, the Mongol invasion had completely fizzled out. Batu no longer had the strength to throw to the "Sea of ​​the Franks", especially since the German rulers had already managed to gather significant forces by that time. At this time, news came from distant Mongolia about the death of the great Khan Ogedei. Batu was supposed to participate in the kurultai that was gathering on this occasion. Under this pretext, the Mongols turned east and went to the steppes, ruining Serbia, Bosnia and Bulgaria along the way.

Thanks to the stubborn resistance of the Volga Bulgars, Russians, as well as Hungarians, Poles and Germans, most of Europe escaped the Mongol invasion.

Completion of conquests

In the land of Xanad blessed

The palace was built by Kubla Khan,

Where Alf runs, sacred stream,

Through the darkness of gigantic, foamy caves,

Falls into a dreamy ocean.

S. T. Coleridge,
"Kubla Khan, or Dream Vision"

Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan Empire.

After the death of Ogedei, a long struggle for power began between the descendants of Genghis Khan. Finally, in 1251, mongke, son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan. He continued his conquests both in the west and in the east.

In 1256, troops led by brother Möngke Hulagu completed the conquest of Iran and invaded Mesopotamia. In 1258 they took Baghdad and destroyed Abbasid Caliphate. After that, Hulagu invaded Syria and began to prepare for the conquest of Egypt. But in 1260 the Egyptian sultan defeated the Mongols and drove them to the east.

At the same time, at the other end of Eurasia, another brother Mongke Khubilai(in Europe he was called Kubla Khan) conquered State Dali And Tibet. By this time, the Mongol empire had reached its greatest extent. As already mentioned, it was divided into several uluses. The ulus of the kagan included Mongolia, Manchuria and Northern China. Altai with the adjacent regions was ruled by the descendants of Ogedei. The ulus of Chagatai included the eastern part of Central Asia. Finally, the ulus of Jochi (Golden Horde) belonged to the Volga region, the North Caucasus, Crimea, part of Central Asia and Western Siberia. On the lands conquered by Hulagu, a new ulus was created, ruled by his descendants.

In 1259 Möngke died. Kurultai elected the youngest son of Tolui as the new kagan Arigbugu. But Khubilai did not obey the decision of the kurultai and also proclaimed himself a kagan. A civil war broke out, in which Kublai won the victory. But while the two kagans were fighting for power over the empire, the uluses of Jochi and Khulagu separated from it. The unified Mongol empire ceased to exist.

But the Mongol conquests were not over yet. In 1267, Khubilai launched a war against the Song Empire. In 1271 he moved his capital from Karakorum to Yanjing. Taking advantage of the civil strife that torn apart southern China, Khubilai already by 1279 had conquered the Song empire and united all of China under his rule. Korea also fell under his rule.

Khubilai proclaimed himself emperor of China and founded a new imperial Yuan dynasty, which ruled China until 1368. Very soon, the same thing happened to the Mongol rulers of China as to other conquerors of the Celestial Empire, both before them and after them. They adopted Chinese culture and in many ways became more like the Chinese than the Mongols. True, the Yuan emperors did not become completely Chinese either, apparently because of the too short period of their rule in China.

Fight between the Japanese and the Mongols.

Mongolian fleet.

In 1281, Khubilai decided to conquer Japan and sent a powerful fleet to its shores. According to legend, the Mongol fleet consisted of 1,000 ships, and each ship had a hundred warriors. The Japanese began to hastily prepare for defense, but their chances against Kublai's army were small. Suddenly, a terrible typhoon began, destroying most of the Mongol fleet. A small part of the Mongol army nevertheless reached the shores of Japan, but was easily destroyed samurai. This typhoon that saved Japan from the Mongols was named by the Japanese "kamikaze" what does it mean in Japanese "divine wind".

After that, Khubilai organized several campaigns against Burmese And Vietnam and also to the island Java. In these campaigns, the Mongols made extensive use of Chinese soldiers and ships. But the Yuan empire failed to gain a foothold in Indochina. The Burmese campaign of 1300 is traditionally considered the end of the Mongol conquests.

Mongols in video games

Mongols are found in a variety of strategies. For example, they are in all games from the series Sid Meier's Civilization. IN Civilization II the Mongol conquests are even dedicated to a separate scenario called "The Great Horde". In the third Civilization the Mongols are militarists prone to expansion. They start the game with pottery, the warrior code, and a free scout. Their unique squad keshikten(Keshik horse archer) crafted in place of the normal knight. Keshikten is somewhat inferior to the knight in terms of its combat performance, but it is cheaper and, most importantly, does not require iron for its creation.

You can play as Mongols in Age of Empires II, and not only on single maps. In this game, a separate campaign is dedicated to the Mongol conquests.

In Game "XIII century: glory or death" there is also a campaign for the Mongols. It consists of five separate, unrelated battles: Chaio, Legnica, City, Kalki and clashes with the Hungarians on one of the Carpathian passes. All battles are recreated quite accurately.

Mongol: Genghis Khan's War. Mixed in a bunch of horses, people ...

Medieval II: Total War. A small Mongol detachment put to flight a whole crowd of Russians.

IN Medieval II: Total War You can only lead the Mongol army in separate battles, for example, on Kalka. In the campaign, the Mongols are not available. Like a natural disaster, at a certain moment they appear on the edge of the map and begin to cause the player a lot of all kinds of trouble.

In the recent Russian real-time strategy "Golden Horde" Mongols are one of three playable races. Accordingly, a separate campaign is devoted to them. The main difference between the Mongols and the Russians and the Crusaders is their high mobility. This is also their main advantage. The Mongols can transport all their buildings from place to place, and their city can move from one source of raw materials to another, which reduces the scattering of forces around the map and makes life much easier for the player. Mongol warriors receive significant bonuses if they fight on horseback. In addition, the Mongols can train warriors from peasants, and not from militias, like other peoples. It cannot be said that the events in the campaign are fully consistent with the historical ones. But they are close to them. There are, however, gross blunders. For example, the Mongol hero commanders, including Batu Khan, Burundai, Jebe and Subedei, can only "pump" and get a high level by participating in hand-to-hand combat and exterminating enemies in droves. Everything would be fine, but only self-respecting Mongol commanders, especially the Chingizid khans, did not participate in the battles themselves. Their prowess was not in the ability to swing a saber, but in the ability to give correct and timely commands.

A game "Mongol: Genghis Khan's War" based on the film "Mongol" and dedicated to the unification of Mongolia and the first conquest campaigns of Genghis Khan. Accordingly, there are campaigns for the Mongols and for the Jin Empire. The creators of the game tried to cram all the battles of Genghis Khan into the campaign. So, the player will have to follow the great commander to subjugate all the Mongol tribes in turn. However, the missions are extremely monotonous. All battles end with a banal “wall to wall” collision, and in the turmoil of the battle it is absolutely impossible to make out where are your friends and where are strangers. There are many types of units in the game, but the difference between them is described, in fact, by one parameter. Military units have only three commands: move, attack, and hold position. No patrols, combat formations and other frills for you.

In general, most of the games about the Mongols are made very well, and the historical inaccuracies encountered in them almost do not spoil the pleasure of the gameplay.

The expansion was put on a par with the barbarian invasions that overturned the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, as well as with the triumphal march of Islam in the 7th century. We, in turn, tend to believe that in terms of the impact that the Mongol conquests had on the entire subsequent history of mankind, they are comparable to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the Great French bourgeois revolution of 1789.

Speaking of the Mongol conquests of the 13th century. it is impossible not to mention that for centuries they were covered only from the negative side, and purely biased. As the historian, academician Zh. Boldbaatar rightly noted: “Until recently, the tendency to interpret the Mongol conquests from the standpoint of Eurocentrism and the psychology of defeated peoples who sought to justify their defeats and military failures, or from the standpoint of Marxist historiography, clearly prevailed. Russians and Europeans keep repeating endlessly that, they say, our high culture was destroyed by the Mongolian barbarians, turned numerous cities of Central Asia and monuments of history and culture that were flourishing into ashes, and also wiped out some peoples and nationalities, etc. Class tendency Marxist historiography distorted the problem under consideration even more: they almost stopped paying attention to a specific historical and cultural situation, slandering history.
The tendency to denigrate everything connected with the Mongols did not arise out of the blue and originates, of course, from the Mongol conquests themselves. The XIII Arab historian in Ibn al-Athir described the Mongol invasion "as one of the most terrible calamities that has ever befallen mankind".
Indeed, it is indisputable that in terms of the area of ​​the territory that was subjected to invasions, and in terms of the population that survived their horrors, the conquests of the Mongol khans had no analogues in history.
But “war is war. In the fire of war, people die, cities and towns collapse, historical and cultural monuments are destroyed. The conquests of Genghis Khan were no exception. But was Genghis Khan more hard-hearted than dozens of conquerors, imprinted in the memory of descendants? Was he a bloodthirsty exterminator of the human race? We unequivocally answer this question: No The area of ​​​​territories and the number of population conquered by Genghis Khan had a greater scope than the conquests of those who were before and after him, however, he, like any other conqueror, demonstrated his strength and power, when the situation required it, and showed his grace when he considered it necessary. He fought, won and established his power according to the laws of war.
Everything that happens in the universe, like a coin, has two sides. Therefore, when analyzing any phenomenon, including the Mongol conquests, which took place under the sacred nine-tailed banner for the Mongols, only negative things cannot be noted. After all, any expansion is not limited to the number of victims of war and destroyed cities. The coin has dignity only because of the presence of two sides - obverse and reverse. Therefore, only that analysis of the Mongol conquests will be fair, which will reveal them from different, diametrically opposed positions. Any other approach distorts history in one way or another.
It seems that there is no person who would argue that only the Mongols shed blood, conquering other peoples, and the rest of the nations fought humanely. Flipping through the pages of history. Did the Romans build their Eternal City, did the Lame Timur conquer Central Asia, did the Spaniards convert the Indians to the faith of Christ, did the British “enlighten” the backward peoples, did Hitler build
“Thousand-year Reich, and Lenin - communism without shedding blood? The so-called atrocities of the Mongols are nothing compared to the unthinkable atrocities of the Spaniards, Hitler's crematoria and Stalin's gulags.
We do not want to justify or glorify the conquests of the Mongol khans, under whose hooves of war horses dozens of peoples groaned. However, if you carefully study the root cause of the wars of Genghis Khan and his heirs, then in most cases the Mongols not only were not the initiators of hostilities, but, most surprisingly, they were their victims. Ultimately, the Mongols became a kind of "Scourge of God", that is, they acted as a punishing side.
"The insidious murder of the Mongol ambassadors by Khorezmshah Muhammad, the arrogance of the Jin emperor Wei Zhao, the neglect of the duty of the emperor of the Tangut state were a violation of the elementary norms of international relations and were regarded by Genghis Khan as a call to war."
Mongolian ambassadors were killed not only by Khorezmshah. The same fate awaited them in Rus', Poland and Hungary. Mongolian troops invaded these countries primarily as punishers, not as conquerors.

In a surprisingly short time, the vast territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Adriatic Sea fell under the rule of simple nomads. The power of the Mongols in different parts of the world lasted for different times. If the Mongols dominated Poland and Hungary for several months, then they kept Persia, China and Rus' under their rule for up to 250 years. Never before has such a huge empire appeared on the world map. This empire, thanks to its brilliant founder, outstanding military figures and organization of the army, had no equal and dominated 4/5 of the Eurasian continent.
For a long time it was considered indisputable that the true reason for the success of the Mongols lies only in their predominant numbers, and the victories were explained by the feudal fragmentation of the conquered peoples, that is, they seemed to be stolen. However, let's look through the pages of history again, and it will tell us that there is no nation in the world that has conquered two great powers - Rus' and China, except for the Mongols. Doesn't this fact mean something?
The number of Mongolian troops is one of the most controversial, and therefore interesting questions.
"In the 19th century. all scientists and publicists assumed that innumerable hordes came from Asia, crushing everything in their path. Now we know that the Mongols were about 600 thousand people, and their army was only 130-140 thousand horsemen who fought on three fronts: in China and Korea, in Central Asia and Iran and in the Polovtsian steppes. At that time, about 6 million inhabitants lived in Rus', 1.6 million in Poland and Lithuania. At that time, no more than 700 thousand inhabitants lived in the Volga region, and 500 thousand people lived in the steppe between the Don and the Carpathians.
In addition, the population of the Caucasus was 5 million, Khorezm - 20 million, North China - 46 million, South China - 60 million inhabitants. To them should be added such multi-million peoples as Persians and Koreans. Studies of recent years allow us to conclude that in the XIII century. the number of all Mongolian tribes was no more than 1 million people. (some researchers even give a figure of 600 thousand people.) Consequently, a million Mongols managed to conquer numerous peoples and nationalities, the number of which was 150 million people. If we take into account the figure of 600 thousand people, then for one Mongol conqueror there are already 250 conquered inhabitants.
Unthinkable atrocities were perpetrated by Europeans armed with firearms, conquering the peoples of America, Africa and Asia, who had no other weapons but miserable, primitive spears, bows and arrows. The Spaniards conquered America, mercilessly destroying the Indians, and the British mowed down the Africans, armed with spears, with machine gun fire in order to "civilize" them. History will forever remember the conquistadors and "civilizers" who marched "with a cross in their hand and with an insatiable thirst for gold in their hearts." The Mongols did not have such striking differences in armament compared to the conquered peoples, and in terms of the number of troops they were completely inferior to them dozens of times. A fair question arises: how did the Mongols, having only a horse as a means of transportation, be able to conquer such a large territory?
We have already mentioned that the Mongols were in no way superior to the conquered peoples in armament. As for the Chinese, they even surpassed the Mongols in this respect, since they had already invented and used gunpowder for military purposes. It should also be mentioned that the nomads who lived in yurts, until a certain time, had no experience at all of the siege of populous cities surrounded by a fortress wall. Only in the course of aggressive campaigns did the Mongols borrow from the conquered peoples their achievements in the field of military equipment and weapons.
The Mongols were not braver than the Russians, Chinese, Khorezmians, Persians or Europeans. People are like people. Brave in moderation, brave in moderation. However, courage alone will not get you far. Were the Indians who defended their homes more cowardly than the Europeans?
Contemporary historians and eyewitnesses left no mention of whether the conquerors were superior to the conquered peoples in terms of physical development. The Mongols have always been considered a short nation. So, the Mongol was not braver, stronger or taller than any other Asian or European.
It has already been established that in the economic development of the Mongols of the XIII century. were more backward than all the peoples they conquered. In the XIII century. China, Khorezm, Korea, Persia and Rus', which had a history of many thousands of years and a settled civilization, achieved significant success in the field of culture and science, which, unfortunately, cannot be said about the Mongols.
History is a witness to the fact that 1500 years before the start of the Mongol expansion, the Macedonians - the same small people as the Mongols - managed to conquer a territory dozens of times larger than Macedonia itself. How could something happen that is incomprehensible to human reason and logic? Firstly, the Macedonian phalanxes were led by one of the greatest generals in the world - Tsar Alexander the Great. Secondly, the Macedonian army, created by Alexander's father Philip II, had the most perfect organization of that time. Thirdly, the Persian power of the Achaemenids, conquered by Alexander, had already turned into a colossus on clay feet by that time. Fourthly, the Persian king Darius the Third was a weak ruler and an even weaker commander. Fifthly, the multinational, motley Persian army consisted in its overwhelming majority of representatives of the peoples once conquered by the Persians, who were not at all eager to shed their blood for Darius. In short, in the IV century. BC e. all the prerequisites and favorable conditions arose for the conquest of vast Persia by small Macedonia.
What was the situation in the thirteenth century? Firstly, in the person of Genghis Khan, the Mongols had a brilliant commander and a phenomenal leader. Secondly, Genghis Khan created such a perfect army,
when any concept of a worthy opponent lost its meaning. The famous historian G. V. Vernadsky wrote about this:
"Before the invention<…>firearms, few nations could create and maintain a force tactically and strategically equal to the Mongol cavalry or able to compete with it in spirit and will to conquer"
In passing, we note that not all the kings and kings of the nations conquered by the Mongols were as lacking in initiative as Darius. On the contrary, these countries not only did not experience a military-political decline, but some of them were even at the stage of their heyday. In particular, the state of Khorezmshahs reached the apogee of its development precisely in the era of the reign of Muhammad. The best armies of their time fought against the Mongols (for example, under Legnica - German knights).
The unprecedented success of the Mongol troops, along with their "countless darkness", is also explained by the feudal fragmentation and internal turmoil of the conquered countries. In particular, V. V. Kargalov writes:
“The success of the Mongol-Tatar campaigns was due not so much to their own strength as to the weakness of the countries they attacked. Both China, and Central Asia, and Iran experienced at that time a period of feudal fragmentation, were split into many principalities, loosely connected with each other. It was difficult for the peoples of these countries, weakened by internecine wars and bloody feuds of their rulers, to unite to repulse foreign conquerors.
Such a biased attitude, denying the true power of the Mongol cavalry and its enormous military potential, is characteristic of almost all foreign historians. As a result, a certain stereotype has developed that explains the dizzying success and victories of the Mongolian troops with secondary factors. No one denies the fact that during the campaigns of Batu Khan, both Rus' and Poland did not have a centralized government and were divided into several principalities and kingdoms that were at war with each other. However, this is not the fault of either Batu Khan or the Mongols. Or Batu Khan, in order to be known as a real conqueror and commander, had to wait for the moment when Rus' would unite?
The Danish historian de Hartog interprets the success of the Mongol conquests as follows:
“The key to the breathtaking success of these conquerors, who came from the very heart of Asia, should be sought not only in their vast experience accumulated over the years of long and uninterrupted wars and iron discipline, but, most importantly, in their amazing combat capability and stamina and in their ability to maximize use all your available resources.
For many centuries, talk about the inexplicable, pathological cruelty of the Mongols has not ceased. At the same time, the Mongols are portrayed as born executioners of the human race, designed to destroy the entire civilization. Let's turn to historical facts. Has there ever been a case when the Mongols, in the course of their conquest campaigns, completely exterminated some nation or nationality? History unequivocally answers: "No."
Let's flip through the pages of history again. How did the Europeans conquer America? In what way did Hitler create his? thousand-year-old Reich? It was a hitherto unprecedented genocide of “inferior” peoples, supposedly not worthy of living and having no right to exist. The Mongols never reasoned in this way and did not set themselves such goals. We do not claim that the Mongols in the XIII century. they did not commit cruelties at all and were indulgent towards the vanquished. Yes, the Mongols were cruel and merciless to the enemy. But only when needed. In those cases when nomadic ambassadors were treacherously killed by enemies, the Mongols responded by beating the enemy. Suffice it to recall that such an event took place in 1223 after the battle on the Kalka River. The Russian princes who executed the ambassadors were utterly defeated and died under the boards on which the commanders of the Mongol troops were feasting. Or the case with the city of Kozelsk, whose inhabitants were completely exterminated for the treachery of their prince. Are all these atrocities of the Mongols comparable to Hitler's crematoriums, in which millions of innocent people were burned, the barbaric bombardment of the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the genocide of Pol Pot against his own people?
Another reason that pushed the Mongols to cruelty towards the defeated enemy was their extreme small number. The Mongols were simply forced to react with ruthlessness to any manifestation of resistance, since they were tens and hundreds of times inferior to the conquered peoples in numbers. Only at the cost of terror and massacre did the Mongols try to keep these peoples in subjection. Terror, as a political phenomenon, existed both under the Jacobins and under the communists. However, the Mongols never treated other peoples according to the generally accepted principle of warfare: the enemy is the enemy. And this was expressed in the fact that the Mongols never killed those who did not resist them and expressed their submission, and did not destroy their cities
The Mongols are stigmatized for the fact that the aggressive campaigns of their khans were accompanied by robbery on a large scale. However, who can blame the nomads of the 13th century for this? And what is robbery in wartime? One of the phenomenal conquerors of all times and peoples, Napoleon was a living embodiment of the principle that arose in ancient times: “War feeds war” and strictly adhered to it. The essence of this principle is clear to everyone, the vanquished is subjected to a ruthless and sometimes monstrous robbery. Napoleon did not disdain to plunder not only museums, but even - to the horror of the entire Christian world - temples and churches. For the "needs" of the army, he selected silver statues of the apostles. More than 2000 years before Napoleon, a certain Brennus, the leader of the Gauls, adhered to the same principle. The words he said to the defeated Romans have remained in history and no one blames him for this. In July 390 B.C. the Gauls captured Rome and imposed on the Romans a huge indemnity. The Romans collected it with great difficulty, and when they weighed the last kilograms of silver, the leader of the Gauls, Brennus, threw his huge, heavy sword on the scales and demanded to pay beyond measure. When the Romans protested, Brennus said haughtily, "Woe to the vanquished." The imperialist powers followed the Brenn principle in plundering their colonies. But for some reason today it is not customary to talk loudly about the fact that Europeans sold Africans for centuries and plundered the natural wealth of the Black Continent?
For the Mongols of the XIII century. robbery was one of the main reasons that forced them to go on campaigns. And each of them clearly understood that the price of this robbery was his own head. In other words, going to a foreign land, each nomad risked his life. Since the winner robs, and the vanquished is robbed, the Mongol also robbed the Chinese, Russians, Persians, Arabs and other peoples. And no one has the right to blame the Mongols of the XIII century. in committing robberies.
Mongols in the 13th century were born to conquer the world and mankind, and Genghis Khan and his descendants - to be their leaders and leaders. And to this day there are not many peoples who have left such an indelible mark on the history of human civilization.
In conclusion, I would like to quote: “Irresistibly fearless, they were able to overcome the lifeless, vast expanses of deserts, mountain and sea barriers, the severity of the climate and pestilence from hunger and disease. They were not afraid of any dangers, they were not stopped by any fortresses, and no pleas for mercy touched them.