Mongol

To this day, I am amazed at how Genghis Khan pulled it off. He organized a bunch of Mongol nomads into a horde that took down China, who had a higher population, better tech, and more industry. How?
 
What does not kill you makes you stronger.

Mongolia was a very harsh land and natural selection resulted in extremely good warriors. Being a military genius helps too.
 
Grim66 said:
What does not kill you makes you stronger.

Mongolia was a very harsh land and natural selection resulted in extremely good warriors. Being a military genius helps too.
Also, the Mongols were steppe peoples. Tended to terrorize (though, admittedly, rarely conquer) surrounding lands until the invention of the repeating rifle (!). Still, he was a genius. And very good at identifying talent. Probably could've wiped the floor with Napoleon, let alone Hitler or the Germans in general (not leading horse archers, of course).

EDIT: Plus, when he attacked China it was divided in two. That helped a lot, like the Ming drowning in rebels helped the Manchus 400 years later. Remember, Genghis didn't conquer the Southern Song. Kublai did.
 
To this day, I am amazed at how Genghis Khan pulled it off. He organized a bunch of Mongol nomads into a horde that took down China, who had a higher population, better tech, and more industry. How?

For a long, long time, nomads have been some of the finest military forces in the world. They and their horses are used to living on little, they can ride fast and far, they can cross far harsher and sparser terrain, they have minimal logistical tails, and they're usually formidably equipped cavalry-archers, which are a real bitch to counter since anything they can't outfight they can outrun. "Nomad" wasn't a minus point of an army until the mid-18th century at the very earliest.

Thing is, nomads by their nature usually have very little in the way of a state. They're often tribal and if they fight anyone, its usually eachother. But give them a leader who can unite them all into one motivated army and turn them on the outside world, and they're damn hard to stop, especially if said leader is a military genius, and if they absorb the other tribes they conquer in a snowball effect.

And as pointed out, with China it was in steps. Genghis invaded the Jin, suborned the Jurchen and Khitan and took the northern lands of the dynasty. Ogedei finally absorded them in co-operation with the Song and exploiting a recent succesion crisis. Kublai invaded the Song some time later.
 
It should be said that from the Chinese point of view the Jin was a barbarian kingdom, not a northern Chinese dynasty as it is often described. The Jin dynasty was founded by the Jurchens, a semi-nomadic people who were the ancestors of the Manchus. The Song Chinese allied with the Jurchens to take down their common enemy, the Khitans from the Liao Kingdom, another nomadic people.

When the Khitans were vanquished the Jurchens turned on the Chinese and carved off northern China. At which point they formed the Jin dynasty. Epic wars followed as Song China fought to reclaim its land. However the Jurchens were fearsome warriors who usually routed the Chinese and Mongols alike. These wars exhausted both the Jin and Song dynasties. Eventually the Chinese came up with a cunning plan, ally with Genghis Khan to take down the Jurchens.

This worked pretty well. The Jin dynasty was unable to deal with war on two fronts and was conquered by Genghis Khan, who died in the effort. His successors initially made peace with the Song dynasty and sought their conquest elsewhere in western Eurasia.

Eventually the Mongols under Mongke Khan, grandson of Genghis, turned their sights on Song China but their invasion failed when Mongke died during a siege. His death would end Mongol adventures in Europe. After a period of disunity, another great leader, Kublai Khan finally managed to overran Song China with a combination land and sea invasion.
 
It should be said that from the Chinese point of view the Jin was a barbarian kingdom, not a northern Chinese dynasty as it is often described. The Jin dynasty was founded by the Jurchens, a semi-nomadic people who were the ancestors of the Manchus. The Song Chinese allied with the Jurchens to take down their common enemy, the Khitans from the Liao Kingdom, another nomadic people.

When the Khitans were vanquished the Jurchens turned on the Chinese and carved off northern China. At which point they formed the Jin dynasty. Epic wars followed as Song China fought to reclaim its land. However the Jurchens were fearsome warriors who usually routed the Chinese and Mongols alike. These wars exhausted both the Jin and Song dynasties. Eventually the Chinese came up with a cunning plan, ally with Genghis Khan to take down the Jurchens.

This worked pretty well. The Jin dynasty was unable to deal with war on two fronts and was conquered by Genghis Khan, who died in the effort. His successors initially made peace with the Song dynasty and sought their conquest elsewhere in western Eurasia.

Eventually the Mongols under Mongke Khan, grandson of Genghis, turned their sights on Song China but their invasion failed when Mongke died during a siege. His death would end Mongol adventures in Europe. After a period of disunity, another great leader, Kublai Khan finally managed to overran Song China with a combination land and sea invasion.

This is all true, but the important thing was not the Chinese worldview but rather that geographical China was divided into two mutually hostile states, making it possible for the Mongols to play the off and absorb China bit-by-bit.
 
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