Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Mongol Empire
The Mongols were little more than a loose confederation of rival clans until the birth of
Temujin in 1162. Overcoming conditions that would have crushed lesser men, Temujin
rose to become the strongest ruler on the steppe, and in 1206 founded the Mongol empire
and took the title 'Chinggis Khaan'. He was already 44 years old at this stage, but since
the age of 16, when his bride was kidnapped, he had been fighting one clan feud and tri-
bal war after another. Frustrated with the incessant chaos, he began killing off the leaders
of each clan as he defeated them and incorporating the survivors into his own following.
Through this harsh but effective way, Chinggis Khaan forced peace onto the clans around
him.
He named his new state Yeke Mongol Ulus (Great Mongol Nation). His followers
totalled probably less than a million people, and from this he created an army of nine
units of 10,000 and a personal guard of another 10,000. With a nation smaller than the
workforce of a large, modern multinational corporation, and an army that could fit inside
a modern sports stadium, the Mongols conquered the greatest armies of the era and sub-
dued hundreds of millions of people.
In battle, Chinggis Khaan was merciless, but to those who surrendered without fight-
ing, he promised protection, religious freedom, lower taxes and a heightened level of
commerce and prosperity. His law did more to attract people into his empire than his mil-
itary power. Based on military success and good laws, his empire continued to expand
after his death until it stretched from Korea to Hungary and from India to Russia.
THE LOST LEGION OF SAXON MINERS
Twenty thousand mounted Mongols crossed Poland toward Western Europe in
1241. Urged by the pope to defend the Christian world, Henry II of Silesia conscrip-
ted thousands of Saxon miners to make their mining tools into weapons to fight
the Mongols. In April at the Battle of Liegnitz and a nearly simultaneous one in
Hungary, the Mongols permanently crushed European knighthood and killed
Henry, but they transported the captive miners and their tools to work the mines in
greater Mongolia.
Shortly thereafter in 1245, fearing growth of the mining and arms industry in
Asia, Pope Innocent IV sent Giovanni of Plano Carpini, a surviving companion of
Francis of Assisi, in search of the lost legion of Saxon miners. He returned with little
news of the miners but with Guyuk Khaan's stern command for the pope's submis-
sion. Another expedition sent by French King Louis IX under William of Rubruck in
1253 produced little information about the lost miners other than a tantalising en-
