Formation And Rapid Expansion Of The Mongol Empire In Eurasia

Question: Who were the Mongols? What accounted for the formation and rapid expansion of the Mongol empire in Eurasia (c. 1200-1400 CE)?

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The nomadic tribe of the Mongols were originally located and founded in central Asia before spreading out across Eurasia to places such as Bulgaria, Russia and Poland. Whilst spreading across Eurasia the Mongols murdered hundreds of thousands of people and can be credited for re-opening of the Silk Road. The Mongols destroyed everyone and everything that was in their way for more than a century, in 1206 their most iconic leader Genghis Khan lead the Mongols to take over Eurasia. The

The pyramid scheme was not only used within the social structure but was also implemented as the military structure for the Mongols (Guisepi, 1992). The empire was structured in descending order of tens, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands. Not only did their strong social hierarchy make them extremely unified but it offered the ability for constant expansion as the Mongols conquered more of Eurasia. As they continued to cover ground they often would come across Nomads who they would include within the empire under the condition that they surrendered (Turnbull, 2004). This focus on inclusion of others by the Empire allowed them to further expand and conquer as they

When preparing for invasion the Mongols would often scout their enemies from high ground allowing them to make well educated and tactical decisions on the way they would approach the invasion. One of the tactics such as encirclement was commonly used by the Mongols. They would form a circle around the perimeter of the city they were preparing to invade; the purpose behind this ground tactic was to minimize the amount of people that could escape during the invasion. The circle would allow the Mongols to overwhelm the enemy from all directions sending the opposing force into a panic (May, 2007). A common weapon used during the invasion of a city through encirclement was that of the Mongol Bow. This was the primary weapon of the empire; those chosen to siege a city would often fire arrows into the center of the circle which would lead to unpredictability as to where the arrow would land. This would cause the people of the city terror without the knowledge of where within the city they would be safe from the invading forces (May, 2007). The Mongol Bow was