It is clear that the Mongols committed many ruthless and brutal acts in his life, and he is one who wiped out entire villages and innocent men, women, and children. However, one aspect of their brutality, though, is more prominent than the others: the brutality towards religion and ignorance and manipulation of the human mind. In one primary source, we see that Chinggis Khan marched into a village with 20,000 men and extracted the richest 280 men in the village. He told them that they had sinned, and told them that he was the punishment of god, sent to their village to punish them for their sins. The mongols then started taking money from the rich people, as their punishment for sinning. In another primary source, people refer to the Mongols …show more content…
If enough people believe that Chinggis Khan is the punishment of God, it almost becomes true, as everyone treats and reacts to him as the punishment of God. Chinggis Khan also had no respect for religion. He burned down churches and killed everyone inside, as easily as he killed anyone else. He also killed “all from the male sex even to the female, all the priests and monks… Wednesday in Easter week” Chinggis Khan killed priests and monks, who were ordained ministers who had strong connections to religion. This in itself is brutal and ruthless, but the additional fact that he chose to do this during Easter week, defined as “the most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church…” is entirely ignorant of religion. Another aspect of Chinggis Khan’s character that sets him apart from other ruthless leaders is his manipulation of other’s minds, by lying. Usually, he left towns unharmed in the case that they chose to surrender without a fight, as long as they payed tribute to their vanquishers as the price for their liberation. In source 11.3, however, Chinggis Khan exacted payment from the richest of the town, before proceeding to kill everybody inside as