Mongolia- A Brief History

It was the Kidan tribe, who took control of all Mongolia in A. Many cities and communities were erected by the Uigurs and Kidans in the th Century A. D when several tribes invaded the region at the same time. Control of the region was now fragmented and confused. From this chaos and confusion arose the united Mongol Empire of Chingis Khan. His father began the process and the son completed it. The son fought and won 35 battles in Mongolia, so uniting all 81 differing tribes by A.

D when he was crowned as Chingis Khan. United under his banner, with the advantage of highly mobile cavalry, the Mongols swept into power across much of China and reached the edge ofWestern Europe. The momentum continued after his death, an invincible combination of Mongolian cavalry and recruited foot soldiers using novel methods of military strategy, battle tactics, superior weapons, and by these means created the largest land empire the World has ever seen, before or since.

After centuries of domination, the Mongol Empire began to fall apart in A. More than years later, as a result of the Mongolian national movement for independence, the Mongol Monarchy was re established in The National Revolution won power in The language of the Donghu is believed to be proto-Mongolic to modern scholars.

The Donghu were among the first peoples conquered by the Xiongnu. Once the Xiongnu state weakened, however, the Donghu rebelled. By the 1st century AD, two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: The Xianbei gained strength beginning from the 1st century AD and were consolidated into a state under Tanshihuai in He expelled the Xiongnu from Jungaria , and pushed the Dingling to the north of the Sayans , thus securing domination of the Mongolic elements in what is now Khalkha and Chaharia.

There are various hypotheses about the language and ethnic links of the Xianbei and most widely accepted version suggests that the Xianbei were a Mongolic ethnic group and their branches are the ancestors of many Mongolic peoples such as the Rouran, Khitan and Menggu Xibei, who are suggested to be the proto-Mongols. The Xianbei used woodcut tallies called Kemu as a form of non-verbal communication. Besides extensive livestock husbandry, the Xianbei were also engaged on a limited scale in farming and handicraft. The Xianbei fractured in the 3rd century.

The Xianbei established an empire, which, although short-lived, gave rise to numerous tribal states along the Chinese frontier. The Wuhuan also were prominent in the 2nd century, but they disappeared thereafter; possibly they were absorbed in the Xianbei western expansion. The Xianbei and the Wuhuan used mounted archers in warfare, and they had only temporary war leaders instead of hereditary chiefs.

Agriculture, rather than full-scale nomadism, was the basis of their economy. In the 6th century, the Wuhuan were driven out of Inner Asia into the Russian [ clarification needed ] steppe. Chinese control of parts of Inner Asia did not last beyond the opening years of the 2nd century AD, and, as the Eastern Han dynasty ended early in the 3rd century AD, suzerainty was limited primarily to the Gansu corridor.

The Xianbei were able to make forays into a China beset with internal unrest and political disintegration. Chaos prevailed as these groups warred with each other and repulsed the vain efforts of the fragmented Chinese kingdoms south of the Yangtze River to reconquer the region. Tuoba, a faction of the Xianbei, established the Tuoba Wei empire beyond Mongolia proper in northern China in By the end of the 4th century, the region between the Yangtze and the Gobi, including much of modern Xinjiang, was dominated by the Tuoba.

Emerging as the partially sinicized state of Dai between AD and in the Shanxi area, the Tuoba established control over the region as the Northern Wei AD Northern Wei armies drove back the Rouran also referred to as Ruru or Juan-Juan by Chinese chroniclers , a newly arising nomadic Mongol people in the steppes north of the Altai Mountains, and reconstructed the Great Wall. During the 4th century also, the Huns left the steppes north of the Aral Sea to invade Europe.

As the empire grew, however, Tuoba tribal customs were supplanted by those of the Chinese, an evolution not accepted by all Tuoba. Tuoba Wei existed until A branch of the Xianbei, the Rouran also known as Nirun were consolidated under Mugulyu. In the late 5th century, the Rouran established a powerful nomadic empire spreading generally farther north of Northern Wei. It was probably the Rouran who first used the title khan. The Hephthalite Empire was a vassal state to the Rouran for years. The Tuoba waged long wars against the Rouran Khaganate.

The Altai Turkics that were subjects of the Rouran revolted in establishing the Turkic Khaganate. The Rouran Khaganate was finally defeated by the Turkics in Part of the Rouran left the present territory of Mongolia. A number of historians maintain that they established the Avarian Kaganate between the river Danube and the Carpathian Mountains. Other Mongols that migrated east returned in the 8th century. Northern Wei was disintegrating rapidly because of revolts of semi-tribal Tuoba military forces that were opposed to being sinicized, when disaster struck the flourishing Rouran Khaganate.

Therefore, the revolt of the Turkics of is often called the "Blacksmiths' rebellion". Thus, from the outset of their revolt, they had the advantage of controlling what had been one of the major bases of Rouran power. However, the newly established Sui dynasty in China stopped and so constant war between Sui and the Turkic Khaganate began. Finally in Eastern Turk recognised Sui Suzerainty. Turkic Khaganate began to revolt and hasten the border in after Emperor of Sui's failure expedition in Koguryo.

The internal struggle between the Turkic nobles lead to their defeat by the Tang dynasty of China in Uyghurs khagan was installed as Anbei protector, who inhabited the region between the Altai Mountains and Khitan's land. An uprising of under the leadership of Kutuluk and Tonyukuk led to restoration of the Turkic Khaganate. In Tardu's army besieged Chang'an modern Xi'an , then the capital of China. In the early 8th century, an invading army of , soldiers headed by Tang dynasty's Empress Wu Zetian was defeated and chased back by Mojo khagan.

Successful campaigns of the Uyghur Khaganate led to a peace with the Tang dynasty of China which paid compensation for the suppression of An in silk and grain for 12 years after Nevertheless, the majority of the Uyghurs remained shamanists. The culture and economy of the Uyghur Kaganate were more advanced than those of its predecessors. The Uyghurs used a month calendar and calculated the dates of solar and lunar eclipses.

The Uyghurs developed their own writing system based on the Sogdian script. The Tang dynasty surreptitiously encouraged the Yenisei Kirghiz and the Karluks to attack the Uyghurs and the Uyghur Khaganate fell under an invasion of the Yenisei Kirghiz in According to historians, Kirghiz were not interested in assimilating newly acquired lands. The Kirghiz state was centered on Khakassia. The Khitans were an ethnic group whose language was related to the Mongolic languages. Its ruler Ambagyan founded the Khitan Liao dynasty in The Liao dynasty covered a significant portion of what is now Mongolia including the basins of the three rivers Kherlen , Tuul and Orkhon.

The Khitans occupied the areas vacated by the Turkic Uyghurs bringing them under their control. The Liao dynasty soon grew strong and occupied parts of Northern China, including the modern-day Beijing. By the middle of the 10th century, Khitan chieftains had established themselves as emperors of northern China; their rule was known as the Liao dynasty.

The Khitan built cities and exerted dominion over their agricultural subjects as a means of consolidating their empire. The territory of the empire consisted of two parts: The two parts of the empire actively traded with each other. Lubugu, a grandson of Ambagyan, and a scholar named Tulyubu developed a Grand Alphabet based on the Chinese hieroglyphics in A printing technology developed in the Liao territory.

The Khitan language was widely studied abroad. A Tungusic people , the Jurchen , ancestors of the Manchu , formed an alliance with the Song dynasty and reduced the Liao dynasty to vassal status in a seven-year war — The Jurchen leader proclaimed himself the founder of a new era, the Jin dynasty — Scarcely pausing in their conquests, the Jurchen subdued neighboring Goryeo Korea in [citation needed] and invaded the territory of their former allies, the Song, to precipitate a series of wars with China that continued through the remainder of the century.

The Liao dynasty fell in and some Khitans fled west after their defeat by the Jurchens and founded the Qara Khitai — in present-day Xinjiang and eastern Kazakhstan with capital in Balasagun , near modern Tokmok , Kyrgyzstan. In addition, the Western Liao also controlled some highly autonomous vassalized states, such as Khwarezm , the Eastern and the Western Kara-Khanids , etc.

A confederation of tribes under the name Mongol was known from the 8th century. Some Shiwei tribes, though little is known, have been considered the ancestors of the Mongols according to ancient Chinese records. Term "Shiwei" was an umbrella term of the Mongolic and Tungusic peoples in the 6th to 12th centuries. They may have been divided into five to twenty tribes. They were said to be dressed in fish skins.

They may have been nomadic, staying in the marshy lowlands in the winter and the mountains during the summer. The burial was by exposure in trees. Their language is described as being similar to Manchu-Tungusic languages and Khitan. The Turkic Khaganate installed tuduns, or governors over the Shiwei and collected tribute. Other Shiwei may have stayed and become the Evenks. The Kitans conquered the Shiwei during the late 9th century. The confederations of core Mongol tribes were transforming into a statehood in the early 12th century and came to be known as the Khamag Mongol confederacy.

The people of Mongolia at this time were predominantly spirit worshipers, with shamans providing spiritual and religious guidance to the people and tribal leaders. The Khamag Mongols occupied one of the most fertile areas of the country—the basins of the rivers Onon , Kherlen and Tuul in the Khentii mountains. Khabul Khan successfully repelled the invasions of Jin dynasty. He was succeeded by Ambaghai Khan from Taichuud tribe.

Ambagai was captured by the Tatars while he came to deliver his daughter as a bride to the Tatar confederacy and was given to the Jurchens of Jin dynasty who cruelly executed him, nailing to a "wooden donkey". Ambagai was succeeded by Hotula Khan , son of Khabul Khan. Hotula Khan engaged in 13 battles with the Tatars endeavouring to avenge Ambagai Khan. Khamag Mongol was unable to elect a khan after Hotula died.

However, Khabul's grandson Yesukhei baghatur was a major chief of Khamag Mongol.

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Yesukhei was poisoned by the Tatars in when his eldest son Temujin was 9 years old. Shortly after Yesukhei died, Targudai of Taichuud moved away with the subjects of Yesukhei, leaving young Temujin, his mother and his younger siblings without support. Hence, Khamag Mongol remained in political crisis until In the 12th century the Khamag Mongol Khanate , Tatar confederation , Keraite Khanate , Merkit confederation , Naiman Khanate were five major Mongolic tribal confederations and khanates in the Mongolian plateau.

The Tatar confederacy first appeared in recorded history in The Tatars became subjects of the Khitan in the 10th century. After the fall of the Khitan empire, the Tatars experienced pressure from the Jin dynasty and were urged to fight against the other Mongol tribes. The Tatars lived on the fertile pastures around the lakes Hulun and Buir and occupied a trade route to China. The Keraites between the mountain ranges of Khangai and Khentii were centered on the site of today's city Ulaanbaatar in the willow groves of the Tuul river.

Markus was khan of the Keraites in the 12th century. Markus was succeeded by Tooril khan. In his feud with his brothers for the throne of the Keraites, he was repeatedly aided by Yesukhei Bagatur of Khamag Mongol. The Mergid confederacy was located in the basin of the river Selenge. The Naiman confederacy was situated between the mountain ranges of Altai and Khangai. The Ongut tribes lived at the north of Gobi. Other tribes were Olkhunut , Bayud , Khongirad , Oirats and so forth. While most of the Mongolian tribes were Shamanists , Nestorian Christianity was practiced in a number of confederations such as Keraites and Ongut.

Temujin — defeated and subjugated the " Three Mergids " in with the support of Tooril Khan of Kereit, the blood brother of his father. Another ally who helped Temujin in this venture was his own blood brother Jamukha of Jadaran clan. The striving of Temujin to free his wife became a reason for the campaign against the Mergids. After the defeat of the Mergid, the reputation of Temujin rose rapidly and the leading members of the Khamag Mongol aristocracy enthroned him with title Chinggis Khan Genghis Khan , as the ruler of Khamag Mongol.

It is speculated to be an ancient form of the word " Tenggis "—ocean, sea. A conflict of the Tatars with the Jin dynasty became a favorable opportunity for Temujin and Tooril Khan to defeat them in alliance with the Jurchens. By the year , the Taichuud and Jurkhin tribes were defeated and subjugated. Influential aristocrats of many other tribes and confederations were joining Temujin. Wang Khan regained power in his kingdom with the support of Temujin.

Temujin finally defeated and subjugated the Tatars in Nilha childish Sengum , son of Wang Khan, envied Temujin as his power was growing and persuaded his father to battle against Temujin. This venture led to a victory of Temujin and conquest of the Kereit Khanlyk.

A Short History of Mongolia

Wang Khan escaped alone into the southern deserts of the Naiman khanlig, where he was caught by the Naiman patrols, who killed him irritated as he claimed himself as Wang Khan. Tayan khan of Naiman and his son Kuchlug initiated a campaign against Temujin in They allied with Jamukha, who competed with Temujin for the power over the Mongolic tribes. The Naiman troops outnumbered the Temujin's troops. At night at the eve of the battle, Temujin ordered each of his warrior to light ten bonfires, thus deceiving and demoralising Tayan khan, who was a weak warlord. Temujin won the battle.

Tayan khan was captured but died of his wound, Kuchlug retreated to the river Irtysh where he was overtaken by Temujin and defeated. As the Khanlyk of Naiman was conquered, Khasar , brother of Temujin, found a dignitary named Tata Tunga , who spread the Uigur alphabet among the Mongols. This alphabet became the basis of the Classical Mongol script. By , all the tribes and confederations of Mongolian steppe had come under the leadership of Temujin.

The success of Temujin in consolidation of the Mongols was due to his flexibility, his cherishing of his friends and his elaborated tactics. The Mongol Empire and the states that emerged from it played a major role in the history of the 13th and 14th centuries. Genghis Khan and his immediate successors conquered nearly all of Asia and European Russia and sent armies as far as central Europe and Southeast Asia.

MONGOLIA: BRIEF HISTORY, THEMES AND TIMELINE | Facts and Details

Genghis Khan abolished the organization of the former tribes and confederations and reformed the country into 95 mingats. In this system, a group of households large enough to mobilize ten warriors was organized into an arbatu , 10 arbatus were organized into a zagutu warriors , 10 zagutus constituted a mingat 1, warriors and 10 mingats constituted a tumetu or tumen 10, warriors.

This decimal system was a long-tested system that had been inherited from the period of the Xiongnu. With an assumption that each household consisted of four persons and every adult male was a warrior, it can be estimated that the entire population of Mongolia was at least , people and the nation possessed 95, cavalrymen. The newly unified Great Mongol State became an attractive force for many neighbouring peoples and kingdoms. Beginning from , the Uighur state, Taiga people of the river Yenisey and the Karluk kingdom joined Mongolia.

The urgent task of Genghis Khan was strengthening the independence of his young nation. For a century, the southeastern neighbour Jin dynasty had been provoking the Mongolic tribes against one another in order to eventually subjugate them. With a purpose of testing the military strength of his state and preparing for a struggle against the Jin dynasty, Genghis Khan conquered the Tangut empire Xi-Xia , which pledged vassalage. In the year, Mongolia, with over 90, cavalrymen, started a war with the Jin dynasty which had a multi-million population.

The "Altan Golden Khaan" Jin Emperor surrendered in and gave Genghis Khan his princess and tribute of gold and silver to his warlords. Genghis Khan gave out to his warriors the tribute of the Jin Emperor loaded on horses. However, the Jin dynasty continued hostility against Mongolia, hence Genghis Khan ordered his warlord Guo Wang Mukhulai of the Jalair clan to complete the conquest of the Jin dynasty and returned to Mongolia.

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His power was weak as he, a Buddhist, persecuted the indigenous Muslim population. Genghis Khan intended to develop friendly relations with the Khwarezm Empire, which was on a junction of the trade routes connecting the East and the West and dominated Central Asia , Iran and Afghanistan. Genghis Khan considered himself a supreme ruler of the East and Khwarezm Shah a supreme ruler of the West.

Khwarezm Shah had an opposite view that there should be only one ruler on earth as there is only one sun in the sky. The execution of envoys and tradesmen of Genghis Khan by Khwarezm Shah was an announcement of war. The Mongol troops invaded Khwarezm Empire in Although Khwarezm Shah possessed an army outnumbering the Mongol troops dozen of times, he lacked the courage and initiatives to unite his forces and fight back. Shah's warlord Temur-Melik led a daring resistance when the Mongol troops besieged city of Khujand. Shah's son Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu courageously battled with the Mongol army in , but was defeated and escaped to the river Ind.

Pursuing Khwarezm Shah in , the scout groups of warlords Jebe and Subedei bagathur of Uriankhai clan conquered northern Iran. The Kipchaks allied with the troops of the principalities of Rus gave battle to the 30, cavalrymen of Jebe and Subedei on the river Kalka in May , but were defeated and were chased up to the river Dnieper. The Tangut kingdom denied its obligation as a vassal state to take part in the western campaign of Genghis Khan.

The Tangut kingdom completely surrendered in March The year conquests of Genghis Khan resulted in the formation of the Mongol Empire. The Congress of nobility known as Kurultai enthroned Ogedei , who had been nominated by Genghis Khan. Karakorum had been a military garrison of Genghis Khan since The existence of 12 Buddhist temples , 2 Muslim mosques and 1 Christian church in city Karakorum indicates the tolerance of the Mongols to all religions.

The construction of the city was supervised by Otchigin , the youngest brother of Genghis Khan. The system connected the various regions of the whole Empire. Ogedei Khan settled down the rebellions in the countries conquered during his father and led an army himself to put down a revolt in Korea. Ogedei Khan completed the conquest of the Jin dynasty in — He sent princes headed by Batu , son of Zuchi , to the west, and they conquered the Bulgar kingdom on the Volga river and 14 principalities of Rus in —, invaded the principalities of Poland, the kingdom of Kingdom of Hungary, Moravia then part of the Holy Roman Empire , and the area of Moldavia in — and approached the Adriatic sea.

After his year reign, Ogedei Khan died in under suspicious circumstances. A rivalry for the throne began between the faction of the houses of Zuchi and Tului on one side and the faction of the houses of Chagatai and Ogedei on the other side. Guyug Khan died in The traveller from Italy Giovanni da Pian del Carpine arrived in and later he wrote the book Historia Mongolorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus. Hulagu completed the conquest of Iran in and conquered Baghdad , Caucasus and Syria in — Willem van Ruysbroeck of Flanders arrived in and later wrote his account Itinerarium fratris Willielmi de Rubruquis de ordine fratrum Minorum, Galli, Anno gratia ad partes Orientales.

The Mongol Empire had an establishing effect on the social, cultural and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory in the 13th and 14th centuries. It enabled exchange of knowledge, inventions and culture between the West and East. This epoch is called Pax Mongolica. In Mongolia, the legacy of Genghis Khan was a superior law code, a written language, and a historical pride. The establishment of the Yuan dynasty — by Kublai Khan accelerated the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire fractured into four khanates including the Yuan dynasty in China and Mongolia, and the three western khanates, i.

Buddhism became the de facto state religion of the Mongol Yuan state. In , Kublai Khan commissioned Phagpa lama to design a new writing system to unify the writing systems of the multilingual empire. The 'Phags-pa script , also known as the "Square script", was based on the Tibetan script and written vertically from top was designed to write in Mongolian , Tibetan , Chinese , Uighur and Sanskrit languages and served as the official script of the empire.

Kublai Khan announced the establishment of the Yuan dynasty in The Yuan dynasty included Mongolia homeland, the territories of the former Jin and Song dynasties and some adjacent territories such as a major part of southern Siberia. Kublai established a government with institutions resembling the ones in earlier Chinese dynasties such as the Zhongshu Sheng to lead the civil administration in the Yuan realm, yet at the same time introduced a hierarchy of reliability by dividing the subjects of the Yuan dynasty into 4 ranks.

The highest rank included the Mongols, the second rank included the peoples to the west of Mongolia, the third rank included the subjects of the former Jin dynasty such as Northern Chinese, the Khitans and Jurchens, and the lowest rank comprised the subjects of the former Song dynasty such as the Han ethnic group in South China. As for Mongolia itself, since the Mongolian Plateau is where the ruling Mongols of the Yuan dynasty came from, it enjoyed a somewhat special status during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, although the capital of the dynasty had been moved from Karakorum to Khanbaliq modern Beijing since the beginning of Kublai Khan's reign, and Mongolia had been turned into a province known as the Lingbei Branch Secretariat by the early 14th century.

However the Mongol Empire soon fragmented. Mongol rule in China was overthrown in Mongolia became split between different groups and China came to dominate the country. However in revolution broke out in China which gave Mongolia the chance to regain its independence.

In the Treaty of Khyata between Mongolia, China and Russia allowed the country limited autonomy. However in the Chinese occupied Mongolia again. They were driven out in and Mongolia became completely independent. It then became a Communist country. The Peoples Republic of Mongolia was created in Mongolia then came under Russian domination. In the Russians and Mongolians fought the Japanese in eastern Mongolia.

Meanwhile the Communists introduced a totalitarian regime in Mongolia and they cruelly persecuted religion.