Mongol Expansions - Mongolian Army

During the 13th century a large empire came to power, headed by a ruthless yet fair leader, they became the largest empire in the world and covered a vast amount of land from the Yellow sea in East Asia to the boarder of Eastern Europe. The speed in which the Mongol empire grew was down to many reasons, these included, the strength and strategic power they processed as an empire and the way they were led as an empire. These reasons alone are not all the reasons behind the swift rise of the Mongol empire, but they play a major role in showing us the shape in which the Mongol Empire operated, the characters that played major roles in the expansions as well as the reason why they began the expansion in the first place.

The Mongol expansions early success can be attributed to the swift rise of Temujin as a leader. Temujin's personality and the fair way he treated people won him over many supporters and with this support lead him to create an army. Genghis Khan united his territories. He did not trust the tribal organization, so he broke up the tribes and forced men of fighting age to join his new military. . Breaking up the tribal organization was a great accomplishment because this united the empire, helping the Mongols become much stronger than any other early nomadic confederations. The fact that Khan split the tribal organisation up lead to the Mongol empire being one of the first empires, and because no other empires had done this before the sheer size and power of this larger Mongol empire lead to a faster growth than any other empire. With this army he was able to have a large dominance within the Mongols, and this dominance lead him to many victories over neighbouring tribes. In 1206 he took the name Genghis Khan. Genghis lead a ruthless tirade on any kingdoms that refused to submit by sending armies and making them submit. Genghis died in 1227 and his empire was split between his 4 sons.

The most important association of the Mongol state was the Mongolian army. The military tactics of the Mongol army was a major contributor to the rise of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire had an organized system based on a decimal system used in some Iranian cultures. They were put into squads of 10 men; these men would then be in a group of 100, and then a group of 1000. Many of the Mongol people were well trained in horse riding and archery and with these skills the Mongol army became a dominant force throughout Asia. It wasn't just the horse riding and archery that won it for the Mongols however, they were also very clever, they are able to come up with new and different innovations to combat anything that was put in their way, be it terrain related or siege related. Many armies of the time would attack kingdoms with small armies, however the Mongols would use everyone involved and surround the place of attack, this meant that no one was able to escape and record damage could be done. Once a kingdom had been taken over by the Mongol empire, they would then be recruited into the Mongol army. From this the Mongols were able to learn new strategies and new ways of fighting from the different kingdoms that were taken over.

This continued, and as more and more kingdoms were being taken over, more and more men were being added to the Mongol Empire, as well as all the extra knowledge that these kingdoms offered. This way of attacking lead to the Mongol Empire to increase in size massively over a small amount of time, and this increase in size lead to an increase in power. Military tactics played a huge role in the organisation and expansion of the Mongol Empire, and without these tactics, the results may have been completely different.

The discipline of the Mongol