Origins of the Mongols

Archaeological evidence places early Stone Age human habitation in the southern Gobi between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. By the first millennium B.C., bronze-working peoples lived in Mongolia. With the appearance of iron weapons by the third century B.C., the inhabitants of Mongolia had begun to form tribal alliances. They inhabited a great arc of land extending generally from the Korean Peninsula in the east, across the northern tier of China to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and to the Pamir Mountains and Lake Balkash in the west.

Rise of Genghis Khan

"The Secret History" tells about fighting of many tribes on the land of the Mongols in the 12th century. The most powerful were Hamag Mongol, Hereid, Naimans and Mergeds and they suffered by the threats of the neighboring nations in addition to their internal fighting. When the Tatars poisoned Yesuhei, the great grandson of Kabul Khan of Hamag Mongol in 1171 his oldest son Temujin was only nine. The Kiyat rejected the boy as their leader and chose one of his kin instead. Temujin and his immediate family were abandoned and later his wife abducted by the Mergids. His successful vengeance with support of Tooril Khan of Hereid and Jamuha of Jadran to Mergids discovered the strength of the world's greatest man.

Temujin's leadership of all Mongols and other peoples they had conquered between the Altai Mountains and the Da Hinggan (Greater Khingan) Range was acknowledged formally by a kuriltai (council) of chieftains as their khan. Temujin took the honorific chinggis, meaning supreme or great (also romanized as genghis or jenghiz), creating the title Genghis Khan, in an effort to signify the unprecedented scope of his power. In latter hagiography, Chinggis was said even to have had divine ancestry. The contributions of Chinggis to Mongol organizational development had lasting impact. He took personal control of the old clan lineages, ending the tradition of noninterference by the khan. He unified the Mongol tribes through a logistical nexus involving food supplies, sheep and horse herds, intelligence and security, and transportation. A census system was developed to organize the decimal-based political jurisdictions and to recruit soldiers more easily. As the great khan, Chinggis was able to consolidate his organization and to institutionalize his leadership over a Eurasian empire. Critical ingredients were his new and unprecedented military system and politico-military organization. His exceptionally flexible mounted army and the cadre of Chinese and Muslim siege-warfare experts who facilitated his conquest of cities comprised one of the most formidable instruments of warfare that the world had ever seen.

Successors of Genghis Khan

In compliance with the wishes of Chinggis, as expressed presumably in his legal code, the yasaq, his vast empire had been apportioned among his sons and his sons' descendants, subject to the overall authority of the khan at Karakorum, which was rebuilt in 1235 by Ogedi. Batu, son of the eldest son Jochi ruled the region to the north and the west of Lake Balkash. Chagadai, the second son of Chinggis was given the southwestern region that includes modern Afghanistan, Turkestan (now in the Soviet Union), and central Siberia. He and his successors were known as the khans of the Chagadai Mongols. By implication, this realm extended indefinitely to the southwest, as Batu's did to the northwest. Ogedei and his progeny were awarded China and the other lands of East Asia. Tului, the youngest of the four principal heirs, was to have central Mongolia, the homeland, in accordance with Mongol custom. He and his descendants, however, were to share Mongolia's precious fighting manpower with the other three khanates. After the death of Genghis Khan, a kuriltai at Karakorum in 1228 selected Ogedei-the third son of him as khan. Ogedei Khan launched a campaign to bring Persia, Armenia and Georgia to their knees and by passing over the Caucasus, reached the heart of Europe. By 1229 Batu Khan had defeated most of the Bulghar outposts, and in 1231 Ogedei sent an expedition to conquer the Korean Peninsula.

Man of the Millennium

The Mongol Empire had done much to bind eastern and western Asia together. A system of mounted couriers, somewhat like a pony-express network, was established through the grasslands and deserts of Central Asia, linking the capital of the great khan in China with the far-flung outposts of the empire. The Central Asian trade routes were made more secure than they had ever been previously. Consequently the traffic by traders and missionaries back and forth over these routes increased notably, and China became known in the West chiefly through the accounts of one of these travelers, the Venetian merchant Marco Polo. That is why the Washington Post proclaimed Chinggis as the "Man of the Millennium" rather than Christopher Columbus who had read Polo's book and later set out an expedition to find a new route to India.

Return to Nomadic Patterns

The end of the Yuan was the second turning point in Mongol history. The retreat of more than 60,000 Mongols into the Mongolian heartland brought radical changes to the quasifeudalistic system. In the early fifteenth century, the Mongols split into two groups, the Oirad in the Altai region and the eastern group that later came to be known as the Khalkha in the area north of the Gobi. The years between the collapse of Yuan and the commence of the Manchu colonist rule in the Northern Mongolia were full of integration and disintegration of Oirad and Khalkha Mongols. Throughout the period of discord among the Mongols, they nonetheless shared a continuing hostility to the Ming. The struggle was maintained principally by the Khalkha.

The war with China was renewed with considerable energy after Altan Khan (1507-83) of the Tumed clan united the Khalkha. Although he was not so prominent in history as his predecessor, Dayan, or his successor, Galdan Khan (1632-97), Altan was probably the greatest of the Mongol princes in the centuries following the collapse of the Yuan. By 1552 he had defeated the Oirad and had reunited most of Mongolia. It soon became obvious to Altan that there was nothing to be gained by continuing the war with the Ming; the empire of Chinggis never could be restored. Accordingly, he concluded a treaty with the Ming emperor in 1571, ending a struggle that had lasted more than three centuries. In the remaining eleven years of his life, Altan aggressively pushed Mongol power to the south and the southwest, and he raided Tibet extensively. Altan, in turn, was coopted by a Buddhist revival in Tibet, and he became a fervent convert. In 1586 the first lamaist monastery was established in Mongolia, and Buddhism--specifically, Lamaism--became the state religion.

The Manchu dynasty arose in the territory of the present Manchuria at the end of the sixteenth century and after occupying China, Mongolia and other eastern Asian nations, played a most harsh role in their histories. From this time on, the Manchus were planning to attach Mongolia and China.

With the end of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, revolutionary ferment also emerged in Mongolia. As early as July 1911, participants in an anti-Chinese meeting in Ikh Khuree had petitioned the Russian government--which long had sought the independence of Outer Mongolia--for help against China. On December 1, 1911, Outer Mongolia in effect proclaimed its independence on the basis that its allegiance had been to the Manchus, not to China. On December 28, the eighth Jebtsundamba Khutuktu became Bogdo Khan (holy ruler) of an autonomous theocratic government; a 20,000-troop army was created; and Russian officers appeared in Ikh Huree (renamed Niyslel--capital--Huree, or Urga) to equip, to organize, and to train the army. The new Chinese government refused to recognize Mongolian independence, but it was too preoccupied with internal discord to enforce its sovereignty.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 shocked Mongolia's aristocracy. Taking advantage of Russia's weakness, a Chinese warlord sent his troops into Mongolia in 1919 and occupied the capital. In early 1921, retreating White Russian anticommunist troops entered Mongolia and expelled the Chinese. The brutality of both the Chinese and Russian forces inflamed the Mongolians' desire for independence. As the Russian Bolsheviks were steadily advancing against the White Russian forces in Siberia, Mongolian nationalists asked the Bolsheviks for help. Together they recaptured Ulaan Baatar in July 1921. The country's Buddhist leader was retained as a figurehead and the newly formed Mongolian People's Party (the first political party in the country's history, and the only one for the next 69 years) took over the government. On 26 November 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was declared and Mongolia became the world's second communist country.

In March 1990, large pro-democracy protests erupted in the main square in Ulaan Baatar and hunger strikes were held. Things then happened quickly: The ruling party lost power; new political parties sprang up; and hunger strikes and protests continued. In May the government amended the constitution to permit multiparty elections but, ironically, rural areas voted overwhelmingly to stay under the protective shelter of the communist party. The communist party was forced into making concessions that snowballed into the election of the Mongolian Democratic Coalition on 30 June 1996, ending 75 years of unbroken communist rule. Over the next few years, successive Mongolian governments pursued western-style policies of reform and privatization and courted foreign investment but poverty is still on the rise. Foreign aid relieved some of the economic burden but Mongolia is still struggling with the fiscal implications of its newfound freedom. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 but even this was not enough to avoid wide-scale poverty and famine. A couple of particularly harsh winters impacted badly on the nomadic Mongolian way of life and brought the country to its knees.