Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

I read quite a few books, and few really alter my world view. This book changed my perception of Genghis Khan and the times in which he lived in a fundamental way. I had always thought of Genghis Khan as the ultimate military campaigner gone wild. Yes he was that but so much else in addition. His use of diplomacy, propaganda, his establishment of the concept of diplomatic immunity, his open-minded acceptance of all religions, his utter lack of personal greed and his vision of unifying the world mark him as an historical character worthy of much more attention and respect.

This is the tale of Temujin (1162 - 1227 AD), later known as Chinggis or Genghis Khan, a poverty-stricken outcast who became the leader of one of the greatest empires in history. At its height, under Temujin's grandson Khubilai Khan, the Mongol empire ranged from Baghdad to Peking and included all of modern China, most of modern Russia, Turkey and northern India. The conquest and command of such a vast amount of territory by a nomadic, largely illiterate people is a remarkable feat in itself; that the Mongols governed well and introduced numerous innovations across their huge empire is extraordinary. The first half of the book is a biography of Genghis Khan; after that it's the history of the empire he established and its ultimate dissolution in the plague years of the14th century. It's also the story of the many innovations pioneered by the Mongols: paper currency, a unified monetary system, trade on a grand scale across thousands of miles, a universal language, religious freedom, and a consistent and humane legal code, to name only a few. It's true the empire eventually disintegrated in the aftermath of the plague, which effectively halted commerce across Eurasia, but not before East and West had exchanged numerous goods and knowledge. The book also clarifies how the Mongols acquired the outrageous reputation they have had as barbarians up to the present day. This portion of the story is an excellent lesson in the misuse of history and the role of prejudice in the absence of facts. I found the book readable and enlightening; for me, it was an antidote to ignorance, illuminating a shadowy corner of world history often missed in both Western (Europe and the new world) and Eastern (India, China, Japan) civilization courses.

When Genghis Khan and his armies exploded out of the steppe in the early thirteenth century, no one on the Eurasian continent was prepared for his innovative style of warfare. Through years of what was essentially civil war, the Mongols of that period, as well as the surrounding tribes, had already refined various elements of shock warfare. But Temujin - Genghis Khan's birth name - added much to the Mongols' arsenal that was previously missing. He integrated surrounding tribes into his Mongol army; he ensured looting was strictly controlled and that shares of it were divided on a pre-assigned basis; he killed off the aristocracies of the tribes, cities, and empires he defeated, thereby ensuring they would not rally their people to turn on him at a later time; he organized his armies, and even his society, through a decimal system that smoothed the functioning of his eventual empire; he instituted laws that even he, a great khan, must obey. What resulted from these innovations was unprecedented: an army with the same benefits of speed and maneuver that had always been a part of the traditional tactics of the tribes of the steppe melded together with an effective bureaucratic leadership that was very different from the typical kin-based and ad hoc tribal relationships. This was Temujin's creation, and he perfected it in numerous battles to unify Mongolia under his leadership. In 1206, two years after the final battle to assume control of all Mongolia, he took the name Genghis Khan, and prepared to take his army out into the world. Jack Weatherford's remarkable narrative of these events captures the creativity of Genghis Khan and the Mongols in a way that no book I've read before ever has. Whereas most histories of the Mongols have long emphasized their unprecedented success in war, Weatherford builds a solid case that shows the social and economic achievements of the Mongols may have been even more remarkable than their adaptations to warfare. The author makes the argument that the Mongols were fairly civilized by the standards of the thirteenth century, almost never engaging in torture, mutilation, or maiming. While they were quick to kill, and left an unprecedented path of destruction in their path, especially to those who resisted their rule, conquest and loot were their goals, not gratuitous death and injury. After making himself the undisputed ruler of the steppes, an area about the size of Western Europe, Genghis Khan began moving south and west, conquering the Jurched (Manchurian) tribes ruling Northern China and the kingdom of Khwarizm, an empire under the rule of a Turkic sultan that stretched from what is modern Afghanistan to the Black Sea. Khwarizm was an important catch, as the Muslims there were noted for their steel- and glass-making, as well as numerous exotic commodities. As each conquest was assimilated, Genghis Khan took what was special and distinctive about the place and employed it productively. Craftsmen, miners, artisans,

This is a revisionist history (isn't it all?) of a truly remarkable figure, who created an empire greater even than the Romans, and he did it from scratch in just a few decades. He was a law-giver who essentially outlawed the culture he came from--transforming it from a Scots-like clan of cattle rustlers and raiders, to a monolithic, highly disciplined cavalry of conquerers. He devised entirely new military tactics that were as successful against the cities of the Chinese as against the armored knights of the West. And they started out as a people, he claims, who did not even know how to weave cloth!Weatherford here takes up the challenge of accenting the positive impact of his brutal conquests. Among other things he makes the case for his setting the West up for the Renaissance, the introduction of paper money, the postal system, Religious tolerance, and new vegetables. He bases much of this on new scholarship, rather than the hysterical propaganda of the aristocrats whom he threatened. Partly based on the mysterious "Secret History of the Mongols," the author's own travels in Mongolia, and contacts with Mongolian revivalists, he makes this bit of history accessible even to the most prejudiced reader.Strangely omitted, though, is the fascinating tale that the geneticists have discovered about his Y chromosome, which appears to show that he might just have been the most prolific lover in the last couple of millennia! Too recent, maybe.One of the remarkable features of his style was that he hated the elite and the aristocrats, and slaughtered as many as he could. He loved the professional men, the teachers and doctors, and especially the craftsmen and engineers, and did not even tax them. My kinda guy!Weatherford's style of writing is lively and easy to read. The maps are just detailed enough to be informative without overburdening the reader in detail. This is not an exhaustive account of every battle, every city destroyed, which would be mind-numbing history as usually written, but rather a wide survey of events and their impact on the world to come. And I especially enjoyed his description of the military tactics employed by the cavalry, and his use of siege engines and gunpowder, which would be new to most readers. Perhaps one of his greatest inventions, though, is that of diplomatic immunity. Any city, and there were several, who murdered or mutilated his envoys as a method of rejecting his terms of surrender, would be ruthlessly razed and the inhabitants slaughtered. Even in those days, the word got around...This is quite a tale, well told.

Jack Weatherford's book is written as if he himself was a Mongol, but he was not.He takes a close look at the impact of Genghis Khan without the distortion of the western or middle eastern eyes and views.Every other book on the Mongols view them as a destructive force with no influence to the history of mankind. However, the author proves this wrong.If you can be objective about history and do your due deligence and accept another's viewpoint, this is a must read.He presents Genghis Khan's legacy as it should be presented.Influences of Genghis Khan: (military: only force to defeat the Russians in winter, something Napoloean and the German could not do; fought the German Knights, the Assasins in the Middle East and the Japanese. All of the 3 did not even know that the other countries existed. Succeeded where the Crusaders could not. Developed the lightning attack at multiple fronts, used psychological warfare, and implemented new military technologies and was quick to adapt to different terrains of the countries he fought in. He promoted officers for their deeds and not for their heritage.(not just military) - he was tolerent of all religions, his sons began a system of free education, he abhorred tortue, recognized international immunity, separated the church from the state, established paper currency, promoted free trade by exchanging ideas and goods across his empire, pushed for the creation of cartograpghy, developed a postal system, and his son's encouraged trade across his empire via sea routes. Some words used today - Hooray and Satin are of Mongol origin.Yes, some of Genghis Khan's impact was cruel but he lived in times of harsh cruelty, even Princes, Kings, Sultan's, Caliph's of his time exhibited even more harsh judgements. For all readers - Mongols to really identify with your heritage and not to forget, and those who are not mongol but who are interested in this lost treasure of history that the author rediscovered in an unabiased and simple explanations, this book is highly worth reading.