53
votes
Accepted
Why were nomadic tribes (like the Mongols) from the Eurasian steppes a much reduced threat from the 15th century onwards?
My source for this answer is mostly Devereaux's discussion of "the Fremen Mirage" and other writing on his site about steppe nomads, which goes in-depth into what made the Mongols so ...
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33
votes
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How Did the Mongol Empire Get So Big?
There are a number of tactical and strategic reasons that the Mongols were successful.
Core of strong leaders:
Not only were the upper levels of military leadership strong, but the mid-level and ...
- 7,477
33
votes
Accepted
Did the Golden Horde shoe their horses?
Short Answer
Generally, no. Literary evidence mostly indicates that Mongol horses were unshod, at least with metal. However, some horses' hooves were shod with skins during the time of Genghis Khan, ...
- 108k
32
votes
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Why was the standoff on the Ugra river the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia?
It's precisely because Akhmat Khan retreated.
The Mongolian yoke over Russia was underpinned by their ability to compel obedience (i.e. tribute) through the force of arms. Akhmat Khan's retreat ...
- 97.5k
30
votes
Accepted
Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?
Short Answer
An important reason was to destroy those Muslims who opposed the Mongols. This meant that their mosques and Islamic texts were also targeted, especially those of the Isma‘ilis, a Shi‘ite ...
- 108k
29
votes
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Why was the northern boundary of the Mongol empire set where it was?
There always is a trade-off when occupying someone else's territory: the resources you can extract plus any strategic value versus the resources you need to invest to maintain control.
The wooded ...
- 8,382
29
votes
What are the primary sources for the Mongol sack of Baghdad?
The source containing the most detail is probably al-Ḥawādit̠
al-ğāmiʿa wa-l-tağārib al-nāfiʿa fī l-miʾa l-sābiʿa, a local history of Baghdad under Mongol rule. It was previously attributed to the ...
- 108k
27
votes
Were the Islamic Caliphates (Umayyad and Abbasid) and the Mongol Empires truly as benevolent as they are portrayed?
If your textbook indeed says this, it is evidently biased. First of all, these things (the Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, and European empires) belong to very different historical periods, and thus ...
- 38.5k
21
votes
Were the mongol army boots of 13th century lined with fur?
According to The Field Museum's Genghis Khan online exhibit...
Man’s Boots
Leather, 19th-20th century, National Museum of Mongolia
These centuries-old leather boots are like those worn by warriors ...
- 54.9k
20
votes
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What does this source "IAA iii" mean? Which book?
This is explained — as it should be — as a frequently used abbreviation, on page 559, at the start of section called "Notes":
Abbreviations of principal primary sources used in the notes: […...
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19
votes
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Who was the English Knight Templar holding command in the Mongol Army?
As interesting as this seems to be, there seems to be not much light available to shine onto this issue, except for the fact that such a man existed, although probably not really in command of that ...
- 80.8k
15
votes
Accepted
Why did Coloman of Slavonia leave Sajó bridge weakly defended against the Mongols?
According to the wikipedia article on the topic:
The Mongol vanguard was killed nearly to a man, with Thomas of Split writing: "the Hungarians immediately charged into them and did battle. They cut ...
- 23.2k
15
votes
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Why did the Mongols outlaw intermarriage between the Mongols and the Chinese and forbid the Chinese from learning the Mongolian language?
Under the Yuan Dynasty, although the Mongols were the most privileged group politically, they were not the dominant group demographically. In fact, Mongols were an extremely tiny minority in Yuan ...
- 97.5k
14
votes
Why were fragments of the Mongol empire named after colors?
Colours are used in many cultures to denote directions. Chinese and Turkish colour/directions systems are very similar, which is probably not a co-incidence.
This picture from a linguistics blog ...
- 660
14
votes
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Did medieval Mongol horse archers have deformed arms like English bowmen?
Deformed arms? No - the skeletal changes are in the back and shoulders, not the arms, and I'm not comfortable with the term "deformed". That said, were there similar changes to the ...
MCW♦
- 32.4k
13
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Why were fragments of the Mongol empire named after colors?
Your talking about the Golden horde, or the Ulus of Jochi. It was divided between Jochi's sons, but it remained united. It stretched from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. These were the western ...
- 3,340
12
votes
Isn't there any positive legacy of the Mongolian occupation in Russia?
The biggest positive effect that the Mongols had was the unification of Russia into a more or less centralised state under a single ruler. Russia had long been divided in city-states with varying ...
- 219
12
votes
Why was the standoff on the Ugra river the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia?
Its fairly simple: There was an arrangement where the Russian Rulers were paying tribute to the Golden Horde since the days of Genghis Khan. This is the international equivalent of "protection money". ...
- 118k
12
votes
Who was the English Knight Templar holding command in the Mongol Army?
I've never seen the reference to the 'Templar' portion in particular, but an Englishman in the Mongol horde is something I've read. Unfortunately I can't find the book itself and simply have a review ...
- 2,722
12
votes
Why did the Mongols destroy the library during the siege of Baghdad in 1258?
The Mongols were a sort of enlightened people, but they really didn't take lightly any threat to their rule. The Abassids didn't submit to the Mongol terms, during the late negotiation they apparently ...
- 1,129
11
votes
Why were nomadic tribes (like the Mongols) from the Eurasian steppes a much reduced threat from the 15th century onwards?
After a day of thought, I think the real answer is that nomadic people from the Steppe continued to be a major threat until at least 1700.
For example, the Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 by Babur, ...
- 7,477
10
votes
Accepted
Did the Hungarian Army ever use crescent banners?
Not as precise answer as I'd like, but it might lead you to the correct answer with further research. Googling for "hungarian heraldry crescent 13th century" yields at least one crescent, ...
- 23.2k
10
votes
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Why did the Mongol Empire disintegrate so rapidly after its peak?
The reason is that it was too large to be governed effectively. Already Genghis Khan understood this when he split it to uluses and assigned them to his sons.
It was supposed that the Great Khan in ...
- 38.5k
10
votes
Why are Turkish people and other Turkik people considered of Mongolic race if their language is not in the Mongolic language family?
There's no scientific definition of "race", so that part of the question is unanswerable.
Linguists do try to classify languages though, since that can be done (mostly) objectively, based on ...
- 118k
10
votes
How accurate is the quip: "Mongols, having already conquered half of Europe, decided the other half wasn't worth it"?
History is about understanding past events, not a place for polemic. There's another place and time for that, and it's called "propaganda" (by politicians). For those who tries to appreciate history, ...
- 6,313
9
votes
Why did the Mongol Empire disintegrate so rapidly after its peak?
I'm not sure the "disintegrated so rapidly" assertion is correct. As Alex answered, they dispersed intentionally (into Siberia, China, India, Persia).
Second, "so rapid demise of ..." is also ...
- 6,313
8
votes
How Did the Mongol Empire Get So Big?
This is indeed an interesting and difficult question.
Mongols defeated almost all states around them, and they certainly had no
technological advantage or any superiority in the weapons. But this is ...
- 38.5k
8
votes
Accepted
How effective were the Mongol siege equipment?
One way to evaluate if the siege warfare of the Mongols were better is to look beyond the equipment engines. Ideally, it should include a detailed discussion of the following (and then do a comparison ...
- 6,313
7
votes
Accepted
When did Sultan Saif ad-Din Qutuz escape from Mongol swords?
It looks like there are several versions of the 'threatening letter' sent to Qutuz. The version from the wiki about Qutuz has the following phrasing:
Let al-Malik al-Muzaffar Qutuz, who is of the ...
- 38.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible