In 1206, all the clan lords of the newly unified Mongol nation were gathered in a khuriltai on the banks of the Onon river in the heart of Mongolia. They were gathered to issue a proclamation and confirmed that Temujin was Genghis Khan, Emperor of all the Mongols. The greatest military enterprise in history was now on the very brink of eruption.
Genghis led the Mongols on repeated campaigns into the beleagured Tangut kingdom of Xi Xia, merely a stone throw's away to the south, and also against the Jurchen Jin Empire in N China, hated enemies and probable instigators in the death of Yesugei, father to Genghis. The invasions were successful enough to force the Xi Xia into a form of vassalage and to force the Jin to abandon their capital at present-day Beijing, and moved south to Kaifeng. The Mongols looked set to launch a full scale invasion of China, land of legendary wealth and seat of their hated Jurchen enemies.
Or so the Mongols thought.
The leaders of the Naiman confederation in the steppes to the west, the last Turco-Mongol tribe to be defeated by Genghis and absorbed into the new Mongol nation, had been defeated in the wars of 1204-05. Nonetheless, the Naiman nation mostly escaped and continued to resist. In particular, the heir to the last Naiman khan had seized control of the Kara Khitai state, the last remnant of the Khitan Liao Empire that was supplanted by the ferocious Jurchens.
Jochi, eldest of Genghis' heirs, was expected to establish himself a fief farthest away from the homeland, as his inheritance, in accordance to Mongol tradition. Genghis assigned the great general Jebe to him, and ordered them to pursue and execute this last Naiman leader. This was all but completed in 1218, but as they pursued the Naiman remnants even further west, the Mongols came across the powerful Khwarazmians, whose territories bordered directly on the Kara Khitai's western borders.
Genghis didn't seem to have any designs on this Turkic realm; his eyes probably set on righteous vengeance against the Jurchens. He offered to share the world with Ala al-Din Muhammad II, Shah of Khwarazm and promote trade between their realms. The Mongol armies were engaged in N China, battling the tough Jurchen cavalrymen and their N Chinese infantry levies. Genghis had least need of an added distraction on the other end of the Mongol world.
The Shah, however, had other thought. Proud and bridling under this supposed patronage of the upstart Mongols, he planned a suitable retort. The Khwarazmian realm was huge, stretching across Transoxiana and south into Afghanistan, eastern Persia and included as well parts of N India. Theirs were a powerful military state, and heirs to centuries-old Turkic states in this vast region. The Shah did not fear the Mongols.
In 1218, or perhaps 1219, a caravan inclusive of several Mongol envoys reached Otrar, northwest of Tashkent. The local governor, a relative of the Shah and clearly with instructions from his lord, seized the envoys and had them all killed. This was a horrendous insult to the Mongols, especially to someone as honourable as Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan assembled a khuriltai to plan the campaign. The armies in China were pulled back, with only a skeletal force under the command of Mukhali remaining to keep the Jurchens harried. Jebe, and Subotei, were assigned to lead the army, with Jochi as the head. The actual operations were, of course, planned and carried out by this brilliant pair of commanders. Genghis himself accompanied this army as it moved westwards beyond the Dzungarian Basin into modern Kazakhstan.
The Khwarazmian Shah probably laughed. The Mongol army was outnumbered, and operating far away from its homeland. He had nothing to fear, with his army of Turkic and Iranic warriors, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The Khwarazmians were self-assured of being able to deal with these upstart barbarians whose chief styled himself as 'universal ruler'. Ha!
In the autumn of 1219, the Mongol army turned south, into the northern portion of Transoxiana, with its many rich cities. Genghis Khan employed all the tricks in the book, in particular depending heavily on the use of terror and psychological warfare. Cities were informed that they would be spared if they surrendered, and obliterated if not. Many were indeed, as it turned, completely obliterated, and the populations put to the sword. Though the Mongols shrewdly spared certain classes of craftsmen, who were attached to their army or else sent back to Mongolia.
The terror had begun.
The cowardly Shah never brought his army together to meet the Mongols head-on. In the spring of 1220, the Mongols plundered and burned Bukhara, the region's greatest center of learning and wealth. Samarkand followed soon after. Persian sources gave a figure of 12000 to 20000 for that Mongol army Genghis himself led to take Bukhara and then Samarkand. Samarkand was said to be defended by an elite garrison of 110000 Turks and Persian Tadjikhs, but still fell easily.
The Khwarazmian resistance collapsed. The Mongols drove on into Afghanistan and eventually reached the Indus river in modern Pakistan, south of Peshawar. By then, the Mongol forces were very far away from home. Disease began to take its toll, and morale wavered.
Then Genghis ordered the Mongols to return, in 1221. The Xi Xia Tanguts had rebelled.
En route back to Mongolia, Genghis spent some months in 1222 camped in the Hindu Kush. There he met a seventy-year-old well-known Daoist called Qiu Chuji, who was said to have learned the secret of long life and was 300 years old. The Daoist had been invited all the way there from China. Their discussions about the meaning of life in May/June 1222 and all through the fall and winter of 1222-23 revealed much about Genghis Khan, the man; as the Mongol army marched in easy stages back home.
Before beginning on the long journey back, Genghis approved plans for a continuation of the Western Asian campaign, to be led, again, by Jebe and Subotei, and his son, Jochi, as nominal head. A Mongol force led by the two generals pushed on westwards to the south of the Caspian Sea, then turned north into the Caucasus and entered the Kipchak steppe of S Russia. It was a formidable operation, involving a winter crossing of the Caucasus Mountains.
In June 1223, the Mongols met and defeated a combined Russian-Polovtsy army at the Kalka river, on the northern shores of the Sea of Azov. This was the first blow inflicted on the Russians. In the meantime, Jochi and his force had continued northwards along the eastern side of the Caspian Sea. The two forces met somewhere in S Russia in 1223 or early 1224. A permanent Mongol garrison was set up to hold the region against the Kipchak Turks.
Then in 1225, Genghis Khan, who had been lingering in the region north of Lake Balkhash, ordered all the Mongol forces to return home, for a final showdown with the Tanguts. Thus ended the Mongols' very first campaign into the West.
Genghis led the Mongols on repeated campaigns into the beleagured Tangut kingdom of Xi Xia, merely a stone throw's away to the south, and also against the Jurchen Jin Empire in N China, hated enemies and probable instigators in the death of Yesugei, father to Genghis. The invasions were successful enough to force the Xi Xia into a form of vassalage and to force the Jin to abandon their capital at present-day Beijing, and moved south to Kaifeng. The Mongols looked set to launch a full scale invasion of China, land of legendary wealth and seat of their hated Jurchen enemies.
Or so the Mongols thought.
The leaders of the Naiman confederation in the steppes to the west, the last Turco-Mongol tribe to be defeated by Genghis and absorbed into the new Mongol nation, had been defeated in the wars of 1204-05. Nonetheless, the Naiman nation mostly escaped and continued to resist. In particular, the heir to the last Naiman khan had seized control of the Kara Khitai state, the last remnant of the Khitan Liao Empire that was supplanted by the ferocious Jurchens.
Jochi, eldest of Genghis' heirs, was expected to establish himself a fief farthest away from the homeland, as his inheritance, in accordance to Mongol tradition. Genghis assigned the great general Jebe to him, and ordered them to pursue and execute this last Naiman leader. This was all but completed in 1218, but as they pursued the Naiman remnants even further west, the Mongols came across the powerful Khwarazmians, whose territories bordered directly on the Kara Khitai's western borders.
Genghis didn't seem to have any designs on this Turkic realm; his eyes probably set on righteous vengeance against the Jurchens. He offered to share the world with Ala al-Din Muhammad II, Shah of Khwarazm and promote trade between their realms. The Mongol armies were engaged in N China, battling the tough Jurchen cavalrymen and their N Chinese infantry levies. Genghis had least need of an added distraction on the other end of the Mongol world.
The Shah, however, had other thought. Proud and bridling under this supposed patronage of the upstart Mongols, he planned a suitable retort. The Khwarazmian realm was huge, stretching across Transoxiana and south into Afghanistan, eastern Persia and included as well parts of N India. Theirs were a powerful military state, and heirs to centuries-old Turkic states in this vast region. The Shah did not fear the Mongols.
In 1218, or perhaps 1219, a caravan inclusive of several Mongol envoys reached Otrar, northwest of Tashkent. The local governor, a relative of the Shah and clearly with instructions from his lord, seized the envoys and had them all killed. This was a horrendous insult to the Mongols, especially to someone as honourable as Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan assembled a khuriltai to plan the campaign. The armies in China were pulled back, with only a skeletal force under the command of Mukhali remaining to keep the Jurchens harried. Jebe, and Subotei, were assigned to lead the army, with Jochi as the head. The actual operations were, of course, planned and carried out by this brilliant pair of commanders. Genghis himself accompanied this army as it moved westwards beyond the Dzungarian Basin into modern Kazakhstan.
The Khwarazmian Shah probably laughed. The Mongol army was outnumbered, and operating far away from its homeland. He had nothing to fear, with his army of Turkic and Iranic warriors, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The Khwarazmians were self-assured of being able to deal with these upstart barbarians whose chief styled himself as 'universal ruler'. Ha!
In the autumn of 1219, the Mongol army turned south, into the northern portion of Transoxiana, with its many rich cities. Genghis Khan employed all the tricks in the book, in particular depending heavily on the use of terror and psychological warfare. Cities were informed that they would be spared if they surrendered, and obliterated if not. Many were indeed, as it turned, completely obliterated, and the populations put to the sword. Though the Mongols shrewdly spared certain classes of craftsmen, who were attached to their army or else sent back to Mongolia.
The terror had begun.
The cowardly Shah never brought his army together to meet the Mongols head-on. In the spring of 1220, the Mongols plundered and burned Bukhara, the region's greatest center of learning and wealth. Samarkand followed soon after. Persian sources gave a figure of 12000 to 20000 for that Mongol army Genghis himself led to take Bukhara and then Samarkand. Samarkand was said to be defended by an elite garrison of 110000 Turks and Persian Tadjikhs, but still fell easily.
The Khwarazmian resistance collapsed. The Mongols drove on into Afghanistan and eventually reached the Indus river in modern Pakistan, south of Peshawar. By then, the Mongol forces were very far away from home. Disease began to take its toll, and morale wavered.
Then Genghis ordered the Mongols to return, in 1221. The Xi Xia Tanguts had rebelled.
En route back to Mongolia, Genghis spent some months in 1222 camped in the Hindu Kush. There he met a seventy-year-old well-known Daoist called Qiu Chuji, who was said to have learned the secret of long life and was 300 years old. The Daoist had been invited all the way there from China. Their discussions about the meaning of life in May/June 1222 and all through the fall and winter of 1222-23 revealed much about Genghis Khan, the man; as the Mongol army marched in easy stages back home.
Before beginning on the long journey back, Genghis approved plans for a continuation of the Western Asian campaign, to be led, again, by Jebe and Subotei, and his son, Jochi, as nominal head. A Mongol force led by the two generals pushed on westwards to the south of the Caspian Sea, then turned north into the Caucasus and entered the Kipchak steppe of S Russia. It was a formidable operation, involving a winter crossing of the Caucasus Mountains.
In June 1223, the Mongols met and defeated a combined Russian-Polovtsy army at the Kalka river, on the northern shores of the Sea of Azov. This was the first blow inflicted on the Russians. In the meantime, Jochi and his force had continued northwards along the eastern side of the Caspian Sea. The two forces met somewhere in S Russia in 1223 or early 1224. A permanent Mongol garrison was set up to hold the region against the Kipchak Turks.
Then in 1225, Genghis Khan, who had been lingering in the region north of Lake Balkhash, ordered all the Mongol forces to return home, for a final showdown with the Tanguts. Thus ended the Mongols' very first campaign into the West.
