The Mongolian Empire

This paper analyzes the Mongolian Empire as the most successful empire in history, using the Conrad-Demarest model of empire.

1,085 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2004 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the Mongolian empire, which began about 1200 A.D., was selected as the best empire because its influential ideas and developments, horsemanship, militancy, nomadic lifestyle, leadership system, its fall and impact, make up all of the components needed to fully understand and appreciate the history of a great empire. The author points out that, in Khan's military system, which was derived from the philosophy of Alexander the Great, Khan's army integrated the commanders, bureaucrats, artisans, and professionals of the conquered peoples in order to produce new tastes in art, food, decoration, and clothing. The paper relates that the tremendous length of the Mongols' trade routes was directly related to their huge territorial domination and led, not only to the unification of the East and the West geographically, but also to cultural unification

From the Paper:

"Under the rule of Genghis Khan, the Mongols started to dominate the world. He claimed power by saying that he was the "universal ruler." He basically used the Mandate of Heaven system of China, implying that he attained his power from God and he would be the ruler of the whole universe. This claim of Khan simply gives a clue on how he set up his ideology of ruling his state, eventually his empire. It seems like Khan's role model was Alexander the Great and his Greek Empire. Though the Greeks did not have a militaristic social structure, they had the idea of focusing on the expansion of the territory followed by more trades and getting wealthier. This was the system Khan set up as well. He was perhaps one of the greatest military innovators in human history, and his army consisted of perhaps the best-trained horsemen in all of human history. Khan's armies were incredibly mobile and could cover immense distances with numbing speed. Thus, it is clear that Khan established one of the major rules in rising of an empire: The tremendous military strength."