Sunday, June 21, 2009

What happened to the Mongolians


What happened to the Mongolians?
The Mongolians are a shadow of their former selves. It's hard to believe that they're the same people who produced Genghis Kublai Khan and the people who conquered one of the biggest empires the world had ever seen. The Mongols brought the Chinese empire to its knees, caused the downfall of the Muslim golden age. Now, Mongolia is one of the most backwards countries with very little going for it. Most of the Mongolian population don't even live in Mongolia, but China. What went so terribly wrong?
History - 4 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
They well uhhh....got Mongoled. But seriously...they aligned with the Soviet Union early on, and we all know how that worked its way out. Plus the user below brings up a good point. Most empires of those ages grew immensely...and if you think about it, the way that they took over land and nations was to in some form, control through government, but not the people. The more expansion there is, the thinner the lines of defense become, the thinner the military becomes, and the more prone to attack they are as outside forces chip away at their territory. Then all of a sudden the great empire is in decline, which hurts its morale and emboldens enemies, and over time, little is left of it. Now a days this doesn't really hold true with technology and all, and warfare fought in such different, mobile ways. But the basic principle is that an empire expands too fast and too far for its own good and collapses within.
2 :
They had wars withing and became weak and destroyed themselves after Gengis Khan. Thats what destroys all nations and empires. It always starts within. Look at Rome same thing. The Barbarians who destroyed Rome where able to because Rome became weak within with corruption.
3 :
Though the Mongols did indeed do what you have stated, you've overlooked the fact that the "horde" was not the entire society. The Mongols have always led a pastoral life. Those are the peoples we know as the Mongols today. Not the great movers and shakers like the Khans, but the people who have always been There are many reasons why the Empire of the Mongols collapsed...the leading one is the division of the empire into four sectors. The people who followed the great leaders, Genghis, Kublai, etc...were the people who blended into the lives of the people they conquered and continued their generations after the fall of the Empire. The Mongols today live the same kind of pastoral lives their ancestors did. They live by custom and tradition.
4 :
Mongolians live more as they did at the time of the Great Khan than likely any people on earth. You may consider that a failure - projecting your culture onto theirs - I do not. They are a happy people who have learned to live with little. They preserve their way of life not because they are backward or ignorant, but because they are content. If you will step back and take notice, conquering despots have all - I repeat ALL - seen their empires crumble throughout history. The reason, without compassion and character their societies cannot perpetuate themselves feeding the needs of a handful of elitists. I find it a measure of success that the Mongol people, and many people of the Steppes, have preserved a way of life without being sucked into the material life that measures success by the number of dollars consumers spend each day. Wouldn't it be grand if invading Europeans had kept their word in the U.S. and allowed the great people who roamed this nation for 12,000 years - relatives of the Mongols - to still have enough room to maintain their cultures without taking their languages/cultures along with their land?








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