If Mongolia always invaded China in the past, how come they're so weak now?
Now Mongolia has a population of less than three million. The country is very sparsely populated, with one million people living in the capital. Nobody really speaks their language. On the other hand, China now has the third-strongest economy in the world. How did Mongolia go from being such a huge threat that the emperor ordered a wall to be built between the two countries to the desolate wasteland that it is today?
China - 11 Answers
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1 :
It has to be noted that the wall was build in sections over thousands of years. When it first was build the Chinese did not know about the Mongols. As for being weak that is the rise and fall of nations. Britain was strong now its weak, China was strong then it fell and is now rising, the Romans were strong but now Rome is weak. At the moment Mongolia is weak but the future who knows. At the end of the day it was all down to luck or being unlucky a lost battle or war could decide the fate of the Nation.
2 :
Industrialisation is your answer. I'm a bit foggy on this, correct me if I'm wrong, but in ancient times the power and technology level between China and Mongolia was about the same. But after 2 Sino-Japanese Wars, consecutive invasions and semi-colonisation by several European powers, WWI and WWII, China learned its lesson, got rid of the corrupt Qing Dynasty, and near the end of the 20th century initiated nation-wide industrialisation and technological advancement, much like the end of the Japanese isolation. Unfortunately Japan was the earlier and used the advantage bought by technology to invade China, see? Technology is the thing that can get you one-up from somebody, the vast Chinese population supported the industrialisation and the modern China, with a relatively cheaper work force and open market scheme, attracted foreign investors, and begun spinning the wheel of economic monopoly.
3 :
Mongolia was never very large, they had a large army for the size of the area. When their leaders died, the tribes splintered and did not have a unified front. Today, armies don't fight on horse back with bows and arrows. There are many examples of ancient civilizations that have fallen on hard times.
4 :
The ancient Mongol Empire was vast in it territorial reach and encompassed several ethnic groups. It was much larger than modern day Mongolia. The best way for you to understand how the Mongol Empire developed and interacted with its neighbors is to read about its history. A one or two paragraph explanation is not going to cover it. If you are serious about learning, then you need to devote some time to it. Try starting here:
5 :
It is like Roman and Greek, it defeated by the culture
6 :
being free nomads they didn't create chains... no chains -- no net to cover the world... thus no one knows them... perhaps their aim was to live a happy life instead of daily suffering in the fight for power... a half-wild guy on a horse in the deserted plains may be much happier than an over the top civilized banker driving his Lamborghini somewhere near the Wall Street... ;)
7 :
Ghengis Khan came from what is now China. Inner mongolia has more mongol people than the country of Mongolia. Mongolia is really just a buffer between Russia and China with very few natural resources. In the past nomadic people actually lived in vast numbers. Their lifestyle was apapted to the terrain they lived in. So we think of nomads as small groups of people. The stupid movie "mongol" portrays the vast mongol people as a few people in tents. It is very insulting. The Mongols, Manchurians and the Hun all were nomadic, horse riders. Have vast horse armies gave them a distince advantage. The romans and the greeks both had powerful armies but lacked horse power because their terrain had too many mountains so not enough horses. The nomadic horse people, when organised could sweep down anywhere. Also their lifestyle was vulnerable to population pressure and climate change. A bad season would mean they would have to go off and conquer another land or die. Which is why successive groups of northern asiatic horse nomads went and kicked roman butt. Modern warefare is the ability to have enough food to feed the armies. The advantage of being nomadic is not very good when it comes to seige warfare. Anyway, the mongols in inner mongolia are doing ok. The land is fertile in some places but mostly fairly marginal. I lived not far from Xanadu, and it is not where I would a stately pleasure dome decree...too cold.
8 :
they ran out of mongolian beef
9 :
i gues that's a lesson for us to learn. we do not control tomorrow. we may be strong now, but no one knows about the future. who knows, maybe after hundreds of years we will be slaves & the poorest country nowadays will be the mightiest by then. never put your confidence in money & power.
10 :
It's not just Mongols, it's steppe tribes and Mongols is one of them. Steppe tribes live a hard life in the ultra cold Siberia. When there's a long winter and food shortage, they came to the warmer place in the south. A whole tribes, men and women to attack and rob in China. They are not only came down to rob food, but also woman. They burn entire village and city, kill all the people, old men and children. This destabilize the country and lead to fear. Some of the tribes even has a dream to became king, conquering other people land, kill the whole population. Like Mongols invasion did, there's around 60-80 millions of Chinese people die at that time because of genocide policy by the Mongols. At that time Chinese population is not as much as today, 60-80 millions people die almost makes Chinese civilization extinct. Steppe tribes also conquering and destroying a lot of civilization in Eurasia. Including Western Roman Empire by the Huns, Eastern Roman Empire by Ottoman Turks, Islamic Empire by Seljuk Turks, Egypt by Mamluks and India by the Mughals. Many civilized people fear them. Because like today, civilized people is peaceful and fear to hurt/kill anyone. Civilized people also love to study and work rather than war, robbing and killing people. Like today, 8 millions city dweller will be hopeless in front of 100.000 soldiers who do genocide policy by killing all people in street and burn the whole city.
11 :
Because after yuan dynasty, the mongols was pushed back by the chinese all the way to mongolia, and then every emperor in the ming dynasty basically sent armies to kills more mongol. Beside attacks from the chinese, there were also civil wars between the mongol tribes, thus decreasing their population. After the ming dynasty collapsed, the qing dynasty rose, and they massacres many mongols to prevent a rebellion. After the qing dynasty felled, the republic of china also planned many attacks on mongolia, who was a state of china, then as the republic of china turns into people republic of china, mongolia was turned in to a soviet puppet state, where many mongols were again killed. SO, mongolia do not have a chance to rise because it have been oppresed for about 4 centuries.
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