What is up with the Mongols? How did they go from massive hordes

>>2188955
What happens when you have no identifiable culture and your only claim to fame was conquering empires, not governing them.

>>2188955
It was an extremely confusing time for the world. Archeologists still have trouble attributing artifacts to Mongols. Their culture's understanding is based off the research of historians from the 1800s-1900s. Some Ukrainians would write about mongols and then conflate them with Russian Tartars. It's weird.

The Mongol hordes topped out in the hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

It just used to be that all-cavalry armies with excellent logistics and a good intelligence staff could use High Middle Age states as chew toys.

Also, steppe empires tend to fall apart very quickly due to administrative problems stemming from the rulers being illiterate barbarians with no experience living in cities, let alone running countries.

>>2188955
They fragmented and assimilated with the local cultures and religions.

The Khagan basically founded the Yuan dynasty of China and was too busy to lose in war to the Japanese who summoned Susanoo to care about the other divisions of the Mongol """empire""".
All the Ilkhanate rulers died of illness so there was no one to take over the throne while Persiante Turkic tribes moved in and took over lands for themselves in Persia.
Chagatai was basically the express-way for Turko-Mongol migration to Anatolia and would spawn Timur in later centuries.
And the Golden Horde had already broken off and become its own thing after the Toluid civil-war.

>>2189002
That wasn't the case with mongols though. The mongols would actively seek out philosophers/religious leaders and hear their cases. Due to that, they had excellent administrators. The fall of mongol was mainly due to fragmentation. Kublai wanted a more Chinese empire, while traditional mongols wanted to preserve their steppe culture.

Once the Yuan were toppled they couldn't really form back into a super empire.

The nomadic confederacies unify only with intelligent and strong-handed leaders, and the promise of booty if they team up and sack places

With no promise of plunder, no warlords to enforce group discipline, and no destabilizing forces usually means that the nomadic tribes are content to nomad out their days

Can anyone recommend some good books on the mongols or just on Ghengis Khan. I'm interested to learn more.

>>2189059
Genghis and his immediate descendants were brilliant talent scouts.

But overall, it's rare for an empire to rise from the steppe and survive more than a few generations.

File: Genghis_Khan_and_the_Making_of_the_Modern_World.jpg (10KB, 180x276px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 180x276px

>>2188955

You have to understand that all steppe nomads reflected the people that they raided. So when they collapsed they were no longer had the swag.

>>2190454

Pic related is a good place to start. Inb4 Dan Carlin whining.

>>2189002
>excellent logistics
when you are a nomad every "logistics" is solved with litterally surviving with what you have where you are. they simply pillaged/hunted/forested all their food/clothing/weapons/tents. also horses were bred nomadically meaking horses the only thing they actually produced.

>good intelligence
i don't know what you call "good intelligence" but in times where news took days to travel, being a fast travelling army is simply attacking before the enemy even realises it's being attacked, not having good intelligence

>>2188955
Mongolia never had a particularly large population. Their social structure just allowed them to mobilize a much larger percentage of their population.

>>2190736

They always knew about divisions amongst their enemies. Such as the Georgians and cumans

>>2190736
You're dum. Top mongols were either aware of Sun Tzu's art of war, or they were well aware of contemporary intelligence gathering that was a regular amongst Chinese warfare.

Spy system was something mongols employed almost everywhere they attacked. Subutai for example would scout out areas well in advance for their attacks, sometimes years ahead of the attacks to get every last detail.

>>2188955
>no records of of Genghis Khan?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_History_of_the_Mongols

culture prone to assimilation

Well they fragmented because each son got their own territory.