I'm always amazed by the glorifications of people like Subutai - the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan. From "Destruction under the Mongol Empire" (n

I'm always amazed by the glorifications of people like Subutai - the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan. From "Destruction under the Mongol Empire" (not everything under Subutais command) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_E... 1. Mass extermination - "It has been calculated that approximately 5% of the world's population were killed during Turco-Mongol invasions or in their immediate aftermath." (To compare the impact that would be 370 million people in todays numbers). 2. Scorched Earth - Mongols were known to burn farmland; [...], crops were burned to starve the populace. Other tactics included diverting rivers into and from cities and towns [...] 3. Biological warfare against civilians - [...] and catapulting diseased corpses over city walls to infect the population. The use of such infected bodies during the siege of Caffa is alleged to have brought the Black Death to Europe by some sources. 4. Genocide - [...] "terror and mass extermination of anyone opposing them was a well-tested Mongol tactic." The alternative to submission was total war: if refused, Mongol leaders ordered the collective slaughter of populations and destruction of property. 5. Total destruction of culture - [...] and in the Battle of Baghdad, libraries, books, literature, and hospitals were burned: some of the books were thrown into the river, in quantities sufficient to "turn the Euphrates black with ink for several days"