I remember reading that one of the reasons Genghis Khan ignored Europe was because he considered it an economically and culturally backward region. And in many

I remember reading that one of the reasons Genghis Khan ignored Europe was because he considered it an economically and culturally backward region. And in many ways that might have actually helped Europe to emerge out of the "dark ages" as they didn't lose a section of their population to him, and still got access to knowledge and technology through trade with the Mongol empire that didn't care about them. While western history doesn't like to acknowledge it for political reasons, compared to the flourishing science, culture and statecraft that was seen with the rise of the Islamic empire, Europe was then more like a "developing" nation than a "developed" nation (to use modern economic parlance).