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Im consistently surprised Mongolia still actually exists. Surrounding countries in that area have to have generations of festering hate for that country. Im no

by s5300 5y ago

Im consistently surprised Mongolia still actually exists. Surrounding countries in that area have to have generations of festering hate for that country. Im not saying that to be rude - if you’ve never brushed up on the history of Mongolian conquest… it’s just insane. Highly recommend going down the rabbit hole, interesting on another level the span & techniques of that empire. I’m not much of a fan of continuing to hold grudges against people who weren’t alive when even the oldest of your living ancestors were born, but I’ll never be surprised if China decides they want to wipe them off the map some day. It’s a shame their culture wasn’t privy to much technological advancement regarding long term settlement. Modern borders would likely be much different if they had been.

antisthenes 5y ago
It helps that Mongolia is a complete geopolitical non-factor, pretty much at the same level of economic power as North Korea, except without nuclear weapons. Their territory is also fairly infertile, cold and of little strategic importance, being landlocked and all. I mean, most of the country is Gobi Desert, so yeah.
jaza 5y ago
Mongolia still exists because both of its neighbours, Russia and China, accept that it's a useful buffer between them. In particular, the Soviet Union supported Mongolia staying independent, to prevent PR China from cutting off its access to Eastern Siberia. That's the short story, at least.
qiskit 5y ago
> Surrounding countries in that area have to have generations of festering hate for that country. Most surrounding countries don't have festering hate for mongolia. It's only in the west we do. The mongol empire is actually admired in much of asia. > if you’ve never brushed up on the history of Mongolian conquest… it’s just insane. I have and almost all of it is exaggerated nonsense. > but I’ll never be surprised if China decides they want to wipe them off the map some day. China is more likely to wipe out Britain or Germany or France or anyone else than the mongols. Why would china wipe out the mongols when much of modern china is a mongol creation starting with the yuan dynasty. > It’s a shame their culture wasn’t privy to much technological advancement regarding long term settlement. It's not a matter of technological advancement. It's a matter of the nature of empire. The mongol empire, despite the stereotype, was not a genocidal colonizing empire. Most empires throughout history weren't genocidal colonizing empires. > Modern borders would likely be much different if they had been. Modern borders are different due to them - from vietnam to hungary, from russia to india and everywhere in between.

by s5300 5y ago

antisthenes 5y ago

It helps that Mongolia is a complete geopolitical non-factor, pretty much at the same level of economic power as North Korea, except without nuclear weapons. Their territory is also fairly infertile, cold and of little strategic importance, being landlocked and all. I mean, most of the country is Gobi Desert, so yeah.

jaza 5y ago

Mongolia still exists because both of its neighbours, Russia and China, accept that it's a useful buffer between them. In particular, the Soviet Union supported Mongolia staying independent, to prevent PR China from cutting off its access to Eastern Siberia. That's the short story, at least.

qiskit 5y ago

> Surrounding countries in that area have to have generations of festering hate for that country. Most surrounding countries don't have festering hate for mongolia. It's only in the west we do. The mongol empire is actually admired in much of asia. > if you’ve never brushed up on the history of Mongolian conquest… it’s just insane. I have and almost all of it is exaggerated nonsense. > but I’ll never be surprised if China decides they want to wipe them off the map some day. China is more likely to wipe out Britain or Germany or France or anyone else than the mongols. Why would china wipe out the mongols when much of modern china is a mongol creation starting with the yuan dynasty. > It’s a shame their culture wasn’t privy to much technological advancement regarding long term settlement. It's not a matter of technological advancement. It's a matter of the nature of empire. The mongol empire, despite the stereotype, was not a genocidal colonizing empire. Most empires throughout history weren't genocidal colonizing empires. > Modern borders would likely be much different if they had been. Modern borders are different due to them - from vietnam to hungary, from russia to india and everywhere in between.