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And yet it seems to me like the boundaries of Mongol conquest are the boundaries of what we call "the Western World" - and it outside Mongol rule where power ha
by ianbicking 11y ago
And yet it seems to me like the boundaries of Mongol conquest are the boundaries of what we call "the Western World" - and it outside Mongol rule where power has come to rest. Brutal modernization - what is described in the Khans' accomplishments - may indeed be flawed, even if we put aside (as historians so easily do) the lives and suffering of all those who lived through those times.
- x5n1 11y ago"The traditional European method of warfare of melee combat between knights ended in catastrophe when it was deployed against the Mongol forces as the Mongols were able to keep a distance and advance with superior numbers. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 29 says that "Employed against the Mongol invaders of Europe, knightly warfare failed even more disastrously for the Poles at the Battle of Legnica and the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Feudal Europe was saved from sharing the fate of China and Muscovy not by its tactical prowess but by the unexpected death of the Mongols' supreme ruler, Ögedei, and the subsequent eastward retreat of his armies."
- ianbicking 11y agoIndeed it is geography not merit that saved Europe, which makes me wonder if the Mongol invasion was a curse, not a benefit, unlike the implication of this excerpt.