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Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison for opposing South Africa's apartheid system. He faced harsh conditions meant to break his resolve, but Mandela refused to give up his efforts to achieve equality for all people.

Despite the terrible personal cost of imprisonment, Mandela continued to act as a leader and mobilized his fellow political prisoners. After he was released, Mandela helped negotiate an end to apartheid and became the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

This is the story of Nelson Mandela's journey from prisoner to president.

Why did Mandela go to prison?

Mandela went to prison because he opposed South Africa's apartheid laws.

Apartheid means "apartness" in the Afrikaans language. Apartheid laws separated South Africans into four different racial categories: "white/European," "black," "coloured (people of mixed race)," or "Indian/Asian." White people - 15 percent of the South African population - stood at the top of society, wielding power and wealth. Black South Africans - 80 percent of the population - were relegated to the very bottom.

Many South Africans defied apartheid. Tactics included civil disobedience campaigns, national strikes and boycotts. Nelson Mandela joined this struggle in the 1940s as a young lawyer. By the 1950s, he had become an important leader in the struggle against apartheid.

The South African government responded to demands for equality and freedom with repression and violence. They shot and killed unarmed demonstrators and detained and arrested many others.

Defiance of apartheid had started peacefully, but Mandela now believed that armed struggle was the only way forward. He and others formed an armed resistance group called Umkhonto weSizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), also known as MK. Mandela spent 17 months underground trying to gain support for the armed struggle, but was arrested in 1962. Then, in 1963, Mandela was put on trial for a number of charges. He and seven of his colleagues were sentenced to life in prison.

Robben Island Prison

Mandela and his compatriots were sent to a maximum security prison on Robben Island in 1964. There were no white prisoners on Robben Island. Mandela spent 18 of 27 years of imprisonment there, held with the other political prisoners who were kept in a separate section.

Political prisoners faced the worst conditions of all. Condemned to hard labour, Mandela and his fellow activists spent more than a decade breaking rocks in a lime quarry. Some prisoners were assaulted and tortured by guards.

Contact with the outside world was almost completely severed. When Mandela arrived on Robben Island, he was permitted one letter and one 30‐minute visit every six months. He was denied permission to attend the funeral of his mother, who passed away in 1968, and one of his sons, who died in a car accident in 1969. It would be 21 years before he could hold his wife, Winnie Mandela, again. His two young daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, had to wait until the age of 16 to see him.

Glass walls separated prisoners from visitors. They talked on phones as guards listened to every word. Letters were heavily censored, with words blacked out if they were not strictly personal. After prisoners found ways to read blackened content, censors began cutting out large portions of letters, reducing them to shreds.

The struggle continues

Despite their treatment, the prisoners on Robben Island continued to resist the apartheid regime in thousands of ways.

Mandela and other prisoners advocated for improved conditions and rights for all prisoners, regardless of race. In 1966, black prisoners secured the right to wear long pants instead of shorts. Eventually, prisoners were allowed to have a desk in their cells, and to read and study. They even planted a small garden.

Long road to freedom

Outside the walls of Mandela's prison, South Africans continued to resist the apartheid regime. In 1985, under increasing pressure, the government made an offer to release Mandela, on condition he renounce violence as a political tool. Mandela rejected the offer. His youngest daughter, Zindzi Mandela, read his response at a mass rally in Soweto:

Mandela was committed to achieving freedom for all South Africans, not just for himself. In 1986, he began to quietly reach out to the South African government to see if there was interest in negotiating an end to apartheid.

Four years later, on February 11, 1990, the most famous political prisoner in the world was released. He was 71 years old, but there was still work to do. Years of fraught negotiations followed the end of Mandela's imprisonment. Throughout this period, political violence and civil war threatened to engulf the country.

In 1993, South Africa adopted an interim constitution. This paved the way for the country's first democratic elections. That same year, the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Mandela and South African President F. W. de Klerk.

South Africa's first democratic elections were held in 1994. When all the ballots were counted, Nelson Mandela had become the country's first democratically elected president. Mandela would dedicate the remaining years of his life to transforming his country. He always acknowledged that there was still more to do - and that it was up to future generations to continue the struggle for freedom.

Explore stories of courage and hope

Suggested citation : Matthew McRae. "The story of Nelson Mandela." Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Published July 17, 2018. https://humanrights.ca/story/story-nelson-mandela

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Mandela spent 27 years in prison for opposing South Africa's apartheid system. He refused to give up his efforts to achieve equality for all people.

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Genghis Khan: the Mongol warlord who almost conquered the world

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Genghis Khan: the Mongol warlord who almost conquered the world

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The Jin weren't facing any old bunch of nomads, and the man commanding them wasn't any old leader. He was Genghis Khan. Over the next two decades, the Mongol ruler would forge a reputation as arguably the greatest military commander in history. And it was at the very heart of Wanyan Yongji's empire - in the streets of his magnificent capital, Beijing - that he would announce himself to the world.

By the time his Mongol army first attacked Beijing in 1214, tens of thousands of hapless Chinese men, women and children had already become acquainted with Genghis Khan's 'talents' as a brutal, destructive force. A few years earlier, he had launched a massive invasion of northwest China, pillaging, plundering and killing on an epic scale. Not even the Great Wall could stop him. Instead of attempting to assault it, he simply took his army around the side.

Building an empire

Now, having arrived at Beijing, Genghis Khan faced another wall, the one surrounding the city. It was 12 metres high, 10 miles long and bristling with defenders ready to rain down molten metals, crude oil, even excrement and poisons onto the Mongols. "I had trained my men to attack with the speed of the wind," Genghis Khan recalled. "Now they had to learn the guile of the wolf."

More like this

And so he waited... and waited, slowly strangling the Jin capital in a long siege. Thousands starved within the walls and the population resorted to cannibalism. And still Genghis Khan waited until, in early summer 1215, with the populace at breaking point, he ordered his men to storm the city.

Genghis Khan - the butt of a Chinese emperor's jokes and leader of two million illiterate nomads - brought the Jin to their knees

The walls were scaled, the defenders overcome, and what followed was utter annihilation. For one month, his army burned, plundered and raped with abandon. The city of the utmost sophistication, famed for its grand palaces and markets overflowing with silks and spices, had been reduced to a charnel house. A year later, visiting ambassadors reported that the streets of Beijing were "slippery with human fat". They also recorded that beyond the walls stood a mountain of bones.

Genghis Khan - the butt of a Chinese emperor's jokes and leader of two million illiterate nomads - had brought the Jin to their knees. That achievement in itself would have been enough to elevate him into the pantheon of great military commanders. But for Genghis Khan, it was just the start.

Over the course of the century, he and his successors built the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world, a 12-million-square-mile swathe of land that stretched from the Sea of Japan to the grasslands of Hungary in the heart of Europe. To put that into context, the Mongol Empire grew to four times the size of the one created by that other great conqueror, Alexander the Great, and twice the size of the Roman Empire. Some three billion of the seven billion people alive today live in countries that formed part of the Mongol Empire.

Yet perhaps more astonishing still is the story of the catalyst behind this extraordinary feat of empire-building.

Unlike Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar before him, Genghis Khan didn't fine-tune an already impressive military machine. He turned a rag-bag collection of tribes - with no permanent homes, precious few possessions and a long history of butchering one another - into an unstoppable juggernaut. And he did so from fraught beginnings.

Genghis Khan's rise to power

Genghis Khan didn't become Genghis Khan until well into his 40s. When he was born in c1162, the son of a tribal warrior chief, he was named Temujin. The Secret History of the Mongols, the oldest-surviving literary work in the Mongolian language, set down shortly after his death, tells us that he was born clutching a blood clot, a sign that he would be a brave warrior.

If Temujin was destined for greatness, there were few signs during his early years. At the age of eight or nine, his father was poisoned by a rival tribe, the Tatars, and he and his mother were rejected by their clan and forced out onto the grasslands of Mongolia, where they survived by foraging for berries, rats and birds. It was a humiliating, pitiful existence. "They left us with nothing," remembered Temujin. "We had no friends but our own shadows."

Being friendless in the cut-throat world of 13th-century Mongolia was not a good place to be. The young Temujin came to the realisation that his best chance of reversing his fortunes - and creating a powerbase for himself - lay in establishing alliances.

When he was just 16, he did exactly that by marrying a girl called Börte of the Olkhonud tribe. "Börte was mine and so was her tribe," was Temujin's triumphant, if far from romantic, verdict on the union. Yet on the violent, febrile Mongolian steppe, even getting married could spell trouble. No sooner had Temujin and Börte been wed than a rival tribe, the Merkit, ambushed Temujin and rode off with his bride.

Genghis Khan seen seated with his wife Börte; together, they had nine children. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ruler of the Mongols

Temujin was desperate to get revenge, but knew he couldn't do so on his own. "A man who seeks power needs friends with power," he would later write. So he sought to secure another alliance, this time with a formidable leader named Toghrul. Temujin won over Toghrul by reminding him that he had fought alongside his father, and sugar-coated the offer with a lavish sable coat. The gambit worked. With the aid of Toghrul's fighters, Temujin attacked the Merkit and won back his wife. "We destroyed their families and emptied their breasts," he said. By putting a powerful tribe to sword, Temujin's ascent to becoming the ultimate power in Mongolia had well and truly begun.

Someone, however, stood in his way, and it was one of his greatest friends. Temujin had been blood brothers with a fellow warrior named Jamukha, also the son of a Mongolian tribal leader, for a number of years. In fact, Jamukha had played an instrumental role in the defeat of the Merkit. Yet, as the two had grown older, cracks began to appear in their friendship. Jamukha had grown distrustful of Temujin's growing power - especially his penchant for meritocracy, promoting people on the basis of their talent rather than their breeding. Soon, his distrust morphed into outright war.

When Jamukha struck, it was with bloodthirsty ferocity. He defeated Temujin's fighters high on the plateau of central Mongolia, and then had Temujin's captured generals boiled alive. "The earth was soaked with the blood of my warriors," wrote Temujin. "Never again would I be defeated and my loyal warriors so dishonoured."

He was good to his word, and when his revenge came, it was total. Temujin's army fell on Jamukha's warriors in the summer of 1204, defeating them in a blizzard of arrows and cavalry charges. Then a few months later, Jamukha was captured. Rather than dish out a fate similar to what befell his generals, though, Temujin showed him mercy... up to a point. Jamukha asked for a noble death, which meant without the shedding of blood. His former friend granted him that, so had his back broken.

Genghis Khan relied heavily on spies and was certainly not above using fake news as a tactic

Temujin's victory helped make him the most powerful warrior on the Mongolian steppe. Two years later, he achieved something yet more remarkable, uniting Mongolia's warring tribes under one leader. Now he would go about turning them into a dynasty defeating fighting force, and he would do so under a new epithet: Genghis Khan, meaning 'universal ruler'.

Among the first people to feel the force of the newly united Mongol nation was the Western Xia of northwest China, who succumbed to a sustained Mongol invasion. In 1211, Genghis followed that by attacking the Jin, gobbling up land, cities and loot in a spectacular campaign that culminated in the fall of Beijing.

Why were the Mongols so successful?

What, other than Genghis Khan's military genius, made the Mongols so intimidating? At the heart of their success were their horse-mounted archers who, in the words of historian Frank McLynn, inspired "a quantum leap in military technology". Mongolians trained in archery and horsemanship from a young age - Genghis Khan probably learned how to fire an arrow from horseback by the age of about three - and mastered how to achieve maximum accuracy by releasing their arrows just as all of their horse's hooves left the ground.

Mongol archers during Genghis Khan's destruction of the west. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Mongolians were highly adept at communicating over large distances, something they had honed over centuries of rounding up animals on the steppe. This enabled them to slowly tighten the noose around the enemy.

Guile was another key weapon in the Mongol armoury. Genghis Khan relied heavily on spies and was certainly not above using fake news as a tactic. In one instance, he employed a campaign of disinformation to confirm one Muslim shah's suspicion that his subordinates were plotting against him. Genghis Khan was also a master of the feigned retreat, luring opponents out of defensive positions before delivering a lethal strike.

Genghis Khan was, it appears, entirely unrepentant for violence

Combine all this with his ability to quickly assimilate new technologies into his own army - such as Chinese siege weapons, mortars, gunpowder, not to mention thousands of captured troops - and you had a truly formidable foe.

And then, of course, there was terror. "Those who surrendered would be spared," Genghis Khan is reported as saying. "Those who did not surrender but opposed with struggle and dissension would be annihilated." It was no idle boast. Cities that put up a fight were routinely subjected to an orgy of destruction: their men butchered, women raped and buildings razed. As a strategy of war, the 'exemplary massacre' was utterly brutal, but as a means of dissuading resistance, it was chillingly effective. As many as 30 million people may have died during the Mongols' campaigns in China alone. Yet in terms of sheer barbarity, the worst was yet to come.

Having subdued the Western Xia and Jin to the east, Genghis Khan looked to establish trade links to his west. He sent emissaries into the Khwarezmid Empire (modern-day Afghanistan and Iraq). They carried - according to contemporary Persian historian Juzjani - the following message to their ruler, Ala ad-Din Muhammad: "I am master of the lands of the rising sun while you rule those of the setting sun. Let us conclude a firm treaty of friendship and peace." The response was emphatic. It was the head of one of Genghis Khan's ambassadors in a sack. When he learned of this grisly snub, he flew into a rage that would change the course of history. Within a matter of months, Genghis Khan had dispatched an army of 200,000 men to teach the shah a lesson that the people of central Asia wouldn't forget for generations.

Some of the most notorious of all Mongol atrocities were perpetrated during this campaign, visited upon the eastern outposts of Islam. The city of Gurganj in modern-day Turkmenistan felt the full brunt of Genghis Khan's fury. Muslim historians record that, after it succumbed to a five-month siege, 50,000 Mongol soldiers slaughtered ten men each.

Among their other victims was the oasis city of Merv (also Turkmenistan), whose libraries, constituting the greatest collection in central Asia, contained 150,000 volumes. By the time Genghis Khan's forces had finished, the city and its libraries lay in ruins, and each soldier in the 7,000-strong invading army was allotted around 300 people to kill. Most had their throats slit.

Genghis Khan was, it appears, entirely unrepentant for violence. "I am the punishment of God," was his defiant message. "If you had not committed great sins, God would not have inflicted a punishment such as me upon you."

By 1225, the Mongol campaign in central Asia was effectively over. Countless cities had been razed, millions lay dead and Genghis Khan now presided over an empire that extended west to the Caspian Sea.

Was he now prepared to rest on his laurels? To sit back and savour the spoils of victory? Not a bit of it. Mongol texts tells us that Genghis Khan genuinely believed that it was his destiny to conquer the world for his god, Tengri.

Whatever his motivation, within a year he was on the campaign trail again, leading an army back into China. But it was not to be. During 1227, he was taken ill and died only days later. His body was transported all the way back to Mongolia, where it was buried somewhere unknown near a sacred mountain. Its location remains a mystery to this day.

According to legend, Genghis Khan's last words to a few faithful followers were: "I have conquered for you a large empire. But my life was too short to take the whole world. That I leave to you." Whether he uttered these short sentences or not, his successors were more than happy to take up the challenge. Genghis Khan was dead, but as the people of Asia and Europe would learn to their cost over the next seven decades, the Mongols weren't done with conquest quite yet.

Mongols in Europe

Genghis Khan may have breathed his last in 1227, but his death didn't signal the peak of the Mongol Empire, or the end of their thirst for conquest. Far from it. Genghis Khan's son and successor, Ögodei Khan, had a lust for land and spoil every bit as insatiable as his father, and the people of eastern Europe would soon reap the consequences.

In the autumn of 1237, a Mongol army crossed the Middle Volga and fell upon the principalities of central Russia. Town after town was ransacked, including, in 1240, Kiev. "After they had besieged the city for a long time," reported the papal envoy Giovanni da Pian del Carpini, "they took it and put the inhabitants to death."

Then the Mongols surged into Poland and Hungary, the speed of their cavalry, the firing range of their archers and their well-honed siege methods overwhelming the defenders. By 1241, as shock troops raided the outskirts of Vienna, western Europe appeared to be at the mercy of the Mongols. But then, virtually overnight, they were gone. Ögodei had died suddenly and his armies had returned home to elect a new khan, never to return. Europe had got a spectacular break.
This article was first published in the November 2018 issue of BBC History Revealed magazine

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Genghis Khan: the Mongol warlord who almost conquered the world

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The Jin weren't facing any old bunch of nomads, and the man commanding them wasn't any old leader. He was Genghis Khan. Over the next two decades, the Mongol ruler would forge a reputation as arguably the greatest military commander in history.

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The Fearless Warrior's Story | Genghis Khan: Secret History of the Mongols

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The Fearless Warrior's Story | Genghis Khan: Secret History of the Mongols

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The Fearless Warrior's Story |  Genghis Khan: Secret History of the Mongols | National Geographic UK

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The legendary pharaoh is known for using her political savvy and considerable charm to gain power. But, in truth, there’s little we know for sure about her life.

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Born: c69 BC

Died: 30 BC

Cleopatra VII: Ancient Egypt's most famous daughter, and its last active Pharaoh. A woman immortalised in film, on canvas and in print. An enigmatic heroine to whom William Shakespeare devoted one of his greatest tragedies. Her story is one that has been retold throughout history - full of romance and love, riches and betrayal. But beneath the gold and glamour lies a far darker tale of sibling rivalry taken to the extreme, and a thirst for power that would change the course of history.

Born c69 BC, Cleopatra was the third of a possible six children, all of whom shared a common father, Ptolemy XII. The Ptolemaic dynasty, a Macedonian-Greek royal family that had ties to Alexander the Great, had ruled Egypt since 305 BC. Traditionally male rulers took the name Ptolemy, while Ptolemaic Queens were usually named Cleopatra, Arsinoë or Berenice.

How did Cleopatra become queen?

For Cleopatra, life as a royal daughter was one of luxury. The Egyptian capital Alexandria, the seat of Ptolemaic power, was a thriving cultural centre, attracting scholars, artists and philosophers from all over the world. It was also home to the great Pharos of Alexandria - the 137-metre-tall lighthouse that towered over the city and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Cleopatra's first taste of power came at the tender age of 14, when she was made co-regent with her father, following his restoration to the throne after three years in exile, albeit with limited powers. Ptolemy XII's return to the throne had cost Cleopatra's elder sister, Berenice - who had seized power in his absence - her life.

There may have been a further elder sister, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena, but she too had died by this point. All of this meant that it was 18-year-old Cleopatra who became co-regent with her brother, Ptolemy XIII (aged ten), when her father died in March 51 BC.

In true pharaonic tradition, which aimed to keep the royal bloodline as pure as possible, Cleopatra married her younger brother and co-ruler, but it soon became clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him. Within months, Ptolemy XIII's name had been dropped from official documents and Cleopatra's face appeared alone on coins.

Cleopatra is often portrayed by Hollywood as a glamorous femme fatale. Mary Hamer argues that most of what we think we know about Cleopatra is merely the echo of Roman propaganda. Here, she reveals six lesser-know facts about the Egyptian ruler...
Cleopatra made an ally of Julius Caesar, who helped to establish her on the throne

She then invited him to join her on a voyage up the Nile, and when she subsequently gave birth to a son, she named the baby Caesarion - 'little Caesar'.

In Rome this caused a scandal. This was, firstly, because Egypt and its pleasure-loving culture were despised as decadent. But it was also because Caesar had no other sons - though he was married to Calpurnia, and had had two wives before her - and he had just made himself the most powerful man in Rome. Elite Romans were meant to share power, but Caesar seemed to want to be supreme, like a monarch. It was a doubly unbearable prospect: Caesarion, an Egyptian, just might grow up to claim to rule over Rome as Caesar's heir.

Fantasies about Cleopatra's beauty are just that

Plutarch, the Greek biographer of Mark Antony, claimed it wasn't so much her looks that were so compelling, but her conversation and her intelligence.

Cleopatra took control of the way she appeared, coming across differently according to political need. For example, at ceremonial events she would appear dressed as the goddess Isis: it was common for Egyptian rulers to identify themselves with an established deity. On her coins minted in Egypt, meanwhile, she chose to be shown with her father's strong jaw line, to emphasise her inherited right to rule.

Sculptures don't give us much of a clue to her looks either: there are two or three heads in the classical style, but also a number of full-length statues in Egyptian style, and her appearance in these is quite different.

Cleopatra was living in Rome, as the mistress of Julius Caesar, at the time that he was assassinated

Caesar's assassination in 44 BC meant Cleopatra herself was in danger, so she left at once. With her little son, Caesarion, she had been living in a palace of her own on the other side of the river Tiber from Caesar's household (though it is likely she hadn't taken up permanent residence there, but returned on regular visits from Egypt).

Not surprisingly, Cleopatra had been much disliked in a city that had got rid of its kings, for she'd insisted on being addressed as 'queen'. It can't have helped that to honour her, Caesar had placed a statue of Cleopatra covered in gold in the temple of Venus Genetrix - the goddess who brings forth life, who was held in high regard by his family.

Cleopatra was a mother as well as the ruler of Egypt

She had Caesarion, her eldest son, represented on the temple wall at Dendera alongside her, as sharing her rule. After her death, the Roman emperor Augustus lured Caesarion back with promises of power, only to have him killed. He was aged 16 or 17, though some sources say he was as young as 14.

Mark Antony was the father of Cleopatra's other children, Ptolemy Philadelphus and the twins, Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios. The twins were aged 10 and Ptolemy six when their mother died. They were taken to Rome and treated well in the household of Mark Antony's widow, Octavia, where they were educated.

The adult Cleopatra Selene was married to Juba, a minor king, and sent to rule with him over Mauretania. She gave birth to another Ptolemy - Cleopatra's only known grandchild. He died in adulthood by order of his cousin, Caligula, so none of Cleopatra's descendants lived to inherit Egypt.

When we refer to the eighth month as 'August', we are celebrating the defeat and death of Cleopatra

Augustus founded his reign on the defeat of Cleopatra. When he had the chance to have a month named in his own honour, instead of choosing September - the month of his birth - he chose the eighth month, in which Cleopatra died, to create a yearly reminder of her defeat.

Augustus would have liked to lead Cleopatra as a captive through Rome, as other generals did with their prisoners, in the formal triumphs that celebrated their victories. But she killed herself to prevent that.

Cleopatra didn't die for love. Like Mark Antony, who killed himself because there was no longer a place of honour for him in the world, Cleopatra chose to die rather than suffer the violence of being paraded, shamed and helpless, through Rome. Augustus had to make do with an image of her that was carried through the streets instead.

Cleopatra's name was Greek, but it doesn't mean that she was
Mary Hamer is the author of Signs of Cleopatra: Reading an Icon Historically (Liverpool University Press, 2008)
Cleopatra's family was descended from the Macedonian general Ptolemy, who had picked up Egypt in the shareout after Alexander died. But 250 years then passed before Cleopatra was born - 12 generations, with all their love affairs and secret assignations.
51 BC | Ptolemy XII dies
Today we know that at least one child in 10 is not attributed to their correct biological father - "Momma's baby, Poppa's maybe", as they say. Egypt's population included people of many different ethnicities, and naturally that included Africans, since Egypt was a part of Africa. So it's not at all unlikely that long before Cleopatra was born, her Greek heritage had become mixed with other strains. And since the identity of her own grandmother is unknown, it is foolish to think that we're sure of her racial identity.
48 BC | Cleopatra seduces Julius Caesar
Cleopatra's reign: the key moments

Having recovered his throne with Roman help in c55 BC, Ptolemy XII dies, leaving Egypt with considerable debts. Before his death, he declares that Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII are to co-rule.
47 BC | Caesar's son is born
Desperate to enlist Rome's help to restore her to the throne, the banished Cleopatra smuggles herself into the presence of Julius Caesar, allegedly being delivered to him in a bed-sack.
41 BC | Cleopatra meets Mark Antony

Explore Cleopatra's relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony - and why they had such fundamental consequences for both Egypt and Rome...

40 BC | Cleopatra bears twins
Cleopatra gives birth to her first child, whom she names Ptolemy Caesar - known as Caesarion. Although named after his father, Caesarion's claim to Rome is never acknowledged by Julius Caesar.
37 BC | The lovers are married
After initially refusing Roman General Mark Antony's requests for a meeting, Cleopatra travels to Tarsus where the two meet for the first time. Antony is keen to secure Egypt's financial help with his military campaigns. He is immediately smitten with the Egyptian Queen's charm and beauty.
33 BC | A crisis looms
Cleopatra gives birth to twins, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, fathered by Mark Antony. After Cleopatra's surrender and suicide in 31 BC, the pair are captured by Octavian and paraded through Rome in gold chains, behind an effigy of their mother.

After separating from his wife Octavia (sister of Octavian), Antony meets Cleopatra in Syria and the pair are said to have married. A third child, Ptolemy Philadelphus, is born the following year.

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Who was Cleopatra? Her life, her love affairs and her children, plus 6 little-known facts

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Born: c69 BC Died: 30 BC Cleopatra VII: Ancient Egypt's most famous daughter, and its last active Pharaoh. A woman immortalised in film, on canvas and in print. An enigmatic heroine to whom William Shakespeare devoted one of his greatest tragedies.

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Fact #1: Tubman was born into slavery in Eastern Maryland sometime between 1820 and 1821.

Because of the cruelty of her various masters, she desired to somehow escape from bondage from a very early age, and free others as well. She would later recall, "I had seen their tears and sighs, and I had heard their groans, and would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them."

Fact #2: As a child, she received a severe head injury.

As she was doing errands, an overseer tried to stop a runaway slave by throwing a two-pound weight at him. He hit Tubman instead, who was standing nearby the runaway, and caused her skull to crack, which affected her health for the rest of her life, often in the form of seizures.

Fact #3: After escaping from slavery, she returned to Maryland in 1850 as an Underground Railroad "conductor."

She chose to do so after hearing her niece was soon to be auctioned off. She would go on to rescue over 70 other slaves until the outbreak of the Civil War, and did not fail a single rescue. It was during this time she acquired her nickname "Moses."

Fact #4: She employed numerous disguises on her first successful attempt to escape from slavery.

She often would pretend to be a field hand by walking around with chickens, or as a house-servant when she stayed at the home of an abolitionist couple. One notable disguise she used was pretending to read a newspaper to allay suspicion, as she was known to be illiterate. She employed spirituals and songs as coded messages to her followers.

Fact #5: Tubman joined the Union army as a nurse, but also acted as a scout and spy behind enemy lines.

Despite her efforts and general fame, she was only able to acquire a nurse's pension after the war ended.

Fact #6: One of the most famous missions she took part in was the raid on Combahee Ferry in South Carolina.

During this raid, she worked with Union Colonel James Montgomery to free over 700 slaves at once.

Fact #7: At one point after the war, her financial situation became so dire, she fell prey to a gold smuggling con.

The incident and cause surrounding it provoked outrage and many of her friends and acquaintances rallied to support her in response.

Fact #8: Like many other high-profile women of her time, she became heavily involved with promoting women's suffrage with figures like Susan B. Anthony.

Though it may have sunk her further into poverty, she frequently traveled to give speeches on the topic in Washington D.C. and New York City.

Fact #9: She underwent brain surgery in the 1890's to alleviate the headaches she had suffered for most of her life.

Inspired by soldiers she had seen going through surgery during the war, she refused anesthesia for the operation.

Fact #10: Tubman died in the Home for the Aged she herself had founded.

Harriet Tubman died on March 10, 1913 at the rest home named in her honor in Auburn, New York. She was buried with military honors in the Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, which also included such figures as Secretary of State William Seward.

Learn More: Harriet Tubman

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Fact #1: Tubman was born into slavery in Eastern Maryland sometime between 1820 and 1821. Because of the cruelty of her various masters, she desired to somehow escape from bondage from a very early age, and free others as well.

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Harriet Tubman cautiously watched the shore from one of three gunboats on the Combahee River. She and several hundred Union soldiers were preparing a raid to free hundreds of enslaved people from plantations in South Carolina, part of the Confederate states that were fighting against the Union during the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. Enemy soldiers were hiding nearby-success was far from guaranteed.

Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a "conductor" in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped enslaved people to freedom in the North. But the former enslaved woman also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help on the Underground Railroad. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies-even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.

A SECRET MISSION

The Civil War was a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing. Tubman did jobs like that, but as a spy she worked side-by-side with men, says Tom Allen, author of the Nat Geo book Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.

In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free enslaved people from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced "KUM-bee") River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Tubman set out on their mission.

Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.

As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South's most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges so they couldn't be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 enslaved people-men, women, children, and babies-and did not lose one soldier in the attack.

A WRITER'S QUEST

To gather the facts, Allen searched libraries and the internet, and even walked in Tubman's footsteps. "I went on the river just south of the area where the raid took place," he says. "You're in that kind of country she would have known, with plenty of mosquitoes and snakes, and dirt roads are still there today-so you get a feeling of what it was like."

Allen says his most exciting moment came when a librarian led him to written accounts by people who actually saw Tubman and the raiders in action.

"She was five feet two inches (157 centimeters) tall, born a slave, had a debilitating illness, and was unable to read or write. Yet here was this tough woman who could take charge and lead men," Allen says. "I got to like her pretty quickly because of her strength and her spirit."

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You might know her as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She was also a spy.

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Biography of Nelson Mandela

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo, in the Eastern Cape, on 18 July 1918. His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. In 1930, when he was 12 years old, his father died and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni ¹.

Hearing the elders' stories of his ancestors' valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.

He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all schoolchildren "Christian" names.

He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he matriculated.

Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn't return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, he was introduced to Lazer Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys - Witkin, Eidelman and Sidelsky.

He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

Meanwhile, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also did not complete that degree.

In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.

Entering politics

Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu's cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile "Thembi" and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. He and his wife divorced in 1958.

Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action, in 1949.

In 1952 he was chosen as the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. This campaign of civil disobedience against six unjust laws was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months of hard labour, suspended for two years.

A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Mandela to practise law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa's first black-owned law firm in the 1950s, Mandela & Tambo. ²

At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted person he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.

The Treason Trial

Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1956, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.

On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country's first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8 April. Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency.

During the trial Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela, on 14 June 1958. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.

Days before the end of the Treason Trial, Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. After he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March.

In the face of massive mobilisation of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on 16 December 1961 with a series of explosions.

On 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Mandela secretly left South Africa. He travelled around Africa and visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal, where he had briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.

He was charged with leaving the country without a permit and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, which he began serving at the Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided Liliesleaf, a secret hideout in Rivonia, Johannesburg, used by ANC and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were arrested.

On 9 October 1963 Mandela joined 10 others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous "Speech from the Dock" on 20 April 1964 became immortalised:

" I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. "
Speech from the Dock quote by Nelson Mandela on 20 April 1964

On 11 June 1964 Mandela and seven other accused, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, were convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white, while the others went to Robben Island.

Mandela's mother died in 1968 and his eldest son, Thembi, in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

On 31 March 1982 Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in October. When he returned to the prison in November 1985 after prostate surgery, Mandela was held alone. Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him in hospital. Later Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting between the apartheid government and the ANC.

Release from prison

On 12 August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After more than three months in two hospitals he was transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he spent his last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released from its gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the release of his remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.

Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.

President

On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated as South Africa's first democratically elected President. On his 80 th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.

True to his promise, Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

In April 2007 his grandson, Mandla Mandela, was installed as head of the Mvezo Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.

Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life is an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

1. Nelson Mandela's father died in 1930 when Mandela was 12 and his mother died in 1968 when he was in prison. While the autobiography Long Walk to Freedom says his father died when he was nine, historical evidence shows it must have been later, most likely 1930. In fact, the original Long Walk to Freedom manuscript (written on Robben Island) states the year as 1930, when he was 12. 2. have established that there were at least 2 other black owned law firms before Mandela and Tambo.

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Biography of Nelson Mandela - Nelson Mandela Foundation

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We are a non-profit organisation focused on dialogue and advocacy, and memory and legacy work, founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999.

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Simon Bolivar (July 24, 1783-December 17, 1830) was the greatest leader of Latin America's independence movement from Spain. A superb general and a charismatic politician, he not only drove the Spanish from northern South America but also was instrumental in the early formative years of the republics that sprang up once the Spanish had gone. His later years are marked by the collapse of his grand dream of a united South America. He is remembered as "The Liberator," the man who liberated his home from Spanish rule.

Fast Facts: Simon Bolivar

Bolivar was born in Caracas (present-day Venezuela) in 1783 to an extremely wealthy "creole" family (Latin Americans descended almost entirely from European Spaniards). At that time, a handful of families owned most of the land in Venezuela, and the Bolivar family was among the wealthiest in the colony. Both of his parents died while Simon was still young: he had no memory of his father, Juan Vicente, and his mother Concepcion Palacios died when he was 9 years old.

Orphaned, Simon went to live with his grandfather and was raised by his uncles and his nurse Hipólita, for whom he had great affection. Young Simon was an arrogant, hyperactive lad who often had disagreements with his tutors. He was schooled at the finest schools that Caracas had to offer. From 1804 to 1807 he went to Europe, where he toured around in the manner of a wealthy New World Creole.

Personal Life

Bolívar was a natural leader and a man of great energy. He was very competitive, often challenging his officers to contests of swimming or horsemanship (and usually winning). He could stay up all night playing cards or drinking and singing with his men, who were fanatically loyal to him.

Bolivar married once early in life, but his wife died shortly thereafter. From that point forward, he was a notorious womanizer who had dozens, if not hundreds, of lovers over the years. He cared greatly for appearances and loved nothing more than making grand entrances into cities he had liberated and could spend hours grooming himself; in fact, some claim he could use a whole bottle of cologne in one day.

Venezuela: Ripe for Independence

When Bolívar returned to Venezuela in 1807, he found a population divided between loyalty to Spain and a desire for independence. Venezuelan general Francisco de Miranda had attempted to kick-start independence in 1806 with an aborted invasion of Venezuela's northern coast. When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808 and imprisoned King Ferdinand VII, many Venezuelans felt that they no longer owed allegiance to Spain, giving the independence movement undeniable momentum.

The First Venezuelan Republic

On April 19, 1810, the people of Caracas declared provisional independence from Spain: they were still nominally loyal to King Ferdinand, but would rule Venezuela by themselves until such a time as Spain was back on its feet and Ferdinand restored. Young Simón Bolívar was an important voice during this time, advocating for full independence. Along with a small delegation, Bolívar was dispatched to England to seek the support of the British government. There he met Miranda and invited him back to Venezuela to participate in the government of the young republic.

When Bolivar returned, he found civil strife between patriots and royalists. On July 5, 1811, the First Venezuelan Republic voted for full independence, dropping the farce that they were still loyal to Ferdinand VII. On March 26, 1812, a tremendous earthquake rocked Venezuela. It hit mostly rebellious cities, and Spanish priests were able to convince a superstitious population that the earthquake was divine retribution. Royalist Captain Domingo Monteverde rallied the Spanish and royalist forces and captured important ports and the city of Valencia. Miranda sued for peace. Disgusted, Bolívar arrested Miranda and turned him over to the Spanish, but the First Republic had fallen and the Spanish regained control of Venezuela.

The Admirable Campaign

Bolivar was defeated and went into exile. In late 1812, he went to New Granada (now Colombia) to look for a commission as an officer in the growing Independence movement there. He was given 200 men and control of a remote outpost. He aggressively attacked all Spanish forces in the area, and his prestige and army grew. By the beginning of 1813, he was ready to lead a sizeable army into Venezuela. The royalists in Venezuela could not beat him head-on but rather tried to surround him with a number of smaller armies. Bolívar did what everyone least expected and made a mad dash for Caracas. The gamble paid off, and on August 7, 1813, Bolivar rode victoriously into Caracas at the head of his army. This dazzling march became known as the Admirable Campaign.

The Second Venezuelan Republic

Bolívar quickly established the Second Venezuelan Republic. The grateful people named him Liberator and made him dictator of the new nation. Although Bolivar had outfoxed the Spanish, he had not beaten their armies. He did not have time to govern, as he was constantly battling royalist forces. At the beginning of 1814, the "infernal Legion," an army of savage Plainsmen led by a cruel but charismatic Spaniard named Tomas Boves, began assaulting the young republic. Defeated by Boves at the second Battle of La Puerta in June of 1814, Bolívar was forced to abandon first Valencia and then Caracas, thus ending the Second Republic. Bolívar went into exile once again.

1814 to 1819

The years of 1814 to 1819 were tough ones for Bolívar and South America. In 1815, he penned his famous Letter from Jamaica, which outlined the struggles of Independence to date. Widely disseminated, the letter reinforced his position as the most important leader of the Independence movement.

When he returned to the mainland, he found Venezuela in the grip of chaos. Pro-independence leaders and royalist forces fought up and down the land, devastating the countryside. This period was marked by much strife among the different generals fighting for independence. It wasn't until Bolivar made an example of General Manuel Piar by executing him in October of 1817 that he was able to bring other Patriot warlords such as Santiago Mariño and José Antonio Páez into line.

1819: Bolivar Crosses the Andes

In early 1819, Venezuela was devastated, its cities in ruins, as royalists and patriots fought vicious battles wherever they met. Bolívar found himself pinned against the Andes in western Venezuela. He then realized that he was less than 300 miles away from the Viceregal capital of Bogota, which was practically undefended. If he could capture it, he could destroy the Spanish base of power in northern South America. The only problem: between him and Bogota were not only flooded plains, fetid swamps and raging rivers but the mighty, snow-capped peaks of the Andes Mountains.

In May of 1819, he began the crossing with some 2,400 men. They crossed the Andes at the frigid Páramo de Pisba pass and on July 6, 1819, they finally reached the New Granadan village of Socha. His army was in tatters: some estimate that 2,000 may have perished en route.

The Battle of Boyaca

Despite his losses, in the summer of 1819 Bolivar had his army where he needed it. He also had the element of surprise. His enemies assumed he would never be so insane as to cross the Andes where he did. He quickly recruited new soldiers from a population eager for liberty and set out for Bogota. There was only one army between him and his objective, and on August 7, 1819, Bolivar surprised Spanish General José María Barreiro on the banks of the Boyaca River. The battle was a triumph for Bolivar, shocking in its results: Bolívar lost 13 killed and some 50 were wounded, whereas 200 royalists were killed and some 1,600 were captured. On August 10, Bolivar marched into Bogota unopposed.

Mopping up in Venezuela and New Granada

With the defeat of Barreiro's army, Bolívar held New Granada. With captured funds and weapons and recruits flocking to his banner, it was only a matter of time before the remaining Spanish forces in New Granada and Venezuela were run down and defeated. On June 24, 1821, Bolívar crushed the last major royalist force in Venezuela at the decisive Battle of Carabobo. Bolívar brashly declared the birth of a New Republic: Gran Colombia, which would include the lands of Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador. He was named president and Francisco de Paula Santander was named vice president. Northern South America was liberated, so Bolivar turned his gaze to the south.

The Liberation of Ecuador

Bolívar was bogged down by political duties, so he sent an army south under the command of his best general, Antonio José de Sucre. Sucre's army moved into present-day Ecuador, liberating towns and cities as it went. On May 24, 1822, Sucre squared off against the largest royalist force in Ecuador. They fought on the muddy slopes of Pichincha Volcano, within sight of Quito. The Battle of Pichincha was a great victory for Sucre and the Patriots, who forever drove the Spanish from Ecuador.

The Liberation of Peru and the Creation of Bolivia

Bolívar left Santander in charge of Gran Colombia and headed south to meet up with Sucre. On July 26-27, Bolivar met with José de San Martín, liberator of Argentina, in Guayaquil. It was decided there that Bolívar would lead the charge into Peru, the last royalist stronghold on the continent. On August 6, 1824, Bolivar and Sucre defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Junin. On December 9, Sucre dealt the royalists another harsh blow at the Battle of Ayacucho, basically destroying the last royalist army in Peru. The next year, also on August 6, the Congress of Upper Peru created the nation of Bolivia, naming it after Bolivar and confirming him as president.

Bolívar had driven the Spanish out of northern and western South America and now ruled over the present-day nations of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama. It was his dream to unite them all, creating one unified nation. It was not to be.

Dissolution of Gran Colombia

Santander had angered Bolivar by refusing to send troops and supplies during the liberation of Ecuador and Peru, and Bolivar dismissed him when he returned to Gran Colombia. By then, however, the republic was beginning to fall apart. Regional leaders had been consolidating their power in Bolivar's absence. In Venezuela, José Antonio Páez, a hero of Independence, constantly threatened secession. In Colombia, Santander still had his followers who felt that he was the best man to lead the nation. In Ecuador, Juan José Flores was trying to pry the nation away from Gran Colombia.

Bolívar was forced to seize power and accept dictatorship to control the unwieldy republic. The nations were divided among his supporters and his detractors: in the streets, people burned him in effigy as a tyrant. A civil war was a constant threat. His enemies tried to assassinate him on September 25, 1828, and nearly managed to do so: only the intervention of his lover, Manuela Saenz, saved him.

Death of Simon Bolivar

As the Republic of Gran Colombia fell around him, his health deteriorated as his tuberculosis worsened. In April of 1830, Bolívar was disillusioned, ill, and bitter, and he resigned the presidency and set off to go into exile in Europe. Even as he left, his successors fought over the pieces of his empire and his allies fought to get him reinstated. As he and his entourage slowly made their way to the coast, he still dreamed of unifying South America into one great nation. It was not to be: he finally succumbed to tuberculosis on December 17, 1830.

The Legacy of Simon Bolivar

It is impossible to overstate Bolívar's importance in northern and western South America. Although the eventual independence of Spain's New World colonies was inevitable, it took a man with Bolívar's skills to make it happen. Bolívar was probably the best general South America has ever produced, as well as the most influential politician. The combination of these skills on one man is extraordinary, and Bolívar is rightly considered by many as the most important figure in Latin American history. His name made the famous 1978 list of the 100 most famous people in history, compiled by Michael H. Hart. Other names on the list include Jesus Christ, Confucius, and Alexander the Great.

Some nations had their own liberators, such as Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile or Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico. These men may be little known outside of the nations they helped free, but Simón Bolívar is known all over Latin America with the sort of reverence that citizens of the United States associated with George Washington.

If anything, Bolívar's status now is greater than ever. His dreams and words have proved prescient time and again. He knew that the future of Latin America lay in freedom and he knew how to attain it. He predicted that if Gran Colombia fell apart and that if smaller, weaker republics were allowed to form from the ashes of the Spanish colonial system, the region would always be at an international disadvantage. This has certainly proven to be the case, and many a Latin American over the years has wondered how things would be different today if Bolívar had managed to unite all of northern and western South America into one large, powerful nation instead of the bickering republics that we have now.

Bolívar still serves as a source of inspiration for many. Former Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez initiated what he called a "Bolivarian Revolution" in his country in 1999, comparing himself to the legendary general as he tried to veer Venezuela into socialism. Countless books and movies have been made about him: one outstanding example is Gabriel García Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth, which chronicles Bolívar's final journey.

Harvey, Robert. Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2000.

Lynch, John. The Spanish American Revolutions 1808-1826 New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986.

Lynch, John. . New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006.

Scheina, Robert L. Latin America's Wars, Volume 1: The Age of the Caudillo 1791-1899 Washington, D.C.: Brassey's Inc., 2003.

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Biography of Simon Bolivar, 'Liberator of South America'

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Venezuelan Simon Bolivar was the most important leader of South America's Independence movement. Learn about the life and times of the Liberator.

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On July 24, 1783, Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Today, the day is celebrated as Simon Bolivar Day throughout Latin America.

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Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, World History

On July 24, 1783, Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, in what is now Venezuela. Bolivar became the most powerful leader in South America, nicknamed "El Libertador" (the liberator) for helping nations become independent from Spain. Today, July 24 is celebrated as Simon Bolivar Day throughout Latin America. Bolivar was inspired by the American Revolutionary War. He admired George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and even sent his nephew to the University of Virginia. However, unlike the "Founding Fathers," Bolivar rejected slavery and called for its abolition in the Americas. Bolivar hoped to unite all South American countries into one nation. He did not succeed in this plan. Instead, his leadership helped establish what are now the nations of Colombia, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Both Bolivia and Venezuela (officially, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) are named after Bolivar, as are the currencies of both nations (the Bolivian boliviano and the Venezuelan bolivar).

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On July 24, 1783, Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Today, the day is celebrated as Simon Bolivar Day throughout Latin America.

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The only daughter of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi was destined for politics. First appointed prime minister in 1966, she garnered widespread

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Indira Gandhi was a prominent Indian politician and the first and only female Prime Minister of India. Born in Allahabad in 1917 to Jawaharlal Nehru, a key figure in India’s independence movement, and Kamala Nehru, she experienced a childhood marked by political activism and personal loss. Her education, which included time in England, was shaped by her family’s political legacy and her father’s influence, leading her to become actively involved in politics. After her father’s death in 1964, she rose to prominence within the Indian National Congress Party and became Prime Minister in 1966. Gandhi’s leadership was characterized by her strong resolve and efforts to maintain political balance in a diverse society. She launched significant reforms aimed at alleviating poverty and enhancing economic conditions, such as her famous “Remove Poverty” campaign. However, her tenure was also marked by challenges, including a controversial state of emergency declared in 1975, which granted her extraordinary powers amidst political unrest. Despite facing political defeat in 1977, she returned to power in 1980, only to encounter escalating tensions, particularly with Sikh militants. Gandhi’s life ended tragically in 1984 when she was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, yet she remains a complex and influential figure in Indian history, revered by many for her courage and commitment to her nation.

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Clara Campoamor Rodríguez - Unlearned Lessons

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Genghis Khan (ca. 1162-1227) and the Mongols are invariably associated with terrible tales of conquest, destruction, and bloodshed. This famed clan leader and his immediate successors created the largest empire ever to exist, spanning the entire Asian continent from the Pacific Ocean to modern-day Hungary in Europe. Such an empire could not have been shaped without visionary leadership, superior organizational skills, the swiftest and most resilient cavalry ever known, an army of superb archers (the "devil's horsemen" in Western sources), the existence of politically weakened states across Asia, and, of course, havoc and devastation.

Yet, the legacy of Genghis Khan, his sons, and grandsons is also one of cultural development, artistic achievement, a courtly way of life, and an entire continent united under the so-called Pax Mongolica ("Mongolian Peace"). Few people realize that the Yuan dynasty in China (1271-1368) is part of Genghis Khan's legacy through its founder, his grandson Khubilai Khan (r. 1260-95). The Mongol empire was at its largest two generations after Genghis Khan and was divided into four main branches, the Yuan (empire of the Great Khan) being the central and most important. The other Mongol states were the Chagatai khanate in Central Asia (ca. 1227-1363), the Golden Horde in southern Russia extending into Europe (ca. 1227-1502), and the Ilkhanid dynasty in Greater Iran (1256-1353).

The Mongols were remarkably quick in transforming themselves from a purely nomadic tribal people into rulers of cities and states and in learning how to administer their vast empire. They readily adopted the system of administration of the conquered states, placing a handful of Mongols in the top positions but allowing former local officials to run everyday affairs. This clever system allowed them to control each city and province but also to be in touch with the population through their administrators. The seat of the Great Khanate in Dadu (Beijing) was the center of the empire, with all its pomp and ceremony, whereas the three semi-independent Central and western Asian domains of the Chagatai, the Golden Horde, and the Ilkhanids were connected through an intricate network that crisscrossed the continent. Horses, once a reliable instrument of war and conquest, now made swift communication possible, carrying written messages through a relay system of stations. A letter sent by the emperor in Beijing and carried by an envoy wearing his paiza, or passport, could reach the Ilkhanid capital Tabriz, some 5,000 miles away, in about a month.

The political unification of Asia under the Mongols resulted in active trade and the transfer and resettlement of artists and craftsmen along the main routes. New influences were thus integrated with established local artistic traditions. By the middle of the thirteenth century, the Mongols had formed the largest contiguous empire in the world, uniting Chinese, Islamic, Iranian, Central Asian, and nomadic cultures within an overarching Mongol sensibility.

Genghis Khan's grandson Hülegü (died 1265) subdued Iran in 1256 and conquered Baghdad, the capital of the 'Abbasid caliphate, in 1258. Hülegü's dynasty-the Ilkhanids, or Lesser Khans-ruled this area, called Greater Iran, until about 1353. After their rapid gain of power in the Muslim world, the Mongol Ilkhanids nominally reported to the Great Khan of the Yuan dynasty in China, and in the process imported Chinese models to better define their tastes. However, the new rulers were greatly impressed by the long-established traditions of Iran, with its prosperous urban centers and thriving economy, and they quickly assimilated the local culture. The Mongol influence on Iranian and Islamic culture gave birth to an extraordinary period in Islamic art that combined well-established traditions with the new visual language transmitted from eastern Asia.

Stefano Carboni
Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Qamar Adamjee
Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2003

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The Legacy of Genghis Khan | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Genghis Khan (ca. 1162-1227) and the Mongols are invariably associated with terrible tales of conquest, destruction, and bloodshed. This famed clan leader and his immediate successors created the largest empire ever to exist, spanning the entire Asian continent from the Pacific Ocean to modern-day Hungary in Europe.

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Who was Genghis Khan, the warrior who founded the Mongol Empire?

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Who was Genghis Khan, the warrior who founded the Mongol Empire?

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(Image credit: heckepics via Getty Images)

Genghis Khan was a 13th-century warrior in central Asia who founded the Mongol Empire, which stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Europe.

Much about Genghis Khan remains unknown. For instance, we don't really know what he looked like, because not a single authentic portrait of the man survives to the present day, Jean-Paul Roux (opens in new tab), who was a professor emeritus at the Ecole du Louvre, wrote in his book "Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (opens in new tab)" (Thames & Hudson 2003). All images of him that exist today were created after his death or by people who never met him.

Additionally, until Genghis Khan gained control over the Uyghur people, the Mongolians did not have a writing system. As such, many surviving records of him were written by foreigners. One important Mongolian record, called "The Secret History of the Mongols," was written anonymously (as its name suggests) sometime after Genghis Khan's death.

When did Genghis Khan live?

From what modern-day historians can gather, Genghis Khan was born sometime around A.D. 1160 (the exact year is uncertain) and died in August 1227, possibly of bubonic plague, while waging a campaign against the Tangut people.

Genghis Khan was born with the name Temüjin (also spelled Temuchin). At the time, Mongolia was not unified and was ruled by different clans and tribal groups. His father, named Yesüge (also spelled Yesükai), "was lord and leader of 40,000 tents or families. Even his brothers, including those senior to him, acknowledged him as their leader and head of the Borjigin clan," Syed Anwarul Haque Haqqi, who was a professor at Aligarh Muslim University in India, wrote in his book "Chingiz Khan: The Life and Legacy of an Empire Builder (opens in new tab)" (Primus Books, 2010).

Temüjin's mother, Hoelun, had been captured by his father's clan and forced to become Yesügei's wife (a common practice in Mongolia at the time). Their son was named Temüjin to celebrate his father's triumph over an enemy who was also called Temüjin, Haqqi wrote, noting that it was common to name a newborn child after an auspicious event.

We know little of Temüjin's early life, "but it is reasonable to suppose that as the years rolled by and childhood turned into youth [he] was brought up in the hard and harsh atmosphere of nomadic life, in which the tribal lords and chiefs fought, drank, and duelled, married and slept with their weapons underneath them - a rigorous life in which chiefs shared the miseries, hungers and privations of their people," Haqqi wrote.

Around age 9, Temüjin was betrothed to Börte, the 10-year-old daughter of Dai Sechen, the leader of the Jungirat tribe (there are different spellings of these names). At some point, Temüjin's father died (apparently poisoned), and the family's power faded as many of his father's followers deserted them.

Temüjin, his family and their remaining followers were forced to eke out a living on marginal pasturelands, contending with thieves and old rivals of Yesügei hoping to kill his family. Around age 14, Temüjin murdered his half brother Bekter according to "The Secret History of the Mongols." This may have arisen from a dispute over resources. After a few years, Temüjin was able to marry Börte, and she became the most prominent of his multiple wives.

Genghis Khan's army and empire

Around 1200, Temüjin and his friend Toghrul launched a campaign against the Tatars, a group that lived in parts of what are now Mongolia and China, and whom they defeated in 1202. The two would later have a falling out, and Toghrul was killed after Temüjin defeated his forces.

By 1206, Temüjin had conquered most of Mongolia, and the remaining tribes were forced to acknowledge him as their leader. He took the name Genghis Khan, which has a few different translations, one of which is "oceanic sovereign," Roux wrote.

Genghis Khan then launched a successful campaign against the Jin dynasty, taking northern China. Historical records indicate that by 1234, the population of northern China had dropped by two-thirds due to war, Jinping Wang (opens in new tab), an associate professor of history at the National University of Singapore, wrote in her book "In the Wake of the Mongols: The Making of a New Social Order in North China, 1200-1600 (opens in new tab)" (Harvard University Asia Center, 2018).

He then turned his attention westward, moving deeper into central Asia. In 1219, Genghis Khan launched a successful campaign against the shah of Khwarezm (based in modern-day Iran), whose kingdom was suffering from internal disputes, David Morgan (opens in new tab), who was a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in a paper published in the book "The Coming of the Mongols (opens in new tab)" (London Middle East Institute, 2018). Genghis Khan's campaigns caused so much death and destruction that there was a in global carbon dioxide emissions.

The use of cavalry and the composite bow were important, as they provided the Mongols with excellent mobility Timothy May (opens in new tab), professor of central Eurasian history at the University of North Georgia, wrote in his book "The Mongols (opens in new tab)" (Arc Humanities Press, 2019). Research indicates that Mongolia's climate was wetter than normal, allowing for more grass to grow and thus more horses to graze.

As Genghis Khan took over more land, he made innovations in the form of government and organization. "Once he had conquered territories beyond Mongolia, he instituted a more sophisticated administrative structure and a regular system of taxation," Morris Rossabi (opens in new tab), an associate adjunct professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University, wrote in a section of the book "Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (opens in new tab)" (University of Washington Press, 2009). "Recruiting captured Turks, Chinese and others, he began to devise a more stable system that could contribute to a more orderly government, with specialized official positions."

He devised a system of laws and regulations. "In accordance and agreement with his own mind he established a rule for every occasion and a regulation for every circumstance; while for every crime he fixed a penalty," the writer Ata-Malik Juvayni, who lived in the 13th century, wrote in his book "History of the World Conqueror (opens in new tab)" (translated by John Andrew Boyle in 1958).

Genghis Khan said that plunder from his campaigns must be shared among his troops and insisted they follow a vigorous training routine focused on hunting. This was "not for the sake of the game alone, but also in order that they may become accustomed and inured to hunting and familiarized with the handling of the bow and the endurance of hardships," Juvayni wrote.

He ordered his troops not to harm artisans and to leave clerics alone, respecting people of other faiths. Genghis Khan himself followed a system of beliefs that revolved around Mongolian shamanism, according to historical records.

Genghis Khan's death

Genghis Khan died in 1227, amid a campaign against the Tangut people. His tomb has never been found, and texts written during his lifetime are virtually silent about its location.

After Genghis Khan's death, his son Ogedai (also spelled Ögedei or Ögodei) ruled over the Mongols until he died in 1241. Ultimately, the Mongol Empire did not remain unified, falling into civil war after the death of Möngke Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, in 1259.

Additional resources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has an (opens in new tab) that looks at the legacy of Genghis Khan. The National Palace Museum in Taiwan has (opens in new tab) portraits showing Genghis Khan and his descendants. But these paintings were completed after Genghis Khan's death and may not reflect how he looked in life. An attempt was made to find the tomb of Genghis Khan through satellite survey. It was unsuccessful but its results were published in an article in the journal (opens in new tab).

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Who was Genghis Khan, the warrior who founded the Mongol Empire?

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(Image credit: heckepics via Getty Images) Genghis Khan was a 13th-century warrior in central Asia who founded the Mongol Empire , which stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Europe. Much about Genghis Khan remains unknown.

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Genghis Khan: Monster or Visionary? - Ushna Khan - Youlin Magazine

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Dschingis Khan: Vom versklavten Kind zum Mongolenherrscher

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Dschingis Khan: Vom versklavten Kind zum Mongolenherrscher

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Dschingis Khan: Vom versklavten Kind zum Mongolenherrscher

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Portrait de Gengis Khan - Musée du Palais. Pékin

PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Musée du Palais. Pékin

Au début du 13e siècle, l'armée de Gengis Khan a été l'acteur principal de l'une des plus importantes expansions militaires de l'Histoire. En une vingtaine d'années, les Mongols conquirent une partie du nord de la Chine, alors dominée par le royaume des Xixia et l'Empire djurtchet, et anéantirent l'Empire musulman de Khwarezm en Asie centrale.

Une progression par les armes que poursuivirent les successeurs du conquérant mongol, dont les troupes menacèrent en quelques années des pays aussi lointains que la Hongrie, l'Égypte et le Japon. Cette fulgurante expansion semble, à première vue, difficile à expliquer. Certes, les bergers nomades étaient de formidables guerriers, que leur mode de vie avait transformés en remarquables cavaliers et archers, et qu'un climat très rigoureux avait aguerris contre les longues privations de la vie militaire.

Mais aucun de leurs prédécesseurs venus des steppes, peuples nomades et guerriers, n'avait rencontré un succès un tant soit peu égal au leur. Les armées de Gengis Khan ne bénéficiaient d'aucune technologie supérieure à celle de leurs prédécesseurs. Leur arme principale, l'arc composite, ne présentait que peu de différences avec celui utilisé par les Scythes 2 000 ans auparavant.

La structure de l'armée mongole, divisée en unités de 10, 100, 1 000 et 10 000 hommes, n'était pas non plus une nouveauté puisque de nombreuses tribus nomades étaient organisées ainsi depuis que les Xiongnu, fondateurs du premier empire de Mongolie, avaient introduit ce système au 3e siècle av. J.-C. C'est la personnalité de Gengis Khan qui est la clef permettant de comprendre une telle réussite. Il fut en effet l'un des meilleurs généraux de son époque et est à juste titre considéré comme l'un des plus grands chefs militaires de l'Histoire.

Les faits d'armes de Gengis Khan sont impressionnants. Il tient à son actif de nombreuses batailles rangées qui se sont soldées par de mémorables victoires, contre le royaume des Xixia à Keyimen (1209), contre les Djurtchet à Fuzhou (1211), à Xinjiang (1212) et à Yizhou (1213), et contre les Khorezmiens dans l'Indus (1221). Au cours de ces mêmes années, plusieurs armées mongoles commandées par de talentueux lieutenants, surnommés les " quatre chiens féroces " (Djebé, Djelmé, Subötaï et Qubilai), infligèrent également à ces ennemis pas moins d'une demi-douzaine de défaites cinglantes.

Ces hommes révèlent d'ailleurs un autre élément constitutif des victoires de Gengis Khan : l'instauration d'une méritocratie au sein de l'armée, consistant à affecter des hommes à des postes de responsabilité en fonction de leurs compétences et non de leur appartenance à l'aristocratie mongole.

Cependant, la puissance de Gengis Khan ne reposait pas uniquement sur l'excellence de son escadron de lieutenants. Le charisme du conquérant mongol lui permettait aussi de bénéficier d'une loyauté inconditionnelle de la part de ses soldats, qui lui étaient totalement dévoués. Certains de ses lieutenants étaient d'anciens ennemis à qui il avait accordé son pardon, tel Djebé, qui avait tué son cheval d'une flèche lors d'une bataille. Ou encore Djelmé, qui sauva Gengis Khan après une bataille tumultueuse avec les Tayitchiout, une tribu mongole qui refusait de le reconnaître comme " khan " (le titre des souverains mongols).

Le lieutenant veilla toute une nuit son chef blessé au cou lors du combat, et réussit à s'introduire dans le campement ennemi pour voler du lait de jument afin de calmer la soif du khan. L'instauration d'une discipline de fer fut l'autre pilier de l'armée de Gengis Khan. En 1202, avant de se lancer dans une expédition dont l'objectif était de se venger des Tatars qui avaient assassiné son père quarante ans auparavant, le guerrier mongol donna une directive catégorique à ses troupes : " Si nous écrasons l'ennemi, que personne n'emporte de butin car il sera réparti plus tard ; si nous devons reculer, nous reviendrons à notre point de départ, nous reformerons nos rangs et nous retournerons au combat avec fougue. Ceux qui n'y retourneront pas auront le cou tranché. "

Il élimina ainsi l'une des faiblesses majeures des armées nomades, dont les guerriers victorieux, après une bataille, prenaient le temps de piller le camp adverse et laissaient ainsi les ennemis s'échapper. Les châtiments pour manquement à la discipline étaient souvent collectifs. Selon Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, un moine franciscain qui parcourut l'Empire mongol dix-huit ans après la mort de Gengis Khan, lorsqu'un soldat, membre d'un arban (une unité de 10 hommes), fuyait en pleine bataille, lui et ses compagnons étaient exécutés. Si un arban complet prenait la fuite, la division de 100 soldats (yaghun) dont il dépendait était mise à mort.

DÉBAUCHER LES INGÉNIEURS CHINOIS

Les Mongols firent également preuve de grandes facultés d'adaptation, démontrant une certaine aptitude pour expérimenter de nouvelles stratégies lorsqu'ils se trouvaient confrontés à des situations inédites. Ils affinèrent ainsi leur pratique de la guerre de siège, talon d'Achille de la plupart des tribus nomades. Lorsqu'elle assiégea pour la première fois une grande ville fortifiée, Xingqing, capitale du royaume des Xixia, en 1209, l'armée de Gengis Khan, sans machines de guerre ni connaissances techniques, tenta de saper les fondations des murailles de la cité en déviant le cours du fleuve coulant à côté. Le fleuve, qui débordait à cause des pluies, inonda le campement des Mongols, mais une telle détermination persuada le roi des Xixia de se rendre et de livrer la capitale.

C'est dans le nord de la Chine, durant la guerre contre les Djurtchet, que les Mongols s'entraînèrent à cette façon de guerroyer. Lors de leur première campagne, en 1211, ils n'avaient réussi à s'emparer que de villes modestes ou mal défendues, essentiellement grâce à des attaques surprises. Mais au cours des années suivantes, ils menèrent de nombreuses guerres de siège en enrôlant tout simplement des milliers de déserteurs chinois qui apportèrent les connaissances qui faisaient défaut aux Mongols, notamment en matière de machines de siège.

Cette adaptabilité se combina donc à la méritocratie, qui ne s'appliquait d'ailleurs pas exclusivement aux Mongols : tout le monde pouvait servir dans l'armée de Gengis Khan, de l'humble berger des steppes ayant des aptitudes au commandement, jusqu'au déserteur chinois possédant des compétences en poliorcétique (l'art d'assiéger une ville).

LA TERREUR, UNE ARME DE GUERRE

L'usage de la terreur reste l'élément le plus controversé de la façon dont guerroyaient les Mongols. Lors de la conquête des différents royaumes et empires, Gengis Khan mit en œuvre une politique délibérée de terreur par la violence. Cependant, cette pratique ne résultait pas de l'action incontrôlée de barbares assoiffés de sang, mais d'un calcul destiné à faciliter la conquête : plus une région résistait, plus les représailles des Mongols étaient cruelles, et les survivants terrorisés - ceux que les Mongols laissaient délibérément échapper - diffusaient involontairement le message que toute résistance contre l'envahisseur était inutile.

Si les Mongols ne furent ni les premiers ni les derniers à passer au fil de l'épée tous les habitants d'une ville, il est probable que personne jusqu'alors n'avait eu recours à cet expédient avec une telle ampleur. Quelle en était la raison ? Les populations soumises leur étant largement supérieures en nombre, les conquérants ne pouvaient s'accorder le luxe de surveiller des régions problématiques, et préféraient donc les raser.

Par le nombre de victimes qu'il impliquait, ce comportement était aberrant aux yeux des historiens au mode de vie sédentaire qui ont relaté les conquêtes mongoles, et pour qui l'objectif de la guerre consistait à soumettre des populations laborieuses, sources de richesse. Il est indéniable que les régions conquises par les armées de Gengis Khan, notamment le nord de la Chine et l'Empire khorezmien, furent amputées d'une grande partie de leurs populations.

La méthode était cruelle, mais combinée au génie militaire du conquérant mongol et à la réforme de ses armées, elle contribua au succès des impressionnantes campagnes de Gengis Khan, qui constituent, avec les conquêtes de l'Islam, l'une des plus importantes expansions militaires jamais observées.

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Il ne fallut pas vingt ans au charismatique chef mongol pour installer son pouvoir de la mer Caspienne à la mer Jaune. Grâce à quelles ressources le grand Khan...

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역사 이래 최강의 정복자, "칭기즈 칸"의 정복전쟁 몰아보기

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역사 이래 최강의 정복자, "칭기즈 칸"의 정복전쟁 몰아보기

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역사 이래 최강의 정복자, "칭기즈 칸"의 정복전쟁 몰아보기

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몽골제국이 세계를 정복할 수 있었던 이유

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몽골제국이 세계를 정복할 수 있었던 이유

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세계를 정복한 몽골제국의 술 마유주

지도에서 몽골이라는 나라를 찾아보면 러시아와 중국 사이에 끼어있는 바다가 없는 내륙국가다. 학창시절에 배운 기억을 떠올리면 칭기스칸(Chinggis Khaan)이라는 세계에서 가장 넓은 땅을 정복한 군주와 고려를 정복하고 부마국으로 삼아 지배한 나라로 기억하고 있다.

철인이라는 의미를 가진 이름 테무진은 1189년 씨족연합의 맹주로 추대되어 칭기즈칸의 칭호를 받는다. 세력을 키워 여러 부족을 통합한 칭기즈칸은 1206년 오논 강가에 모인 족장들의 추대를 받아 통일된 몽골의 칸에 올랐다. 이후부터 시작된 정복전쟁으로 1227년 칭기즈칸이 서하를 공격하다가 세상을 떠나기 전까지 동해에서부터 카스피 해에 이르는 영토를 정복했다. 이후에도 후손들에 의해 계속 진행된 정복전쟁은 손자인 쿠빌리이칸에 이르러 절정에 이르는데 동쪽은 사할린부터 시작해서 서쪽으로는 러시아와 헝가리 폴란드지역과 남으로는 중국전체는 물론 인도북부와 베트남북부, 이란전역까지 영향력을 확대하였다.

이러한 몽골군의 저력은 어디에서 나왔을까? 단순히 지휘관의 판단과 전술운용능력만으로 설명하기에는 이해되지 않는 부분이 있다. 정복전쟁을 하면서 무엇보다 중요한 것은 전쟁물자의 원활한 조달과 이동속도다. 농경을 하며 정착해 살던 정복당한 나라들과 달리 몽골군대는 유목민족이다 보니 말을 타는 것에 능했다. 군대는 기마병위주로 구성되었고 목적지에 빨리 도착할 수 있었다. 보병위주의 군대들이 생각할 수 있는 이동속도가 아니었다. 방어준비를 끝내기 전에 나타난 몽골군대에 상대편은 당해낼 재간이 없었다. 또 물과 식량에 있어서도 다른 나라의 군대와 달랐는데 양이나 말의 고기를 말려서 만든 육포를 주식으로 하면서 식량의 부피가 크게 줄일 수 있어 수송을 원활하게 했고 정복한 나라의 가축을 통해 식량문제의 해결할 수 있었다. 위생이라는 개념이 적었던 당시에 지역을 옮겨 다니는 경우에 풍토병의 일종인 물갈이를 하기 쉬웠다. 역내전투와 달리 역외전투가 벌어지는 정복전쟁을 하다보면 여러 지역을 옮겨 다니게 된다. 이때 가장 노출되기 쉬운 문제가 바로 마시는 물 문제다. 물갈이를 잘못하면 이질과 같은 질병에 걸려 전투는커녕 스스로 몸을 추스르기도 어려워지는데 이러한 문제를 해결한 것이 몽골군대의 마유주다. 몽골군대는 말이나 양의 젖으로 만든 마유주라는 술을 물 대신 마시면서 전투를 치렀기 때문에 이러한 문제로부터 자유로웠던 것이다.

술을 만들기 위해서는 당이 있어야 하는데 마유주를 만들 때 사용하는 말이나 양의 젖에도 유당이 있어 발효가 가능하다. 1차 발효를 할 때 가축의 젖을 가죽 통에 넣고 긴 막대기로 휘저어 준다. 젖을 짜는 것도 어렵지만 수 천 번을 저어야하기 때문에 많은 정성을 들여야 만들 수 있는 술이다. 이런 식으로 발효를 마친 술은 말가죽이나 양가죽으로 만든 주머니에 넣어 안장에 올려 그 위에 사람이 앉아 말을 탔다. 안장의 쿠션역할을 하면서 병사들이 오랫동안 말을 타더라도 무리가 없었다. 더불어 엉덩이의 체온으로 후발효가 이뤄지는 효과까지 있어 일거양득이었다. 마유주는 젖으로 만들다보니 유제품의 특성을 고스란히 갖고 있어 미네랄을 비롯한 각종 영양소가 많았다. 장거리를 이동하고 많은 전투를 치루면서 체력소모가 클 수 밖에 없었던 몽골 군사들에게는 기력을 회복하는데 도움을 주는 좋은 영양식이자 음료였다. 거기에 알코올 도수가 높지 않다보니 쉬지 않고 말을 타며 짧은 시간동안 먼 거리를 이동할 수 있었다. 이러한 요소들이 결합된 덕분에 몽골군대는 말의 먹이가 이어진 끝없는 초원을 달리며 쉼 없는 정복전쟁을 할 수 있었다.

몽골의 세력은 예전만 못하지만 몽골인은 그들의 전통인 마유주의 명성을 이어오고 있다. 2011년 8월에 포브스의 기사에서 마유주는 알 수 없는 이유로 세계 10대 혐오식품으로 뽑히면서 다시 사람들의 입에 오르내리고 있다.

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몽골제국이 세계를 정복할 수 있었던 이유

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상하지 않은 음료를 제공하며 몽골의 세계정복에 기여한 술 마유주 | 세계를 정복한 몽골제국의 술 마유주 지도에서 몽골이라는 나라를 찾아보면 러시아와 중국 사이에 끼어있는 바다가 없는 내륙국가다. 학창시절에 배운 기억을 떠올리면 칭기스칸(Chinggis Khaan)이라는 세계에서 가장 넓은 땅을 정복한 군주와 고려를 정복하고 부마국으로 삼아 지배한 나라로 기억하고 있다.

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Proclamé " souverain universel " par le conseil qu'il réunit en 1206 pour officialiser son pouvoir, Gengis Khan se lance à l'assaut du monde.

A l'issue de plusieurs offensives, il s'impose en Chine du Nord puis se tourne vers l'Asie centrale, vraisemblablement à la poursuite de réfugiés. Son conflit avec le shah du Khorezm le conduit jusqu'à Boukhara, mais Gengis Khan se replie ensuite en Mongolie, laissant à ses généraux le soin de poursuivre la conquête vers l'Occident.
Chronologie des conquêtes gengiskhanides
1206 :Temüjin, le futur Gengis Khan, commence la conquête de l'Asie.

1206-1207 : Soumission du sud de la Sibérie. Ralliement des Önggöt de Mongolie, anciens alliés des Jin.

1209 : Les Xixia demandent la paix et promettent leur concours. Ralliement des Ouïgours.

1211-1212 : Gengis Khan s'attaque à la dynastie Jin (dynastie mandchoue des Jürchen). Conquête de la Mandchourie.

1214-1215 : L'empereur Jin replie sa capitale à Kaifeng, capitale des Song. Pékin tombe en 1215. Ralliement de généraux Jin d'ethnies diverses.

1218 : L'attention des Mongols se tourne vers le khanat du Kara-Kitan où un usurpateur nestorien persécute les musulmans. Ils y sont accueillis en libérateurs.

1219-1221 : Gengis Khan ravage le Khorezm du shah Mohammed, qui a fait assassiner ses ambassadeurs. Samarkand tombe en 1220. Le fils du shah est poursuivi jusqu'aux rives de l'Indus.

1221-1223 : L'invasion se poursuit vers l'Europe sous la direction des généraux Jebe et Sübedei. A la mort de Jebe, Sübedei affronte seul une armée de princes Rus' à la bataille du fleuve Khalkha.

1223-1226 : Rentré en Mongolie à la mort du général Muqali, Gengis Khan fait face à une rébellion des Tangout. Dès 1226, la majeure partie de l'empire Xixia est annexée.

1227 : Mort de Jochi, puis de Gengis Khan le 18 août lors du siège de la capitale Tangout.

1229-1231 : Ögödei est élu empereur. L'Iran est occupé.

1232 : Kaesông, la capitale coréenne tombe. Mort de Tolui.

1234 : Fin de la dynastie Jin. Domination de la Chine du Nord.

1235 : Fondation de Karakorum. Déclaration de guerre aux Song du Sud.

1236 : La campagne d'Europe est lancée par Batu en 1236.

1237-1240 : Conquête de la Russie. Moscou tombe en 1238, Kiev en 1240. Raids mongols en Irak et au Cachemire.

1241 : Paix avec la Corée. Seule la mort d'Ögödei préserve l'Europe de la déferlante mongole, parvenue aux portes de Vienne.

Carte issue de l'article " Gengis Khan, portrait intime d'un conquérant ", dans L'Histoire n°392 " Les Mongols, le plus grand empire du monde", octobre 2013.

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Au XIIIe siècle, Temüjin, plus connu sous le nom de Gengis Khan, mit vingt ans à unifier les tribus mongoles sous son autorité et encore vingt ans à bâtir le plus vaste empire que le monde ait connu.

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成吉思汗创立的蒙古帝国，为何能横扫欧亚大陆？

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成吉思汗创立的蒙古帝国，为何能横扫欧亚大陆？

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比起国际社会盖章的世界历史上最大的 殖民政权-- 大英帝国， 直接统治面积达3300万平方公里的蒙古帝国 才是实打实的彪悍！

它开挂般地在 斡难河源迅速崛起，靠着区区十万人的军队，近则战胜数百万、乃至数千万人口的大国 西夏、 西辽、 花剌子模和 金朝，远则打到了 中亚、 西亚、 东欧 等地区。但问题来了，一个马背上的民族是如何演变成一个震古烁今的大帝国？

...

不服憋着！蒙古骑兵就是猛

不是自身太强，而是对手太弱，就是当时 蒙古骑兵 的真实写照。

13世纪初期， 蒙古周边的民族恰好处于衰落状态：控制中国北方的 金朝已经汉化，丧失了曾经的武勇精神；而 辽国被金国打败后，残余部队逃到西边，建立 西辽苟延残喘； 西夏 也内乱不堪，经济因战争趋于崩溃......

天赐良机，此时不打更待何时？于是， 蒙古人率领军队一路和 西辽、 金国干仗，顺便还跑到西边虐虐经常给他们使绊子的 花刺子模，这就是 蒙古帝国的第一次西征。不过这一时期，他们的想法只停留在报仇阶段，直到征服 花刺子模 后，画风就变了。

至于人和， 蒙古人 则是将其优势发挥到了最大。

第一，蒙古军队打仗，拼的是质量。蒙古骑兵都是从训练最好的士兵中选出，他们不仅体格强壮，只需要一点 医疗条件就能保持身体健康，适应作战需要，而且很能吃苦和忍耐严酷的 气候 条件，不贪图安逸舒适和美味佳肴。

战斗能力更不用说， 蒙古男子从三四岁开始就被送入学校，进行严格的 骑马射箭训练，因此他们具有驾驭马匹和使用武器的惊人本领， 尤其擅长一种被古罗马人称为"安息人射箭法"的战法，即 骑射 者一边逃走，一边向后方的敌人射箭。

此外，他们还巧妙地将 轻骑兵与 重骑兵 配合使用：轻装骑兵先突袭，再用重装骑兵碾压，形成横扫之势。

第三，精锐武器的使用。蒙古人使用的是当时射程最远、杀伤力最大的组合式 弓，不仅短小便于 骑兵 运用自如，还具有更大的拉力和更远的射程。

第四，以战养战和恐怖战法。古人打仗讲究，兵马未动，粮草先行，但 蒙古军就不需要考虑这个问题。他们出门打仗时，直接把 羊群也赶上，一边放牧、一边行军，渴了喝羊奶，饿了吃 羊肉 ，到达目的地再掠夺物资。

第五，靠军功分配战利品。蒙古 军不发军饷，想要坐享其成没门，只有勇猛杀敌才能获得财物，这极大地激发了作战激情。

...

领袖魅力，跟着大哥有肉吃

虽然在《 沁园春·雪》中， 成吉思汗 被形容成了只识弯弓射大雕的莽夫，但作为一个超级帝国的创建者，他绝非等闲之辈。

放眼世界，这位仁兄都是绝对的超级大牛人。 他原名孛儿只斤·铁木真，尊号"成吉思汗"，意为"拥有海洋四方的大酋长" 。大概是为了不辜负这个尊号吧，这位仁兄开始了一段充满征途大海的牛b人生！

不用怀疑，领袖气质这种东西就是为 铁木真量身打造的。 他的人生就是一部波澜壮阔的史诗，说他是顶配版的 郭靖 也不为过。

而他的叔族 泰赤乌部更是趁火打劫，将 乞颜部的部众和牲畜掠夺一空，使其一家从部落首领的地位一下子跌入苦难的深渊，给年幼的 铁木真 心中埋下了仇恨的种子。

更悲催的是，18岁时，昔日仇敌 蔑儿乞部的脱脱部长又抢走了他的妻子。也许苦难真是一剂良药，铁木真不断在草原壮大自己的势力，开始向杀害父亲的敌人寻仇。

到了12世纪末至13世纪初，由 成吉思汗创建并由他的后代延续的骑兵部队，没有了 欧洲 传统军事思想的束缚，进行了急剧扩张，帝国规模空前宏大。

蒙古帝国的统治范围有多大？ 它可是创下了人类历史上邻接版图最大国家的记录！

帝国鼎盛时期，领土可从越南一直到 匈牙利：东到 太平洋，北抵 北冰洋，西达 匈牙利，南至 南海，统治面积达到3300万平方公里。这个数据是个什么概念？ 大约是世界土地面积的22%，为20世纪时苏联的1.5倍，现今俄罗斯的1.9倍。

蒙古帝国的前身曾掀起令欧洲为之发抖的"黄祸"，把 俄罗斯（统称）彻底击败，并统治 东欧长达两百年。历经三代领导人、长达半世纪的征途，让 蒙古帝国的铁蹄横扫了欧亚，旷古绝今！而这一切都是源于少年 铁木真发下的一桩誓言：" 我要让世界臣服于我的脚下 ！"

...

征服世界没点硬货怎么行？

如果只是单纯的吃苦耐劳和军事优势，似乎任何一个 游牧民族都可以建立这样史无前例的大帝国。但实际上，只有 蒙古人 做到了。区别于两者之间的深层原因，还要归根于制度上。

由于 游牧民族的生活习惯， 漠北政权往往十分松散，很容易被中原王朝收买渗透。比如 汉朝时期的 匈奴就是活生生的例子，在汉王朝的引诱下，曾多次分裂，甚至出现了 南北匈奴 分立的情况。

在前人的启发下， 蒙古人进行了制度创新，建立了一个不同于 契丹的封建帝国。为此， 成吉思汗 实行了以下政策：

首先，成功确立了黄金家族（成吉思汗及其后代）对于蒙古的法定统治权，使只有 黄金家族才能称汗的观念长久以来在亚洲 游牧民族 心中牢不可破。

具体细化为，千户下分为若干百户，百户下为十户。平时分开放牧，战时全民皆兵，方便统一指挥。这样一来，昔日相互倾轧的 部落，就被整合成了高度集权、层层隶属的军政组织，规避了以往 游牧民族 政权的局限。

再次，建立怯薛军，组建核心力量。为了避免 千户授封制度实行后，一些千户拥有自己势力后拥兵自重， 成吉思汗向中原王朝取经，建立了类似于 禁军或御林军的直属于 大汗 的精锐部队，重视其忠诚度大于战斗力，享有高于普通千户的特权，用其来制约在外的任何一个势力。

并且，千户长、百户长、十户长还必须将自己的儿子送来效力，即所谓的质子制度，方便 大汗 控制分布各地的首领。

然而，一个超级帝国的崛起注定给他们自身带来很多问题。即使是这个帝国后来分裂成几个 汗国，和一个逐渐汉化的 东亚 帝国，仍然无法避免最终分崩离析的命运。

这个曾经不可一世的强大帝国，至今仍留下了不少谜团：如蒙古人是否曾经使用了火炮、成吉思汗陵墓的所在地、蒙哥挫败钓鱼城的真正死因......吸引着无数人去探寻。

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成吉思汗创立的蒙古帝国，为何能横扫欧亚大陆？

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比起国际社会盖章的世界历史上最大的殖民政权--大英帝国，直接统治面积达3300万平方公里的蒙古帝国才是实打实的彪悍！它开挂般地在斡难河源迅速崛起，靠着区区十万人的军队，近则战胜数百万、乃至数千万人口的大国西夏、西辽、花剌子模和金朝，远则打到了中亚、西亚、东欧等地区。但问题来了，一个马背上的民族是如何演变成一个震古烁今的大帝国？ ...

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Империя Чингисхана: как завоевать половину мира

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Империя Чингисхана: как завоевать половину мира

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Начало завоевательных походов Чингисхана

Точная дата рождения Темучина, будущего хана могучей Монгольской империи, до сих пор покрыта мраком. Исследователи расходятся в гипотезах, однако установлено, что знатный монгол появился на свет в 1160-е годы. Темучин был сыном Есугей-баатура, одного из влиятельных предводителей монголов. В те годы единства среди кочевников не было - многочисленные племена спорили между собой за влияние в степях.

Малолетний Темучин чуть не пал жертвой конфликта знатных монголов. После смерти отца мальчик вместе с матерью скрывался от преследования вождя племени тайчуитов Таргутая-Кирилтуха. Темучин даже был в плену, однако смог сбежать. Возмужав, он сам включился в борьбу за власть в степях. Окружив себя верными соратниками и телохранителями (нукерами), он поступил на службу к побратиму своего отца и одному из самых могущественных монгольских вождей - Тогрулу.

С его помощью он повысил численность своего войска. Отличительной чертой политики Темучина было великодушие по отношению к разгромленным противникам - в обмен на сохранение жизни они поступали на службу к будущему великому хану. Другим союзником знатного монгола был Джамуха из рода джаджиратов. На рубеже 12−13 веков они организовывали совместные военные предприятия против соседних племён, однако отношения между членами триумвирата были весьма натянутыми. Это привело к череде предательств, измен и попыток избавиться от соратников разными способами - вплоть до активной вражды.

К 1206 году Темучин в ходе войн со своими союзниками и другими монгольскими племенами смог объединить все монгольские улусы под своим контролем. В 1196 и 1202 годах будущий Чингисхан провёл серию походов против татар. В 1184 году в союзе с Тогрулом (который также известен в источниках как Ван-хан) Темучин воевал против племён меркитов. Фактически эта кампания стала первым серьёзным военным опытом будущего хана. Затем он принял участие в столкновениях с племенами тайджуитов (1200−1202 годы) и кереитов (1203 год). Последние войны за объединение монголов под единым скипетром Темучин провёл против меркитов и найманов. Они оставались последними крупными силами, мешавшими будущему хану установить своё господство в степях. К найманскому хану Тохто-беки перебежал бывший сподвижник Темучина Джамуха.

Весной 1205 года будущий Чингисхан смог разбить объединённые силы противника на берегу реки Бухтармы. Часть уцелевших примкнула к будущему хану, часть ушла в кочевья к каракитаям. Сын Тохто-беки Кучлук всё ещё располагал значительными силами, но Темучин решил оставить его в покое. А вот его бывший союзник Джамуха оказался в плену - из-за измены своих нукеров. Позднее он был казнён. Обстоятельства этого события до сих пор вызывают споры в среде историков. По одной из распространённых версий, Темучин предложил Джамухе возобновить дружбу, однако тот отказался и попросил умертвить его достойно. В монгольской традиции это означало избежать кровопролития. Последняя просьба бывшего сподвижника Темучина была исполнена.

После этого со всеми противниками было покончено. Под контролем Темучина оказались все наиболее влиятельные монгольские кочевники. Были ликвидированы последние преграды на пути к объединению кочевий.

Провозглашение Темучина Чингисханом

В 1206 году представители всех лояльных Темучину племён собрались на курултае - съезде знатных монголов. Некоторые кланы могли отказаться от отправки своего представителя. Правда, в этом случае они лишались защитника в лице могучего хана и не могли рассчитывать на его помощь в случае нападения извне. Курултай был не только политическим событием, но и большим праздником, ради которого на место его проведения были согнаны тысячи голов скота для подготовки пира. Среди молодых монголов проводились разнообразные состязания, главные - в конной езде и стрельбе из лука. На протяжении всего курултая не смолкала музыка.

На съезде Темучин был объявлен верховным правителем всех монгольских кланов и родов. Он принял новое имя - Чингисхан. В степи приближённые подняли хана на ковре перед сотнями знатных кочевников. В истории Монголии открылась новая глава. Властелин кочевников осознавал, что необходимо централизовать страну во избежание её возможного развала - структура родов и кланов была слишком рыхлой. Для решения этих задач Чингисхан разработал свод законов, который вошёл в историю под названием Яса.

К сожалению, этот памятник монгольской правовой культуры дошёл до нас лишь частично. Он дорабатывался ханом на протяжении всей жизни. Яса касалась прежде всего политических и некоторых экономических вопросов. Сводом законов в традиционном понимании этого слова её назвать сложно - например, в правовом акте практически не затрагивалась личная жизнь ханских подданных. Чингисхан запретил племенам враждовать между собой, объявил о том, что дети наложниц обладают такими же правами, как и законнорождённые. Ханы должны были избираться на курултае, а те, кто выдвигал свои претензии на престол без ведома общего собрания, объявлялись вне закона.

Это повлекло за собой важные политические и культурные последствия. Монголы в подавляющем большинстве были неграмотны - это касалось как знати, так и простолюдинов. Конечно, некоторые племенные вожди имели при себе писарей, а арабские и китайские путешественники пытались познакомить кочевников с письменностью, но монголам она была не нужна. Теперь же ситуация изменилась. Централизация государства и появление свода законов привели к необходимости обладать хотя бы тонкой прослойкой грамотных людей. Их возглавил верховный судья и приёмный брат великого хана Шиги-Хутуху.

Эти реформы заложили основу империи, которая в разных итерациях, даже развалившаяся, просуществует не одну сотню лет. И хотя Монгольское ханство известно прежде всего благодаря своим завоевательным походам, потрясшим Евразию, следует понимать, что без надёжного тыла, худо-бедно урегулированных отношений между ещё недавно бывших полунезависимыми племенами и регламентации внутренней жизни представить себе масштабные военные кампании попросту невозможно. Поэтому Чингисхан стал не только великим военным, но и вполне компетентным гражданским государственным деятелем, понимавшим, что необходимо для реализации его планов.

[Сборник: Чингисхан]

Армия и полководцы Чингисхана

На первый взгляд вооружённые силы молодой Монгольской империи походили на кочевые отряды предшествующих периодов - например, гуннов или венгров. Армия формировалась по десятеричной системе: десятки объединялись в сотни, те - в тысячи, а самым большим объединением считался тумен, состоявший из сотен тысяч человек. Хан и его полководцы имели личную гвардию, дружину, которая формировалось из наиболее умелых и преданных воинов.

Последнее стало одним из важнейших отличий от орд кочевников более древнего времени. К 12-му веку в монгольских племенах началось имущественное расслоение и формирование знати. Она и была основой командного состава нукеров - приближённых дружинников хана. Рядовые воины набирались из всего взрослого мужского населения степей. Повинность несли всадники возрастом от 15 до 60 лет. Армейское деление на тумены распространялось и на административную систему Монгольской империи - так подчёркивалась военная направленность государственного аппарата.

Все без исключения конные монгольские воины умели отлично стрелять из лука. Именно это оружие являлось основным. Тяжёлая конница также имела оружие ближнего боя. Пехота практически не использовалась - так можно было достигнуть чрезвычайно высокого уровня мобильности. Кроме того, конница открывала перед командирами широкие возможности для тактического и стратегического маневрирования. Позднее в монгольских армиях появились и инженерные части. Они использовались прежде всего в осадах крупных замков и городов.

Дисциплина в монгольской армии была железной - за проступки солдат ждало суровое наказание. И наоборот - за подвиги и выполнение своего долга простых всадников часто ждало повышение. Биографии некоторых приближённых Чингисхана и наиболее известных полководцев эпохи завоеваний ярко иллюстрируют подвижный социальный лифт внутри монгольской армии.

В 1204 году Темучин создал большой гвардейский отряд, состоявший только из самых лояльных и мастеровитых воинов. Он получил название кэшик, а его величина составляла примерно один тумен. Служившие в этом подразделении воины считались элитой и занимали в иерархии высокое положение. Однако и ответственности было выше - например, кэшик выполнял функции по охране хана в мирное время.

Руководство всеми туменами империи, конечно, находилось в руках Чингисхана. Однако при нём существовал коллегиальный орган, в который входили наиболее преданные и талантливые офицеры.

Корпус приближённых к Чингисхану командиров формировался на протяжении всей его борьбы за доминирование на пространстве Монголии. Будущий владыка степей окружал себя лояльными полководцами, которые были лично преданы Темучину. В историю вошли так называемые "четыре пса" Чингисхана, которые совершили важнейшие завоевания в истории Монгольской империи: Хубилай, Джэлмэ, Джэбэ и Субэдэй. По гипотезам историков, они не представляли племенную знать, а выдвинулись на первые роли благодаря преданности и полководческим талантам.

Субэдэй и Джэлме были сыновьями кузнецов, которые присоединились к Темучжину в поисках славы и заработка. При этом Джэбэ выдвинулся по службе не у Чингисхана, а у его противника - тайджуитского вождя. Анонимный автор "Тайной истории монголов" рассказывает предание, по которому Джэбэ во время одной из битв ранил Темучина стрелой. Уже в плену, когда будущий хан пытался найти своего обидчика, он выдал себя. Джэбэ понимал, что скорее всего его ждёт казнь. Он предложил Темучину альтернативу - согласился послужить будущему хану. Смелость противника понравилась Чингисхану. Он освободил Джэбэ (само имя, означающее "стрела", появилось как раз в это время) и назначил бывшего пленного десятником. Менее чем через 20 лет Джэбэ стал одним из самых известных полководцев Монгольской империи.

Помимо "четырёх псов" были и другие известные приближённые Чингисхана, сопровождавшие его на всём пути от начала возвышения до знаменитого курултая. История сохранила имена командиров личной охраны хана: Борохул, Боорчи, Мухали, Чилаун и другие.

Причины военных успехов Чингисхана

Европейцы на протяжении своей долгой истории часто сталкивались с разного рода кочевниками. Гунны, болгары, венгры, авары приходили с востока и наводили ужас на тогдашних жителей Старого Света. Однако именно монголы построили самую большую империю. В чём же они превосходили своих предшественников?

Кажется, что с точки зрения тактики кочевое военное дело с эпохи Раннего Средневековья существенно не поменялось. Монгольские всадники так же пытались взять противника во время битв в клещи и активно пользовались уловкой ложного отступления, дабы вынудить противника к преследованию. Однако в случае армии Чингисхана имелось большое число отличий от предшественников, которое привело к появлению одной из самых могучих военных машин.

Стоит особо отметить систему отбора офицеров и военачальников. Монголы выдвигались на руководящие должности не благодаря знатности, а из-за своих способностей и личной преданности. Об этом говорят многие биографии известных командиров Чингисхана, которые завоёвывали для своего хана всё новые территории. При этом большинство из них прошли путь от мелких офицеров, командиров десятком или сотней до руководителей многотысячных армий. Командирам крупных соединений фактически даровалась полная свобода действий. Перед полководцами ставилась определённая задача, а методы и средства её достижения отдавались военачальнику на откуп. Вместе с тщательным отбором командиров это приводило к великолепным результатам на поле боя.

Железная дисциплина и сплочённость туменов также играли существенную роль. Эти факторы выгодно отличали монгольскую армию от других кочевников. Помимо единого командования и талантливых полководцев во главе отрядов, Чингисхан уделял большое внимание вспомогательным факторам. Так, была организована интендантская служба, снабжавшая вооружённые силы всем необходимым, а также система гонцов, быстро передававшая актуальную информацию. Во многом эти нововведения были заимствованы у китайцев, с которыми монголы воевали на протяжении долгих лет.

Другой отличительной стороной монгольских армий была чрезвычайная осторожность. Полководцы предпочитали не вступать в бой, если его исход не был предопределён. Это касалось погодных условий, местности и соотношения в численности. Понимая, что лобовым ударом своего взять не удастся, монгольские полководцы просто отступали. Временами они делили свои силы на более мелкие, которые наносили противнику чувствительные, но несущественные удары. Однако они играли большое моральное значение.

Другой причиной успеха монгольских завоевателей был глубокий анализ политической ситуации у противника. Часто кочевники выступали достойными продолжателями дела римлян, которые "разделяли и властвовали". Противоборствующим в регионе странам или группам они предлагали свою помощь либо ждали, когда потенциальные противники ослабят друг друга в борьбе. Так, например, монголы поступили на Кавказе, разрушив союз алан и половцев.

Походы на Империю Цзинь

Империя Цзинь в начале 13-го века представляла из себя одно из государств на территории современного Китая, расположенное в Маньчжурии. Оно не было китайским - его основали представители этноса чжурчжэней. Это были кочевники, родственные тунгусам. Чжерчжэни разгромили Империю Ляо и основали собственное государство, вступившее в противоборство с другими китайскими монархиями. Они активно действовали в монгольских степях, участвуя в противостоянии между разными племенами.

Перед началом монголо-цзиньской войны Чингисхан обрушил свой удар на соседей и союзников чжерчжэней государство Си Ся. В качестве предлога для нападения хан использовал бегство сына Ван-хана Сангуна. После нескольких походов монголы подчинили эту страну, при этом в конце войны чжерчжэни отказались помочь своему союзнику. Во многом поэтому государь Си Ся покорился Чингисхану и принял на себя обязательство помогать хану в его будущих военных походах.

После покорения других соседних племён в 1211 году монгольский император напал на главного на тот момент регионального соперника. Монгольско-цзиньская война продолжалась почти 20 лет. В первые годы Чингисхан ограничивался лишь кратковременными набегами за пределы Великой Китайской стены. Чжэрчжэни обладали мощной артиллерией и укрывались в городах, в то время как монголы уничтожали материальную базу империи в окрестных деревнях. Разорительные походы монголов повторялись регулярно. До 1216 года Чингисхан не задумывался о том, чтобы оккупировать эти области.

К этому шагу его подтолкнули два обстоятельства. Под ударами монголов Империя Цзинь начала разваливаться сама. В разных регионах страны подданные чжэрчжэней, этнические китайцы и кидани, восставали против своих господ. Некоторые из них шли на сотрудничество с монголами и участвовали в их набегах. На карте региона появилось государство Ляо, которое на десятилетие стало верным союзником Чингисхана и позднее влилось в его империю на правах автономии. Другое обстоятельство касалось планов монгольского хана относительно завоевательных походов на западном направлении. Чингисхану было необходимо обеспечить надёжный тыл как в политическом, так и в материальном смысле.

Подход к войне с империей был изменён. Теперь главной ударной силой, действовавшей против войск чжэрчжэней, становились лояльные монголам феодалы. В составе их отрядов действовал ограниченный контингент монголов, который, помимо поддержки во время сражений, выполнял функцию контроля за их действиями. Теперь города после завоевания не разорялись - лояльные хану феодалы размещали здесь свои гарнизоны. Этой стратегии следовали с 1216 года. Захватив северную часть страны, монголы вновь прибегли к разведывательным рейдам, чтобы получить информацию о городах и крепостях юга Империи Цзинь. В дальнейшем завоевание этого региона было отдано на откуп полководцу Мухали. Он воевал с чжэрчжэнями вплоть до своей смерти в 1223 году.

Несмотря на то, что монголы на поле битвы были на голову сильнее своего противника, подчинение некогда сильной империи затянулось ещё на десятилетие. Причинами этому были усиление сопротивления чжэрчжэней и смерть Чингисхана в 1227 году. По преданию, на смертном одре создатель Монгольской империи завещал своим потомкам покончить с неподдающейся Империей Цзинь. Спустя три года этим занялся новый хан, Угэдэй. В 1230 году он возобновил активное наступление на чжэрчжэней. Покорение империи затянулось до 1233 года. Последним сражением долгой войны стала осада города Цайджоу, где укрылся последний цзиньский император. Оборонявшиеся сражались отчаянно, несмотря на нехватку продовольствия и очевидную бесперспективность своего положения. Город был взят, последний император повесился. Война, начатая ещё Чингисханом, наконец, была завершена.

Захват Империи Цзинь открыл монголам дорогу к завоеванию других частей Китая. В 1235 году потомки Чингисхана начинают не менее долгую войну с Империей Сун. Она растянется на несколько десятилетий. На протяжении более сорока лет кочевники будут пытаться разгромить единственное крупное государство, оставшееся в регионе, периодически отвлекаясь на другие страны. Завоевание Китая монголами завершилось лишь во время правления хана Хубилая.

Битва на Калке и нашествие войска Чингисхана на Русь

Укрепление Чингисхана во Внутренней Монголии и части Китая позволило ему обратить внимание на другие регионы для расширения своего влияния. Взор хана пал на Среднюю Азию, которая в те годы контролировалась шахством Хорезм. Война с этим государством началась в 1219 году и продолжалась три с половиной года. Монгольскими войсками руководили сыновья Чингисхана и наиболее талантливые полководцы. Силы хана не смогли оказать сопротивление кочевым пришельцам с востока.

В 1220 году в погоню за разбитым шахом Хорезма Ала ад-Дином Мухаммедом II был отправлен тридцатитысячный отряд под командованием Джэбэ и Субэдэя. Взять в плен беглеца не удалось. Мухаммед скончался от воспаления лёгких в конце года в городе Абескуне на побережье Каспийского моря. После этого события планы похода изменились. Теперь монгольским полководцам предписывалось установить контроль над государствами Кавказа. Затем монголы оказались на территории, населённой половцами, после чего свернули к Крыму и захватили Судак.

Половцы, уклонившиеся от своих союзных обязательств по отношению к аланам и ушедшие с поля битвы, вскоре осознали, что угрозы со стороны монголов избежать не удалось. В то же время в ставке Чингисхана планы похода вновь изменились. Хан предписал своему сыну Джучи, действовавшему в Средней Азии, соединиться с Субэдэем и Джэбэ и направить свои силы на Восточную Европу. Однако чингизид проигнорировал волю отца.

В это время половцы обратились за помощью к русским князьям. Со многими из них кочевников связывали родственные отношения. В 1223 году главы южнорусских государств собрались обсудить ситуацию в Киеве. Там же оказались и монгольские послы, которые попытались провернуть тот же трюк, что они проделали в случае половцев и аланов. Кочевники предложили русским князьям выступить вместе против их "родственников". Переговоры не привели к успеху - монгольские парламентёры были казнены.

Русские князья недооценили силы нового противника. Они вместе с половецкими союзниками сравнительно легко одержали верх над передовыми отрядами монголов, после чего вышли к Калке, где стояли основные силы Субэдэя и Джэбэ. 31 мая 1223 года случилось непоправимое. Князь Мстислав Удатный, считая, что ему одному по силам справиться с противником, переправился через реку. Самонадеянность стоила русским князьям жизни. Мстислав был быстро разгромлен, монголы осадили стан русских ратников и через три дня взяли его. Многие попали в плен, некоторые смогли скрыться. Пленённые умерли ужасной смертью под досками, на которых монголы устроили пир.

Однако продолжать наступление на русские княжества монгольские полководцы не решились. Масштабное вторжение состоялось позднее, уже после смерти Чингисхана. А пока Субэдэй и Джэбэ отправились дальше разведывать степи. В 1224 году они столкнулись с сопротивлением волжских булгар. Примечательно, что новый противник смог дать монголам отпор. По сообщению письменных источников, после сражения с булгарами у монгольских полководцев в наличии осталось всего 4 тыс. человек. После этого они ушли в Среднюю Азию и соединились с силами Джучи.

Решение о новом походе в Восточную Европу было принято ханом Угэдэем. Перед этим монголы закрепились в Средней Азии и захватили кыпчакские степи, причём местные кочевники оказали заметное сопротивление. Им оказывала помощь и Волжская Булгария. Несмотря на это, партизанская борьба против монголов прекратилась к 1236 году. Дорога на Русь была открыта. В 1235 году на великом курултае монгольская знать во главе с ханом приняла решение о проведении масштабного похода в Восточную Европу.

На границах Северо-Восточной Руси монголы численностью более 100 тыс. человек появились осенью 1237 года. До этого времени отряды, возглавляемые внуком Чингисхана Батыем и Субэдэем разгромили Волжскую Булгарию и половцев. Кампания монголов длилась на протяжении четырёх лет. За это время кочевники фактически выжгли Северо-Восточную и Южную Русь. В прямых битвах русские князья ничего не смогли противопоставить захватчикам. Лишь Новгородскую республику беда обошла стороной. Кульминацией похода монголов стало взятие и разорение Киева - древней столицы Руси. После этого кочевники отправились дальше на запад.

[Сборник: Иго]

В 1241 году вторжению подверглись польские земли. Монголы смогли захватить и разграбить многие города, в числе которых были Краков и Вроцлав. При этом в Польше действовал отдельный отряд кочевников во главе с полководцами Орду и Байтаром. Остальные силы монголов под командованием Батыя прорвались в Паннонию и вторглись в пределы Венгерского королевства. Разбив войска Белы IV в нескольких стычках, монголы попытались форсировать Дунай и закрепиться на его южном берегу. При этом Байтар умудрился почти выйти к Вене - он был остановлен войсками Священной Римской империи из-за своей малочисленности.

В декабре 1241 года, пользуясь погодными условиями, монголы переправились через Дунай и смогли достичь Хорватии. Болгарский царь, не желая разграбления своих земель, согласился платить кочевникам дань. Однако в марте 1242 года монголы внезапно ушли в степи. Современники объясняли такой внезапный поворот событий божьим вмешательством. Современные исследователи выдвигают несколько гипотез относительно причин завершения Западного похода. Несмотря на успехи, монгольские силы к началу 1242 года были сильно истощены беспрерывными переходами. Помимо этого, силы Батыя действовали в незнакомых регионах и опасались внезапного поражения. К этому добавилась и политическая причина. В 1241 году скончался хан Угэдэй. В империи наступило междуцарствие, во время которого различные группировки боролись за влияние друг с другом. Ситуация требовала присутствия Батыя в Монголии.

Итоги Западного похода были впечатляющими. Монголы смогли подчинить себе русские земли. В течение последующих нескольких лет сформировалась система отношений между княжествами и монгольскими ханами (в дальнейшем - ханами Золотой Орды). Так далеко, как в 1242 году, кочевники больше не заходили. Несмотря на это, монголы на протяжении ближайших нескольких столетий, уже после фактического развала империи, останутся важной силой в Восточной Европе.

Образование империи Чингисхана

Ещё до знаменитого курултая 1206 года, на котором Темучин превратился в великого и ужасного Чингисхана, монголы имели опыт единой государственности. Примерно в начале 12-го века такое государство уже существовало, однако просуществовало оно недолго из-за большого количества внутренних противоречий и борьбы племенной знати друг с другом. По всей видимости, Чингисхан учёл ошибки своих предков и централизовал управление страной, проведя административную реформу, тесно связанную с военной. В целом изменения были реализованы за несколько лет до курултая, ещё до разгрома последних степных очагов сопротивления. Официально отсчёт истории Монгольской империи следует начинать с 1211 года. Тогда появилось название "Великое монгольское государство".

Вслед за этим начались великие завоевания, которые продолжились и после смерти Чингисхана. Монгольские тумены маршем прошли по Китаю, Средней Азии, Персии, вышли к берегам Средиземного моря, подчинили кочевников бескрайних степей от Руси до своих владений, вторглись в Старый Свет и навели ужас на европейских монархов, которые так и не смогли в открытом бою остановить многотысячные орды. Сопротивлявшихся нещадно уничтожали. Однако тем, кто сложил оружие, сохраняли жизнь. Такая политика не была производным от благородства или гуманности монголов. Скорее, кочевники стремились сохранить свои силы и распространять с помощью угроз своё влияние там, где они могли воздействовать.

Уже после смерти Чингисхана наметились перспективы скорого развала его империи. Его сыновья получили в управление различные части страны, при этом один из них непосредственно наследовал отцу. Такой раздел не мог не привести к внутрисемейным конфликтам и борьбе за влияние при ханском дворе. Тем не менее постоянное напряжение сил на внешних фронтах не позволяло чингизидам скатиться в гражданскую войну. Она разразится много позже, после смерти Мункэ, в 1259 году. Во время конфликта между потомками Чингисхана некогда единая империя развалилась на несколько суверенных территорий, улусов. Верховная власть монгольского хана оставалась номинальной, а её значение постепенно снижалось.

Столица монгольской державы

Помимо великих завоеваний и создания империи, Чингисхан вошёл в мировую историю как основатель города Каракорум. До этого момента монгольские ханы и лидеры отдельных племён не имели постоянного места пребывания. Они кочевали со своими подданными, а там, где останавливались, долго не задерживались. Однако большой империи был необходим постоянный центр, куда бы съезжалась знать со всех концов обширной страны. При этом присутствие хана здесь на постоянной основе было не обязательным.

Считается, что Каракорум появился на карте Монгольской империи в 1220 году. На этом месте ранее находилась ставка предводителя кереитов. Некоторые историки, однако, полагают, что о полноценном городе следует говорить начиная с эпохи правления сына Чингисхана Угэдэя. Именно тогда появились первые здания и кварталы. Центром города стал ханский дворец. В Каракоруме производилось оружие для армии, он стал главным логистическим центром Монгольской империи. В обособленных друг от друга кварталах жили представители разных наций и религий.

В годы курултаев Каракорум на деле становился центром обширной Монгольской империи. Сюда съезжались представители знати со всех уголков страны, а также лидеры зависимых территорий. Первым русским князем, посетившим Каракорум, стал Ярослав Всеволодович - здесь он получил ярлык на великое княжение. Воспоминания о столице Монгольской империи оставили и европейские дипломаты. Среди них самые известные принадлежат итальянскому монаху Плано Карпини.

Впрочем, золотой век Каракорума продлился недолго. Уже во время правления Хубилая столица империи была перенесена. В конце 14-го века город был разорён китайскими войсками. Жители вернулись сюда лишь в 16-м веке, новые дома строились на руинах старых. В наше время население города составляет 9 тыс. человек. Старый город объявлен объектом всемирного наследия ЮНЕСКО.

Завоевательные походы великого хана

1205−1227

Государство Си Ся

Часть жителей (тангутов) была истреблена в ходе осад и разорений городов. Оставшиеся ассимилированы монголами.

1211−1234

Империя Цзинь

Часть феодалов перешла на службу к монголам. Императорская династия прекратила своё существование. Местные жители, оставшиеся в живых, ассимилированы.

1216−1224

Средняя Азия (Кара-киданьское государство, империя Хорезм)

Многие жители были уничтожены (особенно пострадали Бухара, Самарканд, Мерв). Оставшиеся в живых, однако, не испытывали культурных, языковых и религиозных притеснений. Тем не менее монгольское нашествие на долгие годы затормозило экономическое и культурное развитие региона

1220−1224

Поход Джэбэ и Субэдэя

Из-за малочисленности отряда, монголы действовали осторожно, стремясь избежать серьёзных боевых столкновений. Поэтому народы Кавказа, завоёванные по итогам похода, пострадали меньше, чем их предшественники.

Чингисхан скончался в 1227 году. После этого все походы (в том числе, знаменитый Западный, в ходе которого монголы установили контроль над русскими княжествами) проходили в эпоху правления его сыновей.

Завещание Чингисхана

Уже при жизни великого хана масштаб территорий, оказавшихся под контролем Монгольской империи, поражал воображение. Такого обширного государства мир не знал со времён Римской империи. Если последняя держалась за счёт развитой бюрократии и мощной военной машины, то будущее империи кочевников изначально находилось под большим вопросом. Если примеры похожих объединений и были в истории, то они значительно уступали монгольскому опыту по территории, да и существовали не больше одного поколения.

Видимо, Чингисхан, ещё не ставший великим ханом, учитывал эти риски. До курултая 1206 года он провёл ряд реформ, связавших военное и административное деление страны. Сам съезд племенной знати, на котором Темучин подтвердил свой статус главного монгола, закрепил переход к империи. Однако оставался вопрос о том, как будет развиваться страна после смерти великого хана. Государство, которое держится лишь на имени и авторитете его лидера, существовать долго не могло.

У Чингисхана было восемь сыновей. Ко времени смерти хана активно действовали и его внуки. Было необходимо удовлетворить чаяния каждой ветви. Чингисхан завещал титул великого хана третьему сыну, Угэдэю. Остальные получили в управление различные части империи, которые впоследствии станут полунезависимыми улусами. Так, сам великий хан заложил основу для раздела своей обширной империи - хотя в условиях тех лет вряд ли Чингисхан мог избежать такой участи для своего детища.

[Сборник: Батый]

Завещание имело и политическую часть. Потомкам великий хан предписал продолжить дело своей жизни и двигаться дальше на запад. Оно было выполнено лишь частично. Его внук Батый действительно возглавил поход, в ходе которого монголы подчинили русские княжества. Однако кампания завершилась в Венгрии и на берегах Адриатического моря.

Спустя несколько десятилетий империя развалилась. Внуки Чингисхана начали гражданскую войну за наследие своего великого деда. Монгольское государство распалось на несколько мелких. Несмотря на это, каждый улус всё ещё оставался могучей политической и военной силой. Хубилай на востоке установил контроль над Китаем и пытался завоевать Японию. Батый на западе контролировал обширные степи и русские княжества, периодически грабя Польшу и Литву. Наследие Чингисхана жило долгие столетия и после его смерти.

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Завоевательные походы Чингисхана - история покорения Азии | Diletant

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Завоевания Темучина и его наследников растянулись на долгие десятилетия и привели к появлению на политической карте мира государства, которому не было аналогов в истории.

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1. Mongołowie (w Europie od jednego z plemion nazywani byli Tatarami) zamieszkiwali tereny środkowej Azji: Mongolii, Mandżurii i południowo-wschodniej Syberii. Były to obszary mało urodzajne. Podstawowym zajęciem Mongołów było pasterstwo. Prowadzili koczowniczy tryb życia w małych grupach plemiennych. Dodatkowym, acz bardzo dochodowym zajęciem były najazdy na bogate ludy i państwa w Azji, w tym również Chiny. 2. Postępujące rozwarstwienie majątkowe sprawiło, że w XII wieku posiadacze największych stad uzależnili od siebie pozostałych współplemieńców. W ten sposób powstawały tzw. ordy. Łączyły się one w większe jednostki plemienne, na czele których stał wódz (chan) mający do pomocy radę złożoną z przywódców poszczególnych ord. Na początku XIII wieku jeden z wodzów, Temudżyn, zjednoczywszy wszystkie plemiona mongolskie przybrał tytuł Czyngis-Chana (wielkiego wodza). Rozpoczęte przez niego podboje doprowadziły do powstania ogromnego państwa obejmującego swoją władzą tereny od północnych Chin po Morze Kaspijskie i Kaukaz. Jego następcy kontynuowali jego politykę dołączając południowe Chiny, przekraczając Wołgę i docierając do ujścia Dniestru oraz do Morza Arabskiego i Eufratu. Mongołom udało się również podporządkować Tybet i Birmę na południu oraz Ruś na północy. 3. Najazdy mongolskie prowadzone były z niewiarygodnym okrucieństwem. Niszczyli miasta i wsie, potrafili wymordować całe plemiona. Sukcesy Czyngis-Chan osiągnął głównie dzięki doskonałej organizacji wojska. Armia składała się wyłącznie z konnicy bez taborów, co umożliwiało bardzo szybkie przemieszczanie się i atakowanie z zaskoczenia. Wojownicy byli podzieleni na oddziały zgodnie z systemem dziesiętnym: na dziesiątki, setki, tysiące i dziesiątki tysięcy. Dowódcy byli hierarchicznie podporządkowani. Naczelny wódz nie brał osobiście udziału w walce, ale z tzw. wzgórza wodzów (jakaś wyniosłość terenu umożliwiająca obserwację pola bitwy) kierował poszczególnymi oddziałami. Mongołowie do perfekcji doprowadzili szybkie manewry polegające na nagłych atakach, pozornych ucieczkach i zwrotach. W czasie walki używali przyjęty od Chińczyków proch. Prowadząc wszechstronne rozpoznanie starannie przygotowywali bitwy. “Tymczasem ktoś z oddziałów tatarskich, nie wiadomo, czy ruskiego czy tatarskiego pochodzenia, biegając bardzo szybko tu i tam, między jednym a drugim wojskiem krzyczał okropne, zwracając do obu wojsk sprzeczne ze sobą słowa zachęty. Wołał bowiem po polsku: “Biegajcie, biegajcie”, co znaczy: “uciekajcie, uciekajcie”, wprowadzając Polaków w przerażenie, po tatarsku zaś zachęcał Tatarów do walki i wytrwania. Na to wołanie książę opolski Mieszko, przekonany, że to nie krzyk wroga, ale swojego i przyjaciela, uciekł i pociągnął do ucieczki wielką liczbę żołnierzy. Kiedy książę Henryk zobaczył to na własne oczy i gdy mu o tym donieśli inni, zaczął wzdychać i lamentować, mówiąc: “Gorze się nam stało”, to znaczy: spadło na nas wielkie nieszczęście”.
(J. Długosz, Kronika, za: M. Koczerska, E. Wipszycka, Historia 5, Warszawa 1993, s.229-30) 4. W 1240 roku Tatarzy zdobyli i spalili Kijów, uzależniając od siebie większość księstw ruskich. Dalszą ekspansję skierowali w 1241 roku w dwóch kierunkach: na tereny obecnych Węgier i na północne obszary środkowej Europy. Głównym celem było zdobycie Węgier, co zakończyło się całkowitym rozbiciem obrony i dotarciem Mongołów do Adriatyku i aż po Wiedeń. Wojska tatarskie wysłane do Polski miały odciąć ewentualną pomoc dla Węgrów. Rozbiły w bitwie pod Chmielnikiem rycerstwo małopolskie, zaś pod Legnicą rycerstwo śląskie i niemieckie pod wodzą księcia Henryka Pobożnego, który w bitwie poniósł śmierć. Po drodze Tatarzy spalili wiele miast i wsi, m.in. Sandomierz i Kraków (z najazdami Mongołów wiąże się wiele legend i wynikających z nich tradycji, na ziemiach polskich najbardziej znanymi są historie przerwania hejnału granego z wieży kościoła Mariackiego, czy poznańska legenda o królu kruków). Następnie uderzyli na Morawy, a potem połączyli się z głównymi siłami na Węgrzech. Nie doszło jednak do trwałego podporządkowania Tatarom Węgier czy ziem polskich. Sprawiły to zwyczaje tatarskie: dowodzący wyprawą Batu-Chan po śmierci wielkiego chana Vądeja, zgodnie z prawami ustanowionymi przez Czingis-Chana, musiał wrócić do stolicy Karakorum w Mongolii, w celu wybrania nowego władcy, czyli tak naprawdę aby wziąć udział w walce o władzę.
5. Mongołowie nie dokonywali w podbitych krajach dużych zmian. Nie zmieniali religii i obyczajów, najczęściej pozostawiali dawnych władców. Narzucali natomiast duże daniny na rzecz wielkiego chana (ludy osiadłe - w pieniądzach, koczownicy - w bydle). Wymagali również dostarczenia oddziałów wojskowych. Wszelkie nie wywiązywanie się z tych powinności lub próby buntu karali bardzo surowo likwidując nielojalnych lub powodując wyprawy represyjne. Tatarzy bardzo dobrze potrafili korzystać z doświadczeń i osiągnięć innych ludów. Nawet dokonując rzezi oszczędzano uczonych i rzemieślników, których wraz z rodzinami i warsztatami przesiedlali do Mongolii. 6. Od końca XIII wieku ogromne imperium mongolskie zaczęło chylić się ku upadkowi. Państwo, które było w dotychczasowej historii największym państwem świata nie było w stanie utrzymać jedności i centralnego zarządzania. Jednym z państw tatarskich utworzonym w wyniku rozpadu imperium mongolskiego była powstała w dorzeczu Wołgi Złota Orda. Jednak już w XIV wieku doszło do dalszego podziału na chanaty, z których szczególną rolę w dalszej historii Polski odegrał chanat Krymski. Ostatnim władcą mongolskim, który próbował odbudować imperium Czyngis-Chana był Timur Chromy zwany Tamerlanem. Uzależnił od swojej władzy tereny od Morza Czarnego i Kaspijskiego po Zatokę Perską. Jednakże działania przez niego prowadzone nie miały trwałych następstw i po jego śmierci imperium Tamerlana upadło.

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Império Mongol (1) - A história de Genghis Khan, o líder do Império Mongol

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Império Mongol (1) - A história de Genghis Khan, o líder do Império Mongol

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"...e a todos que encontrava ...uô, ô, ô, ô ...matava e queimava... rá, rá, rá, rá... era o mais temido dos mortais..." Este era o refrão da versão brasileira da música Genghis Khan, cantada pelo conjunto de mesmo nome. Exageros à parte, a letra da música tem um fundo de verdade.

Para construir e manter o seu império, o verdadeiro Genghis Khan, fundador do Império Mongol, fez uso constante da violência e da coerção. No entanto, o mesmo pode ser dito a respeito de praticamente todos os outros fundadores de impérios. O que chama a atenção, no caso de Genghis Khan, é o fato de ele ter conquistado um território tão vasto, que ia do Mar da China ao Cáucaso, com tanta rapidez.

Para isso, ele e seu exército realizaram uma série de massacres, matando milhões de pessoas e devastando áreas enormes. O mais incrível disso tudo é que os mongóis eram um povo nômade que desconhecia a agricultura e sequer tinha escrita. Eram nômades e viviam espalhados, sem um Estado que os unificasse.
Temudjin ou Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan nasceu provavelmente por volta do ano 1160 e morreu em 1227. Portanto, viveu cerca de 65 anos, apesar de algumas fontes mencionarem que ele tenha morrido com pouco mais de 70 anos. Os próprios mongóis não sabiam qual era a idade de Genghis Khan, o que não é de surpreender em um povo que não possuía escrita e, portanto, não registrava as datas de nascimentos.

Em todo caso, o que podemos afirmar é que ele morreu com uma idade bem superior à expectativa média de vida na época. Seu verdadeiro nome era Temudjin. Ele nasceu no noroeste da Mongólia, região que até o século 12 estava sob o domínio dos turcos. Naquela época, os mongóis estavam divididos em clãs e tribos, cada uma governada por um senhor ("khan") diferente.
Pai assassinado
Um desses senhores era o pai de Temudjin, cujo nome era Yesugei, também chamado de Kabul Khan. Esses senhores se impunham mais pela força bruta do que pela origem familiar e havia muita rivalidade entre eles. Quando Temudjin tinha mais ou menos oito anos de idade, seu pai morreu envenenado por membros da tribo dos tártaros.

Após a morte do pai, Temudjin e sua família foram abandonados pelo seu próprio clã e obrigados a sobreviver na estepe com poucas posses. A família era composta pelas duas esposas de seu falecido pai e por seus cinco irmãos (três deles filhos da mãe de Temudjin, que foi a primeira esposa de seu pai).

Segundo algumas fontes, o clã teria levado todos os cavalos e deixado Temudjin e sua família sem montaria, outras afirmam que o clã teria deixado uns poucos cavalos. Seja como for, a ausência ou quantidade insuficiente de cavalos dificultou ainda mais a sobrevivência da família na estepe.
Leite de égua
Os mongóis, que eram conhecidos como exímios cavaleiros, os cavalos eram valiosos como meio de transporte, instrumento de batalha (tanto para ataques quanto em fugas) e para o pastoreio. Além disso, as famílias mongóis tinham o hábito de consumir leite de égua.

A família de Temudjin acabou sobrevivendo da caça, da pesca e da coleta de frutos. Acredita-se que clãs solidários teriam feito doações à família, o que teria permitido que recuperassem a riqueza que haviam perdido. Como era hábito entre os mongóis, ainda criança, Temudjin foi treinado no manejo do arco e flecha.

Ele e os irmãos já disputavam a futura liderança do grupo. Assim, quando tinha cerca de 15 anos, Temudjin matou um de seus irmãos, filho da segunda esposa de seu pai, com uma flechada durante uma pescaria. Foi o primeiro de uma longa série de adversários que Temudjin eliminou.
Sequestro de mulheres
Entre os clãs mongóis, qualquer fato podia servir de motivo ou pretexto para lutas e vinganças. Os mais comuns eram sequestro de mulheres, roubo de cavalos e desacordo quanto à divisão dos bens saqueados em suas pilhagens.

Quando Temudjin tinha mais ou menos 20 anos de idade, sua esposa, cujo nome era Borte, foi sequestrada pela tribo dos merquitas. Tratava-se de uma vingança: a própria mãe de Temudijin era dessa tribo e havia sido sequestrada pelo pai de Temudjin. Para reaver a esposa, ele precisou da ajuda de dois aliados: Toghrul, líder da poderosa tribo dos caraítas, e de Jamuka, amigo de infância e chefe de um clã.
Gravidez suspeita
A batalha para reaver a esposa aumentou o prestígio e a influência de Temudjin sobre os povos da região. Ele conseguiu a esposa de volta, mas grávida. Dessa gravidez, nasceu Jochi, considerado o primogênito da família. No entanto, devido às circunstâncias, sempre pairaram dúvidas se Jochi era ou não filho de Temudjin. Apesar disso, ao que tudo indica, Temudjin jamais duvidou da sua paternidade e reconheceu Jochi como seu filho.

Depois de Jochi, a esposa de Temudjin teve outros três filhos: Chagatai, Ogedei e Tolui. Chagatai que pretendia suceder o pai, acusava Jochi de não ser filho de Temudjin. Para acabar com a discussão, o líder mongol escolheu como sucessor seu terceiro filho, Ogedei. Jochi morreu em 1226, um ano antes do pai. Alguns autores chegaram a especular que ele teria sido secretamente envenenado por ordem do próprio pai, mas a maioria dos historiadores descarta essa hipótese.
Alianças nada duradouras
As alianças entre os clãs mongóis eram momentâneas: o aliado de ontem podia se tornar o adversário do dia seguinte.

Após a vitória sobre os merquitas, Temudjin e Jamuka, seu antigo amigo de infância, passaram a disputar a liderança nas estepes. Por causa disso, em 1187, teve início uma guerra, quando Jamuka reuniu um exército e atacou o território controlado por Temudjin. Os que morreram durante a batalha tiveram mais sorte do que os que foram aprisionados: os comandantes do exército de Temudjin foram fervidos em caldeirões e o próprio Jamuka desfilou no campo de batalha com as cabeças de dois inimigos amarradas ao seu cavalo.
Morte aos traidores
Para escapar do inimigo, Temudjin refugiou-se na China. Foram quase dez anos de exílio. Anos mais tarde, os dois se encontraram de novo numa batalha. Ao perceber que seria derrotado, Jamuka fugiu. Durante a fuga, alguns de seus homens mudaram de lado, prenderam-no e o entregaram a Temudjin. Os traidores pensavam que agindo desse modo, seriam recompensados por Temudjin.

Estavam enganados, pois Temudjin não aceitava traições, mesmo que fossem cometidas contra seus inimigos. Ele ordenou que os traidores fossem presos e tivessem as cabeças cortadas. Jamuka teve sua execução adiada, para que antes pudesse assistir à morte de seus traidores.

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Império Mongol (1): A história de Genghis Khan, o líder do Império Mongol

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"...e a todos que encontrava ...uô, ô, ô, ô ...matava e queimava... rá, rá, rá, rá... era o mais temido dos mortais..." Este era o refrão da versão brasileira da m&uac