The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler. Volume 4, The Medieval World.

Episode 67 The Mongols Part 1. Oh, The Mongols come across in history generally as somewhat mysterious

as they created one of the greatest empires in world history, but they did not start out as a modern nation state within a

neighbourhood of other nation states which is typical of some of the great

empires that we already know about through this podcast such as the Macedonian Empire

of Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire and the many Persian and Chinese empires.

However what we do know is that the partially or fully

nomadic societies of the steplands that stretched from Europe in the west to

the Pacific coast in the east were able to take control of great expanse of territory.

There are a number of reasons for this.

The steplands are predominantly open grassland territories that are not hindered by mountainous terrain or large areas of woodland.

The nomadic societies had to remain mobile to be able to track large herds of animals

which would contribute to their diet and so they mastered the art of being able to move in large numbers at speed, especially thanks to the

presence of horses in their area of the world and their ability to domesticate them and utilise them.

They were also tribal and competitive for resources, meaning that they would also master

horsemanship to give them a speed advantage when doing

battle with one another.

General speed, adaptability and battle hardiness meant that they could shock established nation states

who had settled into a rigid way of existence with a uniform military that we used to operating under strict organized

instruction rather than being able to wage effective war at the drop of a hat.

The world realized the abilities of the step culture's peoples more than ever

when the Mongols decided to expand from their heartlands in the 13th century.

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