Why were the Mongols so effective?

„The Mongol Empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was the largest continuous land empire that has so far existed. At its greatest extent it stretched from Korea to Hungary, including, except for India and the south-east of the continent, most of Asia, as well as a good deal of eastern Europe. As a whole it lasted for well over a century, and parts of it survived for very much longer.” (Morgan, David: The Mongols. Second Edition. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA, USA, 2007, p. 5)

Hence, the question is how and why were they so effective in both military and political affairs?

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» SOURCES «

Jackson, Peter: The Mongols and the West, 1221-1410. Routledge: London, 2018.

Morgan, David: The Mongols. Second Edition. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA, USA, 2007.

Chambers, James: The Devil’s Horsemen. The Mongol Invasion of Europe. Cassell: London, 1988.

Twitchett, Denis (Ed.); Fairbank, John K. (Ed.): The Cambridge History of China. Volume 6. Alien Regimes And Border States, 907—1368.

Bachrach, Bernard S.; Bachrach, David S.: Warfare in Medieval Europe c.400-c.1453. Routledge: New York, 2017.

Swietoslawski, Witold; Poklewska-Parra, Zuzanna (translator): The organization of the Mongols’ War Expeditions in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. In: FASCICULI ARCHAEOLOGIAE HISTORICAE Fasc. XV, p. 33-38

France, John: Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300

Contamine, Philippe: War in the Middle Ages

Bradbury, Jim: The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare

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#militaryhistory #mongols #medieval

[HistoryMarche]

Oh you're diving into medieval times. Excellent work!

[HeiniSauerkraut]

you forgot the aspect that officers up to generals under Gengis Khan get promoted because of their skill and performance, not because of ther heritage. Its a major factor of their successful campaings, that the could rely on experienced and capable commanders. This stayed in contrast to the feudal practice of most of their adversaries.

[Bota]

You don't choose the steppe life, the steppe life chooses you :)

[HistoryGameV]

An interesting detail: The original black horsetail war banner, or tug, of Genghis Khan, survived in Mongolia until the great stalinist purges of 1937. As of today, the Mongolian military still uses tugs during ceremonial military acts.

[MilitaryAviationHistory]

03:34 Mongol Ju-88 in action - no wonder they were so effective!

[tallisrockwell]

To me the Mongols were the most interesting empire. Their power and logistical prowess at their peak are one of the most impressive feats in history. The British used their technological advances to overcome vulnerable peoples while the Mongols used their own brutal and very effective tactics to overcome an area larger then some continents while being more or less just as
advanced in technology as the people they conquered.

[justAlbert_]

So in a nutshell:
-high mobility
-discipline
-superior planning and tactics
-next to no reliance on supply lines

[Nabukadnezar]

Perfect work. But, "tactics" part may need some improvement. Note that, against shielded and armored infantry, horesback archery was not the main killer. In long initial skirmish stage of battle, Mongols used to divide their main force to many independent units, each made of 50-100 horse archers,  running all over the battlefield and attacking infantry formations from all angles and approaches, rear and flanks included, with their composite bows. This often does not have an immidiate effect over well protected infantry. But this is something Mongols can continue all the day, as they always had a number of camps in proximity, but still away from the reach of enemy infantry, where the tired men can rest, find food and water, change their tired mount, and replenich their arrows and bows. Even if the arrows are not an immidate danger for infantry, constantly being under pressure does have a certain influence. If you were an enemy infantry fighting a field battle against the mongol horsemen, you would constantly see dust from galloping horses around,  multiple groups of attackers appear out of the dust from all directions, rain arrows on your formation, and disappear before you can respond by your own ranged attack. This "pulsing"  attacks waves from multiple directions, makes it impossible to focus fire and the direction of your protective shield wall. It is inevitable under such pressure, that infantry units will change their array, replace their positions,  direction of shield Wall,  individually. That slowly but consistently drive them away from their battle formation. If this goes hours long, inevitably this will end up with units losing their deployments, crossing eachother in an unorganized way, losing their contact with unit commanders, and the huge formation becomes an almost unctrollable mass. This cancels all the advantage of a defensive infantry formation against the cavalry. At one point the infantry becomes disorganized enough, to be totally uneffective in stopping a well placed cavalry charge. Sometimes a real contact may not even necessary. An instruction of orderly retreat, or any maneuver may turn to rout en mass, even before a real engagement happens. The presence of the cavalry around may be sufficient. The trick is, after long skirmish, if the infantry still holds the ground, the well organized and diciplined cavalry can rapidly gather into one big formation that will hit weakest point of infantry who already lost its organization. The charge at the end of long skirmish must be short and safe contact that will certainly break the enemy formation. If you would have 5 horse per man, full cavalry army, you dont need to risk any other tactic and increase your casualities unnecessarily.

[Kurtownia]

I thought I'd wait until Bannerlord comes out, but Warband... here we go again.

[Kruppt]

I loved how you broke the Mongols down. I've read a number of books on them and still learned stuff from watching as always your informative and entertaining videos.

[roberttai]

This is an excellent summary of the arguments and points related to the success of the Mongol Empire. There is one point however, that was not stressed that I think is essential to the success of the Mongols and Chinggis Khan in particular, merit-based leadership and promotion. The Khan established a clear and consistent rule of merit-based promotion within the ranks of the Mongol Army and subsequently the auxiliary forces that the Mongol absorbed. There were many reports of former enemy forces that had joined the ranks of the Mongols that went on to reach high-level positions. In addition, there were also reports of non-Mongol soldiers taking the initiative as members of the Mongol Army, e.g. the first soldiers to breach the walls of Kiev were of Georgian background.

Regardless, your presentation was excellent. Thank you!

[robertmiles]

Because they didn't...




horse around.

[Wolfeson]

2:35 It is true that the Mongols did frequently use their mobility to deceive the enemy into believing they had more forces than they did. However, it should also be noted that, up until roughly the early Modern period, it was extremely common for all chroniclers to inflate the sizes of armies they documented, particularly enemy armies. For example, the Persian army at Gaugamela was reported by multiple (mainly Greek) sources as numbering roughly 1 million men, whereas modern estimates put its strength between 50, 000 and 120, 000. So those chroniclers "from outside the (Mongol) empire" were likely recording inflated numbers on their own anyway, regardless of the Mongols' tactics (lessening the shame of defeat by inflating the size of the enemy they faced).

[LumenP]

Certain units were certainly assigned light and heavy cavalry roles in battle, but an individual mongol soldier is relatively skilled with bow, saber, and lance. They also knew how to wrestle from horseback. Armor variety is pretty disparate, even amongst individual units, again, only specializing for a specific role in pitched battle. A Mongol warrior could accomodate either ranged cavalry or heavy cavalry roles equally, and individual initiative/leadership is encouraged. This is one of the major reasons why they were so flexible at warfare, but there is not nearly enough emphasis on these points when people talk about why they were successful.

[ninjasheep]

The Mongols found the op gimmick and exploited it. No gimmick was more broken until one man Army noob tubes.

[OtKerk]

I liked the quality of your work content-wise, also presentation and visualization. Great that you used even our decorative patterns in the corners of your screen. Thanks!

[MalleusSolum]

Easily one of your best videos so far. Interesting to see how the factors that create an effective military force are largely the same regardless of the time period.

[Ravangers]

WOW what a good video man. I've never seen such a well put out and referenced video i think. Big props. Watched a million mongol break downs, this is a must see imo for anyone interested.

[Waterflux]

I think geopolitics of the early 13th century worked spankingly favorably for Genghis and the Mongols:


1. China: divided into Jin (Jurchid), Xi-Xia (Tangut), and South Sung (Han) Dynasties. These three were preoccupied with one another, thus establishing a common front against the Mongols was highly improbable. The South Sung Dynasty even viewed the Mongols favorably as a means of countering the Jin Dynasty which was the arch-enemy of both the Sung and the Mongols. (Spoiler alert: but the South Sung Dynasty was eventually conquered by Khubilai Khan! :P ) The Xi-Xia was destroyed shortly before Genghis' death, while the Jin was conquered by Ogodei, Genghis' successor.


2. Korea: under the iron-fist of the Choe clan, a military family which became the center of power by a coup d'etat, while the kings were mere figureheads. However, this arrangement turned out to be a liability as the Choe clan concentrated their best military outfits to maintain the Choe clan's powerdom, rather than deploying them to defend Korea's northern frontier. However, it took the Mongols grueling six invasions to finally force Korea to capitulate. (More specifically, the Choe clan fought to the bitter end, not the kings, even at the expense of letting their subjects open to Mongol raids and massacres over again. The Choe clan knew too well that if the king submitted to the Mongols, then the Choe clan would become nonpersons, thanks the clan's illegitimate background.)


3. Central Asia: Khwarezm Empire rose rapidly at the expense of Kara-Khitai (which was previously established by the Khitans fleeing to the west in the wake of the conquest of the Khitan Liao Dynasty by the Jurchid Jin Dynasty). However, because the Khwarezm Empire had very little time to consolidate its rapid gains before stumbling upon the Mongols, the Khwarezm Empire dispersed its forces to garrison its rich cities rather than concentrating them against the Mongols. The Khwarezm royally pissed off Genghis by killing his envoys and looting his caravans which was loaded with the riches. Why send this caravan to the Khwarezm??? At that time, Genghis was preoccupied with defeating the Jin Dynasty, so he wanted to avoid a two-front war by establishing diplomatic and trade between the Mongols and the Khwarezm.


4. Middle East: the Crusades vs. the Eastern Roman Empire vs. various number of Seljuk Turk fiefdoms vs. the Abbassid Caliphate. Again, too preoccupied with one another to have put up a common front against the Mongols. (Flashback: the Muslims arose during the time when the Eastern Romans and the Persians were worn out from centuries of inconclusive wars!)


5. Eastern Europe: oh boy, the same crap again--i.e., so many polities, so many conflicts among themselves, unable to put up a common front against the Mongols. Meanwhile, the principalities of Rus was also under threat by the Swedes and the Teutonic Knights from the west which did not help the Rus' predicament. You have to wait until the time of Ivan the Terrible to see the beginning of Russia as a badass Eurasian empire that all of us are familiar with today.



Building an empire or a megacorporation share one trait in common: you must stumble upon windfall gains in order to become big. Hard work and being frugal help, but these two qualities alone are not enough if the level of your ambition is beyond becoming the head of a rich family.

[Erick_Bloodaxe]

Thank you for cover this topic. This is my favorite military history topic for the medieval era and I liked how you broke it down. I’d love to see you cover how the operational level controls like the right time tables enabled things like Subatai’s campaign in Eastern Europe which culminated in Mohi and Leignitz.