okay um good morning today uh we will do gang Khan and the Mongolian Conquest now um as you know the Mongols have a terrible reputation for their brutality uh for U their atrocities um today I want to make the argument to you that what they did um given the circumstances given uh the constraints they were under was actually logical and understandable okay so that's the argument I will make to you uh today all right so the Mongols um the Mongols um as you know they are a step people um the step um are divided into the Western steps and the Eastern steps um and they TR they basically go from hungry in Europe all the way to uh what is modern day Mongolia and um as we discussed step culture is very different from agricultural culture that we find in um in the lavant in Anatolia mes Mesopotamia and in China in the grasslands the economy is what we call nomadic pastoral meaning they will raise cattle as their source of food and they will uh travel wherever there is grassland okay so they and because of their economy they have developed a certain culture they are extremely uh violent um their society their culture is based around violence and um there's a lot of competition uh Within These certain groups so um rather than think of these people as a as a um Nation or race of people it's better to think of them as a culture okay and for the longest time throughout human history they have been divided among many different uh tribes throughout human history the nomadic pastoral people of the steps have always been in conflict with the agricultural Empires um so in response the AG agricultural Empires China and the Persians they have built walls and and fortifications to counter their threat okay so as you can see the U Mongols will eventually come South and invade most of China um and historically the response has been the Great Wall of of China okay um but also in Central Asia the step people have been a threat as well and they have built fortified cities as a as response okay so even though the step people and their agricultural empires have always been in Conflict the Mongols have had a unique reputation in Western history as the most brutal as the most um as the most violent okay so the question we're looking at today is why were the Mongols unique in their brutality okay so um um there are lots of things that were said about the Mongols that we now know today were are not true okay so for example back in the day um they had a reputation for cannibalism um they ate their opponents they ate their enemies and we know that's not true today they also had a reputation for being devious so for example um when they approach an enemy they would hold the cross okay the cross is is a symbol of Christianity so their Christian enemies would see this and think that they are allies okay and only when they discovered that these are actually Mongols um but by then it was much too late okay so the Mongols had a reputation for being extremely uh devious um they had a reputation for wanting brutality they would destroy entire cities and kill all the people um um previously historians believe they killed about 65 million people um to today that figure is disputed okay but but if that but if that was the case then the Mongols killed more people than any other regime in uh human history before the 20th century um Daniel con is considered the greatest conqueror in human history so uh the the statistic that surprised everyone is one out of 200 males today um they are a direct descendant of gangas Khan so that's that's like 16 million people okay 16 million males in the world are direct descendants of um Gus Khan right so that is the reputation that the Mongols had for most of History and what I want to show you today is the Mongols are not unique among the steps people okay and the way they behaved uh there was a um strategy there's a logic to the way they behaved given the circumstances and constraints they found themselves um under okay so um as you know in this class the step people were the greatest conquerors in human history okay so they started with the yaya who um were based in the Ukraine area and we know the yaya who who are also referred to as the Proto Indo Europeans as well as the Aryans okay they spread throughout uh most of the western world so they went to Europe um and as we as you know they basically replaced entire male population of Europe and they intermar with the local woman to create um European culture they also went um South and conquered um Iran and India and then they went over to the uh Eastern steps as well so it's really important for us to remember and I I I know this is hard but the Mongol people they are culturally more similar to the um uh yamaya than they are to the Chinese even though genetically uh the Mongols may be more similar to the Chinese okay in this class we focus on cultural values rather than genetic Affinity okay so um over time what will happen to the Western steps is it will slowly acclimatize itself to the surrounding agricultural um Empires and slowly the Western steps will become integrated into the um the the agricultural into their agricultural neighbors so the example here is cfia okay so cfia is slowly um it's it's an Empire it's a step Empire but slowly it's about to integrate itself into what is modern day Eurasia okay um from the from the cians you you'll have arise something called the median Empire which will then give way to the Persian Empire over in the Eastern steps okay the um the step people come into conflict with the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty as we know from last class is really the last ethnically Chinese dynasty and they are intent on um a policy of eradication against the step people so they come in conflict with the step people who are now called the Shu okay and what this conflict will do is drive these people West okay and this is interesting for us because when they go west they will Splinter off into different groups when they go all the way to Europe they will be known as the Huns okay you may know Atilla the Hun well Atilla hun is what what's the leader of these people the Huns will drive um the the Western step people meaning the gos into the Roman Empire causing conflict with the Roman Empire okay and the goes will become the foundation of modern day Europeans um okay so this is the hunt Empire at its peak when it's in conflict with the uh Roman Empire um the step people the Huns will also give rise to um a bill called the gurk Empire okay and and they will sweep down and they will become the suic Turks uh which will um take over Mesopotamia and then eventually you will have uh emerged the Ottoman Empire from these people right so in other words the Mongol are just um the most successful iteration of the step people and their conflicts with the agricultural uh Empires so the Mongol Empire is the second largest empire ever in human history only the British Empire um had more land the Mongols were the largest contiguous Empire meaning meaning it was all it was all interconnected together all right um at its height the Mongol Empire extended from basically what is modern day Russia all the way to China okay the um the Empire that will take over the Mongols centuries later is the Russian Empire okay the Russian Empire will take over a lot of Mongol uh territory um because it is so large um after the death of gangas Khan and his son uh agade the Mong Empire will Splinter into four major um Empires okay and these four ma major Empires themselves will assimilate and integrate into the local culture um the golden horde will will eventually give rise to um the Russian Empire um the UN Dynasty will eventually fall and give rise to the Ming Empire okay so even though they conquer a lot of territory um ultimately their empire is not sustainable and later on I will explain to you why it was not sustainable and why ultimately ly the Mongol Empire declined but while it was still uh in place it created something called the Pax mongolica okay this is Latin for the Mongol peace uh you've heard of the Pax Romana we are now living in the Pax Americana okay so the Mongols created something called the Pax uh Monaga which is meant they believed in globalization they wanted their conquered Nations to trade with each other because they could CL they could collect taxes on the trade and they encouraged people especially Merchants to um travel across their empire and trade with each other and during this time a very famous um Italian Nam Marco Polo had a chance to visit the world um and his travels especially um uh those to China capture the imagination of Europeans this is really the first time that China figured into the European imagination okay so this is a map of um maro's travels okay and as you can see he basically traveled all across the PX uh Mongol Lea okay the problem though is that when you integrate the war like this you also give rise to disease so the black death um traveled all across the world okay so we believe the Black Death originated in Central Asia in in in a place we we call C kazakistan today and it traveled all over uh the Mongol Empire uh it made its way to Europe and it devastated Europe okay it killed um anywhere between a third to half of the entire population of Europe it traveled also to uh the former Islamic empire and it traveled to China but it was not as devastating okay it's very important for us to understand the black de was devastating for Europe but it was not that devastating for China and the Islamic empire and the reason why is sanitation and hygiene so in China and in in the former Islamic empire uh their cities were pretty well organized pretty wealthy pretty civilized but in Europe um their streets were literally filled with manure okay they had horses they didn't have sanitation people just threw um onto the streets and so like when you walk the streets they were literally covered with and in that sort of environment uh disease is spread very rapidly but the Black Death is important for us also because it will give rise to the Renaissance which we'll do next week okay so about the Black Death historians believe the Renaissance could not have happened uh the Black Death basically meant a reset of European society and it allowed um massive innovation in Europe okay so as you can see the Black Death was extremely devastating for Europe um um after the Mongols will come another great conqueror called Timmer the lane Timber Lane and he will be the last great conqueror from the steps after T after timin the agricultural Empires will develop the technology to repel the SE Invaders mainly gunpowder okay uh the technology and mass armies will overwhelm the step people and eventually um over time the agricultural Nations mainly Russia will start to colonize and conquer the steps right okay so look let's look at today at GS Khan who is the founder of the uh Mongol Empire okay um M gangs Khan will you first of all unite the Waring tribes of the Mongol people he'll turn them into a Confederation and then the Confederation will aim to conquer China but then it will come into conflict with the Central Asian Nations and so um gas Khan will embark on the Central Asian campaigns that are brutal he'll wipe out entire cities he'll he'll kill all the kill all in inhabitants he will lay the foundation for the Mongol conquest uh that will follow after him okay and again um after the death of his son oade the Mongols were split into four major factions and they will attempt to continue the legacy of Conquest but what happened is after they conquer the S Empire in 1279 they will attempt to conquer uh Japan and Vietnam and when they try to do so they will be repelled they try to conquer Japan twice um and even though the legend is that Japan was saved by the kamakazi right the great divine wind um I will show you that's actually not true um there's another reason why the Mongols sto invading uh Japan so in the East they they've reached the limit of their Conquest um they tried to conquer India as well but when they tried to do so they were repelled and historians argue about the reason why this why this is the case some believe it was because of the climate of India some believe it was because of some because the uh Southern of Delhi um had a organized and concerned response some other believe it was just internal fighting okay when they tried to reach Europe they will um try to conquer Poland and Hungary and even though they win every single battle against the poles and hungarians they will ultimately turn back and and that and that will be the limit of their Conquest in the west so the um um Mongolian fighting style is great when you fight in flat planes okay these are Horsemen with bows okay so um they're fast they can cover great great distances but when when when they try to reach Europe and Europe is thick forest right they really can't conquer that terrain one really stunning event is when they triy to conquer Egypt remember Egypt for the longest time was the wealthiest part of the Western World when they try to conquer Egypt they run into a people called the mamluks who fight very similarly to the uh Mongols in fact the the M the Mooks originally from the steps as well and for the first time uh the Mongols will be defeated militarily on the battlefield and this sort of destroys the aura of inevitability and invincibility that the Mongols had for the longest time okay and this will be the extent of their um Conquest in the west and after these conquests the Mongol Empire will try to rule their respective um Empires But ultimately they will fail okay and later on I'll explain to you why they were doomed to fail and the irony is the reasons that gave rise to the Empire are also reasons why the their empire ultimately collapsed okay okay so I want to first talk about gang Khan and so we don't know much about gang Khan what we do know comes from a book called The Secret history of the Mongols so it is a um oral history of The Life and Times of gas Khan and his son oade right now um the story in the secret history is suspicious and it's suspicious because it fits very well into the structure of Proto inder European myth all right so so let me show you how it's similar okay in the secret history gas KH um his mother um and and you know again they are in the molan grasslands his mother is about to be wet to her husband so she's in her carriage and she's along her along the way to her husband's tribe but along the way she is ambushed and kidnapped that's a very common thing in that culture the way that you obtain a wife is by stealing someone else's wife uh and so she she's forced to marry a stranger um but the stranger gangs Khan's eventual father dies when Ghan is 8 years old when the father dies the tribe abandons the mother and her young children so they're forced to offend for themselves um eventually uh the mother finds a way to find a supporting tribe and gets g con slowly finds mentors for protection um he eventually finds a mentor who becomes his best friend and this friend best friend's name is jamoka okay and and the two together um are great warriors and they conquer a lot of territory Terror together in fact when gas Khan's wife is stolen by a tribe the two will race off and get the wife back um but by this time uh gas Khan's wife is pregnant with another man's son gas raised the son as his own and he made the son here to his Empire which will cause great difficulties when gangas Khan dies okay but that just shows you the generosity um of this man eventually gangas Khan will run into conflict with jamoka and the two are competing for control of the Mongol World gas Khan kills him to um achieve his dominance and um um G Khan will overthrow the existing Mongolian social order basically all these top Chieftains all these top shamans he will kill in order to unite the Mongol people and bring about a new social order okay so that's the story that we we have from the secret history and that's very similar by the way to other U founding myths of other people like for example let's look at Rome okay so um remember last semester we discussed virtues in the okay and it's about the founder of Rome his name is enas enas is a prince of Troy and he has to watch the destruction of Troy he escapes the he escapes the sacking of Troy where everyone is killed but he gets lost at sea okay eventually he um stumbles under Carthage where he falls in love with a queen there named ditto but the God's the man that he leave he leaves D the woman that he loves and he's married and he does he betrays ditto who then kills herself then he goes to Italy where he has to fight a war in order to establish the children people uh on Italy and they will eventually give rise to the Roman people okay so it's so it's a very similar structure the story of gangs Khan let's go to another story uh from Rome so the founder of Rome is named ramulus who was direct descendant of inas um so two so there's a king uh um called n numor and his brother amelus USS the throne and once amelus USPS a throne he puts uh num's daughter into a temple and makes her a virgin okay but Mars the the war guard Mars visits her and impregnants her with twins numer demands the twins be killed and the twins are left alone by the um Tyber River okay and everyone thinks that they will drown but they are miraculously saved and a She Wolf nurses them and a Shepherd adopts them eventually they discover their true Heritage and they help their grandfather numerator um kill um his brother amas and restore the throne then the two go off to found their their own city which is Rome okay but there's going to be one king so the two fight and Romus kills his twin brother Remis all right and then Romus becomes Rome's first king which will eventually give rise to the greatest Empire in the European world all right so as you can see the structures are very similar so let's go over very quickly the structure and meaning of Proto Indo European myth the thing I want to remember is that what mythology ultimately is it's a collective subconscious of a culture okay by understanding mythology we can understand the fundamental values that underpin this culture so what is the structure we're looking at okay the structure is this first the God's favor of man with a Divine Mission but the man himself does not understand this Divine Mission okay the gods have picked this man for whatever reason this man must fulfill his Divine Mission and in the process he will suffer hardship to become as hard as a sword okay hardship makes you committed it makes you strong and to recognize his mission okay in the process he's asking he's asking himself why am I being persecuted why am I suffing so much and then eventually he will he will have an epiy he will recognize oh it's because the gods have a mission for me that I must fulfill that's why I'm that's why I'm suffering that's why I'm being persecuted it's to make me strong and committed okay and he will sacrifice his beloved love to prove his commitment to his Divine Mission okay this is really important in Proto Indo European myth the hero must always sacrifice his beloved so remember the story of gangas Khan he sacrifices he kills his best friend jamoka okay and you think okay what's a big deal well in that culture when tour are best friends they're not just friends okay they're basically lovers they have sex with each other and that's why uh they're such great Warriors together it's a very common thing so remember the Iliad where uh in the ilad hector kills Petrus and achilles um becomes so inrage that he goes and kills Hector okay so um why did Achilles become sore in Rage because Petrus was his best friend which at that time every everyone understood to mean Petras and achilles were lovers okay Achilles loved Petrus so when G Khan killed jamaka he was basically killing the man he loved the most in this world okay that's a very important part of portal endur European myth you have to show your commitment by making the ultimate sacrifice which means killing the person you love the most and once he does that he will Shadow the old world to build a new one okay that is divine Mission the gods do not like this world they want a flood to destroy this world in order for the world to be made a new and this man the Messiah he is the one who will shatter the old world he's the world shatterer okay he is the flood sent by the gods all right so that's a basic structure of Proto indoeuropean myth and we and when we understand this now what we can do is understand the power of the Jesus story within Christianity why is Christianity the most uh influential and popular religion in the world it has to do with the story of Jesus okay in the story of Jesus according to the gospel of Mark let's look at the structure okay it's very similar to portal Indo-European mythology Jesus has a secret Divine Mission okay he's sent by God or he is god um come who's come to redeem the world he must s suffer persecution and doubt okay so everyone doubts who he is no one knows who he is he's laughed at he's mocked okay he then is sacrificed to wake the world he kills himself or he is sacrificed so that everyone knows how much God loves them and with God sacrifice the cycle of violence ends and a new history begins okay so in Proto Indo European myth what's important is that you kill your beloved but the founding myth of Christianity is no I kill myself to show you that violence is terrible okay once God has killed himself once God has sacrificed himself it means that all violence now must cease the cycle of violence the cycle of using violence to redeem the world to cleanse the world must come to an end okay and that's the very idea foundational idea of Christianity and so what Christianity is doing it's very clever is it's seeking the collective subconscious that's embedded in every individual and imp planting a new idea within the subconscious that grows and grows okay it's almost like a virus until people recognize that violence is bad protal Indo-European mythology celebrates violence right Christianity um belce violence is the worst thing okay so so so let's um sorry um this is a bit okay all right anyway I'll I'll I'll just read it to you okay so this is the ending of Mark okay then Jesus gave a loud cry and breath his laughs okay so he's been sacrificed he's died and the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom the temple is the temp second temple in Jerusalem where Yahweh is and at the very top of this Temple is a room called the holy of the holies that's where God lives and the curtain is what um hides uh God from the world okay so when Jesus dies the curtain now is torn in half meaning God is now released into the world which mean which means that everyone now has access to God God is now on Earth okay now when the Centurion the soldier who stood facing him saw that in this way he breed his last he said truly this man was God's son so the first person that Jes Jesus revealed himself to was a Roman soldier the first person that recognized the truth of Jesus and the power of His sacrifice was a Roman soldier who's always been taught that violence is the answer to everything and once he's converted he re he he recognizes that violence is wrong and evil okay so that's a power of um this mythology okay does that make sense for you guys all right so now I want to look at real history okay because this is mythology and what I want to do now is show you that gas Khan fits into the a pattern of a great conqueror if you look at all the great conquerors of human history and I'll list four right now okay s of Aid Philip of Mason Julius Caesar and gas Khan you will see they are very very similar okay so let's get S Arad remember um before in Mes in Mesopotamia it was divided into the Samaran city states that wared with each other and these these were walled cities because these were walled cities they couldn't really conquer each other okay s of aad figured out a way to conquer everyone and build the first Empire in world history called the Acadian Empire so we don't know much about him but this is what we know first of all he was probably a mercenary okay it's very common back then um to be a mercenary because the city states were at war with with each other always he was a cup Bearer to the king or Zaba of Kish Kish is one of the city states in Samaria now guys cup Bearer is a very important position a cup Bearer means that when you're at the king and you have a feast and a or a festival for your people the cup beer is a man who stands beside you and pours you the alcohol the wine right which means this is the man you trust the most so what does it mean for S aad to be a cup Bearer well it probably means that they were lovers the king and Sargon were lovers who loved each other deeply okay but that doesn't prevent Sargon from killing the King and taking the throne which starts this massive war in the city states in which um Saron will eventually Triumph okay um well so the thing about Sargon is he is really good at uh winning the favor of mentors right and ultimately he will betray mentors in order to achieve his ambition well that's also true for Philip of Macedon so um Philip of Macedon he is a prince of Macedon and at this time in the Greek World thieves was a dominant military power thieves defeated maedon in a battle and thieves demanded hostages so Philip was sent as a hostage to thieves where he is now mentored by the greatest military strategist all this time named IIM my noce okay and so Philip II is learning how to win battles he's learning all the major military innovations of this time from the greatest general of this time and then what he will do is he will return to Macedon reorganize the Macedon Army and then take them to conquer thieves as well as the entire uh Greek world at the Battle of Shia okay well this pattern is also true for Julius Caesar in this at this time which about like 50 uh BCE in Rome pompe the great is the greatest General he's the man that everyone admires he has most Bal power so what julus Caesar does is he's he marries his daughter to pomp the great and this forms a polical alliance between the two pomp the great grants him um generalship of the province of Gul where Julius Caesar will win military Glory okay it basically establishes the power Prestige and fame of Julius Caesar and this will start a Civil War in which um Julius Caesar will defeat his mentor Pompei at the Battle of farcas okay very similar pattern well the same is also true for gangas Khan he is mentored by two Chieftain jamaka and too and he will defeat both in order to gain leadership of the Mongol world so it shows you how ruthless and ambitious these great Congress are but at the same time let's remember this Philip II had a really talented subordinate in parmenion parmenion was really uh the person in charge of the Macedon Army in fact it was penan who was most responsible for ACC the great conquest of Persia okay uh Julius the Julius Caesar had a talent sub subordinate in Titus lainus who was responsible for his victories in Gul and then gas Khan had a talent subordinate in superai who was considered one of the greatest military strategist um ever okay and so what this tells us is they're able to have they're able to exercise tremendous judgment in people they know who to trust they know who not to trust they know who is talented and who is not talented they know how to how to win the loyal of the subordinates okay that's a very impressive skill and then the question then is how is it possible that they are ruthlessly ambitious at the same time they're able to delegate power in a very effective Manner and the answer is they all believe they have a Divine Mission their goal is not to conquer the world their goal is to change the world for the better as demanded by the gods does that make sense that's the only way we can understand this each in their own way believe they are the Messiah sent by the gods to Shadow the world so that so that it can be built a new okay and that's what drives them to kill their beloved and that's what drives them to um um do what they do okay um all four ultimately they are able to conquer the world because they develop a professional meritocratic and Innovative Army okay what does professional mean it means that look at Saron the great a Saron of akid at this time there were no professional soldiers um most people were farmers and you only fought off season okay you might fight two three months of the year sgon of aad um was the first to say nope we will have professional soldiers everyone else will pay taxes in order for me to uh pay my professional Army but these are professional soldiers they are full-time um soldiers at War okay uh meritocratic means the system before was the nobility always had a priority the nobility was always right and a s of aad made the system more open and fair and mraic so if you were talented and you were Brave you could rise within the ranks of the army regardless of your heritage um and your background Innovative means they were always adapting and learning so s Aid was able to conquer the subaran city states which again were walled by adopting Siege Warfare which was unheard of before okay and the same is true for Phillip Julius Caesar and gangas Khan right so again gangas Khan fits into a pattern here of what these great conquerors look like does this make sense to you guys any questions so far all right let's continue okay so um now I want to discuss why the Mongol did what they did okay why do the Mongols commit so many atrocities what was the logic or reasoning behind their brutality all right all right in order for for me to do so I'm going to introduce you to you today a new an analytical model called Game Theory okay the idea of game theory is this all human reaction can be perceived as a game in which two people at least two people are playing and they're trying to to defeat each other okay so if example let's just say you know um these two guys are um fighting each other okay they want to kill each other now according to Game Theory each person has a distinctive optimal strategy okay it's called optimal strategy optimal strategy is given the constraints of your circumstance what is the best way for you to win okay so if you're the big guy okay this is the big guy he wants the game to be fair which is like let's just arrange to fight at a certain time and we'll fight okay and he and he he wants to uh use this strategy because he is most likely to win but if you're this guy a small guy right let's call him a and you're fighting B you don't want to do that because you're bound to lose so what you do is you figure out a time when uh be is most vulnerable maybe when he's asleep or he's eating and you attack him then okay you basically have to cheat in order to win so each individual has a distinctive optimal strategy all right now this sounds easy but it's not because often there are multiple players in the game okay so you have C and you have D and when when you have multiple players in the game you have to think about about alliances in coordination okay so it's possible that A and D will form Alliance to attack B which will force B and C to form an alliance okay but once maybe um C and B kill off d then a and c will form a lines to kill off B okay so what this tells us is not only does each person have an optimal strategy given the constraints um of the game but this op strategy will change according to the circumstances all right also what's important for us to remember is that there are there always these external um constraints external constraints might be just weather or weapons or whatever okay so Game Theory sounds easy but it's extremely complicated because you always have to switch perspective in order to better understand why this person is doing what he or she is doing okay does that make sense all right so let's look at um Game Theory and apply it to the Mongols okay remember the Mongols are a Borderland people and they're fighting Empires and remember with you if you're Borderland okay Borderland Empire you have three distinct advantages okay you have energy um you're open and you're opportunistic okay these are the three advantages that you have as a Borderland people like the Mongols as an Empire your feor advantages are mass you have a lot of people you have organization you have death okay so um it seems so so again given the strengths it is not that um easy to determine who will win okay but we're trying to figure out the mentality of the Mongols okay we know the Mongols have these three strings and they're trying to defeat the Empire which has these three strings at the same time we have to remember the among themselves have three fundamental weaknesses that they must compensate for if they are to win okay so let's go over their major constraints the first constraint that they have is extremely low population okay there are not that many of them in fact they're often outnumber often 100 to1 and so that's a major constraint um at when when g tom was alive at his height he had anywhere between 100,000 100,000 to 200,000 troops okay okay the second constraint is the idea of distance and geography what I mean by that is the Mongols have to fight over huge territory because Central Asia Asia is a huge uh land right and this is problematic because of supply issues supplies what this means is if you are the Mongols the thing that you cannot ever fight is a war of attrition a war of attrition just means a long war in which in which you're trying to deplete the other person's resources if you're the if you're the Mongol the worst thing that can ever happen to you is if you're stuck in a war of attrition if the siege is too long or the war lasts for too long okay because eventually you'll run out soldiers so that's what the Mongols fear the most okay so distance the last thing this is really important is governance governance just means the Mongols are nomadic people who do not know how to govern other people so they don't be stuck in a situation where they're forced to govern other people okay does that make sense and what this means is the idea of whole territory when you conquer a new land what you usually do is you put in place a new regime they can't do that because they don't have the Personnel for that okay they often don't even have the personnel for Siege Warfare but what they will do is recruit Chinese Engineers um Indian engineers in in order to implement Siege Warfare okay but bureaucrats are very hard to um compensate for okay so these are three fundamental weaknesses of the Mongol system low population they have to fight uh long distances and therefore they have have to worry about supplies and they don't know how to govern other people okay and if we do this okay if we look at what the strengths are and we look at what their fundamental constraints are then we can figure out what their optimal strategy is okay so this is the optimal strategy for the Mongols the first is escalation dominance okay escalation dominance is this okay there there's a concept um in political science called es escalation ladder the escal escalation ladder I mean it's a very simple concept it means like violence always escalates so for example um I get into an argument with someone okay well what first happens is we start to argue but then eventually this argument becomes more much more heated we start to push each other okay then then I might throw a punch he throws a punch back then I might bite him he might bite me back um I might pull out a knife he might pull a gun okay this called escalation ladder okay violence has to happen over time okay and this is fine if this is fine but the problem is what if you're fighting multiple people at once right so what you want to do is show other people that you are more dominant okay so if you insult me I'll put a gun on you and I'll shoot you okay that's the idea of escalation dominance I always have the capacity to inflict more damage on you than you could ever possibly inflict on me okay and that's why the Mongols did what they did so what what what often happen is the Mongols would send um a trade delegation to an Nation to negotiate a trade deal and the nation um Pro usually in Central Asia um they would kill all the delegation in order to insult gas Khan in response genas Khan would send his army to destroy the entire city burn down the city and kill everyone okay this is the idea of escalation dominance you have to prove escalation dominance if you are to um to be a viable threat to everyone okay so that's the first idea escalation dominance second idea is the idea of Terror or what we call psychological warfare if you are badly outnumbered in Warfare then you have you have to make people afraid to fight you okay if you cannot govern people if you don't know how to properly manage people you have to make people afraid to Rebel Okay so the Mongols were notorious for psychological warfare so for example what they would do is this they would conquer some territory and to ensure the villagers would not ever Rebel they would send one Mongol Soldier into the village okay this is one soldier and there might be a thousand villagers and then what this Mongol Soldier will do is randomly kill some villagers he'll say hey you guys come over here line up and he starts killing people randomly okay and if the villagers ever Rebel and kill him then the Mongol will come and kill everyone in the village all right so that's the idea of Psych psychological warfare but the Mongol do this do this to do this to themselves as well okay so the Mongols have a system where units are divided into units of 10 okay so 10 soldiers um and then these 10 soldiers times 10 will make up a unit so what would happen is this if ever in a battle um one soldier ran away from Battle all of the people in these units would be um executed okay but if if one unit ever ran away then the next unit 100 of them would all be executed okay so this gives everyone incentive to make sure your fellow Soldier does not run away okay so the Mongols had psychological warfare not just for other people but also for themselves that's just the way the Mongols fought and they had to fight like this given the fact they were great outnumbered and they had to win quickly against their um enemies right does that make sense okay and the last thing which is the most important is they had to create an aura of inability and invincibility at this time time people were literally telling people these Mongols are not human they are demons they have come from Tartus and and that's where where we get the name Tartus they have come from tartous hell in order to kill everyone okay these are demons guess what guys the Mongols wanted this reputation okay they everything they could in order to promote this reputation because it gave them an aura of inevitability and invincibility they could not be defeated there's no point in trying to defeat them so let's just give up okay and most did most said like the Mongols were able to conquer so much Terror so fast because they had this Aura of inability and invincibility and most people just gave up they just PID tribute if you didn't do so then they would use escalation dominance and Terror to um kill everyone okay and they would send refugees all around the world so everyone would know about the ferocity and brutality of the Mongols okay does that make sense guys so in another words I had to say this but according to Game Theory everything the Mongols did made complete uh sense okay in fact it's their optimal strategy okay given the circumstances given the constraints what they did was completely logical and reasonable even though it resulted in the deaths of of T tens of millions of people okay does that make sense all right okay so then so now let's discuss why their Empire collapsed all right so there's a fundamental weakness in the entire Mongol optimal strategy approach it's a great strategy if you are trying to conquer the people but when you're trying to govern them okay it's an issue all right so um as we discussed the Mongols are great warriors uh like all step people because of their cultural values this is a culture okay that emphasizes three things first is freedom second is egalitarianism okay and the third is self-reliance okay so rather than think of the Mongol the Army as a Empire or organization it's more like a confederation people choose to join this confederation because of the immense rewards that can be achieved through Conquest okay um so this is a culture that values freedom egalitarianism and self-reliance and therefore it makes great warriors the problem though is the cultures they conquer were extremely extreme hierarchies all right where you have maybe the emperor at the top a bureaucracy and then peasantry at the very bottom so the vast majority were peasants okay now um I know this is hard for us to understand but the reason why the Mongols were able to conquer these Empires were almost a contempt for these Empires does that make sense guys the Mong AB no respect for these Empires they thought they were weak they thought they were corrupt and um decadent okay so so the Mongols were able to conquer them okay does that make sense there's a contempt for them the contempt is this the M underlying the optimal strategy of the Mongols is a concept that never existed in human history before and the concept is this people are an infinite resource okay so throughout most of human history people were the most valuable resource there wasn't that many of people around therefore you have to treat people nicely if you want to maximize their productivity okay but where were the Mongols based they were based in East Asia they were based in China basically and in China because of the Empire people were treated like an infinite resource you could Massacre them you could send them off in human W attacks it didn't matter because they were an infinite resource and this idea never existed before in human history and in the Western World this concept is radically revolutionary it was UN imagable like you could do this so remember Julius Caesar even though he um when he conquered Rome he wasn't intent on masing people why because people could be sold as slaves that was the main way he made his fortune by selling the GS as slaves right but if you believe that people are an infinite resource then you don't want them as slaves okay you want you want to kill as many people as possible in order to inflict Terror okay so that that's the issue with the Mongols first of all their value system did not lend itself to um governing a hierarchy they didn't know how to and they didn't want to also much more problematic was their contempt for the local culture okay if you have contempt for local culture you're going to have problems managing the people so in China during the UN the Chinese um there's a class system the Mongols were at the top and the uh Chinese were at the very bottom okay the foreigners were sort of in between and that just shows you the Mongol contempt for for Chinese people and that's why ultimately uh the Chinese people rebelled against the Mongols right now eventually the Mongol leadership would recognize this problem and they were try to adopt um a Chinese style bureaucracy but a bureaucracy and we discussed this comes into conflict with the nobility okay nobility the nobility is intent on maintaining the Mongolian culture they do not want to assimilate but the emperor recognized you have to assimilate if you are to have this Empire and because they couldn't agree the nobility and the emperor couldn't agree ultimately it led to the collapse of the Mongol Empire okay all right so that's the history of the Mongols any comments any questions I I I I know Doug is can you I don't have any questions yet though but but but but do do you want do you want make a comment because I I know you've stud the Mongols quite in in detail I'm kind of scared this is on YouTube it okay okay all right yeah all right so yeah it's fine okay any questions guys like I know this there's a lot to take take in so um you know ask questions tell me where areas you are confused by okay I got I I got a question okay so so a few lessons ago yep you talked about if there was a a viking University you would definitely want to go to that yeah right because like in the Viking world you it's all about Freedom equality and self reliance right yeah so the Vikings might be running harder but uh um the Mongol University might be be the Oxford yeah yeah got any any sympathies one way yeah that's a great question okay that's a great question Vikings versus Mongols okay um okay all right so um the Vikings and the Mongols all come from the Proto Indo-European culture what we know about culture is that it's very fluid and it will change over time and it will adapt itself to the local cultures okay and so the Vikings were in Europe and the Mongols are near China okay and um I have to say like um I think if I wanted to be a viking or Mongol I prefer to be a viking okay and the reason why is the Vikings never really um adopted a belief that people were an infinite resource they couldn't because Europe was very poor um and the Vikings regardless even though they were brutal they still had respect for their opponents they never developed a contempt for their opponents they're surrounded by the byzantines the Muslims and the Europeans and these were great warriors so the Vikings felt they had a lot to learn from these cultures and in fact ultimately the Vikings will assimilate themselves into these cultures in different environments okay so um um um the Mongols are different though the Mongols are based in East Asia and they did ultimately adopt a belief that people are an infinite resource and they had tremendous contempt for Chinese culture okay and um that changes you as a person when you believe that um people are infinite resource and you are contemptuous of other cultures it also in a way um makes you contemptuous of yourself if that makes any sense okay um and so ultimately that's why the Mongols were not able to uh even though they had tremendous wealth they didn't really produce um cultural monuments we don't have like like the Vikings I mean as I mentioned the Vikings were fundamental development of Western Civilization the Mongols were not fundamental development of any civilization I mean they caused a lot of havoc and they were great conquerors but they didn't leave a rich cultural Legacy so and I I think I think it has to do with the belief like people are an infinite resource okay um so I would PR much prefer to be a viking I I would much prefer to be enslaved by a viking than than than a Mongol like like if I I if I were a slave I would R much rather be a slave to a viking than a Mongol okay if I were a slave to a viking the Vikings would at least become my friend they'd be like hey tell me about your culture are there any stories that you can tell us okay and if you a great Storyteller then they would make you um they would treat you very very nicely because because you're helping them learn more about your culture okay the M have absolutely no interest in other cultures they're interested in conquering and exploiting other people all right I could be wrong all right and and I'm probably making these crash generalizations but I believe with the Vikings there's a gener curiosity about the world that comes from a general respect of other cultures whereas the Mongols were not curious about the world they were intent on conquest and enslaving other people and exploiting other people okay they were predators and again um that could be my Prejudice but but based on my readings so far that that would be my um uh belief but please change my mind sounds good sounds good okay all right thanks for the question okay great great question and any other question or or or or sorry sorry so population okay so the Mongol population is Loosely defined okay do you understand uh it's it's hard to say who's Mongol and who's not Mongol because that that entire area has a similar culture and it's it's very hard to figure out where the where the borders are okay like yeah okay great question okay yeah so you're right so the Mongols are um a low population so why would they believe that people are infinite resource the answer is because they are always in contact with China okay so the Mongol were always in contact with China and as and as I mentioned they're all the interaction happens in three ways okay the Mongols are working as either mercenaries for dynasties in China or they are trading okay or they're raiding and pillaging okay so uh for centuries there's been contact between China and the Mongols so where did the Mongols learn the idea that people are infinite resource well they learn it from China right and and why why why they learn from China because Chinese Warfare was also predicated on the belief that people were an infinite resource does that make sense so B basically the entire um idea of warfare in China is I organize this presentant Army I throw throw on my opponent okay and if my entire Army dies guess what I'll just go and I'll raise another pres Army and for my opponent again okay it's it's it's it's it's like human WF attacks okay we call this human Waf attacks this was this was pioneering in China okay and the Mongol just took it and used it everywhere else right so if you're if you're the Mongols and you're used and you're fighting this enemy and they're just fting these peasant at you and you're killing them all but they don't no one cares because because then like a month later another pres Army comes at you okay you quickly adopt the idea like people are infinite resource right does that make sense I think they were also pretty not the right word were pretty loose in terms of like who could be a or not so it could absorb different populations that's right yeah depends that's right um yeah the Mongols um were very open Society like like if you had a benefit to their society and so for example if you're a Chinese teacher or a Chinese scholar or a Chinese engineer or a Chinese Merchant they would quickly assimilate you okay um and then they would kill everyone else okay so um they're a pretty open Society okay so so does that make sense okay great any more questions yes okay great okay all right so let's talk about mythology right so again if you actually studying mythology what you recognize is there's a structure that's very similar across many different cultures right so if you look at Greek if you look at Roman uh Norse Mongolian okay I I could go on and on and on um there is a very similar structure even though the characters might be different okay but but but it's it's a mythology that celebrates violence and individualism um as a way to remake the world okay it's upate strength individualism violence so why is that the case and it's it's about culture cultural values so um as as I discuss in this class culture cultural values are the most persistent part of who you are why because it's part of your subconscious okay there's a conscious you and there's a subconscious and ultimately you are your subconscious and subconscious is composed of your cultural values okay this is the essence of who you are so even though the portal Indo Europeans they were going into different environments and they were assimilating themselves into different environments and they look physically different culturally subconsciously they shared a similar value system and this value system will then go on to inform the way they perceive the world their worldview and this worldview will then man man manifest itself through mythology which will eventually become literature okay okay does that make sense so they might have changed clothes um they might have changed the hair color but their soul was still Proto indoeuropean okay and the same the same is also true for language and that's why um and that's why so many words um repeat themselves in different languages okay okay all right does that make sense okay great any more questions okay all right okay great so um next class we will go back to Europe we will do the Crusades which will then take us to the Renaissance and the reformation and the C Revolution okay