Alexander CekalaGenghis Khan Biography 2: The Khwarezmid campaign
Well yesterday I did a biography of Genghis Khan and so today I'm going to provide a little more detail of one of his campaigns
Background
Having united the Mongol nation and defeating the Kara-Khitais the Mongol Empire now shared a border with the Khwarezmid Empire. Genghis sought peace with its ruler, the Shah, seeing trading advantages with the country, but the Shah rebuffed the friendly advances and insulting Genghis.
This set the stage for the Mongol invasion.
The Invasion
Genghis, who had learned much about siege warfare from his war with the Chinese, split his army into three groups. One of his commanders, Jochi, was sent to the south, while Genghis attacked the city of Otrar, laying siege to it. The third army, headed by Jebe, was sent far to the south to cut of the possibility of the Shah retreating here.
Genghis's army advanced into the country and the Shah fled, soon meeting his death from natural causes. Genghis and Jochi's armies then converged on the city of Urgench, and despite heavy losses they took the city. They suffered badly during this battle due to the marshy ground surrounding the city and a lack of stones for siege engines. This meant that the Mongols had to take place in costly city fighting.
Tolui, Genghis's youngest son, was then sent westwards to gain control of the rest of of the country. After this capaign almost all of the Shah's army was defeated. The Shah's son, Jalal Al-Din gathered the remains of the army, but was defeated by the Mongol army.
The war was affectively over.
The results
Control of Khwarezmid gave the Mongol's access to other countries, including ultimately some central European powers. However, the war also caused a split between Genghis's sons and generations down the track this would greatly weaken the Mongol Empire.
Army structure
Mongol Warfare relied on its flexible, light cavarly.
Flexibility - By dividing his army into smaller and small structures Genghis gave it extreme flexibility to pursue different tasks effectively. A group of ten were unfied and structures so as to pursue small jobs and a group of 100 (10 such groups of 10) were organised for larger action. This continued with groups of 1000 being made up of 10 groups of 100 and so on.
Light Cavalry - The Mongol's light cavalry could feign retreats and be restructured and reorganised easier than European Knights becase of the fact that it was lightly armoured.
Meritocracy - Genghis believed in promotion based on merit, rather than based on belonging to an aristocratic class. This ensured he had incredibly skilled generals.
All of this ignores the extremely important roles that the Mongol tactics played in their victories alongside this structure, but unfortunately I'm running out of time. Maybe another day.
Tomorrow...
Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of history on the Vietnam war by dealing with the My Lai massacre.
Adam
Background
Having united the Mongol nation and defeating the Kara-Khitais the Mongol Empire now shared a border with the Khwarezmid Empire. Genghis sought peace with its ruler, the Shah, seeing trading advantages with the country, but the Shah rebuffed the friendly advances and insulting Genghis.
This set the stage for the Mongol invasion.
The Invasion
Genghis, who had learned much about siege warfare from his war with the Chinese, split his army into three groups. One of his commanders, Jochi, was sent to the south, while Genghis attacked the city of Otrar, laying siege to it. The third army, headed by Jebe, was sent far to the south to cut of the possibility of the Shah retreating here.
Genghis's army advanced into the country and the Shah fled, soon meeting his death from natural causes. Genghis and Jochi's armies then converged on the city of Urgench, and despite heavy losses they took the city. They suffered badly during this battle due to the marshy ground surrounding the city and a lack of stones for siege engines. This meant that the Mongols had to take place in costly city fighting.
Tolui, Genghis's youngest son, was then sent westwards to gain control of the rest of of the country. After this capaign almost all of the Shah's army was defeated. The Shah's son, Jalal Al-Din gathered the remains of the army, but was defeated by the Mongol army.
The war was affectively over.
The results
Control of Khwarezmid gave the Mongol's access to other countries, including ultimately some central European powers. However, the war also caused a split between Genghis's sons and generations down the track this would greatly weaken the Mongol Empire.
Army structure
Mongol Warfare relied on its flexible, light cavarly.
Flexibility - By dividing his army into smaller and small structures Genghis gave it extreme flexibility to pursue different tasks effectively. A group of ten were unfied and structures so as to pursue small jobs and a group of 100 (10 such groups of 10) were organised for larger action. This continued with groups of 1000 being made up of 10 groups of 100 and so on.
Light Cavalry - The Mongol's light cavalry could feign retreats and be restructured and reorganised easier than European Knights becase of the fact that it was lightly armoured.
Meritocracy - Genghis believed in promotion based on merit, rather than based on belonging to an aristocratic class. This ensured he had incredibly skilled generals.
All of this ignores the extremely important roles that the Mongol tactics played in their victories alongside this structure, but unfortunately I'm running out of time. Maybe another day.
Tomorrow...
Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of history on the Vietnam war by dealing with the My Lai massacre.
Adam
