Mongols Military Traditions - Research Paper Example

? MONGOLS MILITARY TRADITIONS Number March 8, OUTLINE MONGOLS MILITARY TRADITIONS I. INTRODUCTION II. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION III. CULTURE IN THE MONGOLS MILITARY A. Social influence B. Organization and weapons C. Advantage and disadvantage of the culture IV. MONGOLIAN POLITICS A. Prior empire division B. controlling capital and split of the empire C. Army organization V. RELIGION INFLUENCE A. Different faiths B. Buddhism VI. CONCLUSION Introduction The Mongolian power and ability to lead can be traced back from the 5th century and stretches along to the 16th century at its empire’s decline, having been able to conquer numerous lands and their armies to add them as part of their territory. The Mongol people had historically transformed from hunters and gatherers to nomadic herdsmen, and adopted numerous religious faiths within the leadership and its pollution, due to the vast interaction with people from neighboring territories. There is always an argument over the success of the Mongols army torn between quantity and quality in their functions, but the fact remains that they were well equipped and skilled for any conquest, being contributed by their geographical locations and effective political leadership to coordinate the military. The military force was organized effectively to accomplish the objectives of the empire; the Mongols culture, politics, and geographical locations played a big role to shape the strategic intelligence of the military, though the religious freedom among them paved way for the expansion of the empire as well as its decline. Geographical Location Mongolia is historically known to have been situated in the northern area of China and on the East of the Altai Mountains. 1The region was a high plateau, covered with grass, which was sufficient for their herds grazing and associated with the successive emergence of ancient Mongolia tribesmen, to attack their sedentary neighbors. Therefore, as a way of life, the Mongols people were used to operating in the open grassland field that stretched from central parts of Europe into Asia. From the experience of horse riding in such fields, the nomads’ lifestyle on the steppes and the struggles they faced each day for survival came to shape the Mongolian forces that consisted the people from the steppe. According to 2Barnes, unlike the other European knights who were considered professionally trained, the Mongolian warriors or Mongolian force had experienced a tough lifestyle having to fight against each other and nature, to become hardy people before contributing to their abilities as warriors. As a result of their nomadic lifestyle, they taught their children how to ride horses on the steppes, while grazing the animals at an early age. 3Meaning the children grew up with better skills in (horsemanship) riding, managing, and gallops. This was effective in their future armies’ movement across the different terrains, since their horses were strong to withstand the different conditions in vast lands, weather, and even their feed. The advantage of the steppes and the horse riding across them, and different lands patterns in the vast geographical regions, made both the horses and the riders develop legendary endurance to accomplish the objective of the Mongols army at any invasion. According to 4Carlton, the Mongols army appeared to move twice the pace of their enemies and often victorious, even if they were at a disadvantage than their opponents to achieve success. It simply means that their bodies had adjusted to harsh conditions, and could even travel for long distances without food or having to carry lot of bulky food. It follows the theory of evolution to winning the battle for survival, which associates sensory experience and environmental forces to improving the knowledge. Their experience in horse riding had made them become like natural horse riders providing them a high degree of flexibility and speed into distant territories. 5Barner further mentions that the riding skills were an advantage to them, such that they could escape certain defeats, execute complex plans at distant lands in a short period than expected, pursue broken enemies or even perform a quick hit and run operation, with the support of the huge number of horses always ready for a swap to keep moving the Mongols effectiveness in the battlefield. Culture in the Mongols Military Social influence: The earlier Mughals culture of the Mongols and the adopted traditions from the different people’s way of life (especially those conquered), influenced their military success in the battlefield. The Mongolians had a great will to learn from people’s culture, which affected their social and army functions in many ways. The ancient Mongols military force wore battle clothing made of leather, silk, and metals to cover their bodies against attacks in battlefield. The Asian style of the Lamella armor, Chinese silk, European metallic helmets, and the common leather contributed to the Mongols army wear. According to 6Turnbull, research indicates existence of both light and heavy cavalrymen; the lighter ones wore sheepskin coats over their ordinary clothes, the horsemen wore armor plates made of leather and iron, or heavy coats that were reinforced using metal plates, helmets made of iron to cover facial features and the risky parts of the necks, and wore leather boots on their feet. Similarly, they protected their horses with leather armors, and ensured the horses had saddles with stirrups to carry most of the necessary equipments they would need to fight from the saddle. Organization and weapons: The organization of the Mongol army was characterized with firm discipline and loyalty to the commanders. The army had its own informers and spies who would supply information on areas of invasion and weakness of their opponents for Mongols to attack. 7Guisepi mentions that “military discipline had long been secured by personal ties between Commanders and ordinary soldiers.” The military force division into several troops facilitated a great structure of command and alertness of their loyalty to Mongols, let alone the great intelligence and high intuition, considering their commanders were appointed by considering their abilities. 8The Mongol warriors were supposed to carry a battle axe, scimitar (a curved sword), lance, and the Mongol re-curved bow (lighter bow to be fired rapidly from the saddle and the heavier one designed to be used from a ground position to fire to a long distance). Among all the weapons, the short bow was very powerful and demoralized the opponents force, firing a quiver of arrows at a high speed and more distance than the enemies’ weapons. 9Guisipe expounds more on the introduction of new weapons, such as flaming and expounding arrows, bronze cannons, and gunpowder projectiles devised for the Mongols military force in the 13th century. Advantage and disadvantage of the cultures: The horse riding and familiarity to the steppes were also important arts that supported military speedy movement and hideouts, or resting locations from which they could read an enemy intention and suddenly attack them. The weakness of always operating on steppes was that the 10Mongols horses were not best sited on other fields such as the Chinese rice fields, which slowed down the operation to conquer the southern Chinese. Through their horse riding tradition, they got to prioritize on swiftness and mobility, unlike their opponents, who considered strength and armor guards. It is not because Mongolian army was huge, but because they had emphasized on intelligence to harass the enemies before proper invasion, subjecting them under psychological strain for them to surrender. The interaction with the Chinese people allowed them to learn the Chinese martial arts that generally improved their tactics and strategies. Mongolian Politics Prior empire division: The active emergence of the Mongolian military power occurred between the late 11th and 14th century under the leadership of the Kabul khan, Chinggis or Genghis Khan (named temujin), Ogadai Khan, other family siblings, and descendants in that linage. 11Genghis khan born in late 1160s had won a position of power among his people, leading to his election as a supreme ruler of the Mongol tribes after defeating rival Mongols and revenging for his harsh past life experiences. He had attached himself with powerful Mongol chieftain, who happened to have been assisted by temujin father before his death. His developing reputation over his victory and against his rivals attracted his allies and other leaders for a better future. Driven by his ambitions, he organized the Mongolian armies consisting of the different tribes of ancient Mongolia, such that there was a general staff to oversee the horses’ management, planning, and intelligence of the armies. 12The command system became organized under a system of merit, which Genghis Khan followed to select the generals who commanded the large armies, before he died. In his reign, he had managed to destroy Qin Chinese Empire and the kingdom of Xi- Xia and Khwarazm empires of the Turks. Controlling capital and split of empire: The importance of the military force was to engage in wars for conquest and expansion of the empire, which was furthered under Ogedai’s leadership from his central control in Karakorum.13The division of the Mongols Empire after Genghis Khan death was split between the remaining 3 three sons and Batu, son of the deceased brother, with ogedei the 3rd son been elected as the grand Khan after his father. To effectively manage the empire, Ogedai’s father had entrusted Batu’s father with the western side of the empire, which Batu later moved the army deeper into Europe to extend the family inheritance. Each son had his own portion, but when the Grand khan died, the wife would lead the empire for a short period till a new grand khan was elected. Leadership and power was maintained within the generation of Genghis Khan family, but at different fragmented empires of the great Mongols. The Mongol leadership was a rivaled position among the family members and once elected the powers to campaign and extend into newer lands were delegated to family members. Army structure: The Mongols political structure was more cooperative and less fragmented than their enemies in the west meaning that with information from the spies, they could easily attack other empires at a strategic point to paralyze the empires. Referring to the 14dynamic theory of battle victory and defeat the Mongol armies could be respected for its maneuvering and superior elan, which produced an organized and quality troop to win battles. Genghis Khan had reorganized the 15Mongol warriors based on the decimal system in which a tumen (the largest unit) consisted of ten thousand warriors, a minghan made of a thousand, a jagun one hundred and an arban (smallest unit) of ten warriors. Their military organization line of command in the different divisions of the armies was effective to executing commands and fighting the battles. They may have not been many, but their tactics such as encirclement, feigned retreat, charge and shoot, waiting for ideal conditions, as well as the grand control from the capital in Karakorum where the grand khan resided, expressed an organized political structure with potential power to steer campaigns for empire expansion and its control. 16In the mid 16th century after the decline of Mongolian power, the Mongols formed intimate ties with Tibet to re-establish their power against the Chinese Ming dynasty. This follows the coalition theory that seeks to empower each other for better governance and control in power. Religion Influence Different faiths: The main religion that had a great impact was the Buddhism, but traces of Islam and Christianity also influenced the empire leadership and social lives of the Mongolian people, especially in their trade activities and the conquered people who were enslaved in the empire. At the split of the empire, Batu’s division at established Volga capital introduced Islam as the religion of the Hordes, though later tolerated Christianity, which led to changes in their political style and military tactics closer to those of the Russian. By interaction with the Chinese people who were Buddhist and Islamic followers, the Mongols leaned new ways of making war, techniques, and adopted advanced weapons, 17such as use of explosives and gunpowder in the battles, because the Chinese had a technological advantage over the Mongols. The 12th century was marked by a freedom of religion among the Mongolians after the then Khan showed tolerance to different religion. According to 18Nosotro, Kublai Khan dappled in numerous religions beliefs; Muslims occupied high ranking positions in governorship and military as advisors and aides in the Yuan dynasty. Buddhism: Buddhism influence dominated in the long run and though it first impacted on the Mongolian upper class and leadership, it was later adopted as the official religion in the Mongolian territories after conversion into Lama Buddhism. The religion was adopted from the Tibetans and Chinese Buddhists, and must be acknowledged to have had a psychological effect on the Mongolian authority and military, for being associated with the religion belief that led and contributed to the decline of the empire. 19Jagchid mentions that prince Kublai was once headed for campaigns against Ta-li kingdom when a Tibetan Buddhist follower (young phagpa) persuaded him to take a sympathetic view of Buddhism. The combination of the disunity among the divided empire and the conversion to Buddhism weakened their military skills and will for further expansion, eventually leading to its decline and being conquered by other empires after the 17th century. Conclusion The Mongolian military success was influenced by the people’s (internal and external) cultures from their own horse riding on the steppes, and developed weapons and interaction with people affecting the military war garments and use of advanced weapons. Their politics and control of power was held by their grand Khans from royal linage of the Genghis Khan, and armies were organized based on the decimal system from Tumen to Arban with appointed commanders by the Khans. Their geographical locations on the steppes allowed them to develop natural skills of fast movement across different terrains, fighting from their horses back and generally establishing a good point to retreat and attack their enemies. Different religions allowed further interaction with people, boosting military use of advanced war machines and conversion of the Mongolians that led to their later weakness. Buddhism affected their military skills and empire expansion. Bibliography Barnes, Matthew. “The Mongol War Machine: How Were The Mongols Able to Forge the Largest Land Empire In History.” thepicaproject.org. Accessed March 7, 2013. http://www.thepicaproject.org/?page_id=522 Carlton, Eric. War and Ideology. Maryland: Rowman & little Field publishers, 1990. Collins, Randall. “The Dynamic Theory of Battle Victory and Defeat.” Cliodynamics: The Journal of Theoretical and Mathematic History I no. 1(2010): 1-23.Accessed March 8, 2013. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5mv6v0r1#page-2 Guisepi, Robert. “The Mongols: The last Great Nomadic Challenges – From Chinggis Khan to Timur.” Accessed March 8, 2013.http://history-world.org/mongol_empire.htm. “History of the Mongols: turks and Mongols: 6th-13th century AD.” historyworld.net. Accessed March 7, 2013. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=aa76 Jagchid, Sechin. “Tibetan Buddism: The Mongolian Religion.” innermongolia.org. Accessed March 8, 2013. http://www.innermongolia.org/english/tibetan_buddhism.htm Oestmoen, P. Inge. “The Mongol Military Might.” coldsiberia.org. Last modified January 18, 2002. http://www.coldsiberia.org/monmight.htm Turnbull, Stephen. Genghis Khan & Mongol Conquests 1190 – 1400. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003. Turnbull, Stephen and Reynolds, Wayne. Mongol Warrior 1200 – 1350. Oxford: Osprey publishing, 2003. Nosotro, Rit. “Christianity, Islam and Buddism in Mongolian Empire.”hyperhistory.net. Accessed March8,2013.http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw09mongolreligion33030814.htm Read More