In short one could say: The Mongols conquered the world and then they went home.
In the 13th century Chinggis Khan and his Mongol army seized an empire stretching from Korea to Hungary. When Chinggis died they stopped everything and returned home to bury their leader. A new khan, Ogodei, was chosen and the conquest resumed. Others succeeded him and later moved the capital from Karakorum to Beijing. The longer they stayed in China the less control - and interest - they had in other parts of their empire and they were chased back to Mongol lands. Back in Mongolia they resumed their traditional lifestyle as Nomads while their neighbours, Russia and China, grew more powerful and absorbed some Mongol regions. Mongolia declared its independence when revolution in China overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911. After a defeating a White Russian invader, in 1921, Mongolian's People's Party proclaimed a government. They turned to the Russian revolutionaries for support how to run a country. Soon the Mongolian government was following Soviet Union's development and in 1924 the Mongolian People's Republic was founded. To mark the change to the path of communism the capital was renamed to Ulaanbaatar (Red Hero). Mongolia relied heavily on the USSR as livestock remained the main pillar of the economy. Since 1996 elections Mongolia would look neither north to Russia nor south to China but outward, and mostly west.
Based on: Wild East: Travels in the New Mongolia, Jill Lawless
(Admittedly there are some gaps in the summary above.)
No comments:
Post a Comment