Geography
The
landscape of where the Mongols live shaped who they are and how the Mongols
lived and fought. The Steppe was very open, forcing the Mongols to live a
nomadic lifestyle. They moved all over Asia and conquered everyone and every
group in their path. When the Mongols first started conquering they were a very
small and inexperienced in warfare. As the army moved that became more and more
abundant because Genghis Khan believed in letting the enemy soldiers commit
loyalty to him and join his army. The wide-open spaces of the steppes made the
Mongol people very good horsemen, and helped them become very fast and
efficient when fighting in their wars.
Leadership
All
groups need a great leader to guide them through the tough way of warfare
lifestyle, and Genghis Khan was that person for the Mongol. When Genghis
Khan was growing up the Mongols were not the strong group of people that they
ended as. Genghis Khan united the many Mongols tribes to form a very efficient
and destructive army. His way of ruling focus mainly on trust and loyalty to
him and the tribe. One time two enemy soldiers brought their Khan to Genghis
and committed loyalty to him. Genghis ordered them to be killed because they
were not loyalty to their Khan. He feared that they betrayed there Khan and if
the chance was given to they them would betray him. To the soldiers that
maintain faithfulness he would not let them live in a poor and rough state.
Any battle they won the spoils of the battle would be split up to all the
soldiers.
Technology
Bows
and arrows, horses, silk were the three main instruments that the Mongols used
to survive and conquer an abundance of land. The Mongols would begin
learning how to expertly use the bow and arrow at a very young age. By the time
they a Mongol was in the cavalry they could shoot arrow perfectly and at rapid
fire right off the horses back. The Mongols were amazingly accurate when using
the bow, the Mongols were trained the shoot the bow at the exact time all four
of the horses hooves were of the ground. Horses were the main way of
transportation for regular and cavalry life. Children were on horse by the age
of three. The horses could run very fast and very far. Some of the soldiers
used their horses as shields when in a battle scenario. Silk was used only
after the Mongols became more sophisticated and had more spoils from their
enemies. The Mongols would wear a tight fitting shirts made of silk. When the arrows
would hit the soldier the silk shirt would not let the barbs in the arrow go in
to them. The shirt also made extracting the arrow easier because the barbs were
not in the body.