When East Met West

[Roland_M]

Originally Posted by Ian

Why did the Mongols lose and give up their move westwards.

It was mainly pure luck for the Europeans! The Europeans would have had absolutely no chance against a full Mongol army of 100.000 man or more with the military genius Subutai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subutai) as leader.

1: The Monogol empire split apart into different kingdoms at this time like the Golden Horde and so on and they were busy by consolidating their new kingdoms.

2: The Invasion of whole Europe would have overstretched the possibilities of the Mongol empire. Dont forget, they had to pacify their recent conquests and this took lot of manpower.

3: One important Khan died during a major campaign in Europe, so they had to return back to Mongolia for the election of a new Khan

4: The Mongols became Muslims in that period and this lead to a more peaceful life. For classical Muslims the afterworld was much more important than the present.

Imho it has nothing to do with a "poor" Europe which had not enough ressources or too strong warriors (except from the Knights they were mostly poorly trained and equipped). Mongols invaded Russia and this area was poorer and colder than Europe.


Roland