5 Most Effective Intimidation & Demoralisation Strategies From History

as long as man is engaged in warfare he is sought to secure every edge possible over his opponents yeah while battles are usually centered around killing capturing or routing enemy forces simply breaking the will to engage in combat before a sword has even been drawn is perhaps the most prized tactic of all when effectively utilized such psychological manipulation can dramatically weakened the morale of foes prior to an attack making the ultimate defeat a speedier and less costly affair in doing so avoiding unnecessary bloodshed caused by more prolonged hostilities here are my choices for five of the most effective intimidation and demoralization strategies from history number five the Aztec death whistle sound can have profound effects on one's psychological well-being and so it's no surprise that throughout history armies around the world of experimented with ways to harness his power for use on the battlefield often with dramatic results upon first glance the humble whistle might not appear to be an instrument capable of inducing fear and mass panic in the enemy however when it's been engineered to produce the howling sound of a thousand death screams combined is no surprise that such at all would have been a useful addition to any Army's arsenal it's not hard to imagine the sheer terror that such a horrific sound might unleash upon men unaccustomed to such ghostly wailing with warriors who believed that they were about to fight ordinary mortal men now wondering whether their opponents were in league with demonic powers when confronted by a deathly Orchestra of hundreds of the whistles being blown in unison the resulting fear infecting their minds like a virus and making the defeat inevitable in a simple but highly effective demonstration of the power of psychological warfare the Aztecs were well aware of the benefits that intimidating one's opposition could reap utilizing a vast array of terror tactics such as human sacrifice torture and kidnapping to keep their many conquered rivals in line the fear of unspeakable retribution for disloyalty keeping subjugated tribes under control far more effectively than any military garrison or occupation force upon the many battlefields the Aztec empire waged war during its rise and fall our warriors would carry musical instruments with them that had been solely designed for producing ominous and fear-inspiring sounds to chip away at enemy soldiers morale before battle commenced making ultimate victory far more likely early Spanish records speak of thousands of war drums beating in unison alongside an orchestra of other instruments that created a powerful wall of sound that filled their enemies with dread however few other details exist leaving us only able to imagine just what it might have been like to be on the other side of such a terrifying experience yet all this changed in 1999 when an archaeological team excavating a temple to the Aztec wind-god in Mexico City unearthed a 500 year-old beheaded sacrificial victim clutching a pair of strange skull shaped whistles initially dismissed as little more than toys or decorative ornaments the whistles were destined to be shelved and forgotten in a dusty warehouse however years later a curious researcher decided to blow into the instruments to see what kind of sound they produced the horrific results providing a chilling insight into just how effective this particular Aztec intimidation strategy would have been the piercing screeching sound that emerged from the whistle was described by witnesses as sounding like hundreds of people howling in pain understandably leading to a great deal of speculation about what purpose such a device could have been designed for since the whistle was found at a temple devoted to the Aztec wind god some believed that they were meant to be used to replicate the sound of the wind in some kind of ceremony or ritual while other suggests that they might have been used during sacrifices as a way to guide the soul of the victim to the land of the dead however the majority view is that they were used on the battlefield as a way to strike fear into enemies the disturbing sound they create when blown into making them the perfect tool for psychological warfare before fighting commenced hundreds of the whistles might have been blown at the same time producing a terrifying otherworldly sound but washed over their opponents filling their hearts were fear and undermining their resolve to fight before the bloodshed had even begun possibly even causing some units to panic and flee for their lives with their minds already filled with doubt an Aztec victory over the remaining forces was made far more likely and it wouldn't have been surprising if some foes believed that the Aztecs were in possession of dark magic and perhaps even backed by supernatural powers a thought that would intimidate even the bravest of enemies yet although the death whistle may have contributed to centuries of Aztec military success it could have also eventually backfired with dire consequences for their way of life as the unholy sounds the whistles produce might have contributed to the Spanish perception that they were fighting a people who were aligned with the devil spurring them on to fight with renewed vigor until the bitter end in what they perceived to be nothing less than a battle between good and evil encouraging a tenacity and ruthlessness that would ultimately bring down the Aztec empire yet just a sound can intimidate and demoralize one's enemies a complete lack of it could also prove equally effective in the early days of the Roman Republic the legions marched against foes with roaring war cries and the crashing of javelin and sword against shield to create a deafening wall of noise intended to terrify their enemies and remind them of the oncoming death however over time this approach evolved into an eerily silent advance this tactic initially gained favor for purely practical reasons but would prove the half the unintended consequence of instilling the kind of fear in enemies that no simple war cry could replicate soldiers were deployed in complete silence except for the barking orders of officers and ominous clanking of armor and sword for good reason the men needed to hear understand and respond to orders without impediment and any man found to be talking would suffer a blow from the ever-watchful Optio staff after a slow steady advance towards the enemy the men would halt just within javelin range and hurl the pilla into the massed ranks of the enemy before finally breaking the calm silence with a mighty roar as one followed by a final charge to maximize the damage to enemy morale the combined effects of the javelins war cry and lightning charge delivering a simultaneous triple shock that was often enough to cause enemies to flee before hand-to-hand combat had even started yet this steely silence also had the unintended consequence of being extremely unnerving to the opposition as they realized such a feat could only be achieved by highly disciplined and well drawed troops the kind of foe that any warrior would have been reluctant to face on an ancient battlefield only the very best standard of training and self-control could prevent men from unleashing the nervous tension with the yelling and rushing forward to get the clash over with as quickly as possible usually breaking up their formations in the process a fast disorganized charge coupled with noisy ongoing war cries was actually a symptom of fear just as much as a way to intimidate the enemy the Romans passively endured and controlled their fear as they moved forward slowly and steadily the stoic conduct in great contrast to the loud and impetuous barbarians they so often faced on the battlefield this unsettling silence conveying a calm assured confidence these were men who had seen victory many times before and were confident that they were about to emerge victorious once again number 4 unwavering obedience defeating an enemy without the need for a costly and risky battle is a prudent and potent military strategy however one that is often out of reach for most leaders yet more than 2500 years ago such a feat was achieved in a peculiar but spectacular fashion as a Chinese king ordered a group of hand-picked soldiers to march towards the frontline of the battlefield unsheath thir swords and cut their own throats in full view of the horrified and astonished enemy troops their seemingly insane Act crushing their will to fight and winning a war that was on the verge of being lost while needlessly slaughtering your own troops might at first glance appear to be counterproductive this chilling and intimidating demonstration of unwavering obedience to a ruthless and unbending king utterly destroyed enemy morale along with any hope of victory they previously held after all how could such a foe ever be defeated as the volunteers succumbed to the vicious self-inflicted wounds fear gripped the watching soldiers hearts as they realized with certainty that defeat was the inevitable outcome of conflict with such a well disciplined enemy shattering the resolve to continue resistance the Caliph's part calculated sacrifice of a handful of loyal soldiers a small price to pay for total victory and the prevention of whitea bloodshed that could have sent thousands more to the afterlife the Chinese states of UA and Wu had long been rivals their rulers engaged in a near constant struggle for supremacy however when King Yoon Chang of the Chinese state of UA suddenly died in 496 BC the delighted King Helu of Wu sensed a golden opportunity to take advantage of his rivals momentary period of instability and weakness and immediately began making preparations for a massive invasion the deceased king of ua had bequeathed his throne to his ill-prepared and inexperienced son the newly ascended king goujian however the crown proved to be something of a poisoned chalice as before he could learn the ways of kingship and exert control over his recently acquired lands the young king had to deal with the formidable forces of his newly inherited enemy it seemed as though King Yugi Anne's reign would be brought to a sudden end before it had even begun his vastly outmatched forces unlikely to be able to hold back the invaders not only did the kingdom of Wu possess one of the most potent armies in China but the larger and more experienced forces were led by none other than the legendary strategist general Sun zu author of the art of war despite such hopeless odds the inexperienced King guichen gathered his troops and marched out to meet his foe the two armies clashing at the Battle of Zhu Li as expected the fighting quickly swung in favor of the Wu as too wild and reckless assaults by king goujian were thrown back by the sheer discipline of the invaders their ranks proving frustratingly impossible to break on the brink of a sure defeat most other rulers might have given in to despair and hopelessness however in his darkest moment king goujian devised a strategy to intimidate and disrupt his well ordered enemy that to many would have been simply unthinkable the exact details of what happened next vary depending on the source however it seems as though a small group of you a saunters between 75 and 300 men strong marched towards the front line and lined up in three ranks in full view of the wu army some accounts suggests that the men were condemned criminals while others refer to them as loyal soldiers who had willingly volunteered for the mission but whoever the men were they all shared the same grisly fate after the first rank stepped forward they drew their swords held the razor-sharp blades to their necks and defying all logic slit their own throats in unison as the men in the first rank fell to the earth to bleed out the second rank stepped forward and did the same the macabre spectacle repeating until every volunteer lay dead the Kings creative but bizarre form of psychological warfare had the desired effect clearly demonstrating his soldiers unwavering loyalty while at the same time displaying his own utter ruthlessness and willingness to do anything for victory the watching Wu invaders were shaken to the core by the macabre spectacle and while they were still trying to figure out what exactly was going on king goujian launched an all-out attack on the flank with his main force taking advantage of his adversary's shock and confusion caught off guard the wou generals attempted to regain control of the battle above other armies ranks quickly dissolved into a full-on rout as the previously disciplined regiments descended into little more than a panicked rabble the rank and files morale and willingness to fight utterly crumbling in the face of the disturbing and intimidating display the just witnessed in a dramatic reversal of fortunes King Helu of Wu was mortally wounded as his demoralized army was all but annihilated the legendary general sanzu suffering an uncharacteristic defeat against such an unorthodox opponent against all the odds the inexperienced king goujian strategic gamble had paid off the sacrifice of a handful of his soldiers in such a dramatic fashion earning a stunning victory which finally brought about the destruction of the wu state after years of ruinous warfare their lands incorporated into his own Kingdom in the process after hearing such a tale those of us alive today might question whether a man is really capable of cutting his own throat on command what could drive someone to commit such a horrific and unnatural act in the service of another the answer might lay in the wildly different world view of the ancient Chinese which although in the current era seems utterly alien was perfectly normal and rational two and a half thousand years in the past it was widely believed that sacrifices made during one's time on earth would be handsomely compensated for in the afterlife the soldiers who slit their own throats during the battle most probably believed that great rewards awaited them in death and if the men were in fact condemned criminals they may have been attempting to restore the family's honor will have simply been coerced into the act by a threat against their relatives however it's also possible that the entire story was either embellished or completely fabricated for propaganda purposes yet an ancient Chinese battlefield is not the only time that such a creative strategy of intimidation is rumored to have been deployed amongst one of the many legends surrounding the famed Alexander the Great is his encounter with the king of a city that the Macedonians intended to seize in their great conquest of the known world with the direct assault on the settlements Great War was likely to prove costly and time-consuming Alexander demanded an audience with the city's ruler who promptly appeared towering above him atop one of the thick stone walls upon citing the man who dared to resist him Alexander demanded that he surrender immediately taken aback by the bulb demand the amused King explained to Alexander that he was in no position to insist on such a move boasting that it was he who had the advantage in both numbers and defensive position his huge army inside prepared to defend the home to the last man in response Alexander ordered 100 Macedonian soldiers to form a line facing the edge of a nearby cliff once the men were in position he calmly signaled for them to begin marching forward one by one the soldiers reached the edge of the cliff stepped off and plummeted down hundreds of feet to their deaths per body smashing into the sharp rocks below after 10 men had fallen Alexander ordered the rest to halt and turned his gaze upon the king who was watching on with disbelief from the safety of his high walls shaken by such an intimidating display of loyalty and obedience the king is said to have immediately surrendered his City to Alexander realizing that resistance against such a force would be futile after all if Alexander's men were prepared to walk off a cliff when order to do so by their leader how could his own soldiers ever hope to defeat such a force a similar story is attributed to the Zulu King Shaka who is said to have marched 100 of his warriors over a cliff to demonstrate their loyalty and discipline to European visitors no doubt hoping that such a display might sway them from any thoughts of seizing his land that they might have been entertaining number three operation wandering soul throughout the 1960s the skies rivers and jungles of Vietnam came alive with the foreboding sounds of wailing spirits and ghostly apparitions of supernatural beings yet these strange events were not the result of the paranormal but the culmination of a deliberate military strategy brought to life by modern technologies in one of the most bizarre chapters of the entire Vietnam War as u.s. psyops forces outfitted boats helicopters and even ordinary infantry soldiers with high-powered for health speakers that filled the night air with studio-recorded messages containing mournful sobbing ear and terrifying screams supposedly from the wandering ghosts of the tormented fallen comrades the entire charade designed to frighten and intimidate the Vietcong into deserting their positions by exploiting and weaponizing the Vietnamese belief that a spirit whose body has not received the proper burial rites is damned to wander aimlessly for all of eternity in the opening stages of the Vietnam War it must have seemed to most there the entire conflict would be wrapped up in next to no time due to the sheer size of the military advantage the American side held however despite the balance of power being so lopsided in favor of the US the resourceful and tenacious North Vietnamese had leveled the playing field with the devastating use of guerilla warfare a tactic they had perfected during the earlier successful war of independence against the remnants of the French Empire against all the odds relatively poorly equipped peasant conscripts had turned Viet Nam's dense jungles to their advantage miring the u.s. in a hellish war of attrition that seemed to drag on with no end in sight their unconventional hit-and-run tactics frustrating American attempts to deliver a war winning knockout blow as the years passed by and the body-count mounted US forces began exploring more unorthodox strategies but they hoped might break the enemy's resolve to continue fighting carrying out a series of often bizarre missions that attempted to exploit Vietnamese superstitions and cultural customs to intimidate and demoralize one of the best-known of the psychological warfare operations was conceived by the US Army's sixth SIOP battalion in the late 1960s focusing on the Vietnamese fear or vertical limbo in the afterlife to bring about mass desertions and thus turn the tide of war according to long Howard religious customs after death the body of the deceased was supposed to be richly buried in their homeland usually nearby where living relatives still resided in a form of ancestral worship if these detailed funeral rites were not adhere to the spirits of those who did not receive a proper burial or the wonder the earth in limbo for all of eternity haunting the area around where they perished until the remains were discovered and correctly interred these wandering souls would usually be invisible to the living however it was believed that on the anniversary of their death a kind of portal would be opened between our world and the afterlife near the spot where the ghost had met their demise anyone in the area would immediately become aware of the wandering soul hearing its cries of anguish and pleas for help or vengeance with perhaps thousands of Vietcong troops killed in combats every month retrieving and burying all of the Fallen was an impossible task with most remains doomed to lay undiscovered hundreds of miles from home this uncomfortable truth was well known to the North Vietnamese soldiers and a silent but perpetual anxiety gripped the hearts of men who feared that they too might be cursed to end up as one of these eternally tormented spirits what became known as Operation wandering soul was a u.s. plan to exploit and weaponize this fear using high-powered loudspeakers coupled with other special effects to try and trick the Vietcong into believing that the wandering souls of fallen comrades were nearby terrifying and demoralizing them and perhaps even causing them to abandon the war altogether Vietnamese voice actors were recruited to create recordings which were altered to make them sound as ghostly and ominous as possible the tapes often mixed with other sounds including funeral music screaming sobbing and even the growls of a tiger in an attempt to emulate what they thought genuine wandering Souls might sound like the ghoulish voices would call out from beyond the grave to the living masquerading as the spirits of previously fallen Viet Cong soldiers whose remains had been left unburied the chilling recordings urged the North Vietnamese countrymen to lay down their arms and go home or even switch sides lest they to be killed so far from home and suffer the same disturbing fate the tapes were distributed to various combat units in the field who were given orders to play them on high powered speakers at night maximize their intended effect on the superstitious enemy mounted on helicopters or simply attached to backpacks the soldiers would patrol areas where the enemy was believed to be hiding and broadcast the messages on a continuous loop to heighten the operations impact the recordings were often coordinated with the mass dropping of leaflets containing McCobb images and unsettling messages warning the Vietnamese of the eternal torment that awaited them while on moonlit night some psyops battalions even experimented with firing phosphorus grenades into the sky for theatrical effect as the phosphorous mist fell through the air it eerily called the moonlight and would appear to anyone who didn't know what was going on but a giant phantom was moving through the night sky although there were several instances recorded where enemy soldiers surrendered upon hearing the broadcasts the overall effectiveness of the operation is difficult to quantify as obtaining data from the Vietnamese soldiers targeted about just how demoralized they felt by the recordings was nearly impossible however an unintended side effect of the operation opened up further strategic options that US soldiers found far more effective often the recordings seemed to do little more than enraged the Vietnamese resulting in unusually heavy and aggressive incoming fire from enemy positions while this might initially seem to be a negative consequence of the operation US troops quickly realized that they could use the enemy's rashness to their advantage and began using the tapes that draw enemy fire and thus locate troops otherwise hidden under the jungle canopy with their previously hidden positions now revealed the Vietnamese guerillas found themselves all but defenseless against heavily armed US helicopters and bombers patrolling the skies above the enraged response to the ghostly recordings often spelling their own doom number two the flower wars doing your best not to kill an enemy on the battlefield might sound counterintuitive after all surely the entire point of war is to destroy one's opposition however the Aztec flower wars serve a far darker purpose than merely the slaying of foes in combat and conquest of new territory as her elite warriors instead did their best to capture enemy soldiers alive so that they could be offered up to the heavens in grizzly sacrifices atop her city's many blood-soaked temples yet although these mass killings were supposedly carried out to satiate the gods never-ending desire for human lives they also had a far more cynical and politically motivated side effect proving to be a wildly effective intimidation tactic that demonstrated the fierce and military prowess and ruthlessness of the Aztecs to would-be rivals while at the same time keeping the Empire's ever growing number of conquered subjects in line curtailing any thoughts of dissent lest the would-be rebel and his loved ones find themselves on the frontlines of the next flower war over the course of centuries of brutal warfare and ruthless expansion the Aztecs forged one of the largest and most powerful empires in the Americas her borders continually expanding thanks to the militaristic nature of Aztec society coupled with the formidable accomplishments of her warriors by the early 16th century the Aztecs had conquered over 500 rival States cities and tribes growing to encompass some six million souls yet maintaining control over such a vast empire was fraught with difficulty the Aztecs simply did not possess the Lafosse of manpower required to beliefs such a wide variety of potentially rebellious subjects spread across so great an area and so driven by necessity the political and religious elite began utilizing an array of horrific tactics of intimidation to keep the ever growing number of subjugated vassals in line Aztec priests ripped still-beating hearts from the chests of perhaps millions of sacrificial victims atop the city's great temples the wide avenues flanking either side adorned with giant skull racks containing the severed heads of thousands of previous victims mounted onto wooden poles while unspeakable tortures state-sanctioned kidnapping and even rigged gladiatorial games were other methods employed to display of any troublesome citizens who had made enemies of the governing elites the unspoken warning was clear to every man woman and child in the Empire descent would not be tolerated and it was this fear of terrible vengeance for any seditious behavior that kept the conquered millions in check far more effectively than direct force this unimaginable and almost industrial scale slaughter was a constant reminder of Aztec power to outside rivals and internal rebels and no doubt played a critical role in the Empire's meteoric expansion and stable resilience as those who might otherwise have opposed the Aztecs were intimidated into compliance yet it was the method used to obtain such a huge number of fresh victims for these sacrifices that proved to be perhaps the most effective and versatile intimidation strategy from 1450 to 1450 for a severe drought and widespread crop failures resulted in a devastating famine tearing through the Aztec hard lands leaving a trail of death and disease in its wake it was clear that such calamity could only have been unleashed by the gods who were said to have become angry at the pitiful number of human sacrifices being offered to appease them the Aztec priesthood demanded more regular and larger scale sacrifices to placate the heavens and prevent further catastrophes however obtaining such huge numbers of new victims was proving to be problematic in response to this conundrum the Aztecs came to an arrangement with neighboring rivals each side agreeing to engage in a regular form of primarily non-lethal conflict that became known as the flower wars the battles fought were unusual in that the goal was not to kill the enemy but to subdue incapacitate and capture him the entire war supposedly serving as a method for gathering the huge numbers of captives required by the priesthood yet although on the surface the justification was simple digging deeper reveals there was a far more cynical and sinister purpose for these ritualized conflicts such a visible spectacle of hand-to-hand comp provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the superiority of Aztec warriors reminding her neighboring rivals of the immense military might she commanded might that could easily be turned against them in a war of conquest as such the flower war stubble would as a convenient form of propaganda intimidating Aztec rivals and convincing them of the futility of armed resistance with her potential enemy is gripped by fear it became far more likely that they would submit voluntarily without the need for a lengthy and costly invasion allowing the Aztecs to concentrate their forces elsewhere against more stubborn foes the small-scale flower wars also served to steadily weaken and wear down the militaries of rival States deemed too powerful to attack in the short term eradicating the best fighters and leaving them vulnerable to total conquest at a later stage one of the primary rules of these ritual conflicts was that each side was required to field equal numbers giving the appearance of a fair fight however since the Aztecs almost always had access to far greater pools of manpower than their enemies they were always destined to emerge from a flower war with a huge advantage since the losses from each battle comprised a greater percentage of total forces for the state with fewer overall warriors to draw on and the pre-selected time and place both sides would form up and prepare to engage however the fight that followed differed greatly from conventional warfare ranged weapons were generally shunned in favor of blades and clubs that allowed warriors to demonstrate the individual combat ability the resulting melee allowing them to increase the social status by taking more prisoners while at the same time providing much-needed live-fire training while each side did their best to inflict non-lethal damage on opponents deaths were common in the heat of battle however whether you fan in combat or were captured alive your ultimate fate would be the same with fighting at an end the unfortunate prisoners were transported back to their respective sites temples to be offered up to the gods in grisly mass sacrifices that were described as Lowrey blissful fortunate deaths no doubt the poor attempt at masking the horrific reality of the blood-soaked rituals yet this unending intimidation of their neighbors would come back to haunt the Aztecs as hatred and resentment flourished hand-in-hand with fear the various peoples who had suffered for so long under the cruel yoke of the Empire gleefully joining the Spanish newcomers in their war of conquest the huge military contribution they made turning the tide of battle in favour of the conquistadors and directly leading to the Aztec civilization crashing to a sudden end number one no mercy during the 13th century the mere mention of a single man's name could be enough to cause fortress like cities to throw up in their gates and once formidable armies to lay down their weapons and surrender without a fight the paralyzing fear that the great Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde induced even overcoming basic survival instincts as entire populations of hundreds of thousands allowed themselves to simply be cut down where they stand the will to resist utterly consumed yet how could one man command such fear and how did a group of perhaps just a few hundred thousand illiterate nomads Ford one of the largest empires in history great swathes of which were readily surrendered by its previous occupants before a sword was even drawn having unified the endlessly warring among core tribes under one banner Genghis Khan led his people in a lightning conquest of much of the known world his formidable horse archers sweeping aside all who dared stand against him as once mighty kingdoms and empires fell before his iron will by the time the dust settled the Mongol Empire had grown to encapsulate a landmass the size of Africa making it one of the largest empires in history with a quarter of the world's population living and dying under Mongol rule yet for a people fought a number just a few hundred thousand conquering such a vast area and then keeping its countless millions of subjugated souls in check required more than just military mastery the great khans creative but terrifying use of intimidation and psychological warfare demonstrating how defeating an enemy's will to resist through fear could be far more effective than simply defeating him on the battlefield with such a low pool of manpower to draw upon the Mongols conducted their wars in anyway that minimize their own casualties the Khan would gladly put thousands of innocent civilians to the sword if it meant that the life of a single Mongol soldier could be saved as such cities that surrendered without a fight were generally well treated the population spared and allowed to go about their business however those who dare to resist would without exception suffer a horrifying fate since the Mongols lacked the necessary manpower to maintain large Garrison's across such a vast and continually growing empire they developed a terrifying but highly effective strategy of simply wiping out any population centres that resisted or rebelled once conquered when the Khan's horde approached a city its inhabitants would usually be given a single opportunity to surrender peacefully in exchange for their lives being spared however should they choose to resist every living thing within its walls would be wiped out men women children and even cats and dogs would be put to the sword without mercy with just a handful spared to spread news of the wanton slaughter to neighboring settlements as word of the atrocity and rapidly approaching Mongol horde spread through the area towns and cities that might have previously fought the invaders began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of such resistance details of the horrific scale of the massacres being carried out evoked such fear in nearby populations that many otherwise well defended settlements simply threw open their gates and surrendered to the invaders in the desperate hope of escaping a similar fate across the world King's Sultan's and Emperor's read reports of prized fortresses and mighty cities submitting to the Mongols without a fight with confused dismay as the lands were greedily absorbed by the ever swelling Mongol Empire at a startling pace the unimaginable fear the Mongols ruthless treatment of their enemies evoke paving the way for the ultimate victory as the terrible massacres intimidated so many cities into surrendering without a fight Mongol casualties from the numerous campaigns were drastically reduced enabling them to continue on with their lightning speed conquests at close to fall strength while often managing to avoid getting bogged down in lengthy and costly sieges since virtually no garrison was left behind to occupy a city once it had surrendered precious Mongol forces were freed up to continue the war without being tied up acting as a local police force the terrible punishments for disloyalty serving as a powerful deterrent to rebellion for settlements behind the Mongol lines as citizens knew that no matter how long it took one day in the near future the Horde would once again appear on the horizon ready to exact terrible vengeance for their transgressions yet the barbaric wholesale slaughter of civilians was not the only intimidation strategy the Kahn deployed and a whole host of more refined psychological warfare tactics were used to intimidate foes with devastating results with the Mongols usually vastly outnumbered it was essential to confuse and demoralize the enemy by making the Horde seem far larger than it actually was leading to false tales of millions of invincible Mongol horsemen storming out of the steppes to conquer the world when in fact a single army rarely numbered more than 100,000 at night Mongol soldiers were ordered to light multiple fires to exaggerate their numbers deceiving enemy scouts who brought the false news of a huge Mongol army back to the commanders spreading fear and pessimism through their camp Mongol horses had sticks tied to their tails to create a larger than usual cloud of dust while at the same time scarecrow like bodies were placed on right olace horses to give watching spies the impression that their army was far more numerous than it actually was in cases where siege warfare was unavoidable the Mongols carried out one of the earliest examples of biological warfare catapulting severed heads and plague infected corpses over a city's walls too terrorize its inhabitants and spread incurable disease to thin their numbers yet while the suffering of ordinary civilians might not be enough to intimidate enemy leaders the cons special punishments reserved for ruling elites was often motivation enough for they would not evade his unique brand of justice being boiled alive suffocated drowned crushed to death or even having molten silver poured into the eyes and ears was the kind of inescapable fate that any defeated ruler who defied his will would face although it's impossible to calculate the exact human cost of these tactics it's estimated that some 40 million perished as a direct result of the Mongol conquests as numerous once flourishing cities kingdoms and empires were all but exterminated at Herat in modern-day Afghanistan 1.6 million were killed after the city's inhabitants Rebell and Nisha poor in Iran 1.7 million were slaughtered after the Kahn's favorite son-in-law was killed by an arrow fired from within the city the severed heads piled into enormous pyramids that are said to have taken ten days to construct as many as 1.2 million were put to the sword at her again with every one of the 50,000 victorious Mongol soldiers ordered to slay 24 citizens each the city of Merv suffered a similar fate the Khan watching on from a golden throne as each of his seven thousand troops claimed their allotted quota of three hundred heads what was said to have been one of the largest cities in the world at the time left in ruins after its inhabitants were eradicated across the rising Mongol Empire countless other cities found themselves added to this McCobb list of the damned tales of the grisly fade spreading across the known world as a paralyzing fear in affected men's hearts to such an extent that even the very thought of resistance induced panic lest the Khan somehow penetrates your mind and uncovers your unspoken schemes the only way to escape mongolia was through total submission and compliance resulting in the Khan have to fight far fewer battles than had he conquered cities more conventionally and peacefully in fact the level of capitulation was often so complete that there are even tales of lone Mongol soldiers riding into previously conquered towns and executing people at random as a sickening test of loyalty since any act of resistance would bring down uh Terr ruin and destruction upon the entire population of any settlement where a mongol was harmed yet despite unleashing one of the most destructive series of conquests upon the world the intimidation the mongols inspired birthed a short-lived error for markable peace and security for the citizens who survived the invasions thousands of miles of lucrative trade routes that were once fraught with danger were now made safe and it was said that lauren order was so brutally enforced that a woman could carry a sack of gold from one end of the empire to the other without fear of attack the stunning effectiveness of the cons intimidation tactics did not go unnoticed and his successors would implement similar strategies with devastating results most notoriously by the last of the nomadic conquerors tamerlane the great whose campaigns are estimated to have caused the deaths of 17 million people as he ruthlessly attempted to restore the fallen mongol empire through a similar use of brutality and intimidation that saw the return of giant pyramids of skulls and mass extermination of enemies as entire cities fought once again wiped from the map so those are my choices for five of history's most effective intimidation and demoralization strategies leave a comment below with any other examples of tactics that you would have included in the list and I'll see you again on the next video

Channel: Unknown5

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Keywords: intimidation, strategies, history, documentary, historical documentaries, unknown5, top 5, top 10, entertainment, education, historical strategy, roman empire, romans, silent advance, aztecs, aztec empire, aztec whistle, conquistadors, chinese history, ancient china, operation wandering soul, mongols, mongol empire, genghis khan

Id: TZ4wP1F-Zdc

Length: 41min 32sec (2492 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020