How The Mongol Empire Created The Most Feared Cavalry In History | Warriors Way | Chronicle

foreign [Music] War as only a soldier who has lived it can only as one who has seen its brutality its futility its stupidity so said Dwight D Eisenhower supreme commander of the Allied Forces at D-Day most of us would agree [Music] and yet despite its Carnage and senseless destruction we can see bravery toughness and tenacity the kind that also speaks to the best in humanity [Music] we pay tribute to Warriors men and sometimes women whose stories speak to us down the centuries whether fighting the good fight or defending a lost cause [Music] they followed the Warrior's Way [Music] the Mongol warriors were as feared as any soldiers have ever been the Mongols on the attack showed no mercy [Music] what must it have been like to fight alongside these tribesmen from the great step to have been part of one of the greatest armies in history the Mongol horde canubish for that is his name is one such Warrior a Mongol Cavalry man canubish has had a tough childhood even by Mongol standards the name canubish actually means not human and was once a popular Mongol name since it was believed that it would protect the child from evil spirits canubish is an orphan whose childhood is spent among distant relatives it's a tough start in tough times in some respects his backstory is like that of the greatest of all Mongol Warriors Genghis Khan who lived around 180 years before the time of canubish unlike the great Khan canubish is not destined for Glory and fame but he is still a moving part of the massive yet intricate Mongol War Machine [Music] while Mongols are with most ruthless people that probably ever existed I think as a warrior class as Warriors they had the least value of human life there was no regard for anybody who lives you know if you if you gave up any resistance to the Mongols you died they had no care about that sometimes if they want to do a town and decided that they needed to move on they would rants of any Artisans out so if you could bake bread or you could or you could make something you're in pretty good shape if you weren't they just that was it you were dead [Music] Genghis Khan's Cry of feed the horses might sound innocent enough but those very words feed the horses where the Mongol armies signaled to slaughter rape and pillage a civilian population [Music] in those days there was almost no such thing as a male civilian population in Mongolia virtually every Mongol man was either a soldier or supported the military in some capacity [Music] being a warrior was a way of life and a highly disciplined one foreign in the 12th and 13th centuries the great khans of the Mongol Empire carved out the largest Empire the world has ever seen and maybe ever will see and Mongol Cavalry were the Vanguard for the armies of that Empire striking Terror into the hearts of their enemies for over 150 years their brutality was legendary but when you dig deeper into Mongol history you realize they were of course remarkably more subtle and complex the Mongols succeeded because of their discipline their speed and their discipline and the uh the ore in which they were held they brought in small groups of very mobile Cavalry it was certainly professional Army the name hordes is from a Mongolian word or do which in fact means the camp I think that's probably where this idea of The Horde came from but no they were extremely disciplined for us and again they may have appeared to be one huge horde one match but in fact they were working in small sometimes independent groups which could come together when the occasion demanded renowned for their ferocity Mongol Cavalry attacked with lightning speed and devastating Effectiveness with the bow and arrow her Warriors who fought during winter unlike those lazy Europeans they were the fighting force that spearheaded conquest of the largest ever Empire by land mass in world history the Europeans called them Devils when they were first confronted with them in the 13th century of course European armies were no strangers to savagery themselves but none were more violent than the Mongols who massacred millions in their frenzy of Conquest and looking at military societies throughout history and how good some were some are there because they simply expand like the Roman they simply expand they take over and that's that the Ottomans did the same thing so the Mongols they ruled in fear they would sweep in they'd sweep through a place they took everything wasn't tied down nailed down they burned everything else they've killed everybody else and so they left and there was often a time when nobody would rule in that place would come into that area even though the Mongols had left because they were scared to death they were on the Mongol Frontier and that they would return foreign there is no doubt that to ride with a Mongol horse Soldier canubish would have to be a trained killer willing even to commit what today would be considered war crimes but let's not forget these were warlike days we are speaking about Middle Ages this was the age of brutality from our point of view especially for example when we are mentioning that Mongols were able to destroy the whole cities and kill everybody if the city did not give up before the battle this was something usual this was something that was somehow natural even for the European Warriors [Music] they deliberately encouraged this reputation they encouraged this why because it was a method of being cruel to be kind people were so in awe of them and so frightened that they in fact often surrendered without a fight the Mongols were Past Masters at psychological warfare as well as physical Warfare one story about Mongol brutality which persists is of the pyramids of decapitated enemy skulls the Mongols were said to have built a story about the pyramids the towers of skulls is a true story but in fact it applies to tameline but tameline is often Associated or often connected with the Mongols but strictly speaking he was from a different era and from a different armies he rose to power after the fall of the chingassids after the Empire basically fell and his aim was to recreate the Emperor of Genghis Khan and he was known for his ferocity for his cruelty and for these pyramids of skulls um said on fairly good authority if you have stacked 55 000 skulls uh in a heap after he invaded India brought back some 55 000 carts of germs and jewels and gold and all sorts of things but in doing so he killed masses of a number of people but tameline captured the ottoman Sultan Bayes at the first and used to carton around bayaz had finally beat us gold until his brains poured out and he died of suicide which would have been for an ottoman Sultan the greatest of humiliations and tamerline seemed not to have bothered at all just buried him along the way that was it the Mongol hordes maintained their reputation for savagery and brutality for over 250 years but what was it about these mounted marksmen that made them such effective Warriors how was a relatively small army of Cavalry and foot soldiers from the steps of Eurasia able to conquer most of the Known World the key to the mongol's success in battle and in building their vast Empire was their unique relationship with the animal at the heart of their culture and way of life the horse beans of doing so was the horse and actually not even a horse we probably call it a pony they were rather small and uh the Mongols developed a society around them especially the military society around them every Warrior had at least three or four that that he strung along with him uh he would change balance if one needed uh he would eat um the horse when it tired and died he would drink the Mare's milk when he was thirsty and uh he would use the saddle to cook his food place the raw meat in between the horse and the saddle and uh probably wasn't the most tasty of uh of delights but seemed to exist that way and so the society changed the military Society changed the world it sensed that children could ride a horse before they could before they could walk so I think this is uh this combined with their discipline is why they were so effective well again I mean they're famous for their small very powerful bows which they could famously fire behind them they could turn in the saddle and fire behind them and this is again there's an art they would have learned from from very young there has likely been Noble Rider of horses in the world that surpass among the warrior at his height the Mongols had a small ponies they knew how to pasture them they knew how to herd them they knew how to feed them on March they knew how what they needed to eat they knew how much water they needed they knew how to use every facet of the horse if it was living and they knew every facet of the horse that had died they understood there was the Romans saw the precursors the Huns they saw them as men and horse together not as separate individuals and I think the Mongols have that similar idea later on we can talk about Knights of their horses we can talk about anybody in their horses and they do not match like a Mongolian his horse does he could live on that horse he could sleep on that horse he could shoot arrows on the back of that horse he could conduct Cavalry raids off that horse and he also knew when to Simply get off and pasture and sleep next to it Mongol horses were tough adorable and fast every Mongol Cavalry man had four or even more horses switching from one to another during a campaign which meant no one horse was ridden until exhausted this meant the Mongol Army could move much faster than any other fighting force of the time often covering 60 to 100 miles in a day the Mongol way was that of the warrior but it was also the way of the nomad fats usually tend to have a particular style of War of course they were using their horses which means that they were mounted Warriors they were able to move from place to place with a high speed they were using bows or spares which means that they were able to surprise their enemies they could fight they could pretend that they are escaping the battle but on the other way they were able to turn around very swiftly and surprise the enemy with the Sudden Impact even after a very long period of Escape [Music] were more like mobile cities gervini the Persian historian he's known for his post he wrote a history of Genghis Khan he was an eyewitness now the point about Giovanni is this he and he learned his arrogance he learned his sophistication in Mongol urdues in camps he was brought up in a Mongol Camp why is this so is that uh in the camps representatives from all the leading families were there they were the sons and the daughters if they were they were hostages effectively but comfortable hostages thank you [Applause] history and peoples are always more complicated than the stereotypes travel to Mongolia today and leaving the modern and developed Capital ulambatar behind [Music] you'll discover that many rural Mongolians still lead nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles in the grasslands families living together in large circular tents the famed yurt just as they have for centuries [Music] they are constantly on the move with their herds in search of fresh grazing grounds [Music] the Mongolians who thrive in this harsh yet picturesque landscape would not trade it for all the riches of modern civilization [Music] perhaps you need to sit around a campfire on the great step sipping Mongolian milk vodka under a blanket of stars to truly understand today the Mongolian's deadliest enemy may be the fast encroaching modern world but this is how it's been for almost a millennium canubish understood it and he is from 800 plus years ago some people are born loners and he is one of them then again he is never quite alone There is almost always one of his horses for company what puts the [ __ ] on top of the warlike societies is probably that they were from the birth to the old age organized as an army even in a simple and usual aspects of their life they were really taught to fight since they were kids canubish would have been trained from Boyhood to fight ride and shoot shooting arrows from horseback is the defining characteristic of a Mongol Warrior but what weapons were used in close quarter combat the Mongols were great horse archers that's the what that's what made them uh all step archers were really good the horse archers the Mongols seemed to have been able to to twist in their saddle and to shoot their arrows off the rear of the horse thus not having the head of the horse ever distract them this made them greatly accurate and also endeavored them to to continue to to shoot arrows while the horse is riding that gave the Mongols an advantage over anybody who who was stayed in one position or could not chase them and do the same the nomadic Bowl was an interesting weapon it was much shorter than the European Longbow obviously it was necessary for the ball to be shorter in order to be used as a mounted weapon Nomads were able to fight even behind their back because they were able to stand in their Saddles and they were able to shoot behind them which was key for for example the pretended escapes thank you Mongol armies included heavy Cavalry units which like their European counterparts carried lances and wore metallic armor and swords and daggers for close quarter combat but the mounted Bowman we think of as Mongol Cavalry or light armor very light in some instances things that they used to wear silk undergarments and this is because if few uh a shot with an arrow the silt will not stop it exactly but it will absorb it and then the point of the arrow doesn't actually cut through the silk so it's easy to pull the arrow out using the silk and you pull the silk out that will pull most of the arrow out as well it will um it will limit the Damage Done [Music] foreign they wore the silk um and they wore it well as defensive Armament even if it could not compete with greatest of uh iron armors that were in the world it still had a wonderful ability to stop an arrow before penetrating and dirtying a wound enough for infection to set in we've got interesting stories about Mongols living for a very long time being wounded with things that should have killed them otherwise and I think one of the conclusions the historians has come by is that the silk is particular particularly strong but also particularly hygienic as a way of both honing their fighting skills and Gathering meat for a huge feast the Mongols held an annual great winter hunt during which thousands of Horsemen gathered Warrior who failed fail kill an animal could expect to hang his head in shame Anubis is quietly confident as he goes on his first nourish during the hunt they were using certain military tactics and they were learning to fight by that way they should circle around the animals and if any Warrior would let any Animal Escape it would mean that he will be severally punished by this way they were trained for the battles the great winter hunt or nurse was a cruel business but canubish is proud to have taken part in it urge which again all Mongols participated in they would form um a circle this could be hundreds of kilometers in diameter the idea was to capture all lifestyle all animals within that Circle they would do this by slowly constricting the circle this is over hundreds of miles slowly bit by bit they would constrict the circle and push all animals within it into the center this took intelligence they had to send signals to each other where animals were grouping where they were so a lot of skills were learned and again this would go on for days on end pushing these animals to the center and it said by the time the circle narrowed to a small area the animals were going absolutely wild crazy but they were not allowed to let them die only when the commander called a Hulk to the nurse would the captain or the highest ranking person be allowed to kill an animal and then they would then there would be a bloodthirsty feast and the animals were of course would be saved for the uh for the winter one Noble tradition that has survived down the generations is the eagle hunt the bond between Mongol Hunter and Eagle remains as strong today as ever it is nice to see that some things don't change [Music] 900 years ago the Mongols were a war-like race whose main preoccupations were hunting survival and fighting each other the Mongolian step had no real borders and the Mongols respected none anyway they believed it was their Destiny to conquer the world but if they were ever going to conquer the world they would need a leader [Music] yeah cometh the hour cometh the man as the saying goes Genghis also pronounced chingas zhangis or zingas original name tumijin was and is one of the most famous conquerors in all history born in 1162 all sorts of Legends grew up around Genghis Khan such as the tale that he was born with a blood clot in his little hand a sign of things to come like anubish Genghis Khan had a difficult childhood he was born the son of a yucca Mongol Chief however when he was 10 his father was poisoned and his mother kidnapped Genghis became Chief but the tribe abandoned him and for a while he was forced to survive on his wits digging roots for food and stealing sheep before he was able to return to his tribe to prove himself worthy to lead it one of the secret history of models tells us is that Genghis had a hard life as a child Genghis Khan mom is abducted then he had problems with his brothers well my uncle's always had problems with his brothers in fact genghis's own Sons had problems and grandsons were had problems with each other his family was Dishonored and exiled from the uh from the tribe that seems to be the case as well that could have happened I suppose to other people but the fact that all of these things together happened to Genghis and yet he rises above them all gives him an origin story that's not unlike those but even today tugging our heartstrings it must have tugged at the heartstrings of many people who he encountered and thought well can I trust this guy should I follow him look at how he's done look at what he's raised himself to be Genghis Khan's first historic feat was to unite the warring tribes on the great step into a unified Mongolia before 1206 the various tribes the Mongols tatas Neymar terites all of these various tokimongo tribes spent their their lives fighting each other Genghis Khan United them he dissolved this tribal system an amazingly successful he abolished the tribes and that's why they all became Mongols he divided the various units into units of ten ten men were under the command of a league of ten those leaders of 10 were under the command of a lead of a hundred those leaders of the hundred were under the command of a lead of a thousand up to the leaders of ten thousand these were the elites these were the chosen hand-picked by Genghis Khan himself whose loyalty was beyond question these leaders of ten thousand once that insanely difficult task had been accomplished Genghis then set about extending his empire into Persia and China and oversaw the mongol's first Victorious encounter with the Russians Khan was a military genius to rival Alexander the Great or Napoleon [Music] [Applause] Genghis Khan's military genius could quickly adapt itself to changing conditions a good example when he set out on his trail of conquests practically all his troops were cavalry this was fine when it came to defeating other armies of Nomads such as rival Mongolian tribes thank you but as they pushed into China they began to encounter the problem of having to lay Siege and penetrate cities Genghis Khan captured some enemy engineers and offered them a choice between a slow and painful death or serving in the great Khan's Army all right so when they moved into China they had very little experience of of Siege Warfare but they learned why because they Incorporated other armies other peoples it wasn't long before the Mongols were able to lay Siege to large cities using trebuchets Siege Towers catapults burning oil and all the machinery and techniques of Siege Warfare in this way they were able to capture zhangdu or as we better know the city today Beijing later the Gin Emperor Azon committed suicide there rather than be taken by Genghis Khan virtually the whole world was seeing the consequences of trifling with the Mongol horde Genghis Khan came to rule an Empire which extended from Northeast China to the Caspian Sea in total an astounding 28 million square kilometers but All Things Must Pass not long after being thrown from his horse Genghis Khan died in 1227 from internal bleeding foreign the Mongols were able to continue his Warrior tradition they were smart enough to know they didn't know everything they had no hesitation copying from the Persian or the Chinese Art of War it was the Chinese who introduced them to gunpowder historians have for a long time resisted giving the nomadic peoples the credit for using and diffusing gunpowder but it seems to be our only conduit between the East and the West as the Mongols historians have now gone back through and especially looking at those campaigns in the early 13th century and recognizing that the Mongols did use gunpowder weapon they used it as a very crude bombs they used it as flamethrowers they would attach it and uh crude bombs not very efficient bombs they would try to for example put it under these bombs underneath walls and build them up but again they weren't that efficient but certainly gunpowder started to be used and the Mongols started to use it with gunpowder the Mongol armies became even more fearsome adversaries Brutal by all means yes but they were also clever tacticians skilled cavalrymen riding Swift horses the Mongols were capable of all sorts of quick Nimble Maneuvers that would catch their foes off guard the Mongols repertoire of Maneuvers included ambushes hit and run and wave attacks then there was the so-called famed retreat in which the Mongols would fake defeat and flee the enemy would follow and be led into an ambush one of the most famous techniques was the feigned Retreats and this worked again and again even though they became famous for it they would often pretend to uh to give up he wouldn't surrender they would just turn and flee and without fail this one the armies would Chase they would call them cowards and of course this was a this was a technique they would simply move the battle to a more a different location more advantageous to to them and then they would suddenly turn and Ambush the the Syrian Army naturally these kind of hairpin turns as part of battle strategy were based on reliable sources of information and it is the mission in life for canoebish to be part of the mongol's 13th century intelligence Network so the Mongols deployed networks of Scouts and spies men like canubish these Messengers were vital before mounting a major attack the Mongols would spend months scouting enemy defenses supply lines and possible Escape Routes it was the practical application of what the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu wrote In The Art of War every battle is won before it's ever fought [Music] Mongols were using a lot of elements of psychological warfare especially they were trying to pretend that their army is much bigger than it really was they were for example mounting their slaves or wives or kits or even just taking the horses without Riders together in order to look much numerous they were using the branches of trees in order to produce enormous clouds of dust this way they could somehow surprise their enemies and they could also appear from an unexpected place because of the Dust because of the element of surprise and because of the speed of their horses our story canoebish has made a messenger and Scout in the Mongol Army which suits his disposition just fine in many ways he has always felt closest to animals the Eagles that he has hunted with since he was a boy the horses that carry him on his way and never complain or make fools of themselves when they drink like some humans he knows [Music] a solitary life is no hardship for canoebish but he cannot begin to imagine the importance of the messages he will one day deliver to all corners of the vast Mongol Empire Mongols were using a very sophisticated system of Messengers or envoys it was uh let's say the key organization of their vast Empire they really need to travel from the or to send messages from place to place very swiftly by this they use the certain stations where the envoy could change the horse and travel with a swiftest speed as it was possible [Music] by this way even hundreds of kilometers could be crossed during one day of course every Envoy had the same military train training as a usual Warrior [Music] long distance communication in the Mongol Empire was based on Supply or message routes known as the yam a yam was the system of relay stations used by the Mongol Riders to transfer messages quickly and effectively the first messenger would travel by horseback to the nearest Yap where another messenger already stationed there would take over and travel to the next station while the original Rider recovered from his journey and so on it went I have a great opinion the communication traveled faster in the pre-modern world than we wanted to have traveled we want everything to travel basically the speed of a horse or basically the speed of a of a ship traveling at normal speeds in fact the administrative Services we know the Mongols had messenger services we know that those messenger services traveled on many horses over many days for many men to carry one message in his life as a messenger and Scout canubus travels along the Silk Road trade routes where it was said a maiden with a plate of gold on her head could wander safely from one end to the other the year is 1241 canubish is 21 and is a scout and Courier and ogadi Khan is the supreme leader of the Mongol horde ogadim the young man who Genghis Khan chose to be his successor was in many respects his father's son for ogadi was not content with ruling over his father's newly conquered lands no ogadi Khan sought to expand the Empire who knows how far to the limits of the Known World perhaps [Music] where was the end of the world for the Mongols they get all the way to the uh to Russia they get all the way to the Hindu Kush they get all the way to the Iranian Kush the the extent of Asia in their minds has probably been crossed they do make it all the way in the Hungary but what promotes them into hungry is onion uh no by Christmas 12 41 ogede and his generals had expanded the canate by conquering what was left of Northwest China and pushing into Russia the year before they had sacked Kiev in modern day Ukraine and The Horde was rapidly moving West all of Europe trembled in the face of the Mongols their terrifying reputation the ruthless Mongol Cavalry and their sophisticated Siege tactics when the huge Mongol Army reached Hungary King Bala IV tried to stop them at the Battle of mohi but even the fierce hungarians were no match for the Mongol hordes the European campaign the Mongols met with the Hungarian Army this was particularly interesting meeting because hungarians originally were Nomads as Mongols so they were using originally the same way of warfare but we are speaking about the 13th century so the Hungarian army during the 13th century was already a common European army with heavy Horsemen heavy armor and using a short distance fight technique on the other hand the Mongols were using the typical nomadic tactics so they were using the Swift attacks light Cavalry and they were surprising their enemies so in a way it was meeting with the uh between the European and the nomadic Warfare in the aftermath of the battle of mohib okedi's armies Unleashed hell on the hungarians killing an estimated one million people whether Noble Knight or peasant they were indiscriminately put to the slaughter by the Mongol Invaders it was one of the bloodiest invasions of a blood-soaked period in history first the rest of Europe next that is how it must have looked December 1241 as the rest of Christian Europe quaked in its boots and then something like a miracle occurred the great ogadi Khan the bloodthirsty son of Genghis Khan had always been a heart drinker then one night in December of 1241 he drank himself to death aged 65. with the death of ogadi Khan the Mongols withdrew from the fringes of Europe they turned their forces back towards karakoro the Mongol capital for the election of a new leader right on the brink of invasion and they suddenly withdrew Hungary aside Europe had been spared to the Mongol war machine but exactly why one thing can be certain when you've got nomadic forces or you have forces that rely on charismatic leadership like the Mongols did is when that charismatic leader dies there's a vacuum and that vacuum is going to be filled by somebody we know what the Ottomans for example that when the sultan died the West could breathe easy for a few years while that inheritance was settled when a great Khan died all the princes had to reconvene in a so-called Coral time it's like a great council meeting they had to meet in a coral tie to decide on the next leader so it was Paramount that all the princes returned to the center to make this decision if they didn't come they wouldn't project basically that prevented the possible expansion the conquest into Europe [Music] after their withdrawal from Central Europe in 1242 Mongol armies would return from time to time to slaughter raid and plunder but there would be no large-scale Invasion and their withdrawal that year was the beginning of the end of the Mongol Empire hogadi Khan's fatal drinking binge had saved Western Europe from the Mongol hordes but was that necessarily a good thing or am I a generation under Mongol rule have accelerated their development so it's quite possible yes that uh Europe would have fallen but that's not necessarily A Bad Thing remember Iran fell to the Mongols we had the alcohol and they first of all they became Iran again they benefited they had a very they they were able to absorb it remember that the Mongols absorb people interesting enough when they conquered Iran they they form together they form this Multicultural multi-ethnic State ruling with the with the Persians who knows once the actual invasion was over the Mongols usually turned out to be fairly benevolent dictators but it isn't the Mongols tolerance and Enlightenment for which they will be remembered or their skills as administrators they'll always be remembered for their cons their conquerors and their ferocious Warriors theirs was truly the Warrior's Way the life of a Mongol Warrior wouldn't have much appeal for most of us today too violent but also too arduous and austere but what lessons can be learned from the Brave and resilient Mongol Warrior well let's we learn from the Mongols probably don't let them exist again they were at incredibly ruthless terrible warm fighting machine that destroyed everybody in this and it's like no more Mongols well that's one viewpoint but here's another I mean people say when did it end the Mongol Empire didn't for example um it came to an end in Iran but uh there was no Mongol didn't go home you know they just faded away and you know they didn't you know nobody ever went home in China the Yuan Dynasty came to an end and yes the actual great Khan did return to Mongolia but he went with his uh with his immediate Army but you know for all the millions of people who made up the Yuan Dynasty they didn't go anywhere they were there in other words it just it was assimilated so I I think the greatest mistake that people make about the Mongols they think of them as an entity which sped from the step around the world it didn't it was a movement it was a revolution and it was transforming the whole time [Applause] [Music] and it lasts in one shape or form until today [Music] although we may not know it we may all have the spirit of the great Khan living on within us [Music] in his crammed to 64 or so years Genghis Khan had several wives and hundreds of concubines to ensure his legacy would last long into the future who knows you may even share some of this great Warrior's DNA geneticists have estimated that around 16 million people alive today are genetic descendants of Genghis Khan [Applause] was that the Warrior's Way well it was certainly a way of keeping the Khan's Legacy and warlike Spirit Alive long after he had Departed the field of battle [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 250,211

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, the dark ages

Id: jd4r3Hsq8fU

Length: 47min 56sec (2876 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023