HUNGARY: How far did the Mongols get in Europe (and why did they leave?)?

[Music] just a few years after succeeding his father Genghis as Great Khan of the Mongol Empire ogen icon ordered his nephew Prince Batu to invade Europe now oh god I had already consolidated his power over Persia he'd made Korea a mongol vassal he'd taken down the gene or Jurchen polity in north china and he was then battling the song a southern song down there in southern china but he set his eyes west his goal was to conquer and create a Mongol Dominion reaching all the way to the great sea great sea being the Atlantic Ocean and let that sink in for a second the general he chose to lead the charge under Bottas authority was the veteran subbu died possibly the greatest general in world history certainly one of the most brutal they were to take down the pesky vulgar 'z take down the keep shock and conquer all the way to the Great Sea our initial target was to be ruse the ruse according to one observer at the Mongol Court the Mongols were prepared to fight a thirty years war in Europe to make this happen now under subitize command virtually all of Russia was conquered by the Mongols and they left a trail of devastation broken cities broken armies broken principalities in their wake the only major part of Russia was really spared was Novgorod and that because Novgorod submitted willfully offered to become a tribute paying vassal of the Mongols now the beating heart of Kiev and ruse old ruse of course the city of Kiev itself was laid waste in 1240 now this three hundred and fifty year old Federation that we call Kiev and ruse which is already in decline by the way never recovered from these events next up supid I had a plan that involved multiple Mongol armies and the conquest of Central Europe now the first of those armies was sent into Poland the kingdom of Poland had been divided about a century earlier when the Mongols showed up it was still divided which more or less negated any chance of a new a quick unified defense so the Mongols sacked Lublin the Mongols sacked Sandomierz and then they divided into two forces one force heading into central Poland the other force heading into southern Poland both areas were devastated throat suave was ravaged krokov was ravaged multiple polish armies were taken down some completely annihilated at the great battle of leg Nitze a coalition army made up of poles and Marat viens and others was completely routed by the Mongol force thus the Mongols in Poland this first army had done its job what was its job what was the point of sending that Mongol force into Poland what turns out that that Mongol force sent into Poland was relatively small the larger Mongol army had been sent here into the kingdom of Hungary that polish army the Mongol army sent into Poland was supposed to knock out that northern flank to protect the bigger army sent here into Hungary and the Mongols devastated Hungary in one day one day the entire Hungarian army was annihilated by the Mongols at a place called movie the Hungarian King and a handful a small handful of others escaped alive by Christmas Day the Mongols had conquered pests on the banks of the Danube today Budapest is one city you've got pests on one side of the Danube Buda on the other side of the Danube I'm on an island in the middle of the Danube in the middle of Budapest it's called Margaret Island by Christmas the Mongols had conquered pests behind me and within a couple months they had to wait for the Danube to freeze over and then they crossed over and conquered Buda on the hilly side on the other side of the Danube the Mongols had conquered Hungary and in the process somewhere between 25% and 50% of the entire Hungarian population died the chroniclers of the time wrote about this as a complete destruction of Hungary and in many ways they were right there's a little irony in this given that 300 years earlier it was the magis who had barreled their way into central and even into Western Europe ravaging the entire time before they finally settled down on the Hungarian plain and now their descendants are the victims of another step people the Mongols had conquered Russia they'd a ravaged Poland they'd taken down Hungary they were the Lords of the Danube there was a Mongol force you know knocking on the doors of Vienna at that very moment Mongols had reached the adriatic sea the Dalmatian coast actually pursuing the fleeing Hungarian King I mean they were poised to take over all of Europe to actually reach the Great Sea in the West so why didn't they why did they stop at that point Suba tie himself had plans to take down the Holy Roman Empire why didn't he do it some scholars point to the European climate even climate change to explain the Mongol turnaround the sudden turn around you know it was snowy it was cold but that didn't seem to stop the Mongols I mean under Suba tie the Mongols covered 60 miles a day on horseback on the Hungarian plain where there were several feet of snow so doesn't seem to be a great explanation though recent studies have shown that it was about this time that a considerably cold and wet period set in which would have resulted in shrinking pasture lands and sort of marshy conditions you can see how that would negatively affect the Mongols army on horseback another theory probably the strongest is that the Mongols left because of events that had nothing to do with Europe at all but political events way back in Karakoram oh god I the Great Khan had died see who's probably an alcoholic when he died so you've got Mongol princes from all over rushing back to Karakoram to elect a successor of course each one of these has his own political ambitions as well and Batu certainly was one of those so in March just one month after taking buda and crossed the river their motto is marching back to Karakoram to be part of you know these political events tsubu tie by the way was very much against this he was ready to keep going but of course he wasn't of the blood he wasn't a Mongol Prince he was just a general so he was overruled on their way out of Europe the Mongols beat up on the Byzantines and ravaged Bulgaria so the death of Agatha was followed by years of political jockeying and Regency and the threat of civil war within the Mongol Empire itself thus preventing any quick continuation of you know a Mongol invasion of Europe it didn't help that Batu Khan and his Golden Horde set themselves up in Russia as one part of a fragmenting Mongol Empire thus you know squashing any designs Karakoram might have had of a United Mongol invasion of Europe and conquest all the way to the Great Sea so organized death in more ways than one set in motion a chain of events that may have saved christened Oh another theory geography it was all geography and the Mongols had had a relatively easy time conquering those parts of Europe the rather naturally and flatly ran into the Asian steps but they weren't prepared for the thick European forests European Hills European mountains there may be something to this theory but keep in mind that the mongols carried with them tree cutting specialists and they were very good at blazing paths through forests so I'm not sure that the European forests would have stopped them that said the mongols did seem hampered by mountainous terrain their campaign in Croatia for example the mountains did slow them down and in addition make them easier targets for ambush so again there may be something to this geography theory but at the end of the day it might just have been European defenses that convinced the Mongols to stop while they were ahead in Europe or that at least prevented a general Mongol takeover of all of Europe and you know conquest all the way to the Great Sea the after ravaging central in southern Poland a small Mongol force had continued on into Bohemia but the Czechs stood strong and the Mongols had given up on that front after ravaging Hungary of course that part of Hungary that was mostly just a plain they had a harder time against the fortresses of Hungary so when they left Hungary fortified not just its towns and cities along its border but throughout the country Croatia did the same thing Croatia had had a similar experience the Mongols in you know chasing that Hungarian King through Croatia had easily sacked Zagreb which was not fortified but had been defeated at the fortress of cleese and so when the mongols were gone the Croatians fortified their country in any case the Mongol Empire wasn't united again for many years after that initial invasion of Europe and even then it was United only temporarily before permanently fracturing the most important parts of that fracture for Europe being the ill cons of Southwest Asia and of course the Golden Horde in Russia and Ukraine still the mongols weren't done not by a longshot with Europe after that first lightning like advanced a lightning like advance that could have been attached a much more territorial gain possibly all the way to the Great Sea to organize Great Sea had it not been suddenly stopped with most of Europe still intact and though later invasions devastated Eastern Europe and parts of Central Europe again the threat of a continent-wide Mongol takeover had largely passed thanks to wet weather climate change shamanistic injunctions you know mountains forests and hills infighting among Mongol princes the alcoholism of a Mongol Khan and the fortresses of Hungary and Croatia [Music]

Channel: The Nomadic Professor

Views: 79,391

Rating: 4.8537054 out of 5

Keywords: mongols, batu khan, subutai, genghis khan, chinggis khan, karakorum, lublin, wroclaw, krakow, kiev, novgorod, kievan rus, russia, ukraine, poland, vienna, sandomierz, battle of legnica, legnica, holy roman empire, croatia, fortress of klis, dalmatia, byantine empire, bulgaria, bela IV, kingdom of hugary, hungary, buda, pest, budapest, empire

Id: rV5wOGylGvo

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 28 2018