The Greco-Chinese War Over the Heavenly Horses

[Music] ancient Greece and ancient China to societies we consider to have been separated from one another through both their respective histories what if we told you that at one point the ancient Greeks and Chinese had interacted and that they fought a war a war over horses that's led to the opening of the Silk Road to find out where this story begins we need to go back 2,300 years as Alexander the Great conquered East he founded many walled cities across Asia which came to be inhabited by his military veterans the farthest east of these cities was founded in the Fergana Valley modern-day Tajikistan and named Alexandria Escott a literally Alexandria the farthest this marked the beginning of a Greek presence in Central Asia that would last nearly 300 years and result in some of the most fascinating cultural exchanges in human history indeed in 250 BC 80 years after Alexander's diadochi divided up his empire among themselves after his death the Greeks of the east known as the greco-bactrian declared their independence from the Seleucid dynasty of Anatolia and formed the greco-bactrian kingdom with Alexandria s Cote being its northernmost outpost now we must jump ahead around 100 years and go further east china ruled by the han dynasty was one of the richest and most powerful empires of the world however they had problems to contend with on the northern frontier of the Han Empire resided the Xiong nu a fierce Confederacy of nomadic steppe warrior peoples believed to be the predecessors of the mighty Huns they had been a thorn in the side of Han China for decades raiding and pillaging their northern territories and taking many captives as well as exacting vast amounts of tribute as the imperial court shifted more and more in favor of total war with young new emperor han wildy realized that he would need allies in the war to come he sent a diplomat John Chan to the West Chung Chan's travels would later become legendary to the Chinese they would come to see him as a national hero a man who connected the west and the East Jung Chan's goal was to form an alliance with the UAG another nomadic pastoral people who previously had been displaced by the Xiong nu from their homeland in modern-day Gansu Province in China to the Teheran Basin however Jung Chan never reached the U G as he was captured by the Xiong nu and spent ten years in captivity among them he was treated quite well even marrying a Xiong nu woman and having a child with her after a decade in captivity Jung Chan escaped even after all that time he displayed a remarkable loyalty to the Han Emperor and continued westward to Fergana and bactria to find the ug people and forge an alliance with them however when he finally reached huger territory he was effectively told that the ug had no desire to make war upon the Xiong nu Ren during his ten years in captivity and his entire mission pointless one would think that Jung Chan's expedition had been an abject failure but there was a silver lining during his time in Fergana searching for the USG chan came across a city he called her chin and noted several qualities about the people living there called the day one or great Ionians the men had deep set eyes and thick dark beards they lived in sophisticated city dwellings and were lovers of grape wine he also visited the cities in Bactria where he was impressed by their complex urban lifestyle and shrewd skill in trade and commerce however he noted that the Daewon lacked martial prowess and were afraid of fighting the people who Jung Chan encountered in Fergana and bactria were the descendants of the Greek settlers transplanted into the region by Alexander the Great over 200 years earlier but by 130 BC the Golden Age of the Greeks in Asia was ending while their cities endured they had been conquered by the very same UAG people jongchan wished to forge an alliance with and lived under the suzerainty of their nomadic hordes paying them tribute jongchan noted that the peoples of Alexandria s katay possessed great heavenly horses these mounts had powerful crests short stocky legs and round barrels they possessed remarkable endurance and made ideal war horses they were even said to sweat blood although this is likely a product of blood sucking parasites in their Mane that caused blood to mix with sweat when the horses were worked the prodigal diplomat finally returned to the imperial court in Chang'an in 125 BC although he had failed to make any alliances he returned with detailed information about these civilizations on the edge of the known Chinese world including the Greeks in Alexandria Scotty and the heavenly horses they possessed this information would later prove invaluable to the Han Chinese Jong Chan's accounts would be the first major documented interaction between Chinese civilization and a European culture in 104 BC Emperor Wu of Han sent envoys to Alexandria Scotty looking to buy a large number of Fergana horses however we are unsure of what happened next perhaps the Envoy demanded tribute in the name of the Han or maybe the amount of horses he was asking for was simply too high and at - lower price in any case the offended Greeks killed the Envoy when news of this reached the Emperor he was furious and decided that if he could not receive the heavenly horses through payment or tribute he would take them by force a force of 20,000 Han infantry and 6,000 cavalry was levied to invade Alexandria Scotty and general Li Guang Li was to command it li Guang Li led his army through the treacherous Taklamakan desert to reach Fergana within the desert was the Tarim basin home to a network of Oasis city-states governed by the tellurian people's li Guang Li attempted to gain supplies and resources from these cities but they refused ultimately he ended up in multiple petty conflicts with the two Koreans losing a good chunk of his men by the time the Han Chinese army reached Alexandria Scotty only a fraction of their original force remained the Greeks of course refused to capitulate without the means to break through the city walls li Guang Li was forced to withdraw back to China when Guang Li informed the Emperor of the difficulties they had in the desert Wu of Han responded by tripling the amount of men given to his general Li Guang Li set out across the Taklamakan again with 60,000 soldiers and 100,000 oxen this time due to the sheer numbers of the Chinese army the two Korean cities cooperated and offered supplies still Guang Li had managed to lose nearly half of his army to exposure in the harsh deserts nevertheless with 30,000 troops he reached the walls of Alexandria Scott a once more and prepared for a siege actual accounts of the battle itself are fairly sparse we know that the Greeks put up an initial fight being able to hold off the Chinese army for 40 days before they broke through the outer wall of Alexandria we don't know by what means the Chinese penetrated the city walls although we can make an educated guess based on the siege engines we know the han dynasty used it is likely that the heavy use of the overlooked assault cart battering rams and sheer force of numbers allowed the Chinese to hammer their way in in response to this the nobles within the city fearing for their lives are fascinated their King and delivered his head to Lee Gwang Lee as well as offering as many horses as the Chinese would like as a tribute Lee Gwang Lee established a new puppet King in day one placing the Greeks of the city firmly under Chinese influence thus ended the short yet pivotal war of the heavenly horses on the Chinese March homeward many of the tech Aryan city-states capitulated to the Han ward by their victory in Alexandria escort a Chinese military Garrison's would be established within their walls and the entire terran basin region would eventually become consolidated into an china's Protectorate of the west Lee Gwang Lee returns to the Han Court victorious with 3,000 heavenly Fergana horses to show for it the war of the heavenly horses and all the events that led up to it are incredibly pivotal moments in history especially given how little they are talked about it banishes the misconception that the ancient Greek and ancient Chinese civilizations never interacted with one another and opens up a whole new field of fascinating cultural interaction between very different people groups more importantly this critical interaction between the Greeks and Chinese 2,000 years ago was likely the seminal event that opened up the Silk Road China's expedition to Alexandria escort a led to them establishing their control across Central Asia this connected the eastern and western worlds and made trade from Europe to China all the more possible the Silk Road would play a crucial role in the spread of religion culture and commerce across continents for centuries to come Greek culture in the East would eventually be assimilated out of existence but not before it made its mark upon the cultures of the region although not in the ways one might expect many Greeks in India bacteria and Fergana converted to Buddha the Greeks contributed their own philosophies and culture to the faith due to the Greek cult of form it is said that the first anthropomorphic sculpture of the Buddha himself was done by the Greeks where before he had only been represented by his symbols such as the Bodhi tree it is even believed that Greek philosophies had a major impact on the development of a new sect of Buddhism Mahayana Buddhism it would eventually spread into China Korea and Japan through trade and interaction along the Silk Road on which the Greeks had an active presence as for China they eventually won their war against the Shan new in 91 AD the heavenly horses they claimed from the Greeks became symbols of wealth and power depicted prominently in art as late as the Tang Dynasty 600 years later thanks for watching our video on the interaction between the ancient Greeks and the Chinese including the war of the heavenly horses we are planning to make more videos like this so make sure you are subscribed to our Channel and have pressed the alarm bell these videos are made possible by our brilliant patrons over at patreon and our YouTube sponsors visit our patreon or press the sponsorship button to learn more about the perks this is the kings and Generals Channel and we will catch you on the next one

Channel: Kings and Generals

Views: 1,353,554

Keywords: ancient china, history channel, roman empire, kings and generals, history lesson, documentary film, full documentary, animated documentary, decisive battles, historia civilis, history documentary, war - topic, ancient history, Bactria, Han, macedonia, macedonian empire, greece, ancient greeks, han dynasty, china, alexander, chinese history, dayuan, war of the heavenly horses, silk road, zhang qian, bactria, mobei, world history, successors, diadochi, seleucids

Id: g6Rphg_lwwM

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 06 2018