Genghis Khan established the Mongol empire, and conquered most of Asia and Europe, from the Yellow Sea to the Caspian Sea. Although many see Genghis Khan as a barbarian, he achieved his victories by using genius military strategies and organization, which simply leads him to being the greatest conqueror of the world.
Genghis Khan, Temujin, was born to a noble chieftain, Yesugei, who was bold and dangerous, and Hoelun, an exceptional woman who was vast and magnificent. Upon Temujin’s birth, he was clutching in his right fist a small blood clot, which symbolized that he was to become a great war hero. At age nine, Yesugei betrothed Temujin to the daughter of an Olkunut chief, Berta, as a custom, where a chieftain selects a wife for his son from people who live far away. Yesugei left Temujin with his future in-laws, and left back to his tribe, and while on his way back, he was poisoned by the Tartars. As of this, Temujin was brought back to camp to claim the position of his father, however, the men in the camp refused to be led by a young boy, and therefore, they abandoned him and his mother, along with other widows and their sons. Being a woman of resource, Hoelun managed to keep her son’s alive by gathering plants, roots, nuts, and other fruits that she managed to find, and for a while, she was able to use Yesugei’s small herd of sheep, not until they were all killed slowly by the weather, “since the land was arid steppe, and to keep alive in it at all a man needed a horse, weapons, flocks and the company of his clansmen” (R.P. Lister, I), which they had none. To go through this, Temujin and his brothers “applied themselves with new seriousness to the task of keeping alive”, (R.P. Lister, 35) however, being constantly hungry, fights would eventually break between Temujin, and his step brothers, Belgutai and Bekter. To settle the score, and to set his mark as chieftain, Temujin and his brother Kasar planned Bekter’s death, and as a result, they shot him in...