Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
In the book “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World”, Jack Weatherford talks about the 13th century Mongol conqueror and the highlights to how he became the most important man in history. Weatherford described Khan’s empire as incomparably vast, one that fostered free trade and let all religions thrive. The Mongols under Genghis Khan, created the largest empire in history, ruling all of Eurasia from China to Russia and the Middle East. They came close to uniting Eurasia as one, almost making it a world empire, and in doing so, they spread around new technologies such as paper, paper money, trousers, gun-powder and the compass. So when asked the questioned “Who was the person the influenced world history the most?” Genghis Khan should be your answer.
The book is organized into an introduction, three text sections and an epilogue. The main point Weatherford expressed in the introduction was that the world changed, or began to change from medieval to modern because of the Mongols. He talks about the accomplishments, territorial wise, of the Mongols under Khan and he notes that the population was nearly a million people and 100,000 comprised the military. The following section concerns the unification of Mongolia and Genghis Khan’s rise to great power. Genghis Khan was not born a military genius, but was noted on his attack of the Khwarazmian Empire which composed parts of the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan) and the former Soviet Central Asia. The attacks were not viewed as warfare but as in gaining victory. (Genghis was not self absorbed either, he didn’t allow portraits or statues to be made of him, he didn’t want to be worshipped.) In the second text section, Weatherford talks about the spread of the Mongol Empire outside of Mongolia. He explains the invasions of China, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe as well as the political background from the perspective of...

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