The Mongols held an extensive empire that was not only impressive in size, but also in their cultural exchange. The Mongolian empire expanded from eastern china, across the Gobi desert and Russia and into central Asia, Afghanistan and Persia. The realm extended over 6,000 miles and touched all four of Eurasia's 'larger worlds.' Their success rested on their combination of ruthlessness and cleverness, and also their powerful leader Chiggis Kahn, also known as Ghenkis Khan. The Mongols were vicious, and each victory increased their strength. Their weapons were also very advanced, and they used tools such as cross bows and flaming arrows, and were excellent horsemen.
The conquest began in the Mongol's nomadic roots, and their need for grazing land. They also found that when they moved into new lands, they were able to massively increase their wealth from collecting taxes through their tributary system. They developed a strong trading system, or cultural exchange, which may have been the original reason for their expansion. Their trading spanned all across the empire.
The Mongols were able to build a permanent empire by incorporating conquered peoples, and through intermarriage, conquering areas and taking the women to have them married to make them a part of the army. They had a high religious tolerance due to their integration of conquered peoples, and had little problem with other cultures.
Although conquest was one thing, ruling was another. Conquerors were few in number, and many of the Mongols were illiterate, and lacked experience in governing complex societies. However, their power was not simply derived from permanent population centers such as the St. Denis Monastery, but their kinship loyalties and mobility in society. The Mongols established a postal system and had multinational advisors conducting censuses of all of their subjects. However, the empire finally fell due to it being overstretched and it was forced to rely on local bureaucrats to...