The Mongolian Empire Makes Zero Sense

The meme above shows my feeling towards the Mongolian Empire. Mongolia today has 3.5 million people, (the same as Minneapolis–St. Paul Metro area), and I can’t see Tim Walz conquering most of Asia.

Here’s the text and a bit kore of context:

God: “So there’s this really big, empty grassland…”
Angel: “Alright.”

God: “And it’s freezing in winter, burning in summer, and there’s barely any food.”
Angel: “Sounds rough.”

God: “And the people there live in tents, ride horses, and drink fermented milk.”
Angel: “Uh-huh.”

God: “And they constantly fight each other.”
Angel: “Checks out.”

God: “Now they’re going to build the largest continuous land empire in history.”
Angel: “Excuse me, what?”

The rise of the Mongol Empire really was one of history’s great “impossible” stories: a collection of scattered nomadic clans from a cold, poor steppe becoming the rulers of the largest continuous land empire in history.

Let’s see why they defied the odds:

Geography & Demography

The Mongolian steppe is a harsh environment: bitterly cold winters, arid summers, little farmland.
Population was small (just a few million), so Mongols could never match sedentary empires in manpower.
But survival in such conditions bred hardiness, mobility, and adaptability, every Mongol was effectively a trained rider and warrior by youth.
The lack of resources pushed them outward; conquest was partly a necessity.

Military Technology & Tactics

Composite Bow: Small, powerful, and usable on horseback, could fire further and with more power than most European longbows.
Cavalry: Almost the entire army was mounted, giving them unmatched speed and manoeuvrability.
Organization: Genghis Khan restructured tribal units into decimal groups (10, 100, 1,000, 10,000), breaking clan loyalties and ensuring loyalty to him.
Discipline: Harsh laws and absolute obedience. Retreat was punishable by death, but discipline made them nearly unbeatable.
Psychological Warfare: Reputation for brutality (massacres, terror) often caused cities to surrender without a fight.
Adoption of Siege Tech: They lacked their own siege engines but learned from conquered peoples (Chinese engineers, Persian siege experts).

Political Leadership & Unity

Before Genghis Khan, the Mongols were just fragmented tribes.
Genghis (Temüjin) united them through charisma, ruthlessness, and meritocracy: he promoted based on talent, not birth.
He created a sense of shared destiny: loyalty to the empire, not just the clan.
Built alliances through diplomacy and marriage, then broke them if needed, highly pragmatic.

Economy

Mongols themselves had a pastoral nomadic economy (herding, trading animals). Not enough to sustain an empire.
Conquest provided:
- Tribute (grain, silver, silk, taxes).
- Trade routes (Silk Road under Mongol protection flourished: “Pax Mongolica”).
- Skilled labor (captured artisans, scribes, and engineers).
They didn’t innovate economically, but they integrated conquered economies, Persia’s administration, China’s farming wealth, Muslim financial systems.

Religion & Tolerance

Mongols practiced Tengrism (sky-god religion) with shamanism.
Crucially, they were religiously tolerant: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism all coexisted in the empire.
This tolerance helped them govern diverse populations without constant rebellion.
Sometimes they even used religion diplomatically, allying with Christian kingdoms against Muslims, or vice versa.

Why It Worked (Against All Odds)

Mobility + adaptability: Could move faster than any army, live off the land, and adjust tactics.
Fear factor: Terror was a weapon, surrender and live, resist and die.
Leadership: Genghis Khan was a once-in-history leader who forged unity out of chaos.
Weak neighbors: China’s Jin and Song dynasties were divided, Persia fractured, Kievan Rus disunited, Islamic caliphate weakened. The timing was perfect.
Networks: By conquering, they didn’t destroy but integrated, using Chinese engineers, Persian administrators, Muslim doctors.

Why It Didn’t Last

Succession problems: Genghis Khan’s empire was divided among his sons (Ögedei, Chagatai, Jochi, Tolui). This worked short-term but later created rival khanates.
Overexpansion: Huge territory (from Korea to Hungary) was impossible to govern centrally. Communication and logistics were stretched thin.
Cultural Absorption: In China, the Mongols adopted Chinese ways; in Persia, they converted to Islam. Each khanate became “local” over time.
No stable institutions: Mongol rule depended on strong khans. Once weak leaders appeared, the empire fractured.
Demographic limits: The Mongols were few, ruling millions in China, Persia, and Russia. Over time, they were assimilated by the very peoples they ruled.
Plague: The Black Death (spread along Mongol trade routes) devastated populations and undermined trade, weakening the empire.

Also see: What If the Mongol Empire Reunited….? and Map Of The Mongolian Diaspora In The World.

Books about the Mongolian Empire: