By far and away, one of the most interesting places on the planet...
Meet Mongolia; a sparsely-populated, Alaskan-sized, backwater, landlocked chunk of Northern Asia: Owing to the climate, and it's horrendous neighborhood, the Mongols have long-been fucked...but occasionally, even the most fucked countries grab the strap-on and start giving as good as they've got.
Dear Xi Xia, see you soon.
Love,
Chinggis
No discussion of Mongolia can begin without understanding its climate: It is an exceptionally arid nation, with vast semi-desert grasslands and steppes covering much of the country. Add to that, large mountainous regions in the west and the frickin Gobi Desert in the south...oh, and the Tundra in the North. This is a very hard place, that begat very hard people...it makes Afghanistan look pleasant.
Look, it's South Dakota!
Actually, it's just the frozen plains of Mongolia....
Wyoming? Afghanistan?
Nope, the Altai Mountains. Mongolian too...
Saudi Arabia? Bakersfield?
Nope, the Gobi Desert. Again, in Mongolia...
I think you're beginning to get the picture: This is not a place for the meek, or conducive to the soft farming life of Europe and the Mediterranean. You can't grow a fart in Mongolia if you tried...the only thing that really can survive are hardy grasses, sheep, and shaggy ponies. These are a sheparding, nomadic people, as you'd expect. And, to this day, the Mongols still rely on sheep, horses and the open grasslands to survive. Especially the sheep, who provide food, clothing, and felt to make the yerts (ger, the reasily dis/assembled circular tents, covered in felt, that still dot the landscape).
Sheep a/k/a Mongolian Buffalo.
And the neighbors with whom the Mongols were always fighting? Sheesh. Take your pick. You had the ancestral enemies of the Mongolians in the North; the Russian Tatars (just like white Mongolians, but even colder). To the South and East were the other ancestral enemies in what is now China: the Xi, the Jin, the Song and the Han. And to the West were the Turkic tribes (Uzbeks, Khazaks, etc). To top this all off, old Mongolia was rife with internecine conflict and constant tribal bickering. Until one kid named Temujin had just about enough of that, and through sheer will (and not an insubstantial amount of bloodshed) hammered the tribes into a unified nation. Perhaps you've heard of him?
Temujin (Ghengis Khan) is not impressed with your civilizations.
You know the story from here: With a nation just shy of 100,000 people, Ghengis grabbed the ponies kicked the hell out of the sulky tribes, and then they crossed the Gobi Desert and smashed the Xi. Somewhere along the way, he discovered seige warfare, and then decided to decimate the Northern Chinese (the Jin). Then, because of some treachery to his ambassadors, he crossed the Altai Mountains, and the Hindu Kush, and into the Persian Kwarezm empires (present day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Khazakstan). The results are much the same, and the Muslims fared no better.
This is all that's left of the former jewel known as Otrar. It was taken apart, brick by brick, by the Mongols, and everyone inside was put to the sword. Just some helpful advice: When Ghengis sends ambassadors, you might want to hear what they have to say next time.
When he died (still mysteriously uncertain), his empire was divided among his sons who, unsurprisingly, continued the advance. Perhaps you've heard of his family? Ogodei, Tamerlane and Khublia are just a few of the old Mongolian emperors. But, it wasn't all bad, along the way, the Silk Road was opened from Persia to Asia, Mongolian culture advanced into Persia and China (and vice versa), and trade boomed throughout the Eastern World and into Europe...in under a century.
Marco?
Polo.
After 400 years or so of Mongolian imperial expansion, and contraction, the Mongols did something few conquerors ever had...they just retired. They got back on their ponies, and went home to the frozen Steppes and Tundra. But, it was a helluva' 400 year ride, eh? However, retirement was not to be a peaceful one, and in the 17th century whatever was left of the Mongolian Yuan empire soon became subject to the powerful Chinese Qing dynasty, where they would remain until Russia made them a satellite communist state in 1924.
Mongolia, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Following the collapse of communism in 1990, the Mongolian people peacefully deposed their own communist leadership, and founded a republican system of government. However, as of today, most of the leadership are composed of the same old faces that dominated the government twenty years ago. Not that it matters terribly. Mongolia has almost no natural exports, aside from metals and mining. Even then, it is not like they export a lot of it without the Soviet system propping them up. Less than 1% of the land is arable, so they can't even subsistence farm or produce their own energy.
Nothing's changed very much in about a millenium, and that's just the way they like it.
So now, the Mongolians do like they always have; they herd and they raise ponies. The compete in archery, and wrestling and equistrian competitions. In short, the do as they always have: they ride the inexorable waves of history; some of which. they themselves created. Thus, while Mongolia is exceptionally poor, and remains fucked as always, I wouldn't say it too loudly; these are a patient people with a long, long memory and a well-honed sense of themselves.
Who are you calling fucked? We'll be keeping an eye on you.
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