Got trapped with out the book I was reading, so I started Ghengis Khan. It is astonishing that people think of the Mongols as vicious raiders of the steppes, when in fact, according to this book they united the world of ideas. The Mongols, carried across their conquered territories the ideas from many countries, bringing nothing from their world, but bringing everything from the conquered worlds.
They took the best and combined the best with the best of other cultures and in doing so they carried the world out of the dark ages and into the beginning of the Renaissance. They brought ideas, such as central fair government, new weapons of warfare, they penetrated enemy lines to spread fear and keep down the number of deaths, etc. Kings and Emperors were treated as the common man, no one was better than another. Astonishment, is what I am coming away with, in the beginning of this book.
The descendants of Ghengis Khan ruled for 700 years! The number of people and countries Ghengis managed to conquer and bring together under one rule, is astonishing. There is something to learning about the time of Ghengis Khan, that helps one to think about the spread of ideas in the ancient world. How and why the Renasissance started under the influence of one man of power, and how that relates to the world today? Interesting question! I will keep you posted.
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