History Summarized: The Mongols 

75% of the population of Persia was slaughtered by the mongols. Saying Iranians take a very, very Dim view of the Mongols is an understatement.

"You don't make our lives difficult and we won't make your lives short." Most badass quote ever!

As a Mongolian, I expected you to called him Ghengis Khan, but then when I heard you say Chinggis Khan it made me so happy because that's how we say it in Mongolia. Seriously, hearing that watered my crops and cleared the skies

"...and Mongols just invaded the most of the universe. "Nice goin', Gengis! I bet it will last a long time!" **BROKEN** " -Bill Wurtz

It was the Mongols who taught us that we should be tearing down walls, not building them up. What an inspirational group of people.

The best story of the Mongols is their attempt to take Japan. But they failed not because of their skill. They just lost the luck that Genghis was having in China and got their fleet destroyed by a hurricane... Twice!

Unless you are the Mongols.

I'm actually impressed. Blue made a video about the Mongols that wasn't utterly biased. Credit where credits due, good job.

Awesome video mate! It's interesting that one of the signs of an empire's downfall is when it get's too big which very often results in fracturing. Same thing happened with the Franks.

and the fact that every day of the year is a Genghis Khan descendant's birthday....yeah, just another thing to think about...

Everyone: The Mongol Empire was the most brutal empire to ever exist they slaughtered millions! British Empire: Well you ain’t seen nothing yet son

I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for my damn kids! - Khan

Frontier walls are never meant to deal with massive invasions but they are particularly effective against the thousands of small raids.

Ghengis Khan is literally an anime character.

**Insert Bill Wurtz meme here**

The Roman empire: we're the biggest, best empire Mongolia: That's cute

The Mongols were crazy effective while expanding. You don't have to like what they did to respect their power. If you don't approve of the summation of their actions, it may console you that their empire didn't survive. It's the same way I feel about the Aztecs: powerful, rich culture, influential, probably got what they deserved.

There's not actually anything that states you can't be both a genocidal maniac, AND doing everything for the good of your people. That doesn't make it necessarily rational, but they aren't opposite extremes on a single axis... one is intent and the other is action... they can overlap. "Right" and "wrong" don't really factor or matter in that calculation, and determining which is which is nigh impossible in non-laboratory conditions, and is largely a fool's errand.

I don't really see why you have to come down on one side or the other. Like i've never personally thought of history that way. To me when i look at it i just go hey look at all these humans, living, loving and making decisions good and bad. So i wouldn't take the stand of the empire was a good net, or a bad net thing. It happened, and i look into it cause it's super interesting :) Great video too lol!

God: Hey mongols, how much of the world's population did u kill? Mongols: I don't know, like 10, 25 percent my dude. God: those are rookie numbers watch this: Permian-Jurassic extinction event.

Should I start quoting crash course? " everyone knows you can't invade Russia unless you are wait for it.. the mongols"😆

"Don't make our lives difficult and we won't make yours short." I need to incorporate that line into my everyday life somehow.

We are the Mongols *Resistance is Futile*

I'm amazed the story of Temujin hasn't been turned into an anime. It's so goddamn good. It's a harem, a shonen, an isekai, and a seinen ALL IN ONE.

There’s Big, then Stupid Big, then Chinesely Big, then Alexander’s Ambition Big, and then Mongolian Big. On a more serious note, I think that Temujin’s life philosophy overall was rather good, he was nice to those who deserved it....or, the way he saw it, those who didn’t resist....which isn’t as noble....but the thing is that, even if you had the worst luck in history, if he thought you deserved more, he would help you. Now, it is true that they were incredibly cruel (even if most empire were), I won’t deny that. What I like was Temujin himself, he valued people for what they were capable to do and what they were themselves. Even though he had faults, other great kings weren’t like that, really.

Jamukha x Temüjin is otp.

"we are the exception!"

Ganghis Khan = good leader Ghansis Khan = not a good guy There is a difference.

One of the reasons the Mongols never made their way into Central and Western Europe is that they were stopped by the second Mongol invasion of Hungary. So basically in 1241 the FIRST mongol invasion of Hungary, the Mongols attacked the Kingdom of Hungary and were actually almost defeated but managed to surround the camp of the bulk of Hungarian army and killed most of them. They then went on to brutally pillage and slaughter the local inhabitants (as they tended to do), and in the process killed about 20% of the kingdom's inhabitants. Having subdued the area the Mongols then pulled out their troops. Despite being crippled, the Kingdom was actually left standing. King Béla IV of Hungary knew that the Mongols would return, and so when about the next few decades reforming the Hungarian military to prepare for the potential attack rather than roll over to the Mongols. King Béla IV had observed what had been effective in fighting the Mongols in the first invasion, and used this knowledge in his reformation of the military. What makes Hungary unique for Central Europe is that it is essentially an island of flat grassland. Because of this, Hungary had few castles and stone fortifications compared to the western and central Europe which were more mountainous since castles are typically placed on high ground to give a strategic advantage. Of the few stone castles they did have though (only 10 total) none of them fell to the Mongols despite being behind enemy lines. Seeing this, the King ordered the construction of 100 new castles and fortifications 66 of which were made of stone. He had also observed that while the light cavalry which had composed the bulk of his army was ineffective against the Mongols, heavy cavalry (knights) showed considerable success as they were able to easily crush the Mongol soldiers when in a straight fight and their heavy armor resisted Mongol arrows, so he increased the proportion of knights in his army by expanding the status of nobility to large and midsize landowners. Despite having few crossbowmen during the first invasion they had also proved to be highly effective against the light armor of the Mongol soldiers, and so he hired 1,000 Venetian crossbowman. Finally, between 1259 and 1264 the Mongols sent message to the King of Hungary saying that if he lent 1/4th his army to them for a planned conquest of Central and Western Europe then Hungary would receive 1/5th the plunder, tax exemption to the Mongol Empire, and be spared from further destruction. King Béla IV refused the offer, and so the Mongols prepared a force. In the year 1285 a Mongol army composed of 60,000 men was sent to destroy the Kingdom. When they arrived the, they found the land stripped bare as all the food had been taken into the many newly built castles, of which they were unable to capture and suffered heavy casualties during all attempts. Thousands of men their men began to starve to death as wandered around the countryside continually harassed by Hungarian Knights. They Mongol army was finally crushed in a head on conflict with the royal army of Ladislaus IV (successor King) who chased the remaining forces out through the mountains of west Transylvania where they were ambushed by the Székely people who acted as light cavalry on behalf of the Hungarians. By the time the survivors made it back to allied territory nearly the entire army of 60,000 thousand had been killed, and those few who had survived pillaged their allies land for food. This event reminds me somewhat of a medieval Battle of Thermopylae, but that would probably be inaccurate. While seemingly noble to stand against the Mongols rather than aid in their planned conquest of Europe, it most likely would have been unnecessary as the weapons and defenses employed against the Mongols during the second invasion were already far more popular throughout western Europe then they were in Hungary at that time as the were not well suited to the Hungarian geography. Europe is also largely mountainous which does not play well into the Mongolian light cavalry tactics that had made them so successful everywhere else. They most likely would have been stopped by the Holy Roman Empire on their first attempt.

"But that's just me and you're allowed to disagree." I wish more people would say that.

It would be nice if you guys could also cover the Philippines some time... Though there quite a few, Philippine Mythology is also very interesting as well as being deep and quite creepy too. Then there's the Philippine literature that's actually pretty interesting and is usually focused on either love or patriotism... Buuuut its up to you guys if you'd like to cover the Philippines...just thought I'd ask...

Don't make our lives difficult and we won't make your lives short. Words to live by

Love or hate Ghengis Khan, you got to respect a guy who goes from practically nothing to ruler of a huge empire and having more children than most people have hot meals.

I actually love the mongols Like they did a lot of conquesting against people who refused to trade with them or whatever but they were all like "Feed my horse? Great you are now one of us, you can keep your religion, religious artifacts, artwork and you can spread it around also divorce is fine if your husband is a douche and nobody is aloud to discriminate against you" How many other Conquerors can you say let you keep your religion and culture? I mean I will never say they were all good because the people who didn't feed the horses were killed and raped and shit but hey if you surrendered you were safe which is better than the vast majority of enemies in any other culture so even as far as the whole "killing and murdering and raping" goes they were pretty good about taking in there enemies, there were no prisoners just more to the family.

Persian Muslim: executes some mongols Mongols: *flips table* that’s it we’re going in China: oh no Mongols: *invade China and Persia*

You should do the Gupta empire next.

Personally, I find myself in awe of the sheer powerhouse that the Mongol Empire was during its days of expansion, and admire the military genius of Genghis Khan. I often wonder how today would be different if the succession wasn't botched and mangled so badly.

I love this video so much simply because it comes full circle at the end. I can´t express how hyped I get every time I get to that last sentence

I love how you guys make subtle references to other RU-vid channels in your videos. You aren't taking from them, but fans of those channels have a good chuckle in spotting the Easter eggs.

Cold, Hot and Mountains: Trifecta of the Supreme Geographical Nope. Inca Empire: Hold my Chicha de Jora

Quite thankful I found this channel before starting Pre-AP world history haha. You guys are awesome!

Is it the music from age of mythology?

The book _Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World,_ while dealing primarily with Temujin himself and the cultural exchange between Europe and the Khanate and later the Golden Horde, is a fascinating and well-written look into this topic. It's limited in scope, but it's also a reasonable length. One notable wrinkle on Blue's take that I got out of that book is that the Mongols' reasons for conquering were rather different than European ones. One wrinkle on that wrinkle, which I came up with myself, is that we may not know enough about what was going on back in the sacred mountains of Mongolia to truly understand the Mongol Khans' motivations.

Militarily, the Mongols were a remarkably modern force. Fast-moving, with officers promoted from the ranks based on merit, adaptive to opposing forces, and unafraid to move vast distances at speed to gain an advantage. As administrators ... they left a few things to be desired. Kinda hard to rule over a city after it has been raped and pillaged out of existence.

If you do end up tackling Russian history, you will absolutely HAVE to cover Ukrainian history. And then maybe the Belarusians. Those poor Belarusians...

"Was it worth it?" I feel like this is the wrong question. It is entirely the wrong way of understanding the Mongol Conquests. And let's just first off, dispel the notion that the Mongol Conquests were "amazingly unique", rather they were "marginally unique" due to the vastness and swiftness of their conquests. But to be sure Mongol Conquests is not a unique aberration of history. In fact, on the very (VERY!) broad level, the history of Eurasia can be described as a series of invasions of the horse people of the great steppe (the Mongols being only one of their incarnations) against the settled agricultural empires of the coasts. The animating force of famine and drought that led the Scythians and Cimmerians to challenge Persia is the very same that has led countless horse people to leave the steppe and venture into the realms of the settled people. The same pattern of conquest, domination, assimilation, runs through the Sarmatians, the Hunnic invaders of Rome, Altai Turks, the Xiongnu, the Avars, the Khazars, Onogurs, Kutrigurs, Pechenegs, Cumans, Uzes, just to name a few. "... the periodic thrusts of the nomads into the cultivated areas were a law of nature. It should be added that whether Turk or Mongols, they belonged to an intelligent, level-headed, practical people which, drilled by the harsh realities of its environment, was ever ready for the word of command. When the sedentary and often decadent communities yielded under his onslaught, the nomad entered the city and, when the first few hours of massacre were over, without any great difficulty took the place of the rules whom he had defeated. Unabashed, he seated himself upon the most time-honored and exalted thrones, as grand khan of China, king of Persia, emperor of India, or sultan of Rum, and adapted himself accordingly. In Peking he became half Chinese, in Ispahan, or Rai half Persian." -René Grousset, Empire of the Steppes, a History of Central Asia To assign value to their conquests is to view their wars and their conquests in an overly Clausewitzian way. Their conquests weren't a matter of cost/benefit, their wars weren't an extension of politics. Those were side effects. For the steppe nomads, conquest and war were a way of life.

4:50: Tom Clancy had this to say about the Maginot Line (just such a frontier wall, for those reading the comments): "In World War I, it stopped the Germans at Paris. In World War II, it stopped them at the Spanish border."

Thank you OSP for making this video! I know you guys are D&D nerds 'cause you got a cameo in Jocat's video on how to be a dungeon master, so you'll probably appreciate the fact that I used your video about the Mongols to help with my research so I could add my own allegory for the Mongol Empire to my special Homebrew D&D setting. It's an empire founded and mostly ruled by Orcs because I wanted a chance to make Orcs look sophisticated and honorable (from a certain perspective) and defy fantasy stereotypes, but like the Mongols they actually believed in racial equality, so yay! I called this allegory empire the "Altanmori", because "altan mori" means "golden horse" in Mongolian. I was inspired by "the golden horde" Mongols and before I watched this video I knew from being a fan of "The Hu" (A famous Mongolian Folk-Metal band) that the Mongols had a big cultural thing about horses, so that's why I put "horse" in the name of my Orc empire. 😂🐴

Empire is never worth it, but when individuals condemn the Mongols while praising the Romans with the same breath, it gets really irritating. Not talking about Blue here, just something I've noticed.

So when do we get to the huns where Attila was a woman with a rainbow sword who's actually a space titan. Just a thought

Your video description is so very wonderful.

Just found your videos a week or so ago. Came for history, stayed for the fast talking summaries of classic stories.

They tried to go down the Levante, but the Mamluks were like: "Yeah thats enough. Please stop right here and think about what you have done."

Asia: exists Mongols: **it’s free reel estate**

I always like the music from these videos and can't help but laugh when I recognize it. A lot of Reds videos use Two Steps From Hell as far as I have noticed, and a lot of Blues videos use music I've heard from Age of Mythology. Perfect choices to set a good mood.

How have i never found this channel??? I love reading and this kind of stuff! SO AWESOOMMMEEE!!

Imagine calling yourself an empire and not lasting for more than 200 years lmao. *laughs in Latin*

HELL YEAH. I have some stronger than usual Mongolian blood in me and seeing you covering this is really cool to me. Thanks Blue!

Thank you so much for this video! I have to do a book report on genghis Khan but I'm an auditory learner and this helped a whole bunch

I asked for this and you listened. Thank you

This video remind me of John Green. Good times

To the best of my knowledge other important things to mention about the mongols is that one they were very tolerant about other religions and before Genghis died he tried to make a legal system that would've made women legal equals in the empire.

As of the moment of writing this, I'm finishing up my MA dissertation work on the Mongol Empire, and I can say for the most part, this is highly accurate, though I lean more towards the Mongols being more of a force of good than bad, though their conquests are highly within the grey for a multitude of reasons. That said, great video and keep up the good work!

I started World ap history this week and these vids are gonna be real helpful for this year, thank you for making these ❤️❤️

OSP have a new video? Right, forget my job, loading RU-vid.

CrashCourse history flashbacks intensifies

I've been waiting for this video for a long time.

I found me a new fav channel.

It's documented that: cyrus the great was a liberate king for 44% of population of the world around 300 BC. And cyrus the great cylander is refered as the frist human right declaration. who set the slaves free and treat them as his own people. He Paid for the labours and banned the slavery, gave them money and support and also gave them freedom of religion, language , culture , education and what not... he also told them to choose any job they liked and they were free to live where ever they wanted to live.and more importantly he almost conquered all of the world in that time, without killing civilians and innocents. For example: he conquered the babylon without killing anyone or shedding any blood. Because people knew that he was a messiah and not a killer, so they welcomed him in without any war or conflict.

It would be really interesting to see how they operate in battle -(I'm still trying to separate the myths from the actual facts)-

1st vid of yours i watched and subbed. couldnt help but notice the Age of Empires music in the background xD Love it, just hope it doesnt cause any copyright strikes.

Really great content, better than any History class I've ever had in school - especially considering it gives me the itch to learn more on my own with a pool of unlimited information just a click away.

Every country, society, and people group has done at least one majorly bad thing in their history. That doesn't excuse what they did, but it doesn't mean they were/are entirely evil either.

I think that the mongols were considered pretty average when it comes to brutallity when compared to other medivel armies.

Yayyy been waiting for this one

Please do a history episode on Central Asia! You almost got into here and in the one about Ancient Persia but not quite. It's so hard to find videos or any history at all about that region of the world in the Western hemisphere, which is such a shame because I'm from there so I'd love to learn more about it.

Major Props for the Age of Mythology soundtrack

Really should've covered Timur and the other mongol related dynasties.

Nice video!! Very insightful :)

I get nostalgic whenever i watch these because of the music. Age of mythology was my favorite game of all time, it still is, and it makes me want to play it when i listen to the music

Really good video here and very unbiased too, which is praiseworthy in and of itself. Any clues on what we can expect less? Are episodes chosen by patreons or something? Do you guys even have a Patreon page?

Mongol: “No body excepted US!” Spanish Inquisition: ;_; ...

Thankful I found this channel before my history finals last year

How have I just found these two!? Red and Blue, you are awesome!!!! I have to find you on patreon!!!!

5:20 when your ancestor(13C Korea) capitulates to the Mongols but the dynasty become best buds with Kublai Khan Game-of-Thrones-style, 10/10 will be Mongol royals again until Ming show up.

There are some hypotheses that the biggest contributing factor to Mongol success was the time and place in which Genghis Khan was born in. The idea that he was born at a time when the empires of China, Korea, and Persia were divided and a shadow of what they once were. Not that this diminishes their accomplishments, but it adds another layer to their story. Similar to how Shakespeare's success came from the fact that the English just started going towards the written word over the oral word. If he had been born later, his poetic play structures would not have been nearly as successful.

8:10 -8:26 I think it’s both His conscious justified that he had to conquer in order to help his people and his family. His subconscious just liked the idea of conquest, and derived pleasure from battle and death. Because of this, he let his vices go wild, he had a sound mind, because any time his morality got in the way he could justify to himself that it’s all for survival.

What do you use to draw your cartoons? Btw I love your videos, keep up the good work!

Yay new vid

Yep, we had 300 cities on territory of Kazakhstan before and 30 after mongols.... but all rulers of my people later were chingizids and every kazakh now has a bit of mongol blood... so I don't know how to feel about them... but I could have ginger hair if not the fucking mongols, so I guess I'm on negative side of spectrum

Doing a DBQ rn, you are such a life saver.

Omg the John Green description. Yas. But also I'm pretty sure John Green would love this, there's nothing to dislike

I like how he made the the Mongol Empire blue and China red

I think you should do Charlemagne. He influenced history so much!

Hello Blue, I'm Mongolian citizen and I want say that Thank you for giving good summarizing of my nation. Oh and also I just started watching channel, you and Red are great

Exceptional Video

Do ancient China next please.

If you want an answer to the "is imperialism worth it?" question, just ask a native american if they're glad to have been conquered and subordinated by europeans "for their own good". Only the most alienated individuals can come up with justifications for the horrors of conquest. No, empires are not worth it for the people they conquer. Period. Nobody ever wants to be conquered, especially not "for their own good", even IF we assumed that it would somehow actually be in our interest ('cause, in reality, it never is). It is just pure hypocrisy and revisionist rhetoric on the part of the oppressors and their descendants.

8:18 I would argue both: he was a genocidal maniac that was protecting his own people. They're not mutually exclusive. He did good things, but the ends do not justify the means.

2:55 Jambuka: "Guess what scrublord, I boiled your generals alive!" Temujin: "By the power of this fuzzy hat, I will open up a FEIRCE can of whoop-ass on you" HAHAHAHAH...LOL🤣😂😆 I'm dying. I love it.