The Military of the Yuan Dynasty

The Mongols were a group of segregated tribes that lived in the deserts of what is now Outer Mongolia. (Hooker) They gathered annually to migrate and elect leaders of the separate tribes. Their religion and way of life was very similar to the Japanese religion Shinto. It focused predominately on a sky-god that ruled over nature deities, and could only be communicated with through Shamans. (Hooker) The most influential and dominant leader of the Mongol tribes was the son of a poor noble. Born in the 1160's, and the first to unite the separated tribes of Mongolia was a man named Timuchin, or better known as the "Universal Leader," Ghengis Khan. (Hooker) His innovative military tactics dominated in the battlefield and his armies were considered the fastest, most well trained horsemen, and were broken up into groups of one hundred, one thousand, and ten thousand. They were very mobile and the placement or position of the troops could be quickly altered by a simple hand gesture. (Hooker)This was very effective against far denser armies because of the large amount of the battlefield that could be covered in such a short period of time. (Hooker) From a geological perspective, Ghengis Khan made the Mongolian empire one of the largest in human history. It stretched west to east from Poland to Siberia, and north to south from Moscow to the Arabian Peninsula and Siberia to Vietnam. (Hooker) Although the empire covered the vast majority of the known world, Ghengis Khan's main interest was a country known for its great wealth; China. While some of the Mongols worked on spreading the empire west, Ghengis Khan managed to conquer northern China before he died in 1241. (Hooker) After the death of Ghengis Khan, the Mongolian empire was split into four different sections, each ruled by a khan that answered to the Great Khan. (Hooker) In 1260, the grandson of Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan became the great khan, and eventually moved the capitol of the Mongol empire from Mongolia to Beijing, and adopted a more Chinese dynastic name; The Yuan Dynasty. (Hooker) Until Kublai Khan came into power, the Mongols were seen as bandits sucking as much wealth from the country as possible. One of the greatest accomplishments of Kublai Khan was the establishment of the Forbidden City. It was a phenomenal architectural achievement that incorporated elements of Arabic, Mongolian, western Asian, and Chinese architectural styles. It was mostly viewed as a shielding sanctuary for Mongolian culture. (Hooker) There were Mongolian nomadic tents, and a large playing field for horsemen to ride freely or practice. Kublai Khan eventually attempted to adapt to the Chinese political structures and theories, and succeeded in turning the Chinese government into a complete autocracy. (Hooker) Yet one of the Mongolians largest issues that eventually led to the decline in Mongol rule was the failure to learn the Chinese language itself.

The Yuan Dynasty was one of four major