"He was a giant among the men, a living legend..."

“Seven hundred and seventy-seven years ago a man almost conquered the Earth. He made himself master of half the known world, and inspired humankind with a fear that lasted for generations. In the course of his life he was given many names–the Mighty Manslayer, the Scourge of God, the Perfect Warrior, and the Master of Thrones and Crowns. Unlike most rulers of men, he deserved all these titles.”
“We Americans, raised in European tradition, have been taught the roster of the great that begins with Alexander of Macedon, continues through the Caesars, and ends with Napoleon…but he was a conqueror of more gigantic stature than any of the well known actors of the European stage.”
“Indeed it is difficult to measure him by human standards. When he marched, it was over degrees of latitude and longitude instead of miles; cities in his path were often obliterated, and rivers diverted in their courses; deserts were peopled with the fleeing and the dying, and when he had passed, wolves and ravens were the sole living things in once populous lands.”
“This destruction of human life bewilders the modern imagination–enriched though it might be by the concepts of the Second World War. This man, a nomad chieftain who emerged from the desert, waged war upon the civilized peoples of the Earth…and was victorious.”
“If this devastation, this arresting of human progress, had been the whole story, he would have been no more than a second Attila, or Alaric–a formidable wanderer without a purpose. But the Scourge was also the Perfect Warrior and Master of Thrones and Crowns.”
“And here we are face to face with the mystery that surrounds him. A nomad, a hunter and herder of beasts, outgeneraled the powers of three empires and a score of lesser nations; a barbarian who had never seen a city and did not know the use of writing drew up a code of laws for fifty peoples.”
“In the matter of military genius Napoleon would appear to be the most brilliant of Europeans. But we cannot forget that he abandoned one army to its fate in Egypt, and left the remnent of another in the snows of Russia, and finally strutted into the de’ba’cle of Waterloo. His empire fell about his ears, his Code was torn up and his son disinherited before his death. The whole celebrated affair smacks of the theater and Napoleon himself of the play-actor.”
“Of necessity we must turn to Alexander of Macedon, the reckless and victorious youth, to find a conquering genius the equal of The Mighty Manslayer–but after death the measure of their achievements differs beyond comparison. Alexander’s generals were soon fighting amongst themselves for the kingdoms from which his son was forced to flee…whereas so utterly had this Perfect Warrior made himself master from Armenia to Korea, from Tibet to the Volga that his son entered upon his heritage without protest, and his grandson still ruled half the world.”
“This empire, conjured up out of nothing by a barbarian, has mystified historians. A general history of his era compiled by learned persons in England admits that it is an inexplicable fact. A worthy savant pauses to wonder at ‘The fateful personality of Genghis Khan, which at bottom we can no more account for than the genius of Shakespeare.’”

Felt like posting this up, to inform KBV that I hadn’t been talking about V.I. Lenin.

Genghis Khan got mauled by the Vietnamese, twice.

Then by the Japanese (and their wonderful Kamikazee storms), twice.

Genghis Khan was a dirty mongoloid (literally). Alexander the Great would have rolled all over him.

And Genghis wasn’t even that great of a ruler. He was a terrible administrator, not that his people needed administration…so the places he took over simply went back to their old ways after the Mongols moved on.

They were, at best, a rabble of fuck-ups who managed to roll over a bunch of shaky empires, yet got turned away when they actually had to face formidable foes (in Europe and parts of Asia). It’s not hard to take Russia from East to West, nor was it particularly difficult to take the Middle East, which was having it’s own internal problems at the time.

Khan: Godless barbarian. Alexander the Great: Glorious conqueror, and also, he was gay. Zing to everyone who got conquered by Alexander…because you were conquered by a gay.

Actually, Alexander’s only real contribution to civilization that’s lasted to this day was to make all those regions temporarily Greek so that Jesus Christ’s message could pass to them with much more ease. Jesus’ message is still going strong, and Alexander’s dead. The Khan is also dead, but in Siberia, the word for taxes is the same as the word for tribute the Siberians paid them in furs. The memory of the Khan lives on in them, and others. That said, I liked Alexander.

Genghis Khan never went down into what was not yet Vietnam, nor Japan…those were in the days of his descendents, especially Kublai, who had begun to conform to the “civilized” ways of the Chinese, unlike his grandfather. Rabble=kickass, society=weak.

The only time in his life where he “lost” a battle was against odds wherein his entire tribe should’ve been wiped out, and he was only 19 at the time he was then leading them. Many ascribe it a victory, for pulling survival out of the jaws of annihilation. Rabble=tenacious, society=submissive. He then REBUILT his tribe from scratch. Alexander never had to do that, and one wonders if he would’ve been like he was without his father’s resources to start him out. The Khan built it all, since before him they WERE rabble, only just-then recently out from under the yoke of the Chinese. Alexander was childish enough to need to crucify people who told him that he wasn’t a god, generals of his own army. Unspoken but understood by an entire empire was that for all intents, their leader was a god. A rider could transverse a thousand miles across the desert to a garrison, tell the base captain without warning that the Khan demanded his life, and the captain would kill himself…because no one lied about the will of the Khan. In regards to his loyalty to his companions, he granted to his tar-khans (paladins, greatest of all), amnesty from death penalty offenses up to nine times, among other things.

Some of his generals were treacherous against enemies, as the Mongols have been accused of. Temujin (“Strongest Metal,” in Mongolian…“Supreme Earth Man” in Chinese), The Genghis Khan (“Ruler of the World”), is never recorded as breaking his word. Thus, when he said something, that closed the matter on whatever it was. All this in spite of the first law of the Yasa Code proclaiming: “It is ordered that all men should believe in one God, creator of Heaven and earth, the sole giver of goods and poverty as pleases Him, whose power over all things is absolute.” Godless?

Perhaps one would claim they’re close-minded, instead. Again untrue, with all religions, whatsoever, being tolerated in their borders, during a time when ‘civilized nations’ were engaged in fratricidal religious warfare. The only religions outlawed were those that preached rebellion to the Khan. Osama would’ve been burned to death in about two months, the moment he tried Islamic jihad.

As an administrator, he created a communications system across Asia that still beats the present level of development in many of those places. A message could travel 2,000 miles in two days…by expressmen who were exempt from all taxes and were paid well for their service. How’d someone like getting that as a reason to be a postman? No tax. Ever.

Calling him a dirty mongoloid is not racist…but it sure sounds like it’s in the spirit of being so. Why do you think such groups are even called Mongoloid?

Mongoloid inbred, Jerry Springer , Starcraft playing Pr0n surfing Taylon lovers! Go back to playing your Kril does the earth in a daisy chain of gay excitment ! [SIZE=1](woot if you can’t tell this a joke[/SIZE].)

I stand by my Godless barbarian comment.

His culture is relegated to one mountainous region shoved among some mountains, and beset on all sides by other, better cultures.

Romans, Greeks, even the Islamic empires…these things stuck around longer than a few years.

This is the: “If he was so great, why aren’t I speaking Mongolian” argument…

(but this even extends into the lands he conquered. If he was so much better than any empire ever, shouldn’t Russia’s main language be Mongolian? Shouldn’t there be more contributions to the culture besides Mongolian Barbeques?)

Isn’t that enough? That’s a major contribution if ever I’ve tasted one.

MmmmmMMMMmm Genghis styled buffalo wings …

What’s funniest here is that Genghis’ empire was more free and open in its barbarism than supposed civilized societies were (are?) in their forms of “civilization.” None of this “submit to this belief or die” stuff, just deference for the Mongol hoarde’s requirements if it passed through, and loyalty to your bosses above you, and you got to go through life in the Empire unmolested (“a virgin with a pot of gold could walk from one end to the other without being [insert horror]…” the phrase went).

The impact any Mongol “culture” is diminished because of this very wide berth of tolerance to belief that they gave, instead of “societal rape.”

Genghis is still awesome.

OH THE IRONY

The reason that the mongolians empire disappeared was that they were so tolerant of the beliefs of others, and lacked a strong culture of their own, that they allowed themselves to assimlilate into native culture. Oh, and the Japan thing was bullshit. The japanese didn’t beat them. Typhoons beat them. Hmmm.

Oh, and to add to Ghengis Khan’s accomplishments, he also got the mongolians a written language - literally. He captured a scholar from a tribe with a written language, and made him create a new written language for the mongol tongue.

Let’s not forget how much better their bows were, and how their tactics anticipated mobile warfare. In fact, if Ghengis Khan hadn’t died, causing Ogadei Khan to return to mongolia to help choose a successor, Ogadei and the golden horde would have rode roughshod over all of fucking christendom. Now THAT would have been cool.

Actually, the Mongolians would’ve forced Christendom to stick to spirituality rather than war, since they would’ve owned Europe. It would’ve been better for it and everyone if they’d been conquered by the Mongols…then they could’ve next wiped out the only real source of Islam’s spread, that of violence. Eurasia all falls, then the question of Britain. If the Mongols were unable to take it like they were at Japan, then we might’ve had two Atlantis’, compared with the mostly annihilated, submissive peoples.

That would have been cool?

We’d all be Mongolians now.

And I don’t speak Mongolian, so I probably wouldn’t fit in :frowning: :frowning:

No fear, Trotsky, they’d have taught us Mongolian instead of English…unless Britain could hold out by “divine intervention,” like Japan did.

Yes, …Yes I was a Legend among men! I trolled all over them! and I did it like a boss! -=indeed=-