Genghis The Ultimate Conquerer Compared

Genghis: The Ultimate Conquerer (Compared To Alex The Great) Essay, Research Paper

The Ultimate Conqueror

By

Tom Rees

Mr. Keenan Civilizations in History

Period 10 Wednesday, April 24, 1996

Contents

Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Alexander the Great:

– History . . . . . . . . . . 4

– Assessment . . . . . . . . . 5

Genghis Khan:

– History . . . . . . . . . . 6

Final Assessment and Conclusion . . . . . . 12

Map of Empires . . . . . . . . . 14

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . 15

Thesis:

Alexander the Great is by many considered to be the greatest conqueror of all time given that he put together such a large army and conquered so much land in such a short time. However in the same amount of time, the campaign of Genghis Khan and the land that he acquired was so much more vast than that of Alexander+s. And given that Genghis Khan started with no power and no army, the conquests of Alexander pale in comparison.

Alexander the Great

History:

In 354 B.C., fifteen hundred years before the birth of Genghis Khan, Philip the Great of Macedonia had a son, Alexander. Before Alex was twenty years old, Philip, despite being taken prisoner at Thebes for three years, united the largest professional army that Macedonia had ever seen, improved his cavalry, and created a new type of military unit known as a phalanx. During this same period, the corrupt city states of Greece were in a state of decline and Philip took advantage of their weakness by waging wars. Finally, at the battle of Chaeronaea in 338 B.C., Philip conquered the Greek army and Greece was joined to Macedonia under the rule of Philip. Shortly after, Philip was assassinated by one of his officers during a wedding.

Alexander was the heir to his father+s empire and at 20 years of age found himself respected by Greeks and Macedonians alike. In 334 B.C., with an army of 35 000, Alexander set out to conquer Persia, the only major threat to the Balkan peninsula. Even though the Persian army outnumbered the Greek army five to one, it had inferior weapons and outdated methods of fighting. The Greek army, under the rule of Alexander the Great, was able to defeat the Persian empire with a loss of only 500 men.

At this time Greece was the only substantial power in the known world and Alexander had no trouble making further conquests. To reduce the risk of conflicts within his acquired territories, Alexander did not forbid the personal beliefs of the people he conquered. Instead he allowed their beliefs to coexist along side those fo the Greek. This approach helped to keep the peace in all of the lands he conquered and the Greek Empire became the largest empire ever seen. And it was all ruled by one person, Alexander the Great.

Assessment:

At this point in history it is virtually undisputed that Alexander was the greatest ruler ever. But the world was still young, it had not witnessed the likes of Genghis Khan.

But how extraordinary had Alexander+s conquests really been. I dispute that he was the greatest ruler for in the forth century B.C. the Persian Empire, Egypt and the city states of Greece were in a state of decline. In other words it was not very difficult for a well organized force to defeat these weakening civilizations. And since Alexander+s father did all the work of organizing an army, conquering Greece and planning to invade Persia while Alexander was a child, Alex had little more to do than follow the plans of his father.

GENGHIS KHAN (a.k.a. Temuchin; Chingiz Khan)

History:

Before the reign of Genghis Khan, the Steppe people were constantly at war with one another. They lived in seperate clans and tribes in the steppe grassland in the area of today+s Mongolian Republic. These tribes were isolated with virtually every other civilization. To the north was the impenetrable Siberian forest, to the south, desert, and beyond that the land of settled civilization, China.

Because the land was primarily grassland, the Steppe people relied on sheep for skins, wool, and felt tents. Horses which were used for transportation, trading, hunting, and military activity. Camels and oxen which were used to pull carts. On account of the several uses that horses had for the Mongolian tribes, these people became very skilled and experienced with the activity of horses.

Many Steppe tribes occupied the land along the River Orkhon in central Mongolia. These nomads constantly moved from one pasture to another trying to find good grazing and hunting grounds. In a single year a tribe might travel 100 miles. This pattern was sometimes disrupted as local wars would break out over the use of a pasture.

Before the birth of Temuchin, the Chinese had been able to suppress any uprisings in Mongolia by spying on the Mongolian tribes. If one tribe or chief was thought to be gaining too much power, the Chinese would support a rival tribe by supplying them with goods, honours and subsidies. Soon the upstart tribe would be overwhelmed. This strategy proved to work well until the time of Chingiz Khan.

Most clans in the Steppes had their leader determined by a hereditary kingship. Some, however, were democratic. The most powerful of these tribes were the Tatars of eastern Mong

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