Mongol Empire - Blog Posts
Fun Fact:
It turns out Genghis Khan, former Khagan of the Mongol Empire, may have done some good for the planet...
He did more to combat global warming than any of us ever will. Between 1162 and 1227, Genghis Khan and his Mongolian armies conquered around 22% of the Earth's surface, killing as many as 40 million people. But he also cut 700 million tons of carbon emissions while doing so. By lowering the population of the world by as much as 10%, he allowed huge portions of cultivated farmland to return to their natural forested state and absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
Took a break from england to listen to the new History of Byzantium and I'm just immensely charmed by the anecdote about how the Niceans very carefully brought Mongol ambassadors to court via the route that required going through as many mountain passes as possible to try and minimize how invadable-by-horse-archers they seemed.