I was reading about the Mongolian conquest of China today.

[howard112211]

And there was an aspect of it that I found particularly interesting. According to the book that I am reading, during that particular time period (thirteenth century), China had the most advanced military technology on the planet. They had explosive grenades, fired from catapults, gunpowder, rocket propelled arrows, poisonous gases and even a primitive version of the armored car. They employed all of these weapons in their battles against the Mongolians, who were describes as being nothing more than "barbarians on horsebacks". With this advanced weaponry they were able to withstand the continued onslaught of the Mongolians for about fifty years. Yet, in the end they were defeated by the Mongolians, who then proceeded to rule China for several generations.

Perhaps this says something about battles against "primitive" enemies, who are determined to continue fighting for however long it takes.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. What is the name of the book?

[howard112211]

7. The book

is an old book which I don't even remember where I got it from. The title is "The Early Civilization of China" by Arthur Cotterell and Yong Yap.

[hayu_lol]

2. The Great Wall protected China for a long period of time...

it was never breached. An official gatekeeper was bribed to open the gate and the rest is history down to the last emperor.

The Mongols did not assimilate, were not allowed to intermarry with the Chinese, and kept their own language. They ruled through the Mandarin System using the Mandarins as a filter between themselves and the people.

[DCKit]

3. Vladimir Putin said so publicly not too long ago...

and I'm sure he said the same, privately, to BushCo* before we ever when to Afghanistan, aka, "The Graveyard of Empires".

[Richard D]

4. There's a fascinating online historical fiction novel

at mongoliad.com. Written by Neil Stephenson and Greg Bear.

New chapter each week plus a lot of historical wiki stuff.

[pnorman]

5. Was that book:: "Genghis: Birth of an Empire"?

That's available at Audible.com, and I was considering ordering.

[Cleita]

6. Barbarians on horseback were also instrumental in

bringing down the Roman Empire too. Also, farmers with primitive weapons brought down our military in Vietnam.

[BB1]

9. Barbarians on horseback were also instrumental in

bringing the Roman Empire to heel, to defend and protect it. Batavieren, for instance, were Dutch 'barbarians on horseback', arguably the first mercenaries of Europe.

[The Magistrate]

8. Not A Piece Prepared With Much Understanding, Sir

The horse-archer of the steppe was the dominant military force on the planet for most of the last two thousand years. The combination of accurate missile fire and strategic and tactical mobility was something civilized armies based on infantry rarely found a means of defeating. Mongol military organization was excellent, similar in many respects to the platooning of modern military forces, with working signals arrangements, and orders passed in tunes for easy memory.

[xchrom]

10. +1