His name is associated to the idea of war, barbarism and indiscriminate destruction (it is not entirely false, as he spent most of his adult life fighting, he was the leader of a nomad tribe and he ordered to carry out multiple massacres against anyone that faced him), but if there is something that can be said about him is that he was the one that built the bridges between East and West, allowing the crossing of ideas that, eventually, brought the ideas developed in China (paper, blackpowder, pasta) and India to Europe.
It is Temujin, better known as Genghis Khan, the man who managed to unify all the Mongol tribes in one empire, expanding its borders through Asia and becoming a role model (well, not a very good one, considering what he did) for his successors, who would expand their khanates' borders until reaching Russia and Poland, the westernmost point the Mongol riders reached before having to go back home to choose a new Khan after Ögedei's death. If there is something (else) good that can be attributed to Temujin, is his meritocratic policy (giving more power to the people that can demonstrate they can use it correctly) and his religious tolerance towards the conquered people (those they did not massacre, that is).
Temujin's birthdate is unknown, due to the lack of chronicles over the fact. It is known, though, where he was born: a place called Delüün Boldog, nearby the current capital of Mongolia. When he was nine, his father died, and both him and his family were left to their devices by their tribe. After several years living in poverty, and for a time prisoner of his father's old allies, Temujin's star began to change. From his marriage with Börte, who would become his empress, four sons were born: Jochi (about whom it is said he was conceived while Börte was prisoner of one of Temujin's rival tribes), Chagatai, Ögedei and Tolui. They were not the only ones, as Temujin would have several other wives, although these other sons, and all of his daughters, were excluded from succession. They were many, because about 10% of Mongolia descends from him, as well as about 0.2% of the world population. Eventually, Temujin managed to unify many nomad tribes under his rule, as any tribe he defeated was immediately embraced under his protection, inspiring loyalty in them and increasing his power, until he defeated the Naiman and Merkit (the ones that kidnapped his wife) tribes, becoming the only sovereign of the Mongols and taking the title of Genghis Khan. From there, Genghis Khan would begin his large number of conquests, which affected the neighboring kingdoms and khanates to the south and west, such as Western Xia, Khwarezm and the Caucasus, until he died in the year 1227, according to the legend after being castrated by a princess from the last territory he conquered.
Guy was not exactly a paragon of virtues, that's true, but his influence in history has been enormous, perhaps at a level that may only be compared with the actions of people like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, George Washington or Adolf Hitler. Perhaps, even greater.
As logical in this blog, we ask: what if Temujin's life had been different?
Let's begin, once more, with the basics: Genghis Khan dies before he did in real life. If he dies when he is a boy, whether it is when he scraped by with his family or when he was prisoner, then the Mongols never unify. Without that unification, the attacks against the Chinese nations or western Asia never take place, and Persia, India, Russia and Polonia are safe from them, as well. India remains divided in the small sultanates and kingdoms that existed before Akbar arrived. Russia might have remained divided for longer, but without being attacked by the Mongols the unification might have happened sooner, as Novgorod would not have hade to pay tribute to them and manage to reach supremacy earlier, making Russia a firm candidate to the role of most powerful European nation at the time, should they manage to unify.
If he dies after unifying the Mongol tribes, but before he begins his conquest drive beyond there, the situation becomes a bit harder: the Mongols had codified into law the obligation of khans to divide their conquered territory between his sons upon dying, and the main title would be inherited by the heir the father picked. In 1206, his four sons were 25, 23, 20 and 14 years old, so there might not have been much of a problem there, but, given that none of the four would have had a great experience in fighting battles and leading armies, their power would have probably become reduced when the tribes separated.
Something similar would have happened if he had died during his conquests. These would have stopped at the point in which he died, forcing the Mongol generals to return to Mongolia in order to choose the successor or assist to the division of the Empire between the sons. This might have still allowed the exchange of ideas between East and West, but with less destruction in western Asia.
Finally, the fourth option is that he lived beyond the moment in which he officially died. What would Temujin have done in that case? Which direction would he have picked to march with his armies? Novgorod, at the northwest, was the place towards which his successors would move. At the west, the Abbasid Caliphate, the Ayyubid Sultanate, the Seljuks and the Eastern Roman Empire. At the south, India and its riches. At the east, Japan, victim of two Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, only defeated thanks to the kamikaze, or divine wind. And, at the north, Siberia, but that direction can be discarded, for there would not be enough food to feed his horses in there. If he goes northwest, Novgorod might have been able to prevent being attacked by offering tribute, as they did in reality, but if Temujin decides to ignore the offer and attack, we would find that, nowadays, Russia, if it actually existed, would be very different. Going towards the west might have allowed him to eventually take Jerusalem, which would have certainly meant things would get ugly, as Muslims would make almost constant war against the Mongols to free the city, while Christians might have actually made a deal with the Mongols to allow the peregrins to enter the city freely, as, after the Fourth Crusade fiasco (which took place between 1202 and 1204, in which the Eastern Roman Empire suffered a lot, including the sack of Constantinople), it is unlikely that the Christians would be able to send armies. And, if he went to the south, he might be able to unify good part of India before Akbar did at a later point, maybe even allowing India to strengthen and repel the English and Portuguese attempts to establish bases in the Indian subcontinent.
Well, we have already talked about possible changes in history. Now, how about we talk about stories where Temujin's life changes, and the world with it?
Several small scale examples can be found in the role-playing game Infinite Worlds, about which I wrote before. There are many worlds with Genghis Khan and his conquests as the POD. World "Attila" (Infinity Scouts got confused) has as the POD a dream in which Genghis Khan, after taking Beijing, saw how a weed came out of the city and tried to kill his horse, so he decided to destroy the city and declared that Mongols would never build nor live in cities, and all of his successors destroyed all cities they found, leaving Eurasia bereft of any population centers. Japan was saved thanks to the "kamikaze" winds and unified, becoming a power capable of trading with the urbanized tribes in the American Western coast, while in Africa tribes are organizing and the Nigerian Oyo have invented the steam engine... in the local year 2004.
Other worlds found by the Infinity Patrol are "San Tomás", where the Europeans running away from the lands devastated in the Mongol attacks find refuge in Palestine's Crusader States, strengthening them and leading to the eventual conquest of Egypt and destruction of Mecca; and "Tengri", where the Mongol conquests unified the Western and Chinese civilization, sparking the beginning of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 14th Century. There are not many details about these two worlds, or whether there are more worlds where Genghis Khan was the catalizer that initiated the changes, but there are sure to be many out there.
But, if there is a world that is well developed, taking as the starting point the early death of Temujin, it is The Chaos Timeline, nicknamed by many "the Everest of Alternative History" due to how HUGE it is (a text file with the entire story uses 800 kB). In this world, by the time the story ends in the 21st Century, America is known as Atlantis, Hollywood is in Rio de Janeiro and is called Paradies, tanks were invented by Germany and called Walzen, Rome was captured by the Seljuks, forcing the Pope to move to France (then to Spain, then to Great Britain and finally to Australia/Antipodia, because France becomes a secular republic, conquers Spain and Great Britain becomes Socialist), the greatest world power is Germany, which controls the Americas... thousands of changes on such a small detail. It is a very long and interesting lecture.
As much as I keep searching, finding more about alternative Genghis Khans is very, very complicated. I'm sure there will be more things around, but I have not been able to find them. I hope that, in spite of this, you have liked this post. Thanks for reading, and I will come back next Tuesday with a new post for you to enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment