In December of 1241, Ogodei Khan died unexpectedly. It was one of the bloodiest defeats of the medieval period. King Bela IV fled his palace in Pest (now Budapest), and Ogodei’s armies slaughtered an estimated 1 million Hungarians: Troops, clerics, nobles, knights, and peasants. This series of unqualified successes brought the vast Mongol army to Hungary in March 1241. Their cavalry and siege tactics were laying waste to the cities of Europe, and, perhaps more importantly, they brought along Chinese gunpowder. The khanate expanded to the east and west, conquering the remainder of northwest China and pushing into Russia, aided by a wet period that allowed the Mongol armies to bring thousands of horses across the largest desert in Asia: the Gobi.īy 1240, Kiev had been sacked and the horde was rapidly advancing west. 'Whether measured by the total number of people defeated, the sum of the countries annexed, or by the total area occupied, Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much as any man in history,' writes historian Jack Weatherford in his book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.Īfter Genghis’ death, Ogodei Khan carried forward his father’s legacy.

In total, it measured an astounding 11 million square miles (28 million square km).

When Genghis Khan died in 1227, he left his son, Ogodei, a territory that extended from northeast China to the Caspian Sea, just north of modern-day Iran. Here’s how the Mongols rose to power - and how natural climate change may have forced them to cut their losses and stop a fearsome war of attrition. This wooden chronicle revealed that a cold and wet period set in for years, leading 'to reduced pastureland and decreased mobility, as well as hampering the military effectiveness of the Mongol cavalry', according to a press release. But a new study in the journal Scientific Reports looked at a different kind of record to solve the mystery of the horde’s abrupt exit from central Europe: tree rings. Historians could only guess why until now, since written accounts from the point of view of Mongol military leaders are sparse.

Ck2 a fallen man