Ghengis Khan, who was of course Mongolian, was a very interestingly represented leader in western society. When we hear his name we think of a merciless tyrant, ruthless murdering and pillaging, a bunch of guys riding around on horses slaughtering everything in their path and whatnot. While this representation may have it’s accuracy, it is incomplete and does not include some positive elements of his campaigns and reign. Most historians attribute his reign to the deaths of approximately 40 million people. That is the most of any leader or empire in history. I believe the next closest was Joseph Stalin, at roughly “20 million”. Pol Pot of Cambodia was attributed 3 million or so. Khan’s death toll was much larger than Hitlers regime who is ever so liberaly popularized as the worst.

Without condoning such death, reading or hearing any hint of the sophistication of his empire and particularly his form of government in popular culture. This is conveniently left out in western representation of the Mongol empire.

His form of government, meritocracy, seems very idealistic. In short it means reward and advancement through your merits or achievements…so something like”if you conquer these lands or establish these libraries of or whatever in relation, military or economic accomplishment, then you will rise to this level in my organization. He was fed up with oligarchies or people who rose to power by bloodline/family, nepotism or other “non-meritorious” activity. So who wouldn’t like meritocracy? Well of course, people in power (current leaders) wouldn’t like it. It means if someone is doing a better job than themselves, they could be replaced. The Mongols also “encouraged’ active participation in government from those land that we conquered. In this way the people of those lands felt more motivated as ‘active participants” rather than a demoralized and subjugated people. This also contributed to its stability and growth.

this meritocratic system worked well with the style of the mongolian conquest, from the pacific ocean to the european mainland.

i hope this helps, thanks for reading, Cheers!