East Asia
East AsiaSiberia, Mongolia, China, Japan, South-East Asia
Beyond the Great Wall of China a nomadic way of life has always prevailed. Across the endless wastes have roamed the herds belonging to the people of the north–the Mongols, the Turks, the Tartars, the Tungus, the Huns. A world apart, the steppe was until the beginning of the nineteenth century a constant source of anxiety for Asia and Europe, whose civilizations have always rested upon intensive agriculture and urban settlement. From the steppe mounted raiders had descended with such fury that the nomad terror was legendary. Most notorious was Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227), who laid down the rule that any resistance to Mongol arms should be punished by total extermination. ‘The greatest joy’, he once said, ‘is to conquer one's enemies, to pursue them, to seize their belongings, to see their families in tears, to ride their horses, and to possess their daughters and...
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