Genghis Khan Biography Essay Sample

Temujin or Genghis Khan as we know him started from humble beginnings. Born around 1162 to his mother who was kidnapped and forced to may his father. While he was growing up the many nomadic tribes on the Central Asian steppe were constantly conflicting leading young Khan to live in a constant state of violence and fear. Before he even turned ten years old his father was poisoned by the neighboring tribe, His group then deserted his family (his mother and six other siblings) so they didn't have to feed them. Later he killed his half-brother to take control of his home and lead them away from poverty. His clan once kidnapped him but he managed to escape. He then went on to marry his wife Borte and had four sons and an unknown amount of daughters. He began making alliances with neighboring tribes and was soon known as a valiant warrior with an ever-growing amount of followers. 

Temujin executed the leaders of his enemy tribes and incorporated the reaming into his tribe. To secure allies, he put them in leading positions instead of his family members a practice that didn't take place often among the other nomads. By 1205 Temujin vanquished all rivals including his former best friend Jamukha. 

Temujin having united the many steppe tribes he now ruled over one million people. To prevent typical tribal warfare, he discontinued inherited aristocratic titles.  He also stopped his people from selling and kidnapping women banned the enslavement of the Mongolian people, and made livestock theft a death penalty. Temujin also adopted a writing system, freedom of religion, and had a regular census in place. 

In 1209 the Mongols went to Yichuan the capital of Xi Xia kingdom. Rather than travel by train like the other armies of the time, the Mongols traveled via horse. They used one of their signature tactics ( a false withdrawal)and overcame the Xi Xia Kingdom. They later went on to the Jin dynasty. Their ruler made the grave mistake of forcing khan to submit to his power. Leading Khan to strategically raid the city with his army making the Jin dynasty accidentally kill thousands of their peasants. The dynasty soon gave over parts of their land for khan to rule.

Khan next tackled the task of taking over the Karaism empire. Whose emperor signed a trade treaty but when the first round of men came they were murdered and their goods were stolen. Despite being outnumbered yet again they managed to win this long fight to rule. Resisting soldiers and aristocrats were killed and unskilled workers were used as human shields. We still do not know how many people were killed during these wars as another of their tactics was to instill fear of others with crazy statistics.

When khan returned to Mongolia he controlled a vast expanse of territory. Nevertheless, he turned his attention back to the Xi Xia empire as they did not help when Khan was fighting the Karaism empire. Sadly though in 1227 a horse tossed Khan to the ground causing serious internal injuries. Despite this, he continued with the fight and died later that year as his health did not improve. 

The Khan empire continued to thrive after his death conquering many other places until the empire finally came to an end in 1920.