ATTILA TOTAL WAR SAXONS SERIES

His lineage, however, continued to found dynasties in India, China, Persia, and Siberia. What happened to the Mongols afterward? Ogodei KhanвЂ™s death kicked off a spate of power struggles among GenghisвЂ™ sons and grandsons, fracturing the Mongol Empire into pieces that never reunified. ItвЂ™s likely that OgodeiвЂ™s commanders chose a southern route because of its relatively drier conditions, the authors write, directing them away from Europe. Famine later set in and killed thousands in the region. This led to crop spoilage, further reducing the food supply for the khanвЂ™s hordes. The last year of the eastern European campaign, 1242, they note, was especially damp. The extra moisture and early spring thaw turned the Hungarian plains into marshes and swampland - unsuitable terrain for moving the thousands of horses the Mongol armies relied on for transportation and warfare. They found the climate in Hungary and its surroundings were unusually cold and wet for about three years, from 1238 to 1241. In dry years, the rings are thinner, reflecting the lack of water to a tree. Trees are especially sensitive to small changes in climactic conditions: in wet years, they add thick layers of bark to their trunks. The authors sampled wood from five regions of Eurasia to track what the weather was like during the period of the MongolsвЂ™ most extensive reach. Several hypotheses exist as to why the army abandoned their western front, but, the authors of the new paper argue, none are fully sufficient to explain the change in course. Though subsequent khans staged occasional raids on European cities, the major war campaign was over. The horde suddenly turned south, moving through modern-day Serbia, and then headed back through Russia. Meanwhile, OgodeiвЂ™s wife, Toregene, took power as the Great Khatun. Some historians have argued that Batu, OgodeiвЂ™s nephew who had been leading the western campaign, turned back toward the Mongol capital of Karakorum for the election of a new leader.Д«ut Batu never returned returned to Mongolia, instead remaining in southern Russia to rule the Golden Horde. 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 OgodeiвЂ™s armies slaughtered an estimated 1 million Hungarians: Troops, clerics, nobles, knights, and peasants.

ATTILA TOTAL WAR SAXONS SERIES

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.Д«y 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.ДЄfter GenghisвЂ™ death, Ogodei Khan carried forward his fatherвЂ™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. HereвЂ™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 hordeвЂ™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.

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