The History of the Mongol Conquests | J. J. Saunders | Routledge Revival

The History of the Mongol Conquests was first published in 1971, and is part of the Routledge Revival Series, which republishes old texts.  For this, I am grateful, as it means that I can read older texts not on yellowing paper with mold spots.

I feel like The History of the Mongol Conquests is a companion piece to The Secret History of the Mongols, and helps readers curious about early Mongolian history and the expansion of the Mongol Empire have some perspective, both from the Mongolian view and the European view of the Mongol conquests.

While the current perspective of the Chinese is that the Mongol Empire was one of the dynasties in its five thousand years of history, the Mongols were a distinct group of people (much like the Chins and the Manchurians) who were from the steppes and the harsh northlands away from the Central Plains who pushed into the Central Plains and expanded their empire far far beyond what the Han people could ever do or perhaps dream of.  And that was also before the Ottoman Empire expanded and terrified the Europeans.

There was a map in the book, purportly of Central Asia during the time of Chingis Khan.  There was a Sung Empire (which was Han-based), a Chin Empire - which I am not sure what it is, but it was also indicated in bracket as "Cathay", which would have been the European mis-term for the Khitans (a group of people who were not Han but seems to have melted into history), and a Hsi-Hsia Empire.  The people of the Hsi-Hsia Empire were not Han either, so it did seem like the land that were occupied by the Han were much smaller during those times.  And according to the map, during the time of Chingis Khan, Turfan (which was where the Uighurs resided) were quite far from the borders of the Sung Empire.  Thus I am guessing that somewhere between the Mongol Empire and the Manchurian Empire, these lands must have been added to the Empire by way of conquests or alliance.  

How the different Empires ebbed and flew through time can reveal very interesting insights, depending on whether the perspectives are from the Chinese or Europeans.  What seems to be missing, are the perspectives from the groups such as the Khitans and Uighers and Manchurians.