re: #173 CuriousLurker

Global warming/climate change denier—Pages, aisle 5.

Going back to climate change, who knew it was also partly responsible for the Mongol invasions & successful creation of their empire? Fascinating stuff. I’m really, really thankful I wasn’t alive when those guys were killing their way across Eurasia. It’s incredible how large an area they were able to conquer.

The Mongol Dominions, 1300-1405

Warm, Wet Times Spurred Medieval Mongol Rise

This great empire was made possible not by brilliant leadership alone, but by a 15-year period of abnormal moisture and warmth in central Mongolia in the early 1200s, according to Neil Pederson of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and colleagues, who report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A brief change in the local climate, they say, was key in the rise of the Mongols. […]

From 1180 to 1190, Central Mongolia experienced an intense drought that probably contributed to the political instability of that time. Established patterns of leadership were disrupted, and the region saw continuous warfare. “The worsening dry conditions…would have been an important contributing factor in the collapse of the established order and emergence of a centralized leadership under [Genghis] Khan,” the researchers write.

In 1211, Central Mongolia then entered its most unusual period in the millennium-long record: a 15-year stretch that was warm and, more importantly, incredibly wet. Those conditions would have provided a surplus of grass for both the horses for the Mongol army—each trooper would bring three to five horses so that he always had a fresh ride—and the livestock that followed the army to keep the warriors fed. […]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/warm-wet-times-spurred-medieval-mongol-rise-180950030/