Were the Mongols always living in the Gobi Desert? Did the Chinese fend them off?
2 Answers
Starting about 3500 BCE the Horse was domesticated in the Steppes created after the Ice Age. Nomadic tribes have been moving outwards in waves with population pressure.
Explanation:
The Romans and the Chinese both had difficulty with the Horse tribes. Historically the first for the Romans were the Scythians Who began to migrate into Roman sphere of interest after about 200 BCE.
The first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang created a wall across the Northern China about 220 BCE to keep the Northern tribes out. and control the the Border Area. The Wall was very expensive in materials and Chinese workers lives.
The Wall was not only a defense but also made it difficult for the Raiders to remove the loot they captured. The Wall also defended the start of the Silk Road.
The Mongols starting with Genghis Khan about 1200 AD successfully conquered a large area of the World including a large area of China and established the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols were pushed out of China by 1369 and The Ming Dynasty established.
In the early to mid 1600s the Qing Dynasty arose. These Emperors were from Manchuria arguably not much different than the Mongols. This Dynasty lasted until the Modern Era.
China assimilated their conquerors when Chinese were defeated.
Southern Mongolia near the Gobi
They still teach riding and archery.
yes the Mongols have lived in the Gobi desert for centuries. The Chinese often failed to fend off the Mongols.
Explanation:
The Mongols occupied parts of the vast Gobi desert as nomads and semi nomads. The Mongols occupied oasis as permanent settlements. The Gobi desert occupies over 500,000 square miles of the harshest climate in the world. It is over 1000 miles from east to west. Relatively few Mongols actually lived in the Gobi desert.
The largest clans of the Mongols lived in the grasslands called Steppes. Here the vast distances of the semi arid grasslands caused the development of a warrior based horse culture. The Mongols were nomadic herders not farmers. It was the Mongols from the steeps that threatened China not the few Mongols in the Gobi.
The rich farmlands and acclimated wealth of the Chinese attracted the horse warriors of the Mongols. The raids from the Mongols caused the building of the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall reduced the smaller raids but could not stop large scale incursions from the north. The Mongols conquered all of China under Kublai Khan. The Chinese conquered the occupying Mongols by turning them into Chinese.
The Mongols have occupied the Gobi for centuries. The Chinese were unable to stop the Mongols from conquering China. The Chinese did not fend off the Mongols.
