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Mongol Empire

More Ghengis Kahn

More on Ghengis Kahn before he was called this title name:

Temüjin, which means “of iron” or “blacksmith” in the Mongolian language. Temüjin was sent into exile with his mother and siblings when he was 9 years old, after his father was poisoned by political enemies. Despite living in poverty and even a brief enslavement, he clawed his way back to power by killing leaders of rival tribes and gathering allies. By his early 20s, he had emerged as a tribal leader with a large, loyal army.
Khan” is a Mongolian word for “leader” or “ruler,” although its use spread more widely in the following centuries. “Genghis,” also spelled “Chinggis,” is usually translated as “universal,” although it could have also meant “ocean” or “just.”
The mighty conqueror Genghis Khan is one of history’s most formidable world leaders, but his legacy is far better known than his actual name. He was born to a ruling Mongol family and was given the name

In 1206, when Temüjin was in his late 30s to mid-40s (his birth year is the subject of debate), he gathered leaders — the ones he hadn’t killed — from all over the Mongolian Steppe to unite them as one nation, ready to conquer neighboring lands. At this assembly, called a kurultai, he was given the title of Genghis Khan. “

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Largest Empire in History

This is hard to believe…

"There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire and all roads led to Rome, but there has never been a larger contiguous land empire than that of the Mongols. Established in 1206 by Genghis Khan — who was born Temujin and whose name, also transliterated as Chinggis, means “universal ruler” — the empire eventually reached a size of at least 9 million square miles. To call this unlikely would be an understatement.

Temujin rose to power from a tumultuous childhood, and the Mongols were a nomadic people whose territorial expansion came about largely due to brutal military tactics and fierce pragmatism. At its peak, the empire included all of modern-day China and Mongolia in addition to parts of Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Korea, among others. (This
map offers a sense of its vastness.)

For all of Genghis’ savvy, however, his descendants proved a fractious bunch who fought among themselves and oversaw his empire’s decline; with the exception of his grandson Kublai Khan, few others in the dynasty are recalled fondly. Even so, Genghis’ massive effect on the world might best be summarized by two staggering statistics: He was responsible for the deaths of as much as 11% of the world’s population at the time, and 1 in every 200 men living today are his direct descendants."
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