Genghis Khan is one of the greatest leaders and conquerors in world history. He rose to power with determination and brilliance, no matter how defeated he was. After seizing power, he went on to conquer much of the known world, in order to create Earth's largest empire. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Genghis Khan's birth name was Temujin, which meant iron in his native language. Temujin was born around the year 1162 in Mongolia to a powerful father. However, his father was killed while Temujin was a teenager. Before his father died, he introduced Temujin to his future wife Borte, with whom he would grow up. Growing up with Borte and his family was difficult for Temujin as he struggled to find food, water and other things needed to live. After his father's death, Temujin killed one of his half-brothers to solidify his role as head of the family. When she decided to marry Borte, their marriage confirmed an alliance between Temujin's family and Borte's family, the Konkirat tribe. This alliance was the first step taken by Temujin to unite all the tribes of Mongolia. Soon after Borte married Temujin, she was captured by the Merkit tribe and Temujin immediately knew that he needed to get Borte back. However, his clan was not powerful enough to do so at the time, so he sought help from other tribes. The first chief he went to was Toghrul Khan. Toghrul was an old, peaceful, and powerful man. Toghrul Khan and Temujin's father were close friends and Temujin even referred to Toghrul as his godfather. Because of this past relationship, Toghrul agreed to help get Borte back without a second thought. Temujin was granted full authority over all Toghrul forces as they set out to bring Borte back. Temujin led his forces into Merkit's camp and decimated it. Later, he brought his wife home. After Temujin allied himself with Toghrul, many tribes thought he was becoming too powerful. Two of these clans, the Taijutsu and the Tartars, decided to attack Genghis when he was away from his allies, the Keratis tribe. One day, while traveling across the grasslands, Temujin received word from his scouts that there were enemies attacking. In this moment of desperation, it seemed that Temujin's rise to power was over, but he came up with a brilliant plan to save them all. He deployed his army in the middle of a valley. His army was armed with enough bows to repel the enemy as they charged. During the Charge of the Tartars and Taijutsu, Temujin led selected parts of his cavalry around the enemy army. He did this in order to be able to attack the enemy's rear. The cavalry charge massacred the enemy, who retreated from the battlefield. This defeat helped spread word across the steppes that Temujin was a brilliant tactical leader. Temujin had become known as one of the best military leaders in the steppes, so many other tribes came to him for help. The eastern clans of Mongolia eventually formed a giant clan, led by Temujin, to defeat the Keratis who were Temujin's former allies. He quickly led the gigantic army across Mongolia to launch a surprise attack on his enemy. When he attacked the Keratis, his plan went perfectly and he managed to defeat them. Instead of following his tradition and killing his enemies, he asked them to join his tribe to strengthen his army. This idea followed Temujin through his conquests and was one of the most important factors in his ability to unite Mongolia and acquire such vast territories. Over the yearsSubsequently, Temujin and his army traveled across the steppes unifying the last Mongolian tribes to form a united nation. Having accomplished this great feat, he summoned the most powerful men of his Mongolia to form a council. This council was created to elect a ruler, because Temujin thought that the only way the tribes could remain united would require a leader. As expected, Temujin was elected Khan of these tribes. They decided to name him Genghis Khan, which means the Great Khan. Genghis Khan, formerly known as Temujin, and his army began venturing outside his homelands to obtain more supplies. During this time he sent his generals to camps around Mongolia to obtain many important items. These items included herds, loot, oxen, weapons, and even brought back orphaned children who had to be raised by Mongolian women. Furthermore, Genghis followed his previous ideal of allowing men to join his army before killing them. Thanks to this ideal, he was able to obtain supplies through these conquests and significantly increase the number of men in his army. At this point, he had accumulated enough supplies to live in comfort, unlike his predecessors. The people he ruled trusted him with the pleasant and joyful life they could now live. Then, Genghis Khan decided that he and his men would ascend the Great Wall to begin their attack on the rest of the world. However, Genghis knew that he would not be able to break through the wall easily. He had his men ride up and down the wall for months to make it appear that the Mongols had no intention of attacking. Except the Mongols were planning to attack the whole time. When they attacked, the guards of the Great Wall of China were taken by surprise. The Mongols managed to break the Great Wall and break into western China, ruled by the Western Xia Dynasty. In the Western Xia Dynasty, there was a great civil war going on, and the government was not very strong. The Mongols advanced rapidly against the Xia Dynasty until they arrived at their capital Yinchuan. The attempted siege against their capital stalled for two months. The Mongols did not have the siege equipment needed to break down the city's strong walls. Genghis Khan then directed a slow retreat from the city, apparently giving up on his conquest. The people of Yinchuan were enthusiastic and opened the gates of their city. After two days of flight, the Mongols finally decided to act. In the middle of the night, they turned their horses and rode at a gallop towards Yinchuan. The Mongols managed to recover the ground in one night and caught the city completely off guard. Although they were unable to completely destroy the Western Xia Dynasty's much larger army, they were able to kill many people within the city. Furthermore, they managed to take away some of the city's crops. After another month of siege, the emperor of the Western Xia Dynasty finally submitted to the Mongols and Genghis Khan. This conquest was the first of his reign, but led to a much larger invasion against the Jin dynasty in Cathay, northern China. When the Mongols entered Cathay, Genghis Khan sent a letter to the Golden Emperor, who ruled northern China. He said: “My domain is now so well organized, that I can go to Cathay. Is the Golden Emperor ready to receive us? We will come with an army that is like a roaring ocean and we will stay until we are victorious or defeated. Even though Genghis Khan had far fewer men than the Golden Emperor, he still sent this letter to scare him. The emperor was horrified when he received the letter and began to get highpanic before the Mongols even entered his city. Once they finally arrived, the Mongols entered with four different armies. These four armies were spread around Cathay and ravaged the countryside, killing many cattle and forcing hordes of prisoners to flee into the cities. Furthermore, each of the armies would surround some parts of the enemy army to appear larger than it actually was. The people living in northern China soon began to fear the Mongol invasion. Furthermore, they were experiencing a famine caused by the raids of Genghis Khan and his army. The Cathayan nobles became very frightened and killed the emperor, then proceeded to appoint another emperor. This new emperor, Hsuan Tsung, fled his capital and the people were horrified. Eventually the people submitted to Genghis Khan and he gained control of Zhongdu. During the long war with the Cathayans, Genghis began to build his democratic wealth. He had started trading with Muslims in the West and began dealing with them frequently. One day, a Mongolian trading caravan was seized and robbed by Muslims. So Genghis decided to send two diplomats to resolve the situation peacefully. However, Sultan Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad, head of the Khwarezmian dynasty, did not appreciate this act. Instead of reacting peacefully, he decided to send back the heads of the diplomats sent by Genghis. This infuriated the warlike leader of the Mongols, who mustered the largest force he could muster. Genghis Khan organized his army in Tumens. These mounds consisted of 10,000 men each and each of the mounds was led by a specific general. Some of the most famous generals are Chepe Noyon and Subotai. These two men were Genghis Khan's trusted people and were often sent with their armies to conquer the land. Chepe Noyon and Subotai were part of a multi-Lumen army numbering hundreds of thousands of men. Genghis took this huge army and rapidly ascended towards Central Asia. Shah Ala ad-Din was very worried by this attack on the Eastern Front. When his scouts returned to tell him that Genghis Khan and his army were a few days away, he ran away from the city he was in to escape. The first city the Mongol army arrived at was Otrar. Otrar was the city where the Mongol trading caravan was taken and robbed by the governor. When Genghis Khan arrived in this city, he took it immediately, because it was not heavily fortified. When he found the governor, he burned him alive and killed much of the city's population. The next stop of this army was the Khwarezmian city of Bukhara. Once they arrived, they entered and spread the horror. In the city, Genghis Khan easily defeated the forces and killed all the remaining soldiers by cutting off their heads. After defeating the enemy forces, the great khan killed every living being within the city of Bukhara. He ordered his soldiers to cut off the heads of animals, women, men and children. His next stop was the capital Samarkand. In this city he carried out the same cruel punishment, except that he gave these people an even worse death. After easily conquering the city, he ordered all the citizens of Samarkand to stand in a camp. Once in the camp, he beheaded them all. Eventually, Genghis Khan caught up with the forever fleeing Shah. However, the Mongols never succeeded in killing the Shah, because he retreated to an island, where he died of illness. Genghis Khan employed these violent tactics to spread fear throughout his enemies. Furthermore, this cruel tactic had the desired effect of the khan, who completed the destruction of Central Asia, decimating the Silk Roads,.