Most Important Battles Challenge (5)

I have really enjoyed this debate. The Battle of the Badger Mouth Date: August - October, 1211 Armies Engaged: The Mongol Empire (Various Forces) versus The Jin Dynasty (Various Forces) Main Leaders: Genghis Khan (The Mongol Empire) versus Emperor Wei Shao Wang of Jin (The Jin Dynasty) The BattleAfter the battle of Wush a Bao, the neighboring counties were evacuated of troops and those troops were stationed at the Badger Mouth pass. The Jin armies were overconfident in the defensive position of the pass, and its ability to funnel the Mongol army which preferred open steppes for combat. The Jin general deliberately drew Genghis to fight there, withdrawing soldiers from cities for hundreds of miles and stationing them all at Badger Mouth. This force was the last thing standing between Genghis and the emperor. In all, there were between 400,000 and 500,000 Jin soldiers assembled to stop the brutal Mongol advance, which had laid waste to everything west of Yanjing. Genghis sent men over the peaks surrounding the Pass, which the Jin general thought was impossible, and then attacked the much larger army from both sides. As Genghis attacked the front of the Jin armies in the mouth of the badger, the forces which had scaled the mountain first routed the Jin cavalry from behind and then joined the assault on the main force. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history, and almost every Jin soldier was killed. It is said that bones still lay on the spot ten years later for 30 miles around. Even with this defeat, the Jin dynasty took precedence in conquering the Song dynasty instead of facing the Mongols. [1]Implications The Mongols put 90% of their standing army into battle and 15% of their eventual army. If a decisive defeat of the Mongols occured here, the fragile ties that binded the many clans to Genghis Khan (because he was perceived as a God; if he was defeated, he obviously wasn't the chosen one and Mongolia would revert to its earlier tribal state) would have been broken. At best, the Mongol conquest would have been extremely slowed down and certainly would never cross the Himalays. At worst, the entire Mongol state would descend into chaos and would be conquered by the Chinese soon (after the Jins defeated the Songs; the Jins could easily defeat the Mongols with a more coordinated, stronger, bigger army; as it was, it took the Mongols 23 more years to defeat the Jins, even with this decisive victory). [1]Therefore, we can easily conclude that a defeat at Badger Mouth would have virtually stopped the Mongol's conquests in their tracks, most likely forever. Therefore, all of the effects of the Mongolian invasion on the rest of the world would have never happened. Looking at what the Mongolian invasion did. One, modern demographics would be changed to an unimaginable degree. Some hypothesize that the Mongols killed 17% of the world's population in that time. [2] In addition, Genghis Khan raped so many women that of the Mongol Empires former bounds, 8% of the male population (and a comparable degree of the female population) is a direct descendent of Genghis Khan, and many more are related to his family. [3] Finally, this is more speculation than the other two statistics, but it is possible that the Mongol Empire brought the Black Death to Europe. This is possible because it was the Mongols who helped open up the Silk Road which brought the pestilence to Europe, and the plague originated from the Mongol area. [4] The plague killed 33% of Europe's population, 50% of China's, and 12% of Africa's. World population declined fron 450 million to 350 million. and people with skin diseases and non-Christians were exterminated throughout Europe as a result. The Brotherhood of the Flagellants also reached its peak in this age. None of this would have happened had the Mongols lost Badger Creek. Two, the cultural impacts would be even greater. Many cultures and nations were wiped out once taken over by the Mongols, and not a trace left behind of them, forever lost to history. But the effects are far more reaching than that. I will take three examples, that of Russia, the Islamic world, and Europe (and ultimately America). The impact of a non-Mongol invaded Russia would be staggering. Many historians attribute Russia's xenophobia with the invasion of the Mongols, they were weary of foreigners (Russia suffered severely under the Mongols compared to, say, China). [5] This xenophobia is what set Russia back from the rest of Europe a good 200 years. If the Mongols had never come, Russia would most likely have developed right alongside the rest of Europe. A strong, industralized, heavily populated, Russian state would have had amazing consequences on world history. For example, Russian dominace over Europe would be likely, Russia's empire would be far more reaching (who knows, we might be a Russian-based society) and the rest of Europe far less reaching, and the Soviet Union may never have existed. WWI may never have happened, and thus WWII (Russia, in my opinion, was one of the main culprits behind WWI). One only needs to imagine how this would have affected history. As a result of the Mongol invasions, the Islamic world was sent into a slow but steady rate of decline and a movement of secular learning to fundumentalism. "The psychological impact of the invasion was incalcuable. Before the Mongols swept through, the Islamic world. .. was intellectually vigorous, bold, adventuresome, full of poetry and science and art. .. after the invasion, the dour conservatism of the fundamentalists darkens it all. "[6] The Middle East now fell behind the world, and the whole Muslim world suffered as a result. Certain regions of the Middle East are further behind and their economies still not as big as the days before the Mongol invasion. [7] Thus, the development of the world was slowed. The great Arabic scholars and intellectuals were killed, their cities and academic centers destroyed, and their culture of learning, including much math and science, forgotten. The changing of Muslim culture from progressive to regressive doomed the only scientific/intellectual culture in the world at the time. It was not until the enlightenment some 300 years later that classical and Arabic culture was rediscovered and their knowledge relearned. But Islam's decline led to Europe's rise. The Middle East's descent kept the Islamic forces, fresh off their victories from the Crusades at bay from being set loose on Europe. This obviously saved Europe and Christianity from utter destruction at the hands of the Muslims. A Muslim Europe would have unimaginable consequences, for example our culture would be European, not Arabic. The world would be further ahead as Islamic knowledge flowed west, and exploration started sooner, thus its impact on the US and the rest of the Americas. Muslims culture stayed in the East and Europe's kings and kingdoms, in addition to Christianity stayed intact. In conclusion, the Mongol invasions killed tens of millions (potentially hundreds of millions), destroyed whole nations, created xenophobia in the ones that didn't and set them back a whole 200 years, set the whole world back 300 years in knowledge, and made a strong genetic footprint in Asia. And none of this would have happened if the Mongols had been decisively defeated at the battle of the Badger Creek. It is arguably the most important battle in world history. Sources [1]: . http://en.wikipedia.org... [2]: . http://users.erols.com...[3]: . http://blogs.discovermagazine.com...[4]: . http://www.medicalnewstoday.com...[5]: Holland, Cecelia. The Death That Saved Europe: The Mongols Turn Back. What If: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. Vol. Collected. New York: American Historical Publications, 2001. Print. pp. 101[6]: ibid, pp. 102[7]: ibid, pp. 100