Rider (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The age of mounted combat has generally been viewed from a European perspective, since it was there that infantry 
was overthrown and that the greatest and most far-reaching changes in cavalry tactics occurred. But it was by no 
means an exclusively European phenomenon; indeed, the mounted warrior's tactical supremacy was less complete in 
western Europe than in the vast Asiatic steppes that bordered China. Evidence from the region suggests that horses 
were first mounted about 4000 BC, but their role in warfare was trivial until the Han dynasty. The fame of the 
large Parthian warhorses reached the Chinese imperial court and led the emperor Han Wu Ti to send an expedition 
westward as far as Fergana to bring back specimens of the new breed in 101 BC. These were mated with the sturdy 
Mongolian horses, and for the next several centuries the Chinese emperors employed both horse archers and armored 
horsemen to guard the borders against barbarian incursions and the vital Silk Road caravans from raiders. 
Ironically, the invading Mongols would eventually turn these against Chinese rulers themselves.