KAAAHHHNNNN

[Ranholn]

little star trek joke, but anyone else think The Khans are one of the most influential people to have ever lived. Some people think that 1/7 people have Genghis as an ancestor, their empires reopened the silk roads, caused great increases in science and technology, brought about amazing advances on all fronts. The kingdoms they destroyed and built have had great influences on the world to this day.

Who else thinks that this group of 200,000 who created in one generation the largest land empire the earth has ever seen, are kick ass.

(im a history whore, hell im even changing my major from Engineering to History at everyone I knows recommendation)

[PoD Gunner]

 Mongol-fan over here also . Have read some literature both scientific and belletristic about the phenomenon, especially since they've also touched Transylvania twice (1240 and 1241) while settling a base in the Panonian plains. There's also a nice legend saying that the two hordes opening two different corridors through the Carpathians have forced 40.000 Transylvanians to accompany them as axe-bearers in order to clear the Iron-Gates of Transylvania, that is the mountain-passages to the other side which had been blocked to stop their advance. I often wandered how they slept by the camp-fires knowing that 40.000 axe-bearers were, at that time, a respectable army!

[Myroria]

Britain was more influential. We're speaking English. Most Western nations have British culture.

The Arabs were more influential. They established a new religion and an empire, and their leader is generally agknowledged alongside Jesus as being "The Most Important Person That Ever Lived"

Rome was more influential. Without Rome, we wouldn't have advanced math, there would be no Middle Ages (They came from a result of Rome falling. There's no Khan Age.), we wouldn't have Rome's advancements today, and quite frankly, opening a trade route and then dying doesn't do squat. When I think "Great empire", I think Rome, Britain, and the First Reich, not the Khans.

[Ranholn]

The German empire? what ever did they really accomplish.
The Khans caused the spread of Chinese tech to the western world, They lead to the foundation of Russia, Columbus was trying o reach their lands. They unified China, and they dominated world science culture and military from 12th century till 14th,  and that era by some historians is called the Mongolian time.
Marco Polo went to a Mongol leader of china, and other stuff.

this is more just for fans of the mongols to have fun about it

[Myroria]

The Romans invented the aqueduct, concrete, and the road, to name a few. Look at any government building in the US, and you could trace the foundations of it to the Romans.

The Khans barely had any impact on the modern era. Look at Britain: It's language is quickly becoming a universal one. Rome's advancements are still the basis of modern civilization. Mongolia is a backwater in modern times, and the Khans don't really have any claims for themselves. They simply wanted more and more land; little better than barbarians. Latin's roots are in nearly every European language. French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, English...they all decend from Rome.

[NFIC]

English is a Germanic language, not a romantic, So gunpowder, something brought to Europe do to the mongols, was nothing, Russia, they never did anything big, China, why that country has never accomplished anything at all have they. by the way, china and russia exist today because of mongol, and most roman science survived because of the Muslim mongol empire

[Ryazania]

Not to get into semantics, but the first semi-state of Russia was led by Rurik, a Viking prince of Novgorod.

English is the bastard of the world. Enough said.

Now, how exactly the Golden Horde affect my life today compared to Rome? Little, if any at all. They were nothing more than kickass warriors with a hunger for land; nothing more. Very few technological advances were made under the Khanates of Mongolia, and those that were introduced weren't really that revolutionary.

[Flemingovia]

"What did the Mongols ever do for us?"

Sounds like a Monty Python Sketch

[Myroria]

English might be a Germanic language, and I knew it was, but it's so influenced by Latin it practically doesn't deserve the title.

And how did Roman science survive because of the Mongols? It survived because it's own scholars recorded it, which, by the way, the Mongols did little recording of their own history. The Mongols never even got to the Italian peninsula, so how could they keep Rome's science alive? The Mongol's one claim to fame was their bow. The Romans made a new language category, affected the entire history of Europe, and even made not one, but two ages (First was the Romanesque/classical age, second was the Dark Ages which came around because of it's fall). The Mongol's empire didn't even last 100 years before it split up; the Roman Empire lasted in it's entirety for about 500 years, plus the Roman Republic makes 1000 years.

And you said yourself some historians recognize the Mongol Age; every historian recognizes the Classical and Dark Ages.

[Gulliver]

Ah, English. An absolute bastard language, and I love it for that.

And for all the people he killed, I'm not so impressed by Khan. Sure, he conquered a lot of land, but a great deal of that was essentially nothing. Not to mention that all of it really didn't hold together.

[The Empire]

Myr, you are forgetting one pice of tech the mongolians did introduce that was a significant prerequisite to ALL heavy/armored cavalry: the stirrup...

And they inspired some german group to make a very tacky contribution to the eurovision song contest (wich I boycott every year but still it persists :@)

[Gulliver]

Hee hee, Dschinghis Khan 

You silly Europeans and your Eurovision. Sadly, we also must suffer here, courtesy of the horrors of "American Idol".

[Myroria]

American Idol sucks. And all you hear about are pompous assholes ask me "Did you see American Idol last night?", at which point I say "No, that show fucking sucks ass, don't watch it.". Then they gasp as if they just heard that I killed their cat or something.

Moskau, Moskau, blahblahblah blah blah blah, blahblahblah blah blah blah. Good song. If only I could spell German.

[Ranholn]

After the fall of Rome the people they had oppressed went nuts destroying Rome tech and records, what survived is predominately from the eastern Roman empire, this empire was crushed, save small sections by Arab nations, who defeated everything Europe could send at them, they were then defeated by the Mongols.

Kubla khan, then gathered all the history and science that the Arabs have gathered and located them into his new capital.

[Romanar]

American Idol sucks. And all you hear about are pompous assholes ask me "Did you see American Idol last night?", at which point I say "No, that show fucking sucks ass, don't watch it.". Then they gasp as if they just heard that I killed their cat or something.

Moskau, Moskau, blahblahblah blah blah blah, blahblahblah blah blah blah. Good song. If only I could spell German.

Heh!  Don't get me started on that!  I can avoid the show itself, but it seems like everytime I turn on the TV, I hear a crappy ad for it, or some bozo talking as if it was the best thing that ever happened to humanity.