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warfare—steppe nomads 1999












            Black, J. (1999). Warfare in the eighteenth century. London: Phoenix  ing and shelter; animal bones and tendons were used in
              Press.                                            constructing tents and above all in the manufacture of the
            Charney, M.W. (2004).Warfare in early modern South East Asia. South
              East Asia Research, 12(1), 5–12.                  composite recurved bow that was the nomads’ main
            Hagerdal,H.(2004).War and culture: Balinese and Sasak views on warfare  weapon in hunting, herding, and war. One other animal
              in traditional historiography. South East Asia Research, 12(1), 81–118.
            Reid,A. (1993). Southeast Asia in the age of commerce, 1450–1680:Vol-  held the key to nomadic efficiency in herding and com-
              ume II. Expansion and crisis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.  bat: the horse. Horses were apparently first domesticated
            Sun Laichen. (2000). Ming–Southeast Asian  overland  interactions.  in the area north of the Black Sea as long as six thousand
              Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan.
            Sun Laichen. (2004). Chinese military technology and Dai Viet, c.1390–  years ago; they and the oxen that drew the carts that car-
              1497. In Nhung Tuyet Tran & A. Reid (Eds.), Viet Nam: Borderless his-  ried the nomads’ tents and possessions let entire peoples
              tories. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
            Whitmore, J. K. (2004). The two great campaigns of the Hong-duc era  migrate from summer to winter grazing lands and to
              (1470–97) in Dai Viet. South East Asia Research, 12(1), 119–136.  entirely new lands in response to outside pressures.
            Wolters, O.W. (1999). History, culture, and region in Southeast Asian per-  Horses also gave steppe armies tremendous tactical and
              spectives (Rev. ed.). Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Publications.
                                                                strategic mobility.
                                                                  Mobility and  firepower, wielded by people accus-
                                                                tomed to constant travel, camping, occasional short
                                                                rations, and periodic violent competition with other
                                  Warfare—                      nomads for the best grazing land—that is, accustomed

                                                                to constant military campaigning as a lifestyle rather
                     Steppe Nomads                              than as an aberration from settled life—gave nomadic
                                                                peoples significant military potential vis-à-vis their seden-
                he nomadic pastoralists of the Central Asian steppes  tary agriculturalist neighbors outside the steppes. At the
            Tplayed a major role in Eurasian warfare from nearly  same time, the limitations of pastoralism necessitated at
            six thousand years ago until the early eighteenth century.  least indirect contact with sedentary populations:
            Their wars, internal and external, shaped patterns of pol-  Nomads needed at least a few agricultural products to
            itics, trade, and cultural exchange throughout the  supplement their diet. They also desired certain prod-
            Eurasian world, and they produced some of the most suc-  ucts, most importantly cloth and metal implements,
            cessful and fearsome conquerors world history has   whose fixed capital requirements for production made
            known.                                              them difficult for nomadic peoples to produce. Thus,
                                                                nomadic peoples tended to get what they wanted from
            The Military Implications                           agricultural societies by trading, raiding, tribute (bribes
            of Geography                                        to deter raids), or conquest. This was the fundamental
            The foundation of nomadic military interaction with  economic backdrop to steppe nomads’ warfare with
            and success against their sedentary neighbors was the  people beyond the steppes.
            geography of the steppes. A vast sea of grass stretching
            from the northwest frontiers of China to north of the  Geography and State
            Black Sea, with an extension into modern Hungary, the  Formation on the Steppes
            steppes are too dry for traditional methods of agriculture:  Nomadic warfare was in the  first instance intertribal,
            rainfall is insufficient and the rivers too unreliable for irri-  aimed at other nomads in competition for grazing lands,
            gation. But the grasses of the plains can support vast  as mentioned earlier. Because the pastoral way of life sup-
            herds of grazing animals, and these formed the basis for  ports a far less dense population than agriculture, indi-
            the nomad’s pastoral mode of subsistence. Cattle, sheep,  vidual tribes could rarely muster sufficient manpower to
            and goats provided meat, milk, skins and wool for cloth-  pose a serious threat to sedentary states. Hindered by
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