Page 225 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

2002 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Cycles and Stages of Finally, with the spread of gunpowder technology from
Nomadic Military History the fifteenth century (a somewhat ironic result, in part, of
The relationship that developed between nomadic peo- the trade connections promoted by the Pax Mongolica),
ples and their sedentary neighbors as a result of these mil- there appeared a set of hybrid states and military forces,
itary dynamics tended to follow a cyclical pattern. including the Ottomans, the Mughals, the Muscovites,
Small-scale raiding and trading resulted in both increas- and the Manchus, who managed to wed nomadic cavalry
ing acculturation of the nomads to the political norms of forces to cannon and musket-wielding infantry. Though
the sedentary society and increasing political organiza- initially this combination facilitated the renewed con-
tion on the steppes. Both results tended to facilitate quest of vast sedentary areas by nomadic-led forces, it
large-scale alliance with or conquest of the sedentary state also proved to be the combination that allowed the
and temporary union of the nomadic and sedentary empires thus created to tame, once and for all, their own
worlds. But the economic and cultural incompatibility of nomadic frontiers. By the early eighteenth century, the
the two worlds led to renewed split and the cycle starting remaining steppe nomads, hemmed in by fortifications,
over. Overall, the long-term trend was toward growth of guns, and co-opted light cavalry forces of nomadic origin,
the sedentary world at the expense of the nomadic world. passed out of the realm of military effectiveness for good.
This was fundamentally a matter of demography: Agri-
Stephen Morillo
culture supported far more people than pastoralism, and
the advantage grew over time. But it was also a matter of See also Steppe Confederations
technology. Gunpowder weapons, in combination with
fortifications, paradoxically both contributed to and
helped end the last great age of nomadic conquests. Further Reading
Broadly, the stages of nomadic history may be outlined Adshead, S. A. M. (1993). Central Asia in world history. New York: St.
Martin’s Press.
as follows. A classical age, from the first appearance of Barfield,T. J. (1989). The perilous frontier: Nomadic empires and China.
nomads such as the Xiongnu in China and the Scythians Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
Chambers, J. (1979). The devil’s horsemen: The Mongol invasion of
in the west through the late second century CE and the
Europe. London: Castle.
decline of the Parthian empire in the first decades of the Christian, D. (1998). Inner Eurasia from prehistory to the Mongol empire.
third century CE, established the patterns of interaction Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
Golden, P. B. (1998). Nomads and sedentary societies in medieval Eura-
between the nomadic and sedentary worlds. Between the sia. Washington DC: American Historical Association.
third century and the twelfth century, larger nomadic Grousset, R. (1997). Empire of the steppes:A history of Central Asia. Rut-
gers, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
coalitions of Uighurs in the east and Turks in the west
Kafesoglu, I. (1988). A history of the Seljuks (G. Leiser, Ed. & Trans.). Car-
dominated the steppes, with peaks of invasion and con- bondale: Illinois University Press.
quest of sedentary areas in the seventh and eleventh cen- Kahn, P. (1999). The secret history of the Mongols:The origin of Chinghis
Khan; An adaptation of the Yüan ch’ao pi shih (Expanded ed.). San
turies.Then in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Francisco: Cheng & Tsui Company.
Mongols under Genghis Khan (c. 1160–1227) and his Maenchen-Helfen, O. (1973). World of the Huns. Berkeley and Los Ange-
les: University of California Press.
successors created the largest land empire in history.Their
Morgan, D. (1990). The Mongols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univer-
extraordinary success rested in part on Genghis Khan’s sity Press.
remarkable ability to reshape the tribal political structure Rossabi, M. (1988). Khubilai Khan: His life and times. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press.
of nearly the entire steppe world to his advantage, creat- Sinor, D. (Ed.). (1990). The Cambridge history of Early Inner Asia. Cam-
ing the basis for a longer-lasting nomadic political struc- bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
ture than hitherto. Still, the Mongol empire fractured
among Genghis’s grandsons and then drifted apart as the
Mongols acculturated to their conquered populations.