Link to the Youtube video and the rest of the series!

As her fans know, Siggie looks up to the Greats, the Terribles and even the Impalers of the past. She hopes to learn what it takes to someday make the history books herself! In Episode 5, Siggie discusses the founder and first Khan (king) of arguably the greatest empire in world history–the Mongol Empire. This is Genghis Khan, or Temujin (his birth name). Part 1 looks at his very rough childhood and his rise to power, as he defeated his rivals Jamukah and Toghrul to consolidate the Mongol Empire and become Khan. Siggie then discusses his conquests of China and most of Asia, and the ruthless skills by which Genghis Khan gained all this power.

Let’s travel to the 1100’s, sometime between 1155 and 1167.

Enter into the world Genghis Khan, the original Bad Boy of History, the founder of the

Mongol Empire, which stretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. This dude

died in 1227 at around the age of 65, who knows where? He died, knowing that he was

a great military leader who united the Mongol tribes to conquer huge portions

of China and Central Asia. He did not know at the time that he died that his

name would be synonymous with over the top unhinged rarely if ever to be matched

brutality. He accomplished taking over a good portion of the planet by being

ruthless and killing and slaughtering millions of innocent people. On the less

horrific side, he did civilized things, like promoting trade and introducing

writing. How come nobody recorded where the heck he was born, when he was born,

and when he died? But that’s besides the point. And it’s possible that he did have

a clue, oh you know, that his name would be synonymous with over the top unhinged

rarely if ever to be matched brutality. Unless he was completely lacking self-awareness.

I don’t know. Genghis Khan was the oldest child of a Mongol chieftain. Talk about a

tough childhood. He was 8 years old when his papa died. His family was deserted by

the tribe that they were in and left to struggle on their own. His family

consisted of Genghis and his siblings and half-brothers. He and his brother

literally stalked and killed their older half-brother, who had deprived

14-year-old Genghis and Genghis’s brother of the spoils of the land, which they were

forced to live off of to survive. And what did Genghis and his brother get as a

punishment for such wrongdoing? They were scolded by their mother.

So, Genghis, in addition to being a teenage murderer,

supposedly had a lot of charisma. This helped them get followers. I guess these

are like the early forms of like the Instagram followers and Twitter

followers. Yeah, you know, and he also hooked up with a couple of very

important leaders at the time: Jamukha and Toghrul. Genghis’s new wife, Borte, had been

kidnapped by raiders, but she was retrieved. As egos would have it, as Genghis got

more notoriety, Jamukha was having none of that, and the two humble guys went to war.

Jamukha kicked Genghis’s butt in 1187, but after a few years, in 1196, Genghis rallied

and went back to his hobby of becoming mighty and powerful. Now it was Toghrul’s

turn to be competitive and intimidated by Genghis, and he attacked Genghis in 1203.

Genghis got his mojo going again, kicked Toghrul’s butt and killed Jamukha and rose

through the ashes like a phoenix as the one and only ruler. Up until this point

Genghis’s name was actually Temujin. At this point, in 1206, he took on the title

Genghis Khan, which no one actually knows the meaning of but it sounds awfully

cool. Genghis may mean “ocean” or “just.” Khan means “leader” or “ruler.” Genghis Khan may

translate to “universal ruler.” His original name, Temujin, is also fitting in

that it is the Mongolian word for “blacksmith” or “of iron.” So, starting in 1206

upon being named Genghis Khan, this guy began carrying out reforms to stabilize

the Mongol Empire. He began conquering in 1209, beginning with Western Xia, and then he

attacked the Jin dynasty of China. The Jin Dynasty had been harassing the

Mongols, so they got their comeuppance. And Genghis captured the capital, Zhongdu, in 1215. After

this, he captured a huge chunk of Central Asia, because he was into capturing huge

chunks of land. This happened in 1218. Actually, his top general, Jebe, captured it.

In 1219, he toppled the Khorezm state, which is near present day Middle East, and he

devastated Transoxiana and Chorasan. Jebe and Subutai

reached present day Georgia and Kiev. Genghis took craftsmen, artisans and

slaves in Mongolia. He did all this propaganda stuff, psychological

warfare, using information from his spies to create fake news campaigns to

create hostilities. You know, he got information on certain civil wars

that were taking place, took advantage of that, you know, and all these places that

he wanted to conquer. Divide and conquer was his whole thing. He used captured

prisoners as human shields and made sure his people hated the enemy. The heads

of captured enemies, you know, were catapulted over walls. You know, this guy

just did everything in his power to just capture the entire world and dominate and

massacre.

So, after, you know, defeating a city Genghis would try to lure people out,

promised them safety, and they’d be like “Oh Good! Good! Thank you for sparing us!” You

know… only to get cut to pieces, you know. Once they got lured out, he massacred many

many people, of course, including women and children. He rewarded good soldiers

with lots of incentives and severely punished poor soldiers, including putting

them to death. They used spears, axes, swords, knives, catapults with long arrows…

Gunpowder was also used when it was discovered by the Mongols when they

invaded China. He recruited his own sons to do lots of dirty work. They had the

same ego issues as their dad. There was lots of sibling rivalry and stuff, and

he was getting older, and he had all his family, a whole family operation to 

murder people and take over the planet.