preliminary remarks 27
scale and played the very lucrative role of principal intermediaries in
interstate trade.89 the central sections of the great routes, the Silk road
with its side-branches and the spice route via the persian Gulf and the
red Sea, crossed their territories, bringing in wealth and assuring long-
term stability. In taking Baghdad and toppling the abbasid caliphate in
1258, the Mongols changed the ownership of the routes but not the routes
themselves, which only changed radically two and a half centuries later in
the era of the great discoveries.90
the ambition to rule over all inhabited lands called for a global strat-
egy from the start. the logical progression of the great campaigns up
to 1260 suggests that there was indeed a coherent plan with a set of
long-term goals.
however universal the khans’ ambitions to rule—symbolically affirmed
by the adjective ‘oceanic’ which was always part of their titles—Mongol
power did not spread out evenly, in a perfect circle. the stages of expansion
reveal well-defined directions and objectives to this growth.
Medieval sources give a consistent account of the invasions as an over-
whelming force which the settled populations had no hope of opposing.
chroniclers—and indeed the majority of later historians—paid far less
attention to the enormous difficulties which the horse-nomads encountered
once they had left their familiar grasslands. however, if these are lost sight
of, one of the most important aspects of the Mongol expansion cannot be
understood.
When we measure the conquerors’ achievements against their con-
stantly-proclaimed goal of world domination, the final analysis shows that
the strength of the Mongol armies was not inexhaustible. the chinggisids
themselves had a precise definition for the limits of their constantly expand-
ing empire, which was to reach “wherever the Mongol horses place their
hooves.” Without the extraordinary endurance of their mounts, which con-
temporary sources always praised, the breathtaking achievements of ching-
gis Khan’s dynasty would be unimaginable. nevertheless the horse, in the
final analysis, set the final limits to empire, just as it was responsible for the
initial astonishing expansion.
as in so many other similar cases, the Mongols achieved superiority of
force over their enemies where it counted through a successful combination
89 Ibid.
90 See above, note 46.
