History of Mongolia

The Khitan people, who used a para-Mongolic language,[1] founded an empire known as the Liao dynasty (916–1125), and ruled Mongolia and portions of North China, northern Korea, and the present-day Russian Far East.

After the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire, Mongolia came to be ruled by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) based in Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) and administered as part of the Lingbei Province.

The first scientifically confirmed dinosaur eggs were found in Mongolia during the 1923 expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, led by Roy Chapman Andrews.

Deer stones are ancient megaliths carved with symbols that can be found all over central and eastern Eurasia but are concentrated largely in Mongolia and Siberia.

Moreover, there are another 20 deer stones in Kazakhstan and the Middle East (Samashyev 1992) and 10 further west, specifically in Ukraine and parts of the Russian Federation, including the provinces of Oren burg and the Caucasus, and near the Elbe River (Mongolian History 2003).

[11] With the appearance of iron weapons by the 3rd century BC, the inhabitants of Mongolia had begun to form clan alliances and lived a hunter and herder lifestyle.

They inhabited a great arc of land extending generally from the Korean Peninsula in the east, across the northern tier of China to present-day Kazakhstan and to the Pamir Mountains and Lake Balkash in the west.

During most of recorded history, this has been an area of constant ferment from which emerged numerous migrations and invasions to the southeast (into China), to the southwest (into Transoxiana—modern Uzbekistan, Iran, and India), and to the west (across Scythia toward Europe).

While most of Central Eurasia had a fairly similar nomadic lifestyle where moving in and around national boundaries and mixing with different settlements was common, the situation in the Mongolian steppes was unique because migration was limited by natural barriers such as the Altai Mountains in the west, the Gobi Desert in the south and the freezing wastelands of Siberia in the north, all unsuitable for nomadic-based living.

The identity of the ethnic core of Xiongnu has been a subject of varied hypotheses and some scholars, including Alexey Okladnikov, Paul Pelliot and Byambyn Rinchen,[12] insisted on a Mongolic origin.

At the peak of its power, the Xiongnu confederacy stretched from Lake Baikal in the north to the Great Wall in the south and from the Tian Shan mountains in the west to the Greater Khingan ranges in the east.

The Yuezhi then migrated to the southwest where, early in the 2nd century, they began to appear in the Oxus (the modern Amu Darya) Valley, to change the course of history in Bactria, Iran, and eventually India.

The concept of Mongolia as an independent power north of China is seen in the letter sent by Emperor Wen of Han to Laoshang Chanyu in 162 BC (recorded in the Hanshu): The identity of the ethnic core of Xiongnu has been a subject of varied hypotheses and some scholars, including A.Luvsandendev, Bernát Munkácsi, Henry Howorth, Rashpuntsag,[15] Alexey Okladnikov, Peter Pallas, Isaak Schmidt, Nikita Bichurin and Byambyn Rinchen,[16] insisted on a Mongolic origin.

Northern Wei armies drove back the Rouran (also referred to as Ruru or Juan-Juan by Chinese chroniclers), a newly arising nomadic Mongol people in the steppes north of the Altai Mountains, and reconstructed the Great Wall.

Some Khitans fled west under the leadership of Yelü Dashi after their defeat by the Jurchens and founded the Western Liao dynasty (1124–1218) in present-day Xinjiang and eastern Kazakhstan with capital in Balasagun, modern Kyrgyzstan.

During the 5th century, they occupied the area east of the Greater Khingan Range, what is the Hulunbuir, Argun (Ergune), Nen (Noon), Middle Amur, and the Zeya Watersheds.

With an assumption that each household consisted of four persons and every adult male was a warrior, it can be estimated that the entire population of Mongolia was at least 750,000 people and the nation possessed 95,000 cavalrymen.

With a purpose of testing the military strength of his state and preparing for a struggle against the Jin dynasty, Genghis Khan conquered the Tangut-led Western Xia, which pledged vassalage.

Genghis Khan intended to develop friendly relations with the Khwarezm Empire, which was on a junction of the trade routes connecting the East and the West and dominated Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan.

Although Khwarezm Shah possessed an army outnumbering the Mongol troops dozen of times, he lacked the courage and initiatives to unite his forces and fight back.

Shortly after returning to Mongolia, the Mongol army invaded the Western Xia in 1226 and conquered the capital Zhongxing (中兴府), located in modern Yinchuan.

The traveller from Italy Giovanni da Pian del Carpine arrived in 1246 and later he wrote the book Historia Mongolorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus.

As the Ming dynasty understood its own disability of conquering the Mongolian Plateau by military force, it started a policy of provoking the groups of Mongols to quarrel with one another, as well as economic blockade.

[citation needed] Following the advice of his nephew Hutuhtai Secen Hongtaiji, Altan Khan of Tumet invited the head of the Gelug school Sonam Gyatso to his domain.

[34][citation needed] Thus, Altan added legitimacy to the title "khan" that he had assumed, while Sonam Gyatso received support for the supremacy he sought over the Tibetan sangha.

The Khalkha leaders sought Manchu aid in their feud with Galdan Boshugtu Khan while the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty cunningly demanded that they become his vassals as a condition for his support.

Russian White Guard troops led by Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, who had been defeated in the Civil War in Transbaikalian Siberia, invaded Mongolia in October 1920.

After the mysterious death of Bogd Khan in 1924, the MPP moved quickly to promulgate a Soviet-style constitution, abolishing monarchy and declaring the Mongolian People's Republic on 26 November 1924.

The "New Turn" included the purging of the most leftist members of the leadership under the pretext of нугалаа (nugalaa "bending") and liberalized development of the economy, and was favored by new leaders such as Prime Minister P. Genden.

[64] Offices established to support Taipei's claims over Outer Mongolia, such as the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission,[65] lie dormant and was eventually disbanded in September 2017.