"Laurie, I got you something to celebrate your first horseback riding lesson," Grandpa announced, meeting Laurie at the top of the stairs. "Mongolian boots!"
"Wow! They're pretty. But why Mongolian?" Laurie said, holding up the decorative orange and turquoise boots.
"Because the Mongols have a history of being excellent horse riders!
Back in the 1200s, when their empire was the mightiest in the world, they had riding skills even your instructor would envy.
They could eat, sleep, and pick up an arrow from the ground without ever getting off their horses!"
Laurie raised her eyebrows.
"Not only that, but they have an amazing history too," Grandpa continued.
"Would you like to hear a bit?"
"Okay," Laurie answered.
"Come on in," he said, and Laurie followed him into the study.
"Mongolia," Grandpa began, "is a country in Asia, between Russia and China.
Its land is a mix of mountains, grasslands, and the driest desert in the world.
Because Mongols live in such rough environments, they have become pretty tough themselves.
But they love their land and feel deeply connected to it.
The Mongols, you know, believe their people were created when a blue wolf and a female deer traveled to a sacred mountain in Mongolia.
There the two animals mated and the deer later gave birth to a human.
This human was the first ancestor of the Mongols."
Grandpa paused to lift a furry hat off the bookshelf and place it on his head.
"The early Mongols," he continued, "were nomads who lived in tents and migrated seasonally with their large herds of sheep, camels, yaks, and horses.
In summer they lived in the high steppes.
In winter they traveled to warmer, lower lands, in search of new grass for their animals.
To the Mongols, land was sacred, so they would not plow it or settle on it.
Water was sacred, so they would not bathe in it or dirty it with any of their waste.
And the sky was sacred, so they climbed to the tops of mountains to be closer to their greatest god, known as Eternal Blue Heaven.
For many years the Mongols existed as separate tribes.
Even though the Mongol tribes shared a common culture and way of life, they fought often.
At one point the fighting was so intense, it looked like they might all destroy each other.
But then in the twelfth century, a great leader united them.
He built a mighty empire that connected the East and the West forever."
"Who?" Laurie blurted out. "Was he a Mongol?"
"Yes. He was a Mongol named Temujin.
According to legend, he was born holding a blood clot in his fist.
This was either a sign of danger or a sign that he would be a great warrior.
Temujin turned out to be a strong, brave warrior.
After many battles he became the khan, or leader, of his tribe.
Once he had conquered all the neighboring tribes, he was called Genghis Khan, which means oceanic or universal leader.
Under Genghis Khan's leadership, the Mongol Empire expanded to include most of Asia, much of the Middle East, and a large part of modern-day Russia.
It was the largest empire ever established by one man."
"Wow. Really?" Laurie remarked. "What made him such a great leader?"
"Well, Genghis Khan understood what is needed to keep a stable empire:
a common written language, law and order, good communication, and a strong, loyal army.
He made sure the Mongols had all these things.
The Mongols never had a written language, so he chose the alphabet of one of the conquered tribes and made it the official Mongolian script.
Then he ordered the Mongolian cultural and social rules to be written in a book and demanded that people be punished if they disobeyed them.
And—at a time when there were no postal systems—he built a messenger system that could quickly carry messages on horseback across long distances.
But perhaps his greatest ideas had to do with the army.
He separated soldiers from their fellow tribesmen so that they would be more loyal to him than to their fellow soldiers.
And he promoted them based on their skill rather than their social position.
This was a revolutionary idea at the time.
Genghis Khan also had the reputation of being one of his people.
That means he wore the same clothes they wore, ate the same food they ate, and rode the same horses they rode.
He didn't treat himself like a king or an emperor.
This made him popular. When he died in 1227, a great funeral was held for him.
He was buried at the mountain where the blue wolf and the deer created the first Mongol so many years ago.
But the exact location has never been found because after the funeral, eight hundred horsemen rode over the spot to destroy any sign of a grave."
"Whoa . . . Eight hundred horseback riders?" Laurie asked.
"Well, important men get impressive funerals, and Genghis Khan was a very important Mongol.
Under his leadership, the Mongol Empire left a huge impact on the world.
After being abandoned for some time, the Silk Road reopened under Genghis Khan's rule.
The Mongols helped promote the transfer of goods, ideas, and culture between Asia and Europe.
The Silk Road brought so many interesting items from the East to the West that Westerners became extremely curious about Asia.
In the late thirteenth century, the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo traveled to China.
He lived in the palace of Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson who had become the emperor of China.
Marco Polo's adventures inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world in search of a faster route to Asia.
I'd say the Mongol Empire was pretty important, wouldn't you?"
"Yes." Laurie pulled on the boots. "But more importantly, these boots are beautiful.
I hope Mom lets me wear them to school.
Thanks, Grandpa! Giddyap!" she cried, galloping out of the study.