World's Largest Empire

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World’s Largest Empire Edmund Burke III also describes how Genghis Khan “created an empire that stretched from Korea to eastern Europe… [which] controlled a territory of close to 7 million square miles, making it the largest empire in world history” (73). State Approx. Year Approx. size in square miles Roman empire 100 C.E. 1,698,400 Arab Muslim empire 750 C.E. 4,246,000 Sung empire (China) 1000 C.E. 1,158,000 Mongol empire 1250 C.E. 6,948,000 Inca empire (Andes Mts.) 1500 C.E. 772,000 Continental United States Present 3,021,000 To put this into perspective, the Continental United states only controls an area of about 3 million square miles. In order to create such a large and impressive empire, it takes a number of strategies to achieve.…show more content…
He would gather all the Khans (princes) of his empire and have them elect a “grand” Khan, basically a leader that would work with Genghis Khan to help establish any sort of law or regulation. This form of government acted almost like a republic, where each Khan would represent their people and promote ideas for new laws based on the people. These proposals would then go to a “privy council” where they would be revised and put into law. Genghis Khan believed in creating good moral for his citizens, so he encouraged more lenient laws than a typical monarchy would have. He encouraged hunting and set very strict laws regarding ownership of slaves. Genghis Khan would set out hunting expeditions with his These laws included protection of the native people he took over, where they would become citizens of the empire and protected under its laws. The only slaves allowed were Prisoners Of War and people taken from adjacent enemy territories. This encouraged the spread of the Mongol Empire, as people in the enemy countries would prefer to surrender and become a citizen, instead of fighting and being captured as a slave. Many Khans from all around Afroeurasia would seek out alliances with Genghis Khan, which would protect their people from this practice(Abbot…show more content…
From an early age Mongolian children were taught two important skillsets, archery and horsemanship. Genghis Khan used these skills in tandem to create a devastating force that struck terror in the hearts of his enemies. As his empire grew, most enemies would willingly fall under his dominion, fearing that the stories they heard about Genghis Khan’s military strength on the battlefield were true. Some of these legends that followed Genghis Khan included gruesome details of what he would do to enemies that would not surrender. This engraving, depicted in Abbot’s book, shows mongol warriors on their horses using their recurve bows. It is a great depiction of how frightening it would be to have hundreds, or even thousands, of these soldiers charging toward the enemy (277). The legendary bowmanship of the Mongolians was so greatly feared that even after Genghis Khan’s death, rival armies were still hesitant to attack the empire. After Genghis Khan’s death, the empire was quickly dismantled, but the rulers that took over the Mongols feared their archery skills so much that bows were actually outlawed for civilians living within their territories. There are even instances of soldiers going into these mongol homes and breaking these bows so they could not be

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