Suprising Globalizers: The Mongols
- didiermoretti
- 2 days ago
- 13 min read
When Genghis Khan first united the fractious Mongol tribes in 1206, (1) few could have predicted that a group of illiterate nomads with no written language, no cities and no agriculture would soon build the largest contiguous land empire in human history. Yet within a century, the Mongols had redrawn the world map, subjugated civilizations from China to Europe, and inadvertently laid the foundations for a new form of globalization. In their wake, they left not just smoldering cities, but also a legacy of innovation, openness, and — in a twist worthy of history’s driest humor — peace. (2)
History tends to remember the Mongols primarily as barbarians on horseback, slaughtering their way across Asia and Europe with mechanical efficiency. This reputation is not entirely undeserved. In twenty-five years, the Mongol army subjugated more lands and people than the Romans had conquered in four hundred years. At its zenith, the empire covered more than 9 million contiguous square miles (approx. 24 million square kilometers)—an area about the size of the African continent and considerably larger than North America. The scale of their achievements is as staggering as it is paradoxical.
Imagine, if you will, a Silicon Valley startup founded by shepherds who couldn't read or write, yet somehow outcompeted every established tech giant within a generation. This is, metaphorically speaking, what the Mongols achieved. They were the ultimate outsiders, unburdened by conventional wisdom and therefore able to question assumptions that more advanced civilizations took for granted. Their story offers a masterclass in how disruptive innovation, combined with organizational agility, can upend established orders with terrifying speed, and reach unprecedented scale.
This is the story of the Mongol Empire: utterly disruptive military innovation (talk about Creative Destruction!), and an unparalleled ability to scale - using the levers of Money, Trade, and the Rule of Law - and embracing the more advanced knowledge and innovations of the people it conquered or became neighbors with.
Military Innovation: Speed, Terror, and Meritocracy
The popular image of Mongol conquest—a seemingly endless horde of horsemen sweeping across the plains—is largely fiction. In reality, Mongol armies were typically outnumbered by their opponents, sometimes dramatically so. What they lacked in numbers, they compensated for with speed, discipline, and tactical sophistication that would make modern military strategists envious.
Mongol armies moved with a speed and coordination that seemed supernatural to their opponents. The average Mongol warrior traveled with 3-5 horses, allowing him to cover up to 100 miles per day by rotating mounts—a medieval equivalent of refueling mid-flight. This wasn’t just logistics; it was a lifestyle. While European knights or Chinese infantry were bound by the limitations of supply chains and foot soldiers, Mongol armies moved like quicksilver across landscapes that others found impassable. They lived off the land, drank blood from their horses' veins when water was scarce, and carried dried milk curd that could be reconstituted into a nutritious meal in emergencies. Their signature composite bow-crafted from sinew, wood, and horn-could fire 300 meters, outranging European longbows. They perfected the art of the feigned retreat, luring enemies into devastating ambushes.
Their discipline was ironclad. Genghis Khan, born Temüjin around 1162, forged a meritocratic war machine. Loyalty was to the Khan, not to tribe or kin. He broke traditional clan structures, mixing warriors into units that functioned like special forces teams. Disobedience was a death sentence, but success brought riches. This carrot-and-stick approach ensured that Mongol armies moved as one, executing complex feints and ambushes with eerie precision. Compare this to the feudal squabbles of Europe, where knights bickered over who got to charge first, and it's no wonder the Mongols ran circles around them.
Psychological warfare was their secret sauce. The Mongols pioneered psychological warfare techniques that would have impressed Machiavelli. Before attacking major cities, they would often annihilate smaller settlements with overwhelming force, deliberately allowing survivors to flee and spread tales of Mongol invincibility. By the time the main army arrived at a major target, the population was often already paralyzed with fear. Submit immediately, and you might be incorporated into the empire with your institutions intact. Resist, and face potential extinction. This was not mere cruelty but calculated strategy—minimizing Mongol casualties by maximizing enemy terror.
Yet, their true genius lay in logistics.
Genghis Khan, who famously spurned castles and cities, built more bridges than any ruler of his time, spanning rivers to keep his armies and goods flowing. The Mongols also established the yam, a postal relay system that was the 13th-century equivalent of FedEx, enabling messages to travel 200 miles a day across the empire. Siege warfare, previously a slog, became a science under their watch as they adopted Chinese and Persian engineers to deploy catapults and gunpowder.
The Mongols exhibited a strikingly modern approach to meritocracy. While contemporary European and Asian empires were crippled by nepotism and aristocratic privilege, the Mongols promoted based on competence rather than lineage or wealth. (4) A shepherd could become a general; a slave could become an administrator. This radical social mobility created both opportunity and loyalty. The most capable individuals from conquered territories were often incorporated into the Mongol hierarchy, creating a talent pipeline that continually refreshed their leadership.
The Largest Free Trade Zone in History: How Nomads Became Commerce Evangelists
For a people whose economic activities had previously been limited to herding, hunting, and occasional raiding, the Mongols demonstrated a remarkably sophisticated understanding of trade economics. They created what was, until the 20th century, history's largest free trade zone—a commercial network spanning from Korea to Hungary, from Siberia to Persia. This was globalization 1.0, albeit with more arrows and fewer PowerPoint presentations.
The Mongols' approach to commerce was elegantly simple: lower the transaction costs and increase the volume. While contemporary rulers viewed merchants with suspicion (when not actively extorting them), the Mongols recognized traders as the lifeblood of empire. They systematically eliminated barriers to trade across their territories. Duties were standardized, corruption was punished severely, and merchants received protection—a medieval version of "Prime" benefits for the caravan set.
Security was the cornerstone of this commercial revolution. The Mongol peace—Pax Mongolica—created conditions where a merchant could reasonably expect to transport valuable goods across thousands of miles without being robbed or killed. This was no small feat in an era when local lords considered highway robbery a legitimate source of income. The Mongols established guard posts along major routes and instituted a passport system that gave travelers official protection. Marco Polo's famous journey would have been nearly impossible before the Mongol conquests—not just physically dangerous but institutionally unimaginable. (5)
The infrastructural investments were equally impressive. The imperial relay system—the yam
—served commercial as well as military purposes. Bridges, hostels, and caravanserais dotted the trading routes, reducing the physical hardships of long-distance travel. Unlike previous empires that built roads primarily for moving armies, the Mongols created a network explicitly designed to facilitate commerce. One suspects that if Genghis Khan were alive today, he would have founded a logistics company that may have taught Amazon and Walmart a thing or two.
The results were transformative. Trade volumes exploded. Luxury goods that had previously been rare curiosities became regular commodities. Chinese silks appeared in European markets in unprecedented quantities; Persian textiles found eager buyers in East Asia; spices, gems, and manufactured goods flowed across the continent. For the first time in history, a merchant in Venice could make business plans based on reliable access to Asian markets—a revolutionary concept that would later fuel European exploration and colonial ambitions. The irony is palpable: nomads who owned almost nothing personally created the conditions for the greatest expansion of trade the world had yet seen.
Money to Fuel Trade: Medieval Monetary Policy on Horseback
For an empire built by people who had previously valued wealth primarily in livestock, the Mongols displayed a remarkably sophisticated approach to monetary policy. While European monarchs routinely debased their currencies to fund wars (a tradition modern governments have not entirely abandoned), the Mongols understood that stable, trusted currency was essential for commercial prosperity. Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, introduced paper money throughout China. This wasn't just about convenience. The Mongols recognized what modern economists call the "velocity of money"—the rate at which currency circulates through an economy. Paper currency moved faster, could be produced as needed, and facilitated larger transactions than metal coins.
The standardization of weights, measures, and exchange rates across the empire further reduced transaction costs for merchants. A trader from Samarkand could reasonably expect that his goods would be weighed and valued consistently whether he was selling in Beijing or Tabriz. This predictability eliminated a significant risk premium from long-distance trade—the medieval equivalent of removing foreign exchange uncertainty.
Most remarkably, the Mongols implemented what amounted to the world's first large-scale experiment in fiat currency. Unlike contemporary European or Islamic rulers, who remained wedded to precious metals, Kublai Khan's paper currency derived its value entirely from imperial decree. Those caught counterfeiting or refusing to accept the currency faced severe penalties—death being a particularly effective deterrent against monetary skepticism. One imagines modern central bankers occasionally wishing for similar enforcement mechanisms when facing cryptocurrency evangelists.
The system wasn't perfect—Kublai's paper money eventually suffered inflation as successive Yuan emperors yielded to the temptation to print more currency than the economy required (a lesson modern governments keep learning the hard way). But for decades, it facilitated a commercial revolution across Asia, demonstrating that nomadic conquerors could master financial policy as effectively as they had mastered the battlefield.
Ironclad Laws: Governance by Decree and Religious Tolerance
The Mongols instituted a universal legal code—the Yassa—that superseded local laws in matters of imperial importance. This code, established by Genghis Khan himself, was revered almost as a sacred text. Its provisions regulated everything from military discipline to commercial contracts, from diplomatic immunity to postal service protocols. Remarkably, the Yassa managed to be both inflexible in its enforcement and pragmatic in its content—a combination modern legal systems still struggle to achieve.
What made the Yassa revolutionary wasn't just its scope but its secularity. In an era when most legal systems were inextricably tied to religious doctrine—Islamic Sharia, Christian Canon Law, or Confucian principles—the Mongol code was refreshingly pragmatic. It concerned itself with results rather than metaphysics. Murder was prohibited not because it offended divine sensibilities but because it threatened social order. Theft was punished not to purify souls but to protect property. This focus on practical outcomes rather than theological correctness made the Yassa surprisingly adaptable across the diverse religious landscapes of Eurasia.
Perhaps most radical was the Mongols' approach to religious tolerance. While contemporary European monarchs were launching crusades and expelling religious minorities, the Mongols exempted religious leaders of all faiths from taxation and granted freedom of worship throughout their domains. This wasn't from any particular theological conviction—the early Mongols were primarily shamanistic—but from a pragmatic recognition that religious persecution was bad for business and stability. Clerics who prayed undisturbed were less likely to foment rebellion, and merchants of all faiths could trade more effectively when not worried about religious persecution.
Enforcement of the Yassa was characteristically severe. The same army that conquered continents was quite capable of executing a local official for taking bribes or a merchant for using false weights. This created a predictable legal environment across vast territories—a merchant traveling from Karakorum to Crimea could reasonably expect similar treatment throughout the journey. In an age when crossing from one European duchy to another might involve entirely different legal systems, currencies, and arbitrary tolls, this predictability represented a revolutionary reduction in transaction costs.
The irony is difficult to miss: history's most feared conquerors created a legal system more tolerant, secular, and commercially friendly than those of the "civilized" empires they conquered. Nomads who lived in felt tents established governance principles that modern nations would only adopt centuries later. It was as if the most ruthless private equity firm somehow established the most progressive corporate culture—a contradiction that helps explain the Mongol Empire's remarkable longevity.
Embracing Foreign Talent and Know-How: History's Greatest Talent Acquisition Strategy
The Mongols didn't invent the bow, the horse, or the wheel. They didn't design new siege engines or develop revolutionary theories of governance. What they did do—with remarkable consistency—was borrow and adapt the best ideas from everywhere, implementing them with a pragmatism that bordered on the ruthless. Think of them as history's most aggressive acqui-hirers, absorbing talent, technology, and techniques from every civilization they encountered.
While contemporary empires typically imposed their cultural and administrative systems on conquered peoples, the Mongols showed a remarkable willingness to adopt foreign techniques when they proved superior to their own. In China, they governed like Chinese; in Persia, they adopted Persian bureaucratic methods. This organizational flexibility allowed them to leverage local expertise rather than waste resources imposing unfamiliar systems. It was the 13th-century equivalent of a tech company entering a new market and hiring local experts rather than parachuting in headquarters staff unfamiliar with regional conditions.
Their approach to talent was equally pragmatic. Unlike most empires, which saw foreigners as inherently inferior, the Mongols displayed a cosmopolitan curiosity about the world. Genghis Khan himself reportedly said, "If you insult a learned man, you insult me," regardless of that scholar's origin. His grandson Kublai Khan employed Arabs, Persians, Tibetans, and Europeans in his administration. This openness to foreign talent and ideas gave the Mongols access to the intellectual capital of the entire Eurasian landmass.
The results were remarkable. While the Mongols themselves made few technological breakthroughs, they became history's most effective technology transfer specialists. They collected innovations from China, the Islamic world, and Europe, then disseminated them across the largest free-trade zone the world had ever seen. Printing, gunpowder, navigational compasses, mathematical concepts like algebra and numbering, advanced agricultural techniques, and countless other technologies traveled along Mongol-protected trade routes. New crops like carrots, buckwheat, and improved fruit varieties traveled in all directions, enhancing food security and agricultural productivity. In effect, the Mongols created the world's first global innovation ecosystem, accelerating technological progress across Eurasia.
Even the Black Death, which devastated Eurasian populations in the 14th century, traveled along Mongol trade routes—an early and particularly grim example of the downsides of globalization. One imagines public health officials of the era cursing the same trading networks that merchants blessed. Yet the same connections that transmitted disease also spread the medical knowledge that would eventually help combat it.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the Mongols developed a reputation as patrons of knowledge and learning—a startling transformation for an illiterate people initially known only for destruction. Mongol rulers established astronomical observatories, supported medical research, commissioned encyclopedias, and funded historical works. Kublai Khan's court hosted scholars from across Asia and Europe. It was as if a group of corporate raiders had somehow transformed into the world's most generous research foundation—a pivot that still confounds historians and offers lessons for modern organizations about the unexpected benefits of intellectual openness.
Connecting the World: The First Global Network and Its Legacy
By securing trade routes, standardizing certain legal and commercial practices, and facilitating the movement of people and ideas, the Mongols dramatically reduced the friction that had previously kept Eurasian civilizations in relative isolation. They built what Silicon Valley would call a "network effect" at continental scale, centuries before the term was coined.
The Mongols created an environment where a European merchant could credibly expect to travel to China and return alive, with both his profits and his knowledge intact. It was the 13th-century equivalent of secure internet protocols—creating the trusted infrastructure that makes complex exchanges possible.
The Mongol Empire united isolated civilizations, linking China and Europe, previously unaware of each other with no recorded travel between them. Though its trade network later fragmented, the empire's connections endured, transforming the world. Europeans, having glimpsed the wealth of Asia through Mongol trade, would soon seek their own direct routes east, inadvertently discovering the Americas in the process. Chinese technologies, spread during the "Pax Mongolica," fueled Europe's scientific and industrial revolutions.
The irony is striking: an empire founded by nomadic herders sparked global urbanization, commerce, and technological exchange that continues to shape our world today.
The Mongols Viewed Through the Growth Framework
The figure below outlines the Mongols’ key achievements through the lens of the Growth Framework. They transformed disruptive military success into an empire of unprecedented scale—leveraging money, free trade, and pragmatic laws; ruthlessly embracing foreign knowledge and technology; and revolutionizing logistics with military-grade discipline.
What Can We Learn from History's Unlikeliest Empire?
What can we learn from the Mongol experiment? Several insights stand out with peculiar relevance to our own era of globalization and technological disruption.
First, outsiders often make the most effective disruptors. The Mongols succeeded precisely because they weren't invested in the established systems they encountered. They had no theological commitment to particular modes of governance, no cultural attachment to specific technologies, and no economic stake in maintaining existing hierarchies. This freedom from conventional thinking allowed them to mix and match elements from diverse civilizations in ways that insiders might never have considered. Like the most successful startups, they looked at entrenched systems and asked, "Why does it have to be this way?"
Second, openness to diversity enables innovation at scale. The Mongols' willingness to incorporate talent regardless of origin created history's most diverse administration, drawing on expertise from across Eurasia. This intellectual cross-pollination generated solutions that no homogeneous culture could have produced alone. The lesson for modern organizations is clear: innovation thrives on diversity not just as a moral imperative but as a competitive advantage. The Mongols didn't practice diversity and inclusion for ideological reasons—they did it because it worked.
Third, logistics matter more than we think. The Mongols conquered the world not because they had better weapons or larger armies—they were almost always outnumbered—but because they could move faster, communicate more effectively, and coordinate more precisely than their opponents. Their courier system, relay stations, and bridge-building program created the infrastructure that made everything else possible. In an age obsessed with digital innovation, the Mongols remind us that physical infrastructure and operational excellence matter a great deal (and win wars!).
Fourth, scale creates its own opportunities. As the Mongol free trade zone grew, it reached a critical mass where new economic and cultural possibilities emerged that wouldn't have made sense at a smaller scale. Long-distance trade routes became viable when they connected multiple commercial hubs under a single security umbrella. Knowledge transfer accelerated when scholars could travel thousands of miles without crossing hostile borders. The Mongols inadvertently discovered what modern platform businesses know well: networks become exponentially more valuable as they grow.
Finally, and perhaps most counterintuitively, peace is profitable. The Mongols began as raiders but evolved into trade facilitators because they discovered that taxing commerce was more lucrative than plundering cities. The Pax Mongolica created wealth that benefited not just the conquerors but also the conquered. This transformation from destroyers to protectors represents one of history's most remarkable pivots—equivalent to a predator species discovering horticulture.
The illiterate nomads who couldn't build a city ended up connecting all cities. The shepherds without a written culture facilitated history's largest exchange of books and ideas. The raiders who began by destroying trade routes finished by protecting them. The Mongol triumph represents the revenge of the periphery against the center, the victory of flexible networks over rigid hierarchies, the triumph of pragmatic adaptation over tradition.
If there’s a lesson in this extraordinary saga, it’s that progress often springs from the unlikeliest sources; that human ingenuity knows few bounds; and that the key lies in creating conditions where everyone has an opportunity to flourish.
One thing to ponder: as of this writing, in the United States we seem intent on moving backward on the very principles the Mongols had already discovered in the 13th century—free trade across borders, religious tolerance, meritocracy over connections, the importance of the rule of law, and the pragmatic embrace of diversity. Not surprisingly, the early results are not encouraging.
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(1) In 1206, at a kurultai (assembly) of Mongol tribes, Temüjin was proclaimed 'Genghis Khan,' marking the official birth of the Mongol Empire and beginning a new era in Eurasian history.
(2) This article borrows liberally from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued his Empire, and Emperor of the Sea: Kublai Khan and the Making of China, all by Jack Weatherford; The Invention of Yesterday by Tamim Ansary; Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - and Why They Fall by Amy Chua; The Invention of Power: Popes, Kings, and the Birth of the West by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita; and The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Feverau.
(3) For more information on the Growth Framework, see The Growth Enigma
(4) Unlike contemporaneous feudal systems, Genghis Khan promoted individuals based on ability rather than birth, creating a meritocracy that facilitated the rapid rise of talented individuals regardless of origin.
(5) The 'Pax Mongolica' created unprecedented commercial connectivity across Eurasia, allowing merchants to travel safely across continents, with Mongol-issued passports ensuring protection throughout the empire.
