Relentless Regimes

The Mongol Empire was a very brutal regime that had no limits. They conquered in all directions to include most of Central Asia and even Eastern Asia. A regime in history that is somewhat similar to the Mongols in regards to conquest and brutality, is the German Nazis during World War II. Like the Mongols, the Nazis were relentless in their conquest in murdering the Jewish people to include women and children in unethical warfare. The Mongol Empire and German Nazis have some similarities in their ruthless acts of war-fighting and conquest.

            The Mongols conquered other cities for the sake of their warfighting mentality and revenge. Temujin took it upon himself to reunite the Mongol empire and conquered surrounding tribes in the process. Temujin describes their purpose as, “Man’s greatest good fortune is to chase and defeat his enemy, seize all his possessions, leave his married women weeping and wailing”[1] (400). During their conquests, the Mongols would slaughter all enemies (including women and children), rape women, cut open pregnant women’s wombs, and boil enemy chiefs. During World War II, the German Nazis were similar to the Mongols in their level of brutality. They were relentless in killing their enemies to also include women and children. They used immoral warfare to include gas chambers. They were able to gain power quickly with their strong military, similar to the Mongols.

Obviously, the Mongols and Nazis had many differences. The Nazis targeted a specific group of people, being the Jewish, while the Mongols would slaughter anybody in their way. The Nazis also did conquer many cities, but for the sake of spreading their beliefs of the “superior race” and capturing Jewish people. The reason the Nazis were able to get away with what they were doing for a while, was through propaganda. Adolf Hitler convinced his people that what they were doing was morally right and deceived other nations using propaganda. In this case, Adolf Hitler can be related to Genghis Khan because of their ruthless leadership in conquest and rule. Another major difference is that the Mongols’ conquest lasted over a century while the Nazis only lasted a few years before being defeated.

            I believe that although both Mongols and Nazis conducted inhumane tactics in warfighting, the German Nazis are more heavily criticized because of the time period, and it has had more of an impact on today’s society since WWII took place only about seventy-five years ago as opposed to the Mongolian regime which took place in the twelfth and thirteenth century. Most of society now does not understand the terrifying Mongols and their impact on Central Asia and Eastern Europe in early history especially since the Mongol history is still not fully understood.

-Kevin Semma

Word count: 432

---

[1] Spodek