Mongolian History

During the 11th-12th centuries, the Mongol tribes with names like Whole Mongolia, Tatar, Kerait, Jalair all had their own rulers and were constantly fighting with each other. At this time of intertribal struggle, a Mongol chieftain called Temujin gathered various tribes under his leadership, named his state "Mongolia," and became known as "Chinggis Khan," meaning 'Universal King'. The “Genghis Khan” imprinted in the memory of the west bears little relation to the Chinggis Khan revered by Mongolians. The spelling is not the only difference; to Europeans the name epitomizes mercilessness and warmongering; to the Mongolians, it embodies strength, unity, law and order.

After having established the state, following the custom of the ancient nomads, Chinggis Khan undertook campaigns against the neighboring states. As a result of the wars undertaken by Chinggis Khan and his successors with the purpose of "conquering the whole world" Mongolia became a powerful empire, extending from the East China Sea to Western Europe, covering vast areas of Europe and Asia.
Chinggis' grandson, Kublai Khan (1216-94), completed the subjugation of China and became the emperor of China's Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Kublai soon realized, though, that the Mongol empire had reached the limits of its expansion. Instead of looking for more wars to fight, he concentrated on keeping the vast empire together. This was the height of the Mongols' glory: the empire stretched from Korea to Hungary and as far south as Vietnam, making it the largest empire the world has ever known.


The Mongol Empire at its greatest in the 13th Century.


The Mongols were expelled from Beijing by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty in the mid-14th century. The collapse of the Yuan dynasty caused over 60,000 Mongols to return to Mongolia. Their unity dissolved, and frequent clan warfare and a long period of decline followed.

During the 14th and 15th centuries, the Mongols lost their previous unity and were divided into Eastern Mongols and Western Mongols (Oirat Mongols). Then in the 16th century the Eastern Mongols split up into Outer Mongolia (Khalkh Mongolia) and Inner Mongolia. The Mongols waged war on each other, and dominance went first to Oirat Mongolia and then to East Mongolia. East Mongolia was the more powerful. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Zurchid tribe of Manchurians became powerful and established the State of Qin. The Manchurians subdued Inner Mongolia in the 1630s, Khalkh Mongolia in 1691 and Oirat Mongolia in 1757. While the emperor brutally crushed dissent, he supported the corrupt Mongol nobility. The 17th-20th century period was the most tragic for the Mongols. Cut off from the outside world and heavily in debt, Manchu subjugation was nothing short of brutal. During this time Tibetan monks were dispatched to Mongolia to convert the masses who had for centuries believed in shamanic spirits. The Tibetans were largely successful and some 700 monasteries were built, training one out of three males to become monks.

On November 26, 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was declared, and Mongolia became the world's second communist country. Mongolian communism remained fairly independent of Russia until Stalin gained absolute power in the late 1920s. The Stalinist purges that followed swept Mongolia into a totalitarian nightmare, with the government's campaign against religion being particularly ruthless. In 1937 a reign of terror was launched against the Buddhist monasteries in which thousands of monks were executed. It's believed that by 1939 some 27,000 people had been executed, three per cent of Mongolia's population at the time.

In March 1990, large pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the square in front of the parliament building in Ulaanbaatar and hunger strikes were held. The system changed without bloodshed.

By May 1990 the government amended the constitution to permit multiparty elections, although rural areas voted overwhelmingly to stay under the protective shelter of the communist party. A new constitution set up the government as a parliamentary republic with a president at its head. The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP), reshaped themselves as Social Democrats, but slow reform forced their ouster in 1996.

The Democratic Coalition, whose core members included the young revolutionaries of 1990, sped up the pace of economic reform at the behest of international lenders. Yet their inexperience on the political field proved their downfall; high level corruption and the murder of a prominent politician caused the fall of three successive governments and the MPRP was voted back into power in 2000.