How did the Mongols conquer so much?

1outnumbered

Picture an endless horde. In truth, historians estimate about sixty-five thousand Mongols marched on China's Jin empire in 1211, which could field several hundred thousand troops.

2not a horde

So numbers didn't win it. The Mongols won with organisation, speed and quick learning, and the next boards show how those worked.

3counted in tens

Genghis Khan rebuilt his army in tens: ten men, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand. He mixed old tribes together and promoted for skill and loyalty, not birth.

4horses and bows

Each rider led several spare horses, so armies could cover huge distances fast. And the short composite bow, made of wood, horn and sinew, could be shot from a galloping horse.

5borrowed engineers

Walls should have stopped riders. So the Mongols hired engineers from conquered China and Persia, who built trebuchets, dug under walls and diverted rivers.

6surrender or else

And fear did half the work. A city that opened its gates was usually spared and taxed; one that resisted could be destroyed, and word of that travelled ahead.

7the whole idea

So here it is whole. Tens of thousands, not millions, but organised, mounted, armed with borrowed engineers and fear, built the largest connected land empire in history.