All language subtitles for Genghis Khan s01e05 The Rule of Ogedei.eng

NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan is
dead, mortally injured

while on campaign
in foreign lands.

PROF SNEATH: A rather symbolic
end for such a conqueror

that he dies whilst
conquering.

NARRATOR: In his lifetime, the
leader of the Mongolian empire

remained undefeated
by his enemies.

DR MAY: Chinggis Khan had
done something no one else

had done before.

NARRATOR: He crushed the
mighty Khwarazmian empire

and invaded the lands
of the Tangut

and the Jin his most
powerful neighbors.

DR MAY The world irrevocably
changed with his actions.

It could not go back to the way
it was before Chinggis Khan.

NARRATOR: As his armies
battled the Tangut,

he drew his final breath

and now the Mongolian forces
must continue to fight

without their leader.

PROF SNEATH: It's an
empire in the making.

It's an unfinished project.

This is a really big deal
as to who might succeed

to the throne.

NARRATOR: A race for
succession begins to find

the true heir to Chinggis
Khan and continue

the Mongolian Empire's
relentless expansion.

DR MAY: Chinggis Khan
dies in 1227, August, 18,

while on campaign
and he's shot.

JOHN: There was then this
problem of what to do next.

DR MAY: You're in the
middle of a campaign,

you can't just stop and
immediately put a new ruler in

NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan's
death is kept a secret.

The Mongol army continues
to fight their enemy,

the Tanguts unaware, their
legendary leader has passed

away, only a select
few know of his demise,

ensuring the Mongol soldiers
continue their campaign.

DR FAVEREAU: After
Chinggis Khan died,

the Mongols really led
a really harsh conquest

of Tangut territories.

There have been a
lot of killings,

and it's one of the darker
page of the Mongol conquest.

And this is a very
violent moment

NARRATOR: After a
punishing, battle,

the Mongols finally
overwhelm the Tangut,

with no hope of victory, the
Tangut Emperor surrenders.

JOHN: The Emperor was summoned,
and he gave a huge slew

of gifts to Chinggis the door
of the tent being closed

at the time, and it suggests
a weird episode, namely,

that Genghis Khan
was actually there,

dead receiving these
gifts, but dead,

unknown to the Emperor.

DR MAY: They make him bow before
the tent of Chinggis Khan.

His body is there, but
he's not there anymore.

The ruler of the Tangut
surrenders to a corpse

and doesn't know it, and
they eventually execute him.

NARRATOR: With the
Tangut Emperor dead,

the Mongol forces swiftly
move to eradicate

all traces of his empire.

DR MAY: The Mongols make an
effort to kill off the royalty.

They realize that as long as
you have the Tangut royalty

who view this kingdom as
theirs, they'll never be 100%

comfortable being subjects
of the Mongol Empire.

DR FAVEREAU: This great
Tangut culture was destroyed

and not much was left.

This swallowed by
the Mongol Empire

and become something else.

NARRATOR: The death of Chinggis
Khan is finally revealed

after the Mongols have secured
their victory over the Tangut.

PROF SNEATH: After
Chinggis Khan's death,

his body is taken.

In a solemn cavalcade all the
way back to central Mongolia.

JOHN: He would have been
taken as fast as possible

back to his homeland
in northern Mongolia,

probably carried simply
in a small cart

which could move
extremely fast.

PROF SNEATH: The body
itself was taken right up

and eventually back to the
area around his birth.

JOHN: The idea that the
Mongols have is that

he was buried on the
mountain that was sacred

to him from childhood,
Burkhan Khaldun.

BULAG: The person who was
in charge of carrying

the corpse to be
buried home,

he recalled that Chinggis
Khan, when he was on his way

to conquer the Tangut,
actually stopped

at that particular place,
uttered a few words saying

that for an old man like me,
it is a place for burial.

JOHN: The burial of Chinggis
Khan has come in for a good

deal of obfuscation.

He clearly wanted
to be secret.

His retainers wanted
it to be kept secret.

It could not, therefore be a
vast mausoleum of treasure.

He was probably buried
simply in a secret grave.

I've been up Burkhan
Khaldun, and it's all stone,

and the idea of digging a grave
in it is hard to imagine.

NARRATOR: For over
eight centuries,

the final resting place of
Chinggis Khan has remained

one of history's greatest
secrets, with legends claiming

he took extraordinary measures
to ensure his burial site

would never be found.

PROF SNEATH: Some particular
division of soldiers

were placed there to
try and guard it,

to make sure that it stayed
secret and on route,

it said that anybody
who crossed the path

of the caravan was killed.

Perhaps this was part of a
way of maintaining complete

secrecy about the event.

Some accounts mentioned that
not only were the people

who dug the tomb killed
to maintain secrecy,

but even the guards were
killed and so on.

JOHN: The horses were
trampled over the land

where he was buried, and
trees came up afterwards,

and soon no one
knew where it was.

PROF SNEATH: Obviously, there's
a lot of archeological interest.

It would be the archeological
find of a century

to find that tomb, but we
still haven't located

the resting place
of Chinggis Khan.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: After
more than 800 years,

nobody knows where
his tomb is located,

but however curious I am,

I don't want his
tomb being found.

JOHN: My belief is that
if Genghis wanted it

to remain secret, it's going
to remain secret forever.

NARRATOR: Genghis
Khan's reign is over,

but his vast empire still has
the potential to flourish

if entrusted to the
right successor.

PROF SNEATH: It's an
empire in the making.

It's an unfinished project.

They haven't completely
defeated the Jin in the east.

In the West, Chinggis'
armies have swept through

the Khwarazmian Empire and
defeated their rivals,

but not really been able
to consolidate that rule.

So we still have this
enormous territory,

which is partly under
Mongol control

but hasn't been properly
consolidated.

And this is a huge
territory, potentially,

if it can be made
into a real empire.

That task has been passed on
to Ogodei because he'd be

already been favored and
selected by Chinggis Khan.

DR MAY: Just because Chinggis
Khan selected Ogodei to be

his successor did not
make it automatic.

Now, after he died, the
Mongols finished

their campaign
against Xi Xia,

and I think it also gave
them a moment to sort of

reflect on the life
of Chinggis Khan.

JOHN: There was a stipulation
about the validity of the heir,

whether Ogodei was really
the right person for it

DR MAY: The Mongol system is
not one of primogeniture,

where you automatically
take the eldest son.

DR DASHDONDOG: According
to the Mongol tradition,

usually the home or ger was
inherited by the youngest son.

Ogodei was, he was
the middle son.

So the question is, why
someone in the middle,

it should be either
youngest son or eldest son.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Even if
Chinggis Khan wanted to decide,

this is not up to him.

NARRATOR: Although Chinggis
Khan intended Ogodei

to be his heir.

An assembly, or kurultai,
is held to determine

the rightful successor, the
prize, the greatest empire

in the world.

DR MAY: The Mongols began
organizing the Kurultai

to select the next ruler,
whether it should be one

of his sons or maybe
his brother.

Transition from one brother
to another was not uncommon

amongst steppe empires.

DR FAVEREAU: Men and
women found great Mongol

aristocracy will
decide together

who's going to get
the throne.

This time of transfer of
power can take two years,

three years, four years.

It needed discussion. It
needed negotiation a lot.

NARRATOR: Ogodei's claim to
succession remains fragile.

There are other
contenders for the throne

DR MAY: Now by this time,
Chinggis Khan has three sons

from his first wife
still alive.

His eldest son, Jochi, died in
1225, so a few years before.

So there's only Ogodei,
Chaghadai and Tolui left.

DR DASHDONDOG: The most trained
and beloved son was Tolui,

the youngest son.

He participated in Chinggis
Khans every battle,

every moment of his decision
making, Tolui was next to him.

DR MAY: Tolui was
a fabulous general.

He may have actually been a
better ruler in the sense

of military leadership.

DR DASHDONDOG: I think that
maybe he was preparing Tolui,

according to the
Mongol tradition,

the youngest son to inherit
the throne of father.

PROF SNEATH: It seems
that Chinggis Khan

didn't favor Chaghadai.

Chaghadai in particular,
seemed quite a quarrelsome

and difficult character.

DR MAY: He sort of saw things
in very much black and white,

and was very rigid in
his belief system.

DR DASHDONDOG: In my opinion,
the weakest link was Ogodei

PROF SNEATH: For whatever
reason, Chinggis seems

to have selected Ogodei Khan
as an easy going, pleasant,

charming character.

He wasn't the most militarily
successful of the sons.

He didn't seem to be
particularly strong willed.

DR DASHDONDOG: Nobody
expected him to be

Chinggis Kahn's successor.

DR MAY: I don't know if
you could say he was an

administrative genius.

However, he did have a few
qualities about him

that made him different.

He was the guy who could
get along with everybody.

He had a generous spirit.

He was not a master of
any particular skill,

so he appreciated those who
could be in that category,

and he is probably the one who
really propagated the idea

that the Mongols are
the ones who are meant

to rule the world.

PROF SNEATH: For two years,
the negotiations go on.

Presumably, there were a
lot of deals being struck,

and accommodations and
agreements had to be reached

before eventually one
of those three sons

succeeded to the throne.

NARRATOR: The Empire needs
a steady hand to serve

as regent while
succession is debated

Chinggis Khan's youngest
son Tolui takes charge.

PROF SNEATH: Tolui oversees
the ceremonies and convenes

the Kurultai and the other
meetings and so on.

DR MAY: He may have
thought that, okay,

I'm probably gonna
be the next ruler.

PROF SNEATH: After a two year
interregnum in which Tolui

was the regent overseeing the
assembly and other processes.

The choice was
apparently Ogodei Khan,

because he'd already been
favored and selected

by Chinggis Khan earlier on.

DR MAY: It was probably
already a done deal

that Ogodei was going
to be the next Khan.

Chinggis Khan, in many ways,
his words became sacred.

PROF SNEATH: In 1229, a Ogodei
is finally raised as Khan

and the emperor, the
successor to Chinggis Khan.

PROF SNEATH: He becomes
known as Ogodei Khan.

Tolui has to agree at this
stage he can do nothing

but now pledge his
loyalty to the new Khan,

and appears to be a
kind of good servant,

a good assistant
to the new ruler.

DR MAY: We don't have a clear
vision of Tolui's mind.

We don't see him ranting of
it should have been mine.

I'm the ruler. I should
be the ruler.

He doesn't have a fit.

He just says, well, okay,
that's the way it goes.

But there are hints that
there is some regret,

and I do think this
issue was not forgotten

by his sons or his wife.

NARRATOR: For now, internal
dissent has been set aside,

and the newly crowned Ogodei
Khan can claim his throne.

Under his guidance, the
Mongolian empire will conquer

lands even Chinggis Khan
could not have imagined.

Ogodei Khan assumes control
of the Mongolian empire,

but he is a very different
leader than his father.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Ogodei, a
very different personality

from Chinggis.

PROF SNEATH: He seems
to have been something

of a merry monarch.

There's a story about Ogodei
Khan that he was being nagged

by his courtiers for
drinking too much.

So he promised that he would
drink half as many goblets

of wine every day, but he then
promptly doubled the size

of his goblet so that he
could continue to drink

as much as he wanted.

And that seems rather
typical of his character.

He was clever, shrewd,
generous, open-handed.

One of the things he was
well known for was giving

all sorts of servants,
even kind of strangers

and underlings, large
amounts of money and wealth.

On one occasion, he's supposed
to have looked at the Treasury

stuffed full of products,
and said, you know,

what's the point of us
keeping all this here?

We only have to guard it.

Why don't we just have
people take it away?

And apparently, invited
people to just come

and take away the treasures.

But that wasn't stupidity,
I think it was seen

as generosity, and he
felt that that actually

was a valuable
quality of a ruler.

He wasn't the most famous or
victorious of the various

generals of the Mongol Empire,
but Ogodei does seem to have

been quite gifted when it
came to political leadership.

DR MAY: He is the guy who
begins to envision the Empire

as a true empire, as
a functioning state.

PROF SNEATH: Under
Ogodei's reign,

the Mongol Empire
expands much further.

NARRATOR: Ogodei Khan's first
move is to address unresolved

matters from his
father's reign.

DR MAY: He is determined to
finish off the Jin empire.

He's going to finish what
Chinggis Khan started there.

Well, that's what his
father would have liked.

NARRATOR: Ogodei and his
brother Tolui lead

the campaign against
the Jin empire,

fortified by the assistance
of one of their most

loyal and trusted men.

DR MAY: They recall the general
Subutai to finish off the Jin,

and he does so he
attacks Kaifeng.

NARRATOR: However, in 1232
as the Mongol forces

are attacking the Jin, Ogodei
unexpectedly falls ill.

PROF SNEATH: One of the most
fascinating and mysterious

incidents recorded by the
Secret History was the moment

when Ogodei Khan is
campaigning with his younger

brother Tolui in
northern China.

And the record says that Odogei
becomes really seriously ill.

The account says that the
shamans have decided

this is because the local
spirits are attacking him.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Mongolian
original belief is shamanism.

So there is so many shamanist
tales in The Secret History.

DR MAY: Shamans are
not priests, per se,

they're intermediaries
with the spirit world,

and many illnesses are viewed
as being caused by spirits.

So you'd call shaman in to
enter the spirit world

to find out what spirit is
tormenting the soul of Ogodei,

or if they had stolen his
soul, you need to go out

and find it and bring it back.

PROF SNEATH: And they try all
sorts of different cures,

and in the end,
they say, you know,

the sacrifice of
animals isn't enough.

Only the sacrifice of a
royal prince will satisfy

the spirits and save
the life of the Khan.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: So
Tolui tells the brother,

saying that you are
the Khan of Mongols.

If you die, Mongols
will have no Khan

so I'll die instead of you,
channel all the curses to me.

PROF SNEATH: He drinks a
potion, a preparation,

possibly poison, prepared
by the shamans.

And he dies.

And when he dies,
Ogodei Khan recovers.

Now this is a really
interesting moment,

because it looks as if
the prime candidate

who might have otherwise
expected to become

the emperor had not
only stepped aside

and allowed his brother
Ogodei to become emperor,

but actually sacrificed his
life to support his throne.

We don't really know how
historically accurate that is.

It could have happened,
of course,

it might well be a kind of
semi fictional account

of something else. He
could have just died

of drunkenness.
That might well be

a sort of most likely
explanation really.

DR MAY: He drank heavily,
and perhaps he drank heavily

because he was robbed
of the throne.

But I have my suspicions
that Ogodei might have had

his brother poisoned to
remove that potential threat.

NARRATOR: Tolui is dead,

but Ogodei's battle
with the Jin continues.

He besieges their
capital, Kaifeng,

and reduces it to
a pitiful state.

DR MAY: eventually the
Mongols take the city,

and that's the end of
the Jin empire in 1234.

With the Jin wrapped up there's
some other tasks as well.

PROF SNEATH: Out west
in the Middle East,

where the Khwarazmian
Empire had been defeated

by Chinggis Khan
and his general.

The son of the old emperor,
the old Khwarazm Shah,

Jalal al Din, begins
to rally the troops,

trying to create his
own force to combat

the Mongols and to retake
some of the territories

and cities that he's lost.

DR MAY: And Ogodei sends a
general named Chormaqan,

and they march with
allegedly 50,000 troops

into what is now Iran,

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

NARRATOR: Chormaqan dispatches
a second unit of troops

to capture and kill
the Shah's son

before he can rebuild
his father's empire.

DR MAY: Its sole job is to
hunt him like an animal.

Eventually this task
force does hunt him down.

Allegedly, he escapes it and
is killed in the mountains

by Kurdish peasants.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Chormaqan's own army

is forcefully bringing Iran

under the control of the
Mongolian empire.

DR MAY: Local princes are
coming to submit to Him,

and then he moves
into Azerbaijan,

into the Mughan steppe.

And then they go forth and
conquer Armenia and Georgia,

wrapping all that up in 1240.

DR FAVEREAU: All middle
eastern region are preparing

to be a part of the
Mongol Empire.

PROF SNEATH: In Ogodei's reign,
the Empire expands further.

JOHN: The logic of
Ogodei's advance

now becomes ideological.

Chinggis had wanted booty
and had been inspired

by his own success to
gain more and more land.

But Ogodei sees things
differently,

namely, that the Mongols
should conquer the world.

They knew from the great raid
under Chinggis that there was

not just Russia, but
Europe and beyond,

and all of this
was up for grabs,

and the natural inheritance
of the Mongols.

NARRATOR: As Ogodei's
realm expands.

He realizes the creation of a
central stronghold is crucial

for the Empire's future.

DR FAVEREAU: He decided
to have his own capital.

Having a city for a
nomadic empire Khan sounds

very strange, but in fact,
it's really part of the way

they envision the control
of the world.

DR MAY: In 1235, Ogodei
orders the construction

of a city Karakorum.

This will be in the
Orkhon River Valley.

The Orkhon River Valley has
long been an important site

in steppe history.

It's in the central steppe
of the Mongolian plateau.

There's good water,
there's good pasture.

It's a perfect place to
establish a capital.

JOHN: This was the first time
that they'd had a fixed site

for a capital.

Before that, it had
been movable tents.

NARRATOR: To build a great
capital Ogodei needs

a skilled workforce.

DR FAVEREAU: So craftsmen are
going to be taken by force

from northern China
to Mongolia,

1000s of them are going to
stay with their family

in the area and remain for
probably several generations,

and will be part of the
population of the city.

PROF SNEATH: It wasn't
particularly impressive

as a built structure. Instead,
it was more of a kind

of leisure and
administrative center,

and he also has nearby
pavilions, movable palaces,

spring pastures and
hunting grounds,

so that he can create a
kind of fuller center,

a center that can attract
his court and that can act

as a kind of center of
gravity in its own right.

MRS TSEDEVDAMBA: Karakorum was
quite a cosmopolitan city

of that time, because every
trade, every Silk Road,

and not Silk Road trade,
comes to Karakorum

DR MAY: Karakorum was not just
an exit off the Silk Road.

It was not one of
the main branches.

Ogodei turns it into
the destination.

Merchants would go and
they'd be paid double

or even triple
for their goods.

What he's doing is
establishing a principle that

if you're a merchant,
you want to go here,

even though you're traveling
into the middle of

literally nowhere, you
will make money.

DR FAVEREAU: We know
they were traders,

but also religious people.

The Mongol built the city also
to help religious leaders

to have their own communities
and build their own buildings.

PROF SNEATH: Ogodei himself
seems to have been very open

minded about different
religious creeds,

different religious specialists
could debate and philosophize.

DR FAVEREAU: Religious elite
are exempted from taxation,

and they are also exempted
from conscriptions.

They don't go to war.
They don't fight

because Mongol said these
people need to pray.

It explains why all these
religious leaders from

all these religions are going
to support very early on,

Chinggis Khan and
his successors,

because they immediately see the
benefit for their community.

NARRATOR: Thanks to Ogodei's
embrace of religious freedom,

Kara quorum prospers,
attracting a wide range

of cultures and turning it
into a bustling center.

DR FAVEREAU: This city is
immediately like boiling,

you know, with different
faces, cultures and religions.

PROF SNEATH: Karakorum
also becomes the center

for a lot of political activity
and diplomatic activity,

so ambassadors arrive, envoys.

Rulers from other lands
will send envoys

or turn up themselves in
person at Karakorum.

DR MAY: Karakorum, in many ways,
it was a place not only where

envoys and travelers could come
and expect eventually to meet

the Khan, but it was
also a walk in closet

where he could store
all of his stuff.

This is where the
treasure houses were.

This is where they put all
the loot from the campaigns.

Ogodei also created a
true administration.

So we have these territories
that are ruled by the sons

of Chinggis Khan, but we
also need imperial control

over them, so we'll divide
them into fiscal districts

where we will gather the taxes.

They did not try to make
everything all at once.

It was a gradual process.

Probably the greatest
accomplishment of Ogodei

was he made a city
that soon became

arguably the most important
city in the world.

Everyone flocked there.

NARRATOR: With Karakorum
flourishing,

Ogodei holds a Kurultai once
again to discuss pressing

matters of state, including
which new territories

the Mongol army
should conquer next.

Karakorum fills with countless
Mongolians arriving to attend

Ogodei's Kurultai, including
prominent members

of the aristocracy, each
seeking the Khan's ear.

PROF SNEATH: Ogodei faced a
lot of ambitious other royals,

and part of his role as the
chairman or the overlord was

to try and satisfy different
factions within the royal

and imperial family.

The son of Jochi, Batu was
increasingly asking Ogodei

for support so that he could
claim his own kingdom,

because Jochi had been
given by Chinggis Khan

a notional rulership of
the lands to the west.

Since Jochi had died, that
promise passed Batu Khan

and Ogodei takes the request
that Batu is making seriously.

NARRATOR: Ogodei's most loyal
General Subutai supports

Batu's plan to push westward,
eager to settle old scores

from an expedition
14 years earlier.

This followed the death of
the Shah and the collapse

of the Khwarazmian empire.

PROF SNEATH: In 1221,
Jebe and Subutai,

two of Chinggis
Khan's best generals,

are released on a kind
of detached command,

and they end up undertaking
what must be one of the most

outstanding and extraordinary
adventures in military

exploration in history.

DR MAY: Now, Subutai, after he
had chased Muhammad Khurram Shah

and ended his life on the
island from dysentery.

Subutai put in a request to
Chinggis Khan that he and Jebe

would continue westward
to explore those lands,

and so they go on
this reconnaissance

and they went through
Armenia, Baghdad

JOHN: And the small column
of troops go into

what is now Georgia, devastate
a good deal of Georgia,

shatter that particular
culture,

and then go on into
southern Russia.

PROF SNEATH: When they
came down the other side

of the mountains, they found
that news of their arrival

had got ahead of them, and
they were actually faced

by a large army
waiting for them.

So that is the Kipchaks who live
in the southern Russian steppes,

but they're joined
by allies locally,

Alans or other nearby
polities have sent

a really substantial army.

the Mongol invasion force
under Subutai and Jebe

are really in no position
to defeat them.

It's then that Subutai
uses diplomacy.

He manages to open diplomatic
relations with the Kipchaks,

and he basically bribes
them with an enormous gift

of the plunder that
they'd accumulated

from other conquests to
create a kind of separate

arrangement with the
Mongols and Alans.

And that strips off
about half the army,

leaving the other half much
weakened, and of course,

Subutai and Jebe attacked
that and destroyed it.

Then, typically, Subutai
and Jebe chased after

the Kipchak force caught
up and defeated them,

and then took back all the
tribute they'd handed over

as bribes in the first place,

and they then settled
down in 1222,

to find out more about
this European region

and now on the fringes
of Europe, quite close

to the Black Sea
and Sea of Azor.

Having collected quite
a lot of information,

start to begin to make their
way back east to rendezvous

with Chinggis Khan.

The Mongols presence
has not gone unnoticed,

and the Russian princes and
the traumatized refugees

from the Kipchak who have been
defeated by the Mongols,

they begin to assemble an army
and shadow the Mongol force.

Now, by all accounts, that
Russian and Kipchak army

was probably four or five times
as big as the Mongol force.

It was certainly a
very formidable force.

So Subutai and Jebe withdraw.

They use a perfect
example of a step tactic,

which is the feigned retreat.

And they use this many
times in battle the Mongols,

but this time, they use
it on a strategic scale.

So instead of just
withdrawing, you know,

a few miles on a
battlefield, now,

Subutai and Jebe withdraw
for nine days solid.

And as the Russian
army follows them,

they string them out so that
they don't go too quickly.

They don't want to
lose track of them.

They want the Russians
to remain in contact.

And they string out that
army all the way to a river,

which happens to
be the Kalka River.

DR MAY: Eventually, there's
a battle at the river Kalka

where they encounter
the Mongols,

and the Mongols
annihilate them.

PROF SNEATH: When one part of
the Russian army is across

the river, strung out and
tapped from the other one,

they turned around and
defeat it, and in the chaos,

they drive through and destroy
almost all of that Russian Army.

They completely annihilate this
much larger Russian force.

NARRATOR: However,
during the battle,

the Mongols also suffered
important casualties.

DR MAY: Jebe died in that
encounter, probably,

because he disappears
from the sources.

NARRATOR: With the loss of
Jebe, Subutai plans to return

home and report what
he discovered

in the Russian lands.

DR MAY: Subutai goes back.

He has to fight his way
through the Kipchak tribes,

the Volga Bulgas
and some others

in order to cross the Volga
River to link up with Jochi.

Subutai has a plan.
He wants to conquer

all of the Kipchak tribes.

NARRATOR: Now, 14 years later,
at the Kurultai of 1235,

it is agreed that Subutai
shall return to the land

of the Kipchaks to take
their territories for Batu

and settle his
unfinished business.

Ogodei Khan has decreed
that his nephew Batu

should head west with
a general Subutai

and conquer the Kipchak people.

DR FAVEREAU: Kipchaks are
the most powerful nomads

in Western Asia.

DR MAY: The Kipchaks
are the real targets.

They are great warriors. And
every state that borders

the steppes uses Kipchak
warriors as mercenaries,

they intermarry with them,

they have marriage
alliances with them.

The Khawarzam Shah, he had
a lot of nomadic troops.

The Georgians had
Kipchak mercenaries.

Ruling family would have some
connection to the Kipchaks,

because you wanted someone on
your side from the steppe.

So for Subutai is mine, and
probably every Mongol there,

subduing the other
nomads was key,

because you can add those to
your own armies, augment them.

They fight the same.

Their weapons or cultures
are very similar.

You take the nomads,
you conquer them,

you incorporate
them into your army,

and suddenly you
have more troops

and you can do more things.

NARRATOR: To defeat the
Kipchaks and conquer

the western lands.

Ogodei must create
a formidable army.

PROF SNEATH: Ogodei Khan,
sometime around 1236,

puts together a
very large army.

He requires the other princes
and his other subjects

to furnish Batu Khan.

DR FAVEREAU: He's the one
who's going to be in charge

with the conquest of the
northwestern part of the world.

And Batu will be one of
the greatest leaders

of the Mongol Empire.

NARRATOR: Batu's army is formed
from conscripts and soldiers

from other Mongolian houses.

PROF SNEATH: Guyuk and Mongke,
two of the other princes

of the Imperial house,
also served as commanders

in the new army.

DR FAVEREAU: The fact that
they sent those very important

princes mean they care very
much about this campaign.

Subutai, the general is
certainly the brain

of the operation.

Subutai was there with
Jebe at the Kalka River,

and this will
create some tension.

NARRATOR: Batu builds a force
of nearly 100,000 men,

with cavalry, infantry and
siege engineers

from the Mongolian steppes and
the lands of Persia and China.

DR FAVEREAU: The campaign
towards Russia

and the Russian principalities
is actually one of the biggest

ever organized by the Mongols.

The campaign really
starts in 1236,

the idea was first to control
the lower Volga Valley.

Volga is a major trade artery,
and also there are people

living around the Kipchak, but
also important Muslim kingdom

called the Volga kingdom.

And this is Volga Bulgaria, so
it's different from European

Bulgaria, but this kingdom
is also very important,

and the Mongol really
wanted to absorb it into

the Mongol Empire.

And this happened in
between 1235 and 1238,

it took a lot of time.

NARRATOR: It has taken
almost three years for Batu

to build his army.

Now highly trained and
tactically skilled,

Batu and his general Subutai
launched their campaign

against the Kipchaks.

It will be a ferocious war.

DR FAVEREAU: It's always
more difficult for nomads

because they have to
chase other nomads.

Cities, it's easy. You
acquire your siege engines,

and you attack and you wait.

So it's very different
type of war.

DR MAY: Militarily, the nomads
are much more dangerous

than anyone else.

PROF SNEATH: A full force
of Imperial Mongol military

might was brought to bear to
actually conquer the region.

NARRATOR: the Mongol
army clashes fiercely

with the Kipchaks,
overpowering them

and inflicting massive
casualties in a matter

of months, 1000s of
men are killed,

and The Mongols now control
all of the steppe lands,

having crushed the nomadic
Kipchaks and Bulgars,

Batu and Subutai realize they
stand at the edge of a new

land in the wealthy cities of
a region known as Kievan Rus.

DR MAY: after they deal
with the Volga Bulgars,

and they've subdued much of
the steppes they do decide,

as long as we're here, let's
go after these cities

NARRATOR: Without waiting for
Ogodei Khan's permission.

Subutai and Batu decide
to invade Kievan Rus,

six long years of brutality
and bloodshed awaits.

In the most devastating
show of Mongolian strength.

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