On the vast Eurasian continent, from the Eastern European Plain to the Mongolian Plateau, there is a large grassland-desert area, where countless nomadic peoples thrive. Five of these peoples are the best of all nomads and have had a profound impact on this world.
Fifth place: Rouran people
The Rouran people were a powerful nomadic people who originated in northern China, and at their peak were located in the northern and southern dynasties of China, mainly in present-day Mongolia, and sometimes the khanate reached the western regions of ancient China, that is, present-day Central Asia and Xinjiang, China, and southward as the northern part of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Rouran Khanate
Avar Khanate
The Rouran people are a very fighting people, but compared to the other five ethnic groups in this article, their record against the Central Plains regime can be described as lackluster. They fought many wars with the Northern Wei Dynasty, almost all of which ended in crushing defeats.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Turks, who were born as slaves, began to rise and launched large-scale uprisings, eventually expelling Rouran. Rouran was forced to move westward, all the way through the Eurasian steppe, to the east of Europe. They launched a series of onslaughts against post-Roman Europe, and they were also known to Europeans as the Avars. In the eyes of Europeans, the tough Avars were like a nightmare.
Later, the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne was founded, which eventually wiped out the Avar kingdoms, and the Rourans eventually merged into the Europeans.
Fourth place: Huns
The Xiongnu are a strong tribe that nomadic herds in the Mobei grasslands. Xiongnu is actually a contemptuous name for them by the Han people, and the actual name is actually "Hu". The Xiongnu had a long history, and were known as Ghost Fang in the Shang Dynasty and Dog Rong in the Zhou Dynasty, and were the most dangerous enemies in China.
In the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu destroyed the Eastern Hu in the east, forced the Western Regions to submit in the west, subdued Ding Ling in the north, and subdued the Han Dynasty in the south, unifying the entire Mobei grassland for the first time in history. In the entire East Asian continent, there is no one who does not tremble under the iron hooves of the Huns. Even the powerful Han Dynasty had to adopt a friendly approach in exchange for peace.
But by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty counterattacked the Xiongnu on a large scale, and a war broke out between the two countries that lasted for two hundred years. In the end, the Han Dynasty was victorious, and the Eastern Han general Dou Xian led the Hu and Han cavalry to defeat the Northern Xiongnu. From then on, the Xiongnu were divided into two groups, one was the Northern Xiongnu, who fled far westward and disappeared, and the other was the Southern Xiongnu, who became a subject of the Han Dynasty.
Subsequently, the Xiongnu broke out in the north and south at almost the same time. The Northern Xiongnu developed into the Huns of the European population, brutally conquered Eastern Europe, and established the Xiongnu Empire across the Eurasian continent. After Attila came to power, the Huns launched an offensive against Western Europe and almost wiped out the Western Roman Empire. However, at the Battle of Chalon, the Huns suffered a crushing defeat and lost the opportunity to seize Western Europe.
Xiongjin Empire
After Attila's death, the Hun Empire was torn apart and eventually perished, and the Huns disappeared from history.
Almost at the same time, the Southern Xiongnu also took advantage of the rebellion of the Eight Kings of the Western Jin Dynasty to rise, and the Xiongnu leader Liu Yuan led the cavalry to capture Luoyang, Chang'an, destroying the Western Jin Dynasty and opening the prelude to the Yongjia Rebellion. However, in the Wuhu Rebellion, the Huns only opened the prelude, and eventually became a supporting role for other Hu people. Although Helian Bobo briefly led the Xiongnu to dominate Kansai, he eventually came to an end. Subsequently, the Huns were integrated into other peoples and no longer appear in the historiographical record.
Mongol Empire
3rd place: Mongols
The Mongols were born in Donghu, known as Murwei during the Tang Dynasty, they migrated westward at the end of the ninth century AD, occupied the Mobei grassland, and gradually developed into the Mongols.
The Mongols defeated the powerful Jin dynasty and Western Xia in the south, Khorezm in the west, and all the way into Eastern Europe. In the continuous invasion, the Mongols continued to grow, they eliminated the Western Xia and Jin dynasties respectively, and launched two western expeditions at the same time, conquering large areas from Eastern Europe to Syria, and establishing the four khanates of Kipchak, Il, Chagatai, and Ogedei. Subsequently, the Mengyuan Dynasty successively eliminated Tubo, Dali and the Southern Song Dynasty, achieving super unification. And the Yuan Dynasty also became the co-lord of the Mongol Khanates.
In 1368, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition to drive the Mongols out of the Central Plains. Several other Mongol khanates remained in place for a long time until they were integrated by a self-proclaimed Mongol descendant, Timur. Timur, known as a concubine for marrying a Mongol princess, went on a campaign to unify the three khanates. Later, he died suddenly on the way to the Ming Dynasty, and did not realize his dream of unifying the original four khanates.
Timurid Empire
The Timurid Empire quickly collapsed after Timur's death, and its descendant Babur entered India and established the powerful Mughal Empire, which was not overthrown until the British invasion.
And the Ilkhanate perished early. The Kipchak Khanate eventually fell apart and was eventually conquered by the Russians one by one. The Mongols in the east, such as the Khalkha and Dzungar tribes, were also conquered by the Manchu Empire. Since the fall of the Dzungar Empire, there was not a single Mongolian state on the huge East Asian continent, and it was all divided between China and Russia.
Arab Empire
Arab
The Arabs are the only nomadic powerhouses who do not rise in the deserts of the desert of the Arabian Peninsula, where they live by herding, trading and looting. They were very early on as mercenaries of the Romans and Persians, participating in the melee between the two countries. Subsequently, the Prophet Muhammad founded Islam, the Arabs gradually unified, and declared war on both the Persian and Roman empires. The Arab armies divided into two routes, one way seized almost all the eastern territories of the Byzantine Empire, destroyed the Persian Empire in the west, occupied Central Asia, fought all the way to the Chinese border, and defeated the Tang army at Talas.
As a result, the Arabs established a super-empire that stretched from Central Asia in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Unlike the Mongol Empire, the Arabs were not only strong in martial arts, but also culturally prosperous. They took advantage of their geographical advantages to integrate Greco-Roman, Persian, Jewish, Indian and other cultures to form a unique Arab culture, which became the most enlightened and advanced political system in the world at that time, and Arab culture still has a different charm to this day.
The Arabs are still quite influential, with a large population, a vast territory, and energy in their hands, and they are a force to be reckoned with in the world.
Lung
1st name: Detective
You may be surprised to see the first place. In fact, the Turks are the strongest nomadic people in the world. Not only did they possess exuberant force, but they also possessed the perseverance to fight no matter how they fought, and at the same time possessed a strong ability to assimilate, qualities that allowed them to surpass the Arabs and Mongols as the strongest nomadic people.
The experience of the Turks can be described as a number of ups and downs, they were originally forged slaves of the Huns, and later overthrew Rouran and established a powerful khanate in Mobei. They conquered the east and west, eliminated the White Huns, subjugated the northeastern tribes, and stretched from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east, an unprecedented empire. The Northern Zhou and Northern Qi regimes in China, fearing to offend the beast, vied with it to pay tribute, and the Persian and Roman empires to the west also vied with it in the hope of gaining its favor. For a time, the Turkic Khanate seemed to have become the most powerful state in the world.
However, with the rise of the Sui Dynasty, the hegemony of the Turks was blown up like an inflated balloon. Emperor Wen of Sui and Changsun Sheng devised a plan to sow discord within the Turks, dividing the unified Turks into two khanates, the eastern and western khanates, and subjecting them to the Sui dynasty one after another. However, with the self-collapse of the Sui Dynasty, the Eastern Turks once again rose to become a super-nomadic khanate with millions of strings. However, when the Tang Dynasty arose, the Eastern Turks had no chance and were eventually conquered by the Tang Dynasty. And the Western Turks did not survive long, and also became a dependency of the Tang Empire.
Subsequently, the Turks followed the Tang army to fight in the south and the north, and made great contributions. However, due to Wu Zetian's rebellion, which led to the Great Rebellion in Mobei, the Turkic rebels rebuilt the Turkic state, which seriously threatened the security of the Tang Dynasty's borders. Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty established three surrendered cities at the Hetao, which effectively blocked the Later Turkic invasion. Under the alliance of the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs, the Later Turkic Khanate fell.
Seljuk Turkic
However, the Turks in the west were still active, and unlike the Xiongnu and Mongols, the Turks had a written language and numerical superiority, and soon Turkized the Western Regions and vast areas of Central Asia. Although they were of different bloodlines, they all considered themselves Turkic, and they still do so today. Later, the Seljuk Turks and the Khazar Turks became kings and hegemons in Western Asia, and gradually replaced the leadership of the Arabs. The whole of Central and West Asia became almost the world of the Turks. Although the Mongols invaded, the Mongols, who were outnumbered, were quickly assimilated by the Turks.
By the 14th century, a Turkic tribe known as the Ottomans, who had been part of the Sultanate of Rûm, grew in strength and destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire and occupied Constantinople. Subsequently, the Ottoman Turks (another Turkic translator) expanded to establish an empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa, and in 1683, besieging Vienna, the heart of Europe.
Ottoman Turkey
In modern times, the Ottoman Empire gradually declined, becoming the sick man of the Near East. In World War I, the Turkish Empire collapsed, and Kemal reformed from a large multi-ethnic empire to a single-ethnic Turkish Republic. To this day, Turkey still has a strong voice in the Turkic-speaking region and remains a regional power. The Turks rose and fell in number and still have a wide influence in the modern world, so they deservedly took the first place.