The Golden Horde was a fiefdom of the Mongol Empire divided into westernmost frontiers, a powerful khanate that once swept through the Russian steppe and made its way into Hungary and Poland. The combined armies of the 22 Rus' kings were crushed by the Mongols, and the rulers of Kievan Rus' were so frightened that they bowed to Battu Khan, who ruled Eastern Europe for more than 200 years, leaving a lingering shadow on the Europeans.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, the flame that swept through Eastern Europe, the Golden Horde</h1>
Genghis Khan divided his empire in 1224, and according to the tradition of the Mongol eldest son Shubian, Genghis Khan's eldest son, Shuchi, was crowned khan of the Khanate of Chincha, also known as the Golden Horde. After the canonization of Shuchi, Shuchi's son, Battu Khan, undertook the task of continuing the western expedition, leading the Mongol army to expand the empire, conquer the entire Rus' principality, and then continue to attack westward.
The powerful Battu Khan led his large army to attack the Razan and Muscovite principalities first, and although the Rus' resistance was fierce and the Mongol army appeared very weak under the iron heel of the Mongol army, eventually the Muscovite principality surrendered, and the Duke of Ryazan was forced to flee. After extending his rule to the northern part of the Rus' Principalities, Battu Khan continued to lead his forces to Kiev and defeated another Rus' principality coalition at the Battle of Galicia, opening the way to the Balkans and Poland.
Batu Khan's army then entered Poland, Hungary and Romania. The Mongol military rules that marched into Poland defeated Poland all the way, and the Germanic allies pointed directly at the Vistula River. The Mongol army that attacked Hungary and Romania also defeated the Hungarian and Romanian resistance, and went all the way into Croatia and Serbia, as far as the Adriatic Coast.
A series of military invasions by the Golden Horde resulted in several victories, with troops marching into central Europe reaching as far as Saxony, frightening Frederick II, then Holy Roman Emperor. The Mongols even threatened the emperor with destroying his fragile kingdom if he did not submit to Mongol rule. The emperor's ruler did everything he could to organize his army, sending emissaries to France to request reinforcements, trying to organize a revolt against the Mongol invasion. Fortunately, the Mongols did not attack, and their armies withdrew from Germany and Poland like a receding tide, and it was Batu Khan who returned to Mongolia to compete for the Khan's position.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the beginning of strength and decline</h1>
Battu Khan wanted to establish a powerful Government of the Golden Horde, but he died on his way back to Mongolia, and several of his sons died shortly after, and finally Batu Khan's brother Burke became the new Khan who ruled the Golden Horde. There is some speculation that Battu Khan and his sons died of poisoning, but there is no strong evidence to support this view, but they did die very bizarrely, and perhaps later researchers will find something new, let's continue to talk about the Golden Horde.
Burke Khan, unlike Battu Khan, who was more tolerant of religion, firmly believed in Islam, and after taking office, he vigorously promoted Islamic culture and religion in the Golden Horde, and further recruited a large number of well-educated Muslims from the Anatolian Peninsula to participate in education and religious promotion activities. Like his brother Battu Khan, Burk Khan invited many craftsmen, merchants, entertainers, poets and scientists from Iran, Egypt and West Asia to serve the Golden Horde, which allowed the Golden Horde to establish its own cultural foundations and create a solid rule after three generations of monarchs.
During his reign, a large number of monasteries and religious schools were built in the Golden Horde, and even spread Islam to the central Volga river and eastern Ukraine, but on the other hand, the economy of the Golden Horde was gradually at its peak because of the absorption of foreign scholars, and the khanate firmly ruled the southern steppes of Russia and the Ukrainian region, and Burke Khan used the culture of the Golden Horde to replace the local culture while mobilizing his own army to eliminate those who dared to disobey and challenge the authority of the khan. Gradually, the Golden Horde moved on the path of empire.
But after the death of Burk Khan, his sons became the de facto rulers of the states, in accordance with the Mongol tradition of their fathers dying and their sons dividing the family property equally. Later, the khanate gradually became a political structure similar to that of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire, the khan gradually became the spokesman of the khanate, and the actual control of the khanate was the powerful vassals, and the khanate actually began to decline slowly from the period of rise. But in any case, the Golden Horde of this period had a solid foundation laid by Shuchi, Battu Khan and Burke Khan, and it was still so strong that the Rus', the Poles, and the Hungarians were afraid and could still hold their hammers.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the decline of the Golden Horde</h1>
After the power of the Khans of the Golden Horde was divided among the local administrators, the internal environment of the Khanate became worse and worse over time, and by the late 14th century, the Golden Horde was full of khans, and the military and economic power of the Khanate was rapidly declining. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Golden Horde collapsed into the Kazan Khanate, the Great Horde, the Siberian Khanate, the Uzbek Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, the Nogai Khanate and many other large and small khanates. The once powerful and unified Golden Horde is now a name for the Alliance of Khanates, and it can be said that it has ceased to exist in name only. The rus' who had completed their unification began to rise gradually with the support of the Mongol nobility who had embraced the Orthodox Church, and the Mongol rule in Russia and Ukraine was challenged with unprecedented strength.
The khanates born from the Golden Horde were initially able to suppress the Russians on their own, but they could not gain much advantage, especially the Rise of the West Slavic Poles as the most powerful enemies of the Mongols, whose armies once captured the Crimean Khanate, the Kazan Khanate, and the Nogai Khanate, but the Mongols, with the support of the Ottoman Empire, launched repeated counterattacks and eventually drove out the Poles. In fact, the Poles did not want to establish a rule in the local area, they only wanted to plunder and leave, so that these khanates could be maintained.
However, the Mongols became more in decline after the departure of the Poles, and ivan IV, who later rose up, developed a strategy to further co-opt the Orthodox Mongol nobles, which allowed the Muscovite Principality to successfully encroach on and eliminate the Kazan Khanate, the Siberian Khanate, and the Great Horde. Only the Crimean Khanate, with the support of the Ottoman Empire, once re-expanded its territory to the south of Ukraine and the vicinity of the North Caucasus, and even besieged Moscow to scare Ivan IV away, but this also frightened the Ottoman sultans, and the Ottomans adjusted the national policy to suppress Crimea. Eventually, the Crimean Khanate was also completely destroyed in 1783 under the double attack.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
From the time Genghis Khan crowned his eldest son Shuchi as Khan of chincha Khanate to the demise of the Golden Horde, a total of about 215 years elapsed, during which a total of 63 khans were given the title of Khan of the Golden Horde, with an average of about 3 years of reign per khan, which shows how fierce the power struggle within the Golden Horde was.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > references:</h1>
The Decline of the Golden Horde
《Завоевание Руси татаро-монголами(Tatar Mongols conquered Russia)