The practice of animal husbandry, also called nomadic because of the movement with their animals.
Xiongnu
A map of the Xiongnu Empire
A confederation created by nomadic peoples to deal with their neighboring agrarian civilizations. This confederation spread to the outer reaches of Mongolia and the eastern Asian steppes.
Modun
A statue/bust of Modun
The leader of the Xiongnu that changed the fragmented society into one with a centralized and hierarchical political system. This system then went on to serve other nomadic empires such as the Turks and Mongols.
Turks
Turks riding into battle
The Turks were a group of nomadic people that converted to Islam and became the third largest carriers of the faith. They eventually went on to conquer parts of the Byzantine Empire and created the Ottoman Empire.
Masai
A boy of one of the Masai tribes
A group of pastoral people that resided in present day Kenya and Tanzania. An interesting way in which they connected with their agrarian neighbors was that they created age sets of adolescents that would go through many rites together.
Temujin/Chinggis Khan
A statue/bust of Chinggis Khan
Also known as Genghis Khan, this man was a Mongol that united all of the separate tribes in the steppes into one empire. This empire was the largest land-based empire ever and allowed for many advancements.
The Mongol world war
Mongols in combat
The Mongol world war was the conquering of Eurasia by Chinggis Khan that included tactics involving killing people to conquer cities. During this time many large civilizations, like China, were conquered. The conquering and killing continued even after Chinggis Khan''s death.
Yuan dynasty China
Map of the Yuan dynasty's extent in China
The Chinese dynasty which was founded under Mongol rule, was also referred to as the Great Khan-ate. During this dynasty, Khubilai Khan (see below) was the emperor and China was re-united once again after the fall of the Song dynasty.
Khubilai Khan
A portrait of Khubilai Khan
Khubilai Khan was the founder of the Yuan dynasty that united China after the fall of the Song dynasty. He was also the grandson of Chinggis Khan. He eventually became the ruler of the whole Mongol Empire.
Hulegu
An illustration of what Hulegu looked like
Hulegu was the Mongol ruler of Persia and during his time he sacked and seized Baghdad and became the first il-khan.
Kipchak Khanate/Golden Horde
A map of the Golden Horde
The Kipchak Khanate was Mongol-controlled northeastern Europe. At its peak, it had control over Russia and in turn many of the Slavic people.
Black Death/plague
What it looked like on most streets in Europe during the Black Plague
A pandemic of bubonic plague that started from Central Asia or China and spread along the Silk Roads and a few other trade routes. This plague wiped a large populous of Europe.