Playing with the enemy’s heads
November 9th 2006 13:00
(Warning before you proceed: Contains really gross historical details)
Polo began in Central Asia circa 500 BC, according to many sources. You know the game: a few horses, some sticks, some Englishmen and a ball. Right? Well, not necessarily. The Mongolians took this great game to a new level, supposedly playing with the heads of their vanquished enemies as they rode on the backs of their strong, stout horses. Although this version of history has its doubters, I am not one of them. Those crazy Mongol conquerors – pretty much anything went with those guys. And why not? They ruled the world.
One of the great tactics of the conquering hordes of Genghis Khan was, quite simply, fear. They used this unbelievably effectively. They have the reputation – of which I am sure you are aware – of incredible cruelty, brutality and ferociousness. In most cases it is just that: a reputation. They punished with cruelty, brutality and ferociousness, but if you learned the bloody lesson you were spared. Yet it was this reputation that they relied on to keep them powerful and to ensure their momentum was maintained as they rolled relentlessly through Central Asia and on into Eastern Europe.
There are horrific stories of towns that refused to surrender being laid waste, every man, woman and child put to the sword. And before they killed every last inhabitant, the Mongol conquerors would ensure that the person in charge of that town, the person directly responsible for refusing to surrender to their inevitable onslaught, died a particularly nasty death. A story that has stayed with me for years is the punishment inflicted on the leader of a town who not only refused to surrender but demanded that the Mongols paid him gold in order to hand over his town. When the Mongols eventually defeated his city they poured molten gold down his throat as a symbolic punishment. (Note to any historians reading this post: I may have embellished this story over the years through pure horror, I’m no longer entirely sure.)
Brutal? Certainly. But what it achieved was the effective surrender of every single town they came across for the few months. Who would want that type of torture and inevitable death inflicted on them? And for what? Most of the people they were overrunning had no clear leaders anyway, the regions often being in a state of conflict as it was, or at the mercy of warring tribes. And when the Mongols conquered peacefully, they incorporated these conquered people into their empire and their realm and they were able to go about life pretty much as it was before the onslaught of the Eastern horsemen. It’s really that simple.
So why am I telling you this detail? Well, I’m kind of hiding under the pretext of history here, so really it’s only to say that I believe strongly that the Mongols did take polo to an additional level and that they did play with the heads of the defeated. Their tactic was fear and their end game was the control of everything that stood in their path. They may only have played 'enemy head polo' once, and it may only have been for a minute, but the effect of this one game was so strong that it lives on 600 odd years later. Imagine what the effect was in the next town they visited …
Would you mess with that?
Polo began in Central Asia circa 500 BC, according to many sources. You know the game: a few horses, some sticks, some Englishmen and a ball. Right? Well, not necessarily. The Mongolians took this great game to a new level, supposedly playing with the heads of their vanquished enemies as they rode on the backs of their strong, stout horses. Although this version of history has its doubters, I am not one of them. Those crazy Mongol conquerors – pretty much anything went with those guys. And why not? They ruled the world.
One of the great tactics of the conquering hordes of Genghis Khan was, quite simply, fear. They used this unbelievably effectively. They have the reputation – of which I am sure you are aware – of incredible cruelty, brutality and ferociousness. In most cases it is just that: a reputation. They punished with cruelty, brutality and ferociousness, but if you learned the bloody lesson you were spared. Yet it was this reputation that they relied on to keep them powerful and to ensure their momentum was maintained as they rolled relentlessly through Central Asia and on into Eastern Europe.
There are horrific stories of towns that refused to surrender being laid waste, every man, woman and child put to the sword. And before they killed every last inhabitant, the Mongol conquerors would ensure that the person in charge of that town, the person directly responsible for refusing to surrender to their inevitable onslaught, died a particularly nasty death. A story that has stayed with me for years is the punishment inflicted on the leader of a town who not only refused to surrender but demanded that the Mongols paid him gold in order to hand over his town. When the Mongols eventually defeated his city they poured molten gold down his throat as a symbolic punishment. (Note to any historians reading this post: I may have embellished this story over the years through pure horror, I’m no longer entirely sure.)
Brutal? Certainly. But what it achieved was the effective surrender of every single town they came across for the few months. Who would want that type of torture and inevitable death inflicted on them? And for what? Most of the people they were overrunning had no clear leaders anyway, the regions often being in a state of conflict as it was, or at the mercy of warring tribes. And when the Mongols conquered peacefully, they incorporated these conquered people into their empire and their realm and they were able to go about life pretty much as it was before the onslaught of the Eastern horsemen. It’s really that simple.
So why am I telling you this detail? Well, I’m kind of hiding under the pretext of history here, so really it’s only to say that I believe strongly that the Mongols did take polo to an additional level and that they did play with the heads of the defeated. Their tactic was fear and their end game was the control of everything that stood in their path. They may only have played 'enemy head polo' once, and it may only have been for a minute, but the effect of this one game was so strong that it lives on 600 odd years later. Imagine what the effect was in the next town they visited …
Would you mess with that?
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Comment by KarenC
on Playing with the enemy’s heads
Genghis Gal
The Mongols are such a fascinating historical horde.They most definitely deserve their reputation for barbaric cruelty, but they are terribly under-rated as to the manner in which they ruled after they had conquered everything in their path. They were incredibly open minded and accepting leaders once they'd conquered all in their path. They had subjects of all faiths and nationalities living side by side in peace from the Middle East up to Russia and over to China, and they encouraged open debate and discussion around religious issues, a very unusual practice at this time. Reading about them alternately has me in throes of sheer admiration or sheer horror. I should probably do a post about how good they were ...