How did Japan avoid being conquered by Genghis Khan?

Horses are incredible animals. They’re fast, strong, hardy beasts. Using hundreds of thousands of them, Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes conquered most of Eurasia in a matter of decades. But horses have one fatal weakness which the Japanese exploited to their limit - horses can’t swim across oceans.

Pictured: fearsome Mongol warriors. Not pictured: sea crossing.

In order to foil Genghis’ rampaging nomads, the Japanese cunningly positioned themselves 65 kilometres away from the nearest bit of land, across the Tsushima strait. This meant that the Mongols had to build boats to get there, dramatically increasing the cost of invasion, reducing the number of troops that could land, and creating a bottleneck for incoming supplies.

Still, while Genghis was content to turn a blind eye to Japan and go massacring millions of defenceless Central Asians like an overgrown playground bully, his successor Kublai Khan wasn’t such a wimp. He had his Korean vassal build 150 ships and set out for blood in 1274 with a huge invasion force of some 300–800 ships.


ADVERTISEMENT


Red dotted line: outgoing routes of the second Mongol invasion. Blue dotted line: returning routes. Note the large amount of sea and absence of blue dotted lines.

At this point in history the Japanese martial tradition was a shadow of what it would later become. Despite marshalling the entire island of Kyushu, they had no generals used to commanding large numbers of troops, their swords broke on the Mongols’ boiled leather armour, and they faced a severe technological disadvantage. The Mongols had all the gear that allowed them to conquer most of the world: composite bows, gunpowder arrows, grenades, rockets, and a seriously bad attitude.

However, the Mongols had no idea what they would be facing and after a few skirmishes they returned to their ships for the night to avoid the risk of being separated from their landing force by the wind and waves. That night the invasion fleet was damaged by a storm, and the Japanese attacked in small ships. For most of their early history the Japanese were known to outsiders as pirates, which implies some degree of skill at fighting on water. The Mongols had no such reputation - for many of them it may have been their first time at sea. After a bit of action the remaining Mongols wimped out and went home, losing many ships to bad weather in the process.

“Dammit Sukhbaatar, that travel guide was all lies! Why couldn’t they send us to Hungary instead!”

After this, Kublai sent several emissaries to Japan, ten of whom were beheaded. Now a casual scholar of Mongol history might note that you did NOT want to behead Mongol emissaries. Beheading emissaries led to the downfall of the entire Khwarezmian Empire and the death of 1.7 million of its people, at a time when old Genghis was looking to hang up his riding boots and settle down as Emperor. (The Khwarezmians had made a fatal mistake in not putting sea between themselves and the Mongols.)

Accordingly, Kublai came back for more in 1281. Being a man who had again never set foot on a ship, he sent a massive invasion force on hastily-constructed flat bottomed river barges, who were promptly annihilated by a massive typhoon known as the kamikaze.

Mongol swimming lesson, 1281, colourised.

So essentially Japan survived the Mongols’ Asian conquests the same way Britain escaped the European conquests of Napoleon, Hitler, and the Spanish Empire: by sitting across the sea and keeping their boats in good nick.


This information was taken from Quora. Click here to view the original post.

Do you agree with the point stated? Have you ever heard about this fearsome conqueror before?

#History #Quora

ADVERTISEMENT

What are your thoughts on this subject?
24 Comments
Satish Chandran
Before attacking Japan, Mongols had to take Korea.That time a river safeguarded Korea and Mongols relaxed at the banks for a day the river went dry.
0
Sep 29, 2022 7:58PM
buhlemann
short and cute, if orthographically challenged.
0
Jul 1, 2022 6:24PM
Madi Marven
Very interesting,way back our history lessons were generally just about England!!!
3
Jul 12, 2021 7:32AM
Jim Mascair
I like the part where they kept their boats in good nick. I never heard of that term before. I take that the Tsushima Strait has violent storms.
1
Jun 25, 2021 10:55PM
De line
And that’s where Kamikaze came from! Their forces were defeated in World War II but we lost many lives
2
Apr 12, 2021 5:19PM
Brian Hipskind
I never heard Ghegis Khan attacks against Japan, very informational
3
Oct 3, 2020 5:43PM
Adriana Zuliani
Most informative. Thank you.
2
Jul 10, 2020 12:59AM
David Heinz
Very very interesting. Did not know of these wars.
2
Jun 2, 2020 1:00AM
gridirongreen
Marlene Renz, he was my nephew and he wasn't really as bad as some say.
0
Mar 7, 2020 10:19PM
Joseph Morgan
Thank you, interesting history is so uplifting, but it shows the greed of man today it's listed under a different name!!
2
Dec 14, 2019 4:43AM
dlh
dlh
Great military history lesson. 👏
2
Oct 31, 2019 4:43PM
marciogerep
are the samurai crabs involved in this story? I have this notion in my memory that after the kamikaze (divine wind) destroyed the second Mongolian attempt, Japanese fishermen when finding kamikaze crabs entangled in their net, would respectfully return them to water. Allegedly the crabs were a sot of submarine protection in the same way the typhoon was a protection sent by divine intervention to protect Japan... Those who never heard about samurai crab should check their pictures on google
2
Oct 11, 2019 4:24PM
M Renz
Read quite a bit on Genghis Khan. Apparently related to him through both of my parents ancestry. He was not a nice person!
1
Aug 16, 2019 6:15PM
Joyce Newman
I enjoyed learning about this part of history that I've never heard before!
1
Aug 13, 2019 5:28PM
Linda Grimaldo
Very interesting did not know this . Thanks👍🏻
0
Aug 8, 2019 4:53PM

ADVERTISEMENT

People also liked

Interesting Facts

9 incredibly old and worn out items you will find interesting 7/18/2021

There are many worn out items and antiques that people find hideous, which is not the case for the wonderful objects you're going to see in this post.

Read more

#History #photography

9 photos that depict history vividly 7/21/2021

These captivating historical pictures will definitely leave you stunned!

Read more

#History #photography

7 images that depict life from a different point of view 8/11/2021

In today’s post, we would be sharing these seven photos that show life from another perspective.

Read more

#Culture #History #Society #Nature

9 fascinating facts about Vikings 7/9/2021

From their customs to their conquests, there’s a lot to learn about Vikings. Here are just a few fun facts you never knew before.

Read more

#History #Society

14 beautiful vintage pictures colorized by a talented artist 8/9/2021

This talented artist surely knows how to give new life to old black and white pictures – his works will blow your mind away!

Read more

#History #photography

ADVERTISEMENT