. BOOK REVIEW R CROSBIE WESTON THE MONGOLS THE CAVALRY

R CROSBIE WESTON – THE MONGOLS in JAMES LAWFORD’S THE CAVALRY. 1976 Roxby Press.

While Western Europe was at war with the Near East in the Crusades, the Magyars and their successors, the Mongols, led by the infamous Genghis Khan, subjected Eastern Europe to intense raids. His empire had conquered China, Persia and much of Russia. The Chinese were so in awe of the Mongol cavalry that they started developing their own. A classic Mongol strategy was to send out a small raiding party, who would take on vastly superior forces, and them retreat, as if being chased away. As the enemy gave vengeful pursuit, the full Mongol army would ambush them and decimate their forces. Genghis was a ruthless warrior, who mistrusted anyone taller than himself. When he captured the Tartars in 1206, any standing taller than a cart axel were executed on sight. Weston gets a little carried away by his study of Genghis as a man and goes off at a few tangents here and forgets that he is studying Mongol cavalry for a collection about the uses of horses in warfare, but it is a fascinating study nevertheless. Mongols carried differently weighted arrows for different tasks. They preferred small ponies to horses, and never rode one until it was three years old. Ponies were also used for food and milk. Mongols struck terror in the enemy by their name alone, and allowed rumours of their numbers to fly before them in great exaggeration. They took few prisoners. They conquered by massacre, and they were virtually unstoppable. It was internal conflict rather than opposition that destroyed them. Had they not imploded in petty political strife, they might well have conquered Western Europe too. Beautifully presented, well reasoned history of one of the most exciting periods of World history.

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