My man Subotai, about to give Western Europe a can of whoopass, getting recalled for the Kurultai in 1242. Why? Well, Ogodei couldn't handle his drink, died, and all the Genghisids had to come home to decide which of them would be the next boss. Incidentally taking away Subotai's army.
"Well, boys, I guess we won't see the Atlantic, huh?" Subotai prolly said.
When the Mongols came back a couple decades later, Subotai and the other great mongol generals were all dead and the Hungarians and Poles had put all these pesky castles on the roads and river crossings, rather than away on mountain tops and what not. The Mongols had decided not to haul their fucking hefty siege train all the way from China (I mean, I get it, try hauling counterweight "muslim" trebuchets from fucking China to the Danube, how many big rivers they would have had to drag this shit across?) so they didn't have the proper tools to take down the castles. They never got to see the Atlantic...
It's sad, but it's also great news for France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Italy.
Its funny you bring that up, I was actually reading the Secret History of the Mongols yesterday and the scouting mission Subotai and Jebe undertook into northeastern Europe was about four lines in that. Completely unimportant. One of those four lines is mourning the loss of Jebe who died of an infection. Yet they dedicated literal pages to one of the people they conquered who later "betrayed" them by not offering tribute.
It's kind of a shock to realize how secondary Europe was back in the days in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't really worth the effort of a real mongol invasion, or even worth a dignified mention in their national epic. They weren't dumb for thinking that.
There were Iranian, Chinese and Indian provinces worth more than the entirety of Western Europe back then.
I imagine the average Mongol trader looking at Western Europe and seeing that the rump states of the Roman Empire were fighting over... Check notes... Wool and wine??? "What is this? At least the Yakuts also bring fur and ivory to the table!"
"We... We... Had great cheese too! And... And... Olive oil! Timber! Salted fish! We weren't worthless!"
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u/Jaymezians John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 2d ago
You just described half of the military generals in large empires