Where Nomads and Empires Clashed: The Frontier of the Great Steppe (“The Wild Fields”)
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Far in the east, there lies an almost limitless, almost boundless, almost unending stretch of land. People call it The Wild Fields, the vast grassy steppe that stretches all the way from Ukraine to Mongolia. The Wild Fields were home to many free spirited and tough nomadic people. Though different from one another, they were linked intricately by their ways of life, the life of nomads. Many legends surfaced from this sea of grass in the east like the female warriors of the Amazons - and indeed women in the nomadic societies of the steppe lived their lives very differently from the women in sedentary states. For the sedentary states and empires bordering the steppes, these nomadic steppe peoples usually were not a threat - unless they combined their strengths for a common cause or under the leadership of a charismatic Khan . United, their raids devasted the border regions and could even bring the most powerful of empires to its knees. Be it China in the east, Persia in the south, the Byzantine Empire in the west or the Kievan state in the north they all had their encounters with the power of the steppe people one way or another at some point in time. In this video we paint a picture of how these peoples lived, how they formed some of the most dangerous armies of the world and what could be done to counter them. This is the world of the eastern steppe.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:50 Chapter 1: Enter at Your Own Peril
06:02 Wren
07:22 Continuation of Chapter 1
08:49 Chapter 2: Amazons?
12:00 Chapter 3: Brining Empires to Their Knees
18:29 Chapter 4: How to Stop the Flood
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Twitter: / sandrhoman
Bibliography:
Amitai, R., Biran, M.(eds). Mongols, Turks, and others: Eurasian nomads and the sedentary world (Brill's Inner Asian Library, 11). Leiden 2005.
Dawson, C. (ed.), Mission to Asia, Toronto, 2005.
Grousset, R., The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia, New Brunswick, 1970.
Herodotus, Histories, online via Perseus [ www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...].
Kappeler, A., Die Kosaken, 2013.
O'Rourke, S., The Cossacks 2007.
John of Plano Carpini, "History of the Mongols," in Christopher Dawson, (ed.), Mission to Asia, Toronto, 2005, pp. 3-76.
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There is no climate crisis bub. Globalist climate alarmists want the masses to believe that bullshit to enslave them more, useless carbon taxes, and seizing control of the resources. More trees and more carbon dioxide is good.
@@jkb358 of course... wolf seeking "truth"
@@jkb358 please, my dude, its already happenning,
gonna ask for someone to do the debunking for me as it can be a long process, and I am low on battery
@@Aconspiracyofravens1 just keeping watching CNN 😂
Chinese emperors sitting in a room made out of 30% gold: "Those Mongols sure are greedy."
When they describe the wealth of the various Chinese kingdoms during those times😲😲😲😲😲 It's always astounding to me the numbers they use in food, people, goods, the cultivated lands 😍 The cold horse people just want a little of your wealth noble Chinese neighbors..... surely you can spare some😂😂😂
@@Kruppt808 Well the Chinese earn those wealth by hard work, didn’t matter how rich you are, you don’t want to give your hard earn money away for free
@@DccAnh Chinese peasants worked hard. Emperor got rich. There is no reason why others can't get some of that wealth 🤣
@@tomng8306 Chinese peasants worked hard FOR their Chinese ruler, doesn't mater who possessed the majority of the wealth it stay within China, the Mongolian aren't Chinese, tthey're outsider, so there's no reason for them have that wealth.
@@tomng8306 The peasants lived better lives than in other regions of the world at the time; a good portion of the population was literate(about one per household, as opposed to essentially one per village in Europe, who would've been a priest or cleric) and it was possible to take exams and rise to high political offices regardless of birth. So yes, a lot of the wealth generated affected the peasants too.
Well, the Byzantine also realized very quickly that sending tribute, however expensive it may seem at first glance, in the vast majority of the cases, was way, way cheaper than mobilizing armies. Luttwak calculated that the tribute send to a confederation (Pechenegs or Magyars, I don't remember) was like 10 times smaller than the cost of an army. They also used the strategy of paying the neighboring tribes to keep the most troublesome at bay. It was standard practice: as soon as the nearest confederation or tribe became too troublesome, they would send embassadors eastwards, into the "rear" to find the neighboring confederation. Then, they would propose an alliance, service as mercenaries, and deliver gifts to the chieftains, and have them attack and raid the previous confederation. They even left chronicles of this travels. The most impressive was one where they had to go so far east that they no longer recognized the rituals. Which is saying a lot, since they had by now a really long contact with steppe peoples. Luttwak posits maybe they reached a chieftain near or even past the Altai mountains, since the rituals resemble Eastern Steppe shamanistic rituals. The embassador tried to describe the journey, but they were beyond the reach of their best geographical knowledge, so we are not sure where exactly did he go...
Han China had similar practices, IIRC. Conducting military campaigns against the steppe people proved to be costly, difficult. Keep in mind these sedentary empires have other problems. Foreign rivals and internal stability were issues that had to be contended with. So sending the military on an expensive venture into lands not exactly packed with resources and loot to haul away? It's not too enticing. Not to mention that any military adventure can be open to disaster, not just against steppe people, just anywhere in general. So to suffer heavy losses for some worthless land that has nothing for you to haul back... It's just better to pay the tribes off, and pay people to keep them divided. Even the Roman Republic and later Empire did this for a while with the Gallic and later Germanic tribes, especially the later by the Empire. Eventually Rome got so big with huge frontiers and having to maintain a large army just to *defend* the borders, never mind forming a large military force meant for conquest. Oh, internal stability. To get a large army to deal with problems, there's possible issues: 1. Who do you trust as a ruler to lead a huge chunk of your military? Will this general betray you and use this army against you to take the throne himself? Through history even relatives have betrayed a ruler. 2. Okay, so you can't trust a subordinate to lead that large army. So the sovereign himself commands the army. But this means having to leave the capital and there can be concerns with the court intrigue back home hatching plans to overthrow the ruler. He can't be away from court too long. Imperial rulers are often not secure enough to conduct large foreign military campaigns. The emperors of Han China and Imperial Rome were rarely secure enough. Emperor Trajan conducting his massive foreign Dacian Campaigns showed how powerful he was because it seemed like he never had to worry about intrigue at Rome undermining him. Most other Roman Emperors were never that secure to do such actions. They were a plot away from being overthrown. So it cycles back again to the "barbarians" and steppe people: It's humiliating and expensive to pay off these people, but the prospect of war was too expensive. And for what gains? Sending your men to die in a land filled with nothing but grass?
@@Warmaker01 Amén. It reminded me of how John Tzimisces dethroned the emperor after becoming his best commander; or how Basil II only went wholeheartedly against the Bulgarians after really setting things in order at the court; or how Manzikert was lost, because the rivals to the emperor betrayed him while the battle was unfolding, and in front of the emperor himself, who was commanding the troops; the multiple issues Alexios Komnenos had to make front, first and foremost at the court, and then at the battlefield; and Justinian and his relationship to his generals, Belisarius and Narses. Just keeping the empire in order and at peace was more than enough. Those steppe peoples were usually dealt by paying some to fight the others, and keeping the gift distribution wide enough to make them feel they deserved better, fanning the fire of rivalry and jealousy among them...
well if you think about it paying for a foreign army like byzantine often did is profitable for example they payed the bulgarians to attack the hungarians who were both their enemies by paying them and sending them against eachother their numbers shrunk while byzantine population could grow in peace i mean why would you sacrifice your own soldier when other would march to their death for the right price ?
@@911Maci Well, that is one thing. But the way Eastern Romans raised armies is the other reason. Most Byzantine(as in their own troops, not mercenaries nor allies) were much better trained and equipped, not unlike the old Roman army. Partially standardized equipment, some of it produced at the Imperial factories, ensured quality of the weapons and armor, and that the generals always were sure of what their troops were able of. Thematic troops were also thoroughly trained, and they went to refresher training regularly, and more so the archers. Tagmata, as elite soldiers, recibes even better training and equipment. I remember partially a Byzantine commander who, upon arriving to his already mustered army, he commented that, even though they had been already training for one year, it was not enough to use the reliably. Their soldiers were outstanding, but they could never build a pool of well trained, well equipped soldiers, that were also loyal. Their manpower or the money to equip them were hard upper limits on their yearly ability to raise armies. That is why the Imperial court always played for more time: more time for the enemy to wear down due to attrition, to raise and equip armies, to muster thematic troops, to hire mercenaries, to bribe people within the enemy's camp, to pay to their enemies to attack them, to find new allies...
@@911Maci Today they would all regret it. Since it turned out that the Bulgars were a mixed group of East Scythian and Huns origin. And they all died there.. And subject forums are literally littered with individuals who declare themselves the heirs of the Scythians from Hindus, Arabs and Persians to the British, Poles and Russians. Because everyone wants great ancestors. And now there are only modest Tatars.
Those gold digging ants that Herodotus was going on about are actually marmots which the Persians called "mountain ants" and it was their gold coloured pelts that people collected.
Yeah, I think that actually most of Herodotus "strange" tales are not his lies but retell of stories he heard from others. Stories usually exaggerated as they were passed through a chain of people and it is normal that people distort the stories and sometimes add something to make story better.
I was born in northern Kazakhstan - a pure continental steppe. There live jerboa. It's like a cute jumping hamster.
"So these little animals, they dig holes, their fur is gold in colour and very precious" -- Proto-Turkic dude to Persian dude "So there's holes being dug by little animals and then, like, gold stuff comes out?" -- Persian dude to Babylonian dude "So there's like really little things, right, and then they dig, and then there's really precious golden stuff" -- Babylonian dude to Ionic Greek dude "Dude, there's literally ants out in that land that dig holes and produce gold" -- Ionic Greek dude to Herodotus
@@Ealsante Yes, that's exactly what I meant :).
@@Ealsante Well, that's not the end of the story. It is also said that the gold is being stolen from the ants in such a way, that the prospectors take lazy camels and a female camel that has a calf back at the camp. The ants would attack the lazy camels left as a bait, while the prospectors would mount the gold on the female camel that will hurry back to the calf.
One thing to also note, and vividly recounted by survivors of Operation Barbarossa was how muddy the steppes become between those cold winters and hot summers, then again between the summers and winters. The mud of the steppe almost becomes like tar with how thick and sticky it is with many of them saying they preferred winter over those in between seasons. People of the steppe really did have a 365 day advantage.
true, what halted Barbarossa was not "the winter" but actually muddy spring
Not realy basicly The Axis Had almost reached all war Goals and IT was their logistics that was unable to keep Up, mainly because The NS Regime systematically underappreciated logistics
General Winter and Major Mud are tough opponents to any army. Minus the hardened people of the Steppes😉
@@Kruppt808 General Winter would have been executed by tge Stavka bcs it was so cold that the ground froze and Germans could move easily when they were still on the offensive. So that is one of thise half lies half truths.
@@PewPewPlasmagun be fair now, General Winter might have been sent to Siberia to chop wood.😂
Sweet, hope the next episode is about the evolution of Cossacks!
Yes, please!
I hope it's about the history of cassocks
The mongol hord destroyers would be great
The evolution of the cossacks begins in the Jurassic period with the proto- cossacks who were much akin to velociraptors 😖🤪.... Just kidding!!!
It actually is
The secret bonus of every sandrhoman video is Where's Waldo hunting out the cowering peasant clutching his wife that shows up in at least one raid or pillaging in each of em
22:10 here, if you're wondering
Eagerly awaiting some kind of peasant war video, where the couple decides they are no longer taking this shit ;)
@@sdhflkjshdfskdhfskljdhf582 14:50
@@filterrunner9964 French Revolution! Viva Le Peasants!
Wonderful video. Certainly deserves a second part.
right??!!?!! these are so well made and interesting
A masterpiece of history
I love your normal P&S Europe videos but this looks awesome
Mongol Empire took over the steppes so hard the fact that its entire latitude spanned from Poland to Korea is mindblowing, especially for an empire that started in the Middle Ages run only by horses and temporary settlements
that's not quite correct. the mongols themselves were a nomadic people but they were not ignorant. they adapted the technology, institutions and infrastructure to serve their empire and govern it. the mongol empire was very much an amalgamation of the practices of many of the great civilisations of the time
@@Samuel-wm1xr If your city/state surrendered to them I think life wouldn't be very different under the Mongols compared to how it used to be
Well, they did not just appeared out of nowhere, they just solidified tribes who were constantly fighting against each others. Furthermore the Mongol empire itself had a pretty solid foundation called Khamag Mongol(whole Mongol) founded by grandfather of Chingis Khaan. Right after overthrowing another nomadic federation. I just wanted to say throughout the history, name and the ruling tribes changes in nomadic society but not people who lives there.
Yes. The coolest thing is the "Chinese guns" besieging Kievan Rus. The next time the Russians faced the Chinese was only in the 16th century.
@@wederMaxim Russians did not exist in the thirteenth century. And even in the 16th century they were known as Muscovites
I'm a Hungarian. Interesting to learn about the lands my people come from originally.
The Hungarian were a Uralic people that had contact with steppe people intially with Cimmerian, Scythian, Sarmatian and later Turkic people before migrating to Pannonia.
@@blugaledoh2669 no hungarian is a turkic nation
@@911Maci Let say that is true, why do they speak Hungarian which is related to the Finno Ugric language? I would have expected the Turkic language to be spoken. Of course language doesn't always indicate ethnicity but still my point stand. Secondly peoples can have multiple point of ancestry. The proto Hungarian likely have influences from Iranic and turkic people combined with Uralic. If Hungarian a Turkic nation, why did they adopted a Finno Ugric? It can only be so if they were in contact with Ugric people and perhaps intermingle with them. If that is true, then it is not wrong to stay the Hungarian are Uralic with Turkic being the most recent influence before their migration to Pannonia.
@@blugaledoh2669 how are hungarians finno-ugric please explain i mean how do you know ? did you study hungarian and finnish ?
@@911Maci It is mostly linguistics.
I think the rich story of Steppe Peoples vs Empires can be even dated even further back, even a King of Kings of the Neo Assyrian Empire fell in battle against them (Sargon II against the Cimmerians) when that empire was pretty much at the apex of its might.
These were not steppe nomads, but instead the indigenous inhabitants of the Iranian plateau, in their time they were called haltamti, meaning “high-landers” or “mountain men”
@@thenoblepoptart Yup. Even the Summerians had trouble from those mountain people. The Aryan expansion is probably the oldest we know of nomad invasions.
Proto Indo-Europeans? Except that both "hordes" and "empires" were at that time a low budget versions.
@@useodyseeorbitchute9450 I don't think Harappa civilization is "low budget" but pretty low tech. But yeah, Mediterranean farmers in Europe are pretty "low budget" tribal farming community style.
These people are my fore fathers. Or perhaps better, Steppe fathers.
Help me, Steppe bro!
Steppe by Steppe By New Kids on the Steppe
Some european voievods("war leader" in eastern Europe) knew how to defeat nomads - let them loot and ambush them when they are slow on their way back, capture their nobility and keep them as hostages or exterminate all their nobles and there will be no invasions from them for 1-2 generations at least. Like it was between Moldavia and Crimean Tatars. Later original cossacs(ukrainian Zaporizhians, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky) of Peter Konashevych-Sagaydachniy invaded Crimea, destroyed slave markets. Zaporizhia/Zaporozhia means "beyond the rapids"(on river Dnipro) in one word. Moscovia in 1550s captured Kazan - the capital of Tatars(that are completely different people from Crimean Tatars).
That ia how Moscovia destroyed half of its threats - Astrakhan khanate was one of the gateways from where slaves from Moscuvite lands were sold. The other being Crimea which was eliminated much later.
@@PewPewPlasmagun Crimea Khanate slave market in Caffa was destroyed by ukrainians - Peter Konashevych-Sahaidachny. But Moscovia continued to pay tributes to Crimea. Sagaidachny partly recreated a system similar to vikings(that ruled Kyivan Rus'), and terrorized Ottoman Empire even at the capital. Though Polish military used conservative methods, not always successful.
@@a.k6424 Ok but Russian Empire destroyed threat from Ottoman side there.
I always thought the best way to deal with raiding nomads is to pay them. After all there's a reason these people are suddenly in your territory and that's usually because a more powerful nomad pushed them out. I'm all about buffer states. And so is Russia apparently
@@nickdarr7328 Moscovia(Russia) paid regularly to Crimean Khanate till 18th century. No other state paid them(unless hired to help in wars).
Yes, im a Tatar. And yes im proud of my steppe ancestors.
Cool
the history of the steppes is so interesting
Great video. I hope the Cossack ending was the cliffhanger of the next one. Wonderful channel. Thanks.
brilliant video, hope there will be more like this!
The title of the video is the "World of the Eastern Steppes," but most of the focus of this video seems to be primarily on the Western Steppes and the interactions with Western Eurasia/Europe. The Eastern Steppes are the steppes around Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Russian Far East.
To back up Herodotus, I saw Someone(I forget who at the moment but it's on KZhead somewhere) the "giant gold digging ants" were likely a type of groundhog/burrowing rodent that would occasionally dig up gold nuggets in their constant burrowing. If we assume he's writing off someone else's description of the animal rather than having seen it with his own eyes, the translation error would have been a simple one. Again I forget what video I saw suggest this theory but I like it and it makes me think of how Marco Polo's account suggested outlandish things that often wound up being fairly close to truth
A united and well coordinated sedentary empire could take the fight to the nomads, and many did. The Han and Tang dynasties in particular had overpowered and mostly destroyed the Xiongnu and Gokturk confederations in their time. The Romans at their hight held both the sedentary Germans and nomad Sarmatians at bay more often than not. When these empires crumble, the nomad incursions are usually more efficient and far reaching, many times replacing the ruling elites in the south with their own - essentially taking on their role in fighting the next wave of northern tribes. The Persians and Parthians had their roots on the steppe, the Russians adopted many facets of steppe warfare - many Muscovite and Russian noble houses had their origins in the Tatars, many can even be traced by names (the Aksakov, Bulgakov families come to mind). And of course, many ruling dynasties that managed to establish themselves in Northern China over the course of history. What is largely considered the last nomadic empire in history, the Oirat Mongols of Dzungaria, were subdued by the Qing dynasty in the late 17th century. The Qing themselves can be considered a part of of this "trend", though the Manchu people were not exactly nomads in the traditional meaning. What essentially ended the age of nomads are large empires with larger armies and gunpowder weapons.
Göktürks established a second khaganate and defeated china again
@@burakasik3937 they didn’t. They slowly got push into Middle East. Go get a proper history book and face reality
@@papercat2599 a*erican Göktürks established second Turkic khaganate between 681-744 qapaghan khan defeated a 80k Chinese army
@@burakasik3937 second gokturk khagnate? You mean these rebel that got screwed by Uyghur and tang alliance in the end?In 744 Kutlug seized Ötüken and beheaded the last Göktürk qaghan, Ozmish Qaghan. His head was sent to the Tang court.In the span of a few years, the Uyghurs gained mastery of Inner Asia and established the Uyghur Khaganate. Kulun Beg succeeded his father Ozmish. The Chinese emperor Xuanzong decided to destroy the last traces of the Turkic khaganate and sent general Wang Zhongsi Kulun's forces. Meanwhile, Ashina Shi was deposed by Kutlug Bilge Qaghan. Wang Zhongsi, defeated the eastern flank of Turkic army headed by Apa Tarkhan. Although Kulun Beg tried to escape, he was arrested by the Uyghurs and was beheaded just like his father in 745.
@@burakasik3937 these rebels are mediocre as f. They didn’t last for more than 62 years. They are honestly disgraceful to the entire gokturk history to be honest. They didn’t beat tang, they got destroyed in the end.
While raiding and intimidation were most certainly part of relations between settled peoples and nomads, I think a more peaceful symbiotic relationship should also have been mentioned. Settled peoples could exchange (for example) metal products (which are hard to come by on the steppes) for the products from the herdes of the nomads. Peaceful contact zones and exchange should not be ignored.
But those Metal Produkts then get used against The settled people by The nomads. Lmao
@@patriciusvonkempen9810 Gold was something highly valued, and there's not much you could do with pre-industrial gold besides using it for trade and bling. There were many areas were the nomads had to be peaceful to maintain basic necessities of life
17:17 "Oh honey, that new couple just moved in from the country! Should we greet them to the neighborhood?" "Ummm...Well...Maybe send them a letter? I just don't know with those hats they're still wearing...."
Love the recent topics you've been covering. Always learning something new!
These videos are alway a Steppe ahead of everyone else. Ba dum tis
😂😂😂
The content here is always top notch
Thanks for all you do. I found your channel while I was stuck in the house, and you helped keep me sane(ish). I like that you cover a period that's sort of ignored and that I've always been interested in.
And to think Europeans, Iranian, Northern Indians, originated from the steppe as well. Ural Mountains.
Kinda. There were people in those areas before the Indo-Europeans arrived. Though of them, only the Basque language and it's speakers living between Spain and France, were not absorbed, from what I know.
You know, every human tribe was nomadic at one point, since humans needed to be nomadic to migrate out of Africa and into the rest of the world.
@@lolasdm6959 hunter gatherers and nomads are different. Some people went from hunting-gathering to agriculture. Others went from hunting-gathering to pastoral nomadic lifestyle.
@@lastboneless7247 Yes, but a lot of hunter gathers travel quite far until they reach a place they can stay.
Always both informative and entertaining!
I LOVE YOU SANDRHOMAN. I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. PLEASE NEVER STOP CREATING. thanks
I greatly enjoy learning about Steppe peoples. So unique and fascinating. I hope there will be more form this channel.
Love the variation guys.
Nicely informative video. Gives some nice insight to what these people were like.
Very interesting and well made overview. Many thanks for your great work!
“The steppe was always unconquerable....” Except for the Cossacks.
cossacks are mongol/turkic people mixed with russians. Lenin was half khalmyk, in every russian there is one mongol/turkic ancestor behind it,
@@dismas8884 that’s not true.
@@dismas8884 Such bullshit.
Till gunpowder became mainstream. There is a saying in Turkish, rifle is invented, bravery is tainted
No
Great video! Really enjoy listening to your work!
The quality of the video is amazing!
really hope this is the beginning of your bringing your exceptional style and depth to non-european subjects..
One thing to keep in mind, which one historian (I forgot his name) had brought forward, is that steppe societies are never truly self-sufficient. SandRhoman talked about this but it has extremely important implications for the cycle of the nomadic-sedentary balance of power in the Eurasian borderlands. To acquire both luxury goods and common goods, steppe nomads have to get them from sedentary producers. They do so either through trade or raids. However, when a large and powerful sedentary empire rises, it cuts off this source of sedentary goods for the nomads (through border garrisons and embargo policies, etc.). This threat often gives impetus to the nomadic tribes to put aside their differences and unite, leading to the rise of powerful nomadic confederations that can challenge and even conquer sedentary empires.
if they are never truly self sufficient, then how were the American Plains indians able to live on such places or the Inuit on those very cold tundra's / contact with sedentary societies did increase their military capabilities through use of better equipment but they could be self sufficient in terms of simply living in such places
@@aburoach9268 Both the Inuit and the American Plains Indians did plenty of trading with all the people around them. They were far from isolated. Also I don't think you can compare the Inuit to the peoples of the Eurasian Steppe at all since the two had very very different lifestyles.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Hungarians also stopped the Horde pretty well. Stone forts, more crossbows, and basically quick reaction forces proved quite effective. Real Crusades History has a good video series on it.
I love your siege battles series and this one is great.
What a great way to tie it in to your usual early modern subject matter
"stretches all the way from Ukraine to Mongolia" The little green spot in Hungary: AM I A JOKE TO YOU?
From the Drina to Bratislava, a plain.
Wow. Fantastic video. Congrats
I feel like your statement about attempting to conquer the unconquerable is very relevant in light of events that have happened since this video's publishing
Woah! It was such a great analysis!! Waiting to see part two, the origins of the Cossaks!
Splendid
A very good follow up to Kings&Generals recent mega-animation of Kievan-Rus!
Only the hardy grass can survive in the cold steppes of the north…no trees and no farming. Only animal husbandry is possible by moving the beasts around between seasons. Nomadic life is based on this geo climatic fact.
Excellent content
These guys really love horses
Please could you do a video on the nationalities of the Caucuses in the c.19th? Thanks, Danke, Spasibo, Merci, Dekuyu, Diki, Arigato, Kiitos.
What are you doing steppe bro?!!
No what are you doing steppe people
Ah the memes arrived :P
This was so fascinating, can someone please reccomend a book about the steppe peoples?
The virgin city dwellers vs the chad nomad
The virgin building a thousand year civilisation which has great lasting influence over the modern world vs the Chad stealing shit then dying from snow blizzard
I love this channel
I really liked that new intro.
an unexpected video but a welcome one
Very good video, makes me interested to know more about the cossacks. Is there no bibliography for this video?
it still has to be said that steppe people have still been defeated multiple times. For example the xiongnu were utterly defeated by a later chinese emperor and driven towards the west which may have contributed to the formation of the huns later in history.
Facts. But people tend to like the idea of the ‘badass, kind of underdogs’ side of the nomads. For example, the history of China and its surrounding nomads has been totally dominated by chinggis this, chinggis that. But the mongol conquest was only one small chapter in one of the longest clash of civilisations in history. It was pretty much a cycle between domination of one side over the other, such as seen in Han Wudi’s campaign and destruction of the Xiongnu Turk confederation. The same can also be seen later in the Tang Dynasty, in which the Chinese emperor Li Shimin was named a heavenly Khan by northern Turks.
China historically deal with nomad all the time. So you will often find Chinese history documents of the nomads were far more accurate and practical. While in rest of the world genghis khan and Mongol are almost deity and myth. But in any Chinese record, they are nothing but man.In fact chinese always knows and intentionally bring them down through multiple ways. Han fought xiong nu, head on and destroyed them. Tang conquered the gokturk and tried to assimilate them. The downfall of Mongol were also done by China dynasties too. Ming had overall successful campaign against Mongol tribe and force them into tributary state. Qing completely conquered the Mongol, and use Buddhism to weaken them. The Chinese republic also conquered and rule over Mongol before, Soviet attack and separat half of Mongolia. If you look at actual history records. China has damaged and destroyed nomadic empires far more times. More than the time when nomadic people damage China. Chinese use every strategy against nomad, not just build the wall. More often they use other nomad against them. Also strategy like currency manipulation, supporting separation movement within nomadic empires. China historically had more cavalry than other sedentary civilization at the time. Han, tang and Ming had so much horses. You might as well call them semi nomadic military state. Because Chinese are too familiar with nomadic weakness. You becoming nomad to fight nomads.
Excellent video.
Very interesting thank you.
Did I say that this is a great vid as usual? I cant recall.
Could you make a vidieo about the cumans?
Turkic and mongolian culture is so interesting
Steppe peoples are not just Mongolians and Turkic people but also Scythians Sarmathians and other Iranian people
You can admire various nations people's out of the large collection of "Steppes people" without claiming one or 2 represents all of them. Bulgarian culture is so interesting. Bulgarian culture is not the only Balkan culture, there are many different countries and people's in that region.
@@Kruppt808 bulgars are turkic btw but I particularly mentioned turkic and mongol because I only know those two
@@conanedogawa557 bulgar are slavic but they have partly turkic origin
@@conanedogawa557 I understand that, just making a point that what you said as opposed to what people read into what you said.
I’d really would love a game set in the steppe
Wow
Very cool my friend.
Jeez, what animals
“As some have learned just recently”… I C U 😂
Oh. My. Goodness.
The rule of nomads: there’s always a stronger nomad
As a Turkmen i thank you and on behalf of all Turkic Mongolic people THANKS for this .
Selam Türkmen Gardaşlar
Love your videos! A little constructive criticism though: this is a wide subject to talk about, but it felt less like a sweeping general introduction and more like snippets of specific aspects of the steppe people. I guess that can be understood as your other videos tend to talk about specific moments. But I think it would be better for this kind of video to be more general: the culture, the unifying Tengri faith, the genealogy, the dynamics and relationships between various tribes, etc.
We talking people of the Steppes? Huzzah!!!
Was here before the notification
I'd never given it much thought, but the middle part of the video really shows how (in a strictly economic sense) the Steppe people were parasitic on settled economies.
A crass and vapid view point there Quantum.
Like Vikings?
@@adamhbrennan Not really, their society wasn't entirely dependent on raiding.
They lived better than the peasants/serfs of Civilised societies.
@@adamhbrennan not really
Awesome video. Thank you. You should visit Ukraine someday. We have awesome museums, architecture and a lots of steppe lands to explore!
3:15, you cant just put a 16th cemtury Japanese castle as the picture of Liu bang of 3-2 century BC
Chinese cities and forts are not separate too.
@@lolasdm6959 I dont think the graphic of this video gave a single fuck about Chinese history to make this mistake
What eventually happened to stop all the raids that went on for thousands of years? I'm guessing gunpowder maybe by the various civilizations?
Brilliant video and a sponsor with a good cause. Would love to see a follow up on the Cossacks and how they came to be from that frontier!
Is there going to be a second part?
yes, the next video!
You forgot another tactic of fighting the steppe: protection lines. Thousands of kilometres of walls, palisades, earthworks and fortes, sometimes 3 or 4 lines one by one. The history of the Russian 15-16 centuries was a history of building such walls. By the way, nomads were using walls as well, the Crimean Tatars have been protected by their Perecop's wall for centuries.
or simpler. hire a steppe group to protect u
Also, as per prince Andersson: "Castles. Lots of castles"
On the battlefield the one final tactic that truly trumped nomad tactics was the wagon forts (same tactic as used by Hussites). The Muscovite Tsardom crushed the Tatars ultimately at the battle of molodi with the help of these.
@@PewPewPlasmagun it is extremely effective unless your enemy has cannons...
Funnily enough, the nomadic people vs sedentary people advantages still persist today. Modern militaries noted the clear mental and physical advantage people living in harsh conditions had over people living in industrialized societies, mainly "city people" so to say. They did hypothesis' back then and concluded that no matter how well trained a soldier is, he is still in comparison not as good of a soldier as soldiers raised in harsh environments like the Middle East or Vietnam where war was prevalent. Of course most of those populations by now have been sedentary, but the findings show that during those short sparks of conflicts, the general population was much more motivated and more mentally prepared to face challenges that a normal "well-trained" soldier would find too harsh to endure.
This is an interesting video. One thing that peoples of the steppe were very good at were hit and run tactics and they were also great archers on horseback that is why their armies were so dangerous. but while Scythians were just protecting their area from Persian Empire. Tatars sold people as slaves which was one of the worst fate that a person can face. But at that time all people mostly fought because war was the quickest way to get rich or in some cases just to survive. in modern times that also plays a role but there is usually dark political agenda to add to this. Still the medieval ages although quite interesting at times were probably some of the darker times in human history
You think todays wars are not about economy? The only difference is that we have become toys of global powers in a globalized world so ofttimes wars seem to have obscure reasons... but I assure you, nothing has changed.
@@PewPewPlasmagun I never said that it was not about economy. or at least not in part about economy. Nonetheless at earlier times it was sometimes a matter of survival there was less politics involved.
@@PewPewPlasmagun I will agree with you about us becoming toys global powers. but its precisely the reason why modern weapons are so powerful that getting rich from the war is much more risky than it was long ago. now I definitely agree that fact does not help us. and as you said the fact that people can now fight on global scale and with much more powerful weapons . Plus the fact that there are so many people decreases power of individual (at less this person is a leader) that all makes it all the worse. ( not that it was good back then) However yes its usually all about money and power and yes as you said reasons given for the war often obscure its actual purpose which is usually money and above all power. but that is exactly what I would call political agenda.
Problem: Nomads attack you Russia: Then we conquer Nomads
Could you do a video on how to deal with Mongols?
Yes, but I'll probably approach it from a different angle. Something like how Ivan the Terrible dealt with Steppe peoples instead of Mongols. That way we might be able to do it in a more concise way.
Great video! Slight correction on pronunciation - Xiongnu/Hsungnu is pronounced more like “Syong-nu”
@N Fels I think of it as a “hissing” sound - mostly like S, but with a bit of a breath at the beginning.
Without tones it makes no sense anyways.
S , SH, X : said, shred...š, shed...ś
ngl, the art of the khan in 1:37 looks like a darksouls boss
I don't think tradition of recruiting nomad tribe to fight other nomad tribe are restricted to Russian in fact any civilization that fight nomad also use nonad
E.g. Turcopoles uaed by the Crusader States
The Romans had a few Hunnic tribes as mercenaries against the Hun as well.
Nice to hear about my ancestry (most of it) on the channel.
I think Horse Archer is most skilled warrior in the world
A killing machine, in a missiles ranged unit way.
It was after the invention of the percussion cap, which led the way to the first effective revolving handgun, that the power of the nomads began to wane forever. In 1841, a group of just 40 Texas Rangers led by Captain John Hayes found themselves surrounded by over 300 Comanches at Enchanted Rock. Hayes, instead of ordering the Rangers to dismount and fight in volley formation with their single shot muzzleloading rifles, gave the order to charge the Comanches head on. Each Ranger also had a six-shot .36 caliber Colt Paterson revolver in addition to his rifle and saber. That kind of firepower was never seen before by the Plains tribes. Twenty minutes later, 180 Comanches lay dead while only one Ranger was killed by an arrow. The rest of the Comanche war band retreated once they saw what had happened.
The fate of Comanche prisoners was well known which would have been powerful motivation for the Rangers.
@@johnwright9372 That is DEFINITELY true. Movies like "Dead Man's Walk", part of Larry McMurtry's Texas trilogy, really drives home the sheer terror that the early Anglo settlers of Texas experienced when they faced the Comanche. The Comanches even put the Spaniards to rout. Several large scale Conquistador attempts launched from Mexico to colonize the Plains were stopped cold by the Comanche. The Comanches only ceased to become a threat after the US Civil War, when the US government began to invest in large scale military presence and fort building on the western frontier in the years after the war as part of the Reconstruction policies.
You mean battle at Walker's Creek? It's hard to compare the American Prairie Indians of the 19th century to the peoples of the Great Eurasian Steppe, which was not a bunch of Paleolithic people but rather a kind of civilization formation, which was an alternative and a threat to agricultural civilizations in Europe and Asia until the 18th century. Dont be offended,but I think you misses the point. In fact, science proves the close genetic relationship of the Siberian peoples with the North American Indians ... but Siberia is not the Great Steppe. An analogy to the American conquest of the Wild West is the Russian conquest of Siberia. E.g. fights of Yermak Cossacks when a handful of Cossacks dispersed and defeated crowds of primitive Khanty and Mansi peoples who indeed resembled North American Indians in their level of civilization and lifestyle. But I will never understand how you can compare a Comanche to a warrior of the Mongol Empire! Because they rode horses and shot bows? From watching biased and ridiculous shows like Deadliest Warrior:Comanche vs Mongol ? Please.... Of course, with the general development of human civilization, the steppe peoples became weaker and wilder e.g. Battle of Hodów (1694) when100+ Polish winged hussars using firearms of the time (wheel locks), organized stout defence in one fortified village, and were able to stop and turn back the invasion of 40,000 Crimean Tatars. We must realize that the empires of the Scythians, Huns, Avars, Turks, Khazars, Cumans and finally the Mongols - they were able to threaten the strongest countries and peoples of its era, sometimes surpassing them in terms of the art of war, technology, logistic and quality of management!
@@cetus4449 only surpassing them in logiscitcs and quality of management of (!)warfare, not overall. certainly not technology and general management. their advantage was that their lifestyle made all of them good riders/archers/at coordinating supplies and horse rider formations, thats basically what they did all their life, while the common farmer wasnt. so the seditary civilizations just had a natural gap to overcome, once they did (in 18th century the latest) it was GG, as seditary society equals superior population/area and therefore far superior communication and therefore far superior technological devlopement. ofc they were not less intelligent as individuals, only their communication>education lacked
however i agree they were at times good at implementing certain features of the cultures they threatened (for example killing all except for engineers and bring them back to their home lands to build siege weapons, ...)
And from one of these tribes, the story of a mighty female warrior probably originated MULAN I haven't seen the movie but I know that she is supposed to be a regular Chinese girl. Then one day she decides to join the army and buys a horse! From watching the Tales from the Stoneage series, I know that a horse is incredibly expensive, no matter the times. For instance, a horse consumes the same amount of food of a regular sized family. Mulan being from one of these steppe dwelling tribes explains why she is so good at horseriding and fighting.
I did not know the NSA had it's own river in Siberia :) I had to look twice :) Yennisey, with accent on the last syllable, is closer to the right pronunciation.
my boys finding my legitimate, not-a-legend, pre-modern afab warriors
Worth noting Friar Julian who also traveled to the East, but from the Kingdom of Hungary and in the early 13th century, slightly earlier but not as far as William of Rubruck. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar_Julian
Leaves people needing more.
Kievan Rus was not a united power no. It was a lot of little kings (not sure if its a propper translation to english) who were scheming against each other and fighting other the power. There were no chances of them to stand against the mongolian empire. Their weakness was also multiplied by the battle on the Kalka river (to cut in short - Mstislav Udatnyi was asked by his relative Khan Kotyan to help defeated cumans against mongol army. He agreed and was the main reason of rus coalition army (he was relative to Kiev leader and etc) and then they charged mongols, losing due to little cordination and Msitslav Udatnyi's self confidence which lead to fighting the mongols by small portions of rus coalition (becouse of the river, Udatnyi and a few others wanted to kill mongols by them selthes so they just "leeroy jenkins"ed at the mongols while other half of the army didnot even know their plan).) That absurd stupidity and incoordination leaded to losing around half and army of the whole rus and impowering the whole game of thrones schems and etc. Well, yeah rus had not any huge power at the moment of mongol invasion
Yeah, didn't russia become more united in the late middle ages? And then the tsardom grew into a strong empire by the 1600s? Greetings from finland. :)
@@darthwalrus4740 Precisely! At least as far as i know. I hope its good there in finland. I wish you luck and freetime!
@@darthwalrus4740 Kievan Rus and Russia are different countries historically. Moscovite Prinicipality(Russia) captured Kazan(the capital of Tatars) in 1552 and exterminated its population.
Petty kingdom is the word you're looking for instead of little kings mh friendo
@@muchsanchez946 yeah, exactely - a few of petty kingdoms, whose leaders are relatives.