The Mongolian Explosion and the Basic Information Circuit, 1200–1300

Abstract

World history, like history generally, it seems, began with a big bang: the Mongolian explosion of Chinggis Khan and two generations of his successors in the thirteenth century. As in some cosmological models, too, the explosion, which originated outside the area in Mongolia, was inflated to fireball dimensions by its passage through Central Asia. A Mongolian explosion became a Central Asian super-explosion which united Mongols and Turks in an unprecedented mobilization of nomadic cavalry. This mobilization then launched itself against the homelands of China, Islam, India and Europe, with varying degrees of penetration. Even those parts of the world not penetrated by the Mongols were affected by them. Thus, by being spared the Mongols, Western Europe, Mamluk Egypt and Japan were given their chance in their respective geopolitical spheres. Moreover, beyond those spheres, both the Christian expansions into America and the Islamic expansion into Black Africa and Southeast Asia, may be related to the effects of the explosion. The Mongolian explosion broke down barriers. It was the first global event. It ended isolation.