The Mongolian polity was the greatest pre-industrial empire, and second in the world history after the British Empire. It was established by the out-of-nowhere people of pastoral nomads. Nevertheless, the Mongolian Empire has played a great role in the world. Its founder, Genghis Khan, was even named the man of the second millennium. After termination of the murderous conquests, the Mongols became the trigger for building the global communication system in which gas stimulated the technological, cultural, and ideological exchanges between the civilizations of the Old World and contributed indirectly to the bubonic plague. The medieval Mongolian globalization laid the groundwork for subsequent technological growth, the age of discovery, and the rise of the West.
Book Review: The Ongoing Columbian Exchange: Stories of Biological and Economic Transfer in World History