Mongolia History

Mongolia

History
Anciently, Mongolia was inhabited by warring nomadic tribes, who about 300 B.C. learned to ride horses. Their entire culture has been centered on the horse ever since. There have always been fierce struggles between neighboring tribes in Mongolia. Occasionally all or large portions of the region came under the control of a conqueror or a coalition of tribes. This led to the extermination or expulsion of some tribes and the intermingling of tribes. During periods when China was united and strong, they traded with Mongols and other Inner Asian peoples. In repeated cycles the nomadic people of Mongolia either became vassals of the Chinese emperor, or they retreated beyond his reach into the northern steppes. On the other hand, when China appeared weak, Mongol tribes made raids into rich Chinese lands. On several occasions, raids into northern China were so successful that the victorious nomads settled in the conquered land, established dynasties, and eventually became absorbed by the more numerous Chinese.

At a meeting of Mongol tribes in 1206, the powerful conqueror Temujin, then master of all of Mongolia, was proclaimed universal ruler with the title Chinggis Khan (better known in the West by the Persianized spelling of his name, Genghis Khan). The army of the Great Khan, although not particularly large for its day, was distinguished by its superb horsemanship and expert archery, the discipline and control of its aristocratic leaders, and Genghis’s own brilliant military strategy and tactics. The neighboring Chinese Empire and the Central Asian states, both militarily weak and fragmented, inevitably surrendered to the Mongol hordes racing over Asia, as did the decaying Arab-Turkish society of the Middle East.

The Mongol Empire extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, one of the largest land empires in history. After the death of Genghis, his grandson Khublai Khan was the first ruler in the Yuan dynasty, a period of Mongol rule of China which lasted nearly one hundred years. But after a century of Mongol dominance in China and the rest of Eurasia, the traditional patterns of Mongolian history reasserted themselves. Mongols living outside Mongolia were absorbed by the conquered populations, and Mongolia itself again became a land of incessantly warring nomadic tribes. Following the Yuan dynasty, various Mongolian khans attempted, but failed, to revive the great empire.

Tibetan Buddhism (also called Yellow Buddhism or Lamaism) became the leading religious force among the Mongols in the 1500s. An alliance of Buddhist theocracy and secular Mongol aristocracy ruled the country from the seventeenth until the twentieth century. Zanabazar was proclaimed the spiritual leader of Mongolian Lamaism in 1639 at the age of four. Zanabazar was given the title Javzandamba The Eurasian Mongol Empire 1227 to 1405 Hutagt [Incarnation of the Buddha] in 1650 after religious study in Tibet and became the official ruler of Mongolia. After Zanabazar’s death in 1735, Mongolia was officially ruled by a lineage of seven Buddhist Lamas, “Living Buddhas,” incarnations of the Buddha called the Bogdo Gegeen [holy enlightened ones]. These high-ranking Buddhist monks were both the religious and the political heads of state, ruling from the movable monastery city of Örgöö [Temple Tent]. The capital city was finally settled permanently at its present location in 1778 and called Ih Hüree [Great Monastery]. Nevertheless, the Mongol leaders were, in fact, subordinate to Tibetan Lamas, and to the Manchu emperors of China's Qing dynasty.

As Chinese power waned in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, Russian influence in Mongolia grew. After the Chinese revolution of 1911, Mongolia declared its independence from China. The rule of the “Living Buddha” was maintained and the city was renamed Niyslel Hüree [Capital Monastery]. Mongolia’s independence had the full support of Russia and the Russo-Chinese Treaty of 1913 awarded Mongolia its autonomy.

But Russian and Chinese interest in the area did not diminish. The Chinese re-occupied Outer Mongolia in 1919. But this occupation was short-lived, thwarted by China's instability and the interference of Japan and the Soviet Union. In 1920, a military force, supplied and financed by Japan and led by a Russian anti-Bolshevik general, Baron Roman Nikolaus von Ungern-Sternberg, captured the monastery capital of Mongolia and set up a puppet government. Ungern-Sternberg was a cruel leader and massacred thousands of Mongolians who refused to join his military force. On 13 March 1921, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party, created by Soviet-trained Mongols, established an independent Provisional People’s Government. In July, with aid from the USSR, the Mongolian revolutionary army and supporting units of the Soviet Red army defeated Ungern-Sternberg and his supporters. The theocratic monarchy, its powers limited, was retained by the provisional government until 1924, when the last “Living Buddha” died. At that time the Mongolian People's Republic was established, as a communist controlled satellite of Moscow, modeled on Soviet lines. The capital city was renamed Ulaan Baatar meaning “Red Heroes.” The communist government conducted vigorous campaigns to suppress Buddhism beginning in 1929 culminating in its bloody suppression and near-total elimination in 1937-39. Many aspects of Mongolia’s historic culture were also stifled or destroyed. Family histories were destroyed and the people were forbidden to use their ancient surnames. The ancient Mongolian script was forbidden and the Mongolian language has been written in the Cyrillic alphabet since the 1940s. During World War II, following a change of the heavy-handed policy against religion in the Soviet Union, the government of the Mongolian People's Republic and the ruling party allowed the recovery of Mongolian Buddhism although under official guidelines.

The communism of the Soviet Union remained the dominant force in Mongolia as China’s influence was eliminated. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the preservation of the status quo in Mongolia was one of the conditions for the USSR to declare war on Japan. This nullified Chinese claims and legitimized the Soviet Union’s hold on the country. In October of that same year the Mongolians voted in a UN plebiscite for independence and in January of 1946 the Republic of China formally recognized Mongolia as a sovereign nation.

The Soviet control of Mongolia remained firm throughout Mongolia’s communist era. In the 1980s the USSR was Mongolia's leading trade partner and aid donor; about 65,000 Soviet troops were stationed in Mongolia. The withdrawal of Soviet forces and the revolutionary changes occurring in Eastern Europe in the fall of 1989 encouraged swelling public protests in Ulaan Baatar and the Mongolian communist government was forced to resign. A new and more democratic regime followed in 1990. Under a new constitution, effective 1992, the name of the country was changed from People's Republic of Mongolia to Republic of Mongolia, and socialism was renounced.

The new government has embraced free-market economics; but Mongolia's transition to a free market has been difficult. The severe climate, scattered population, and wide expanses of unproductive land have hampered economic development. Mongolian leaders have been seeking support from international financial institutions and foreign donors. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997.