MONGOLIAN EMPIRE MAP DRIVERS

No reason is given in the Mongol sources to explain their abrupt departure from Hungary. In early-1242, the Mongols crossed the Danube into western Hungary and, after a short two months of further devastation, suddenly began to withdraw via a southern route through Serbia and Bulgaria ( Fig. In 1241, the Mongols set up a preliminary administrative structure, possibly intending to prepare for long-term operation and occupation 7. The king of Hungary BГ©la IV fled to Austria and a Mongol army pursued him to the Dalmatian coast 6. Following these victories, the Mongol armies regrouped in Hungary and continued to occupy and devastate the region to the east of the Danube. In the spring of 1241, showing an ability to coordinate military operations utterly unknown in Europe, the Mongols defeated Polish and Hungarian armies in two almost contemporaneous battles, at Leignitz in Poland on April 9 and at Mohi in Hungary on April 11 ( Fig. 1), including the Verecke Pass and the Radna Pass in Romania. Batu and other notable Mongol commanders such as Qadan, Orda, Baydar and SГјbetei, together with probably 130,000 soldiers 5, quickly proceeded to invade Hungary by crossing the Carpathian arc from multiple routes ( Fig. Hungary is the westernmost extension of the steppe belt that forms a nearly uninterrupted grassland вЂhighwayвЂ™ reaching out from Mongolia. The resistance of the joint Russian and Cuman (Turkic nomads) armies proved futile and with the capture of Kiev in December 1240 the Mongols continued to invade much of the eastern parts of Europe. Under Batu, grandson of Chinggis Khan, they reached Ryazan in December 1237 (~200вЂ‰km southeast of Moscow) and then proceeded to attack several other Russian towns, establishing their rule over Russia, which was going to be known as the Golden Horde 4. While overcoming deterministic and reductionist arguments, our вЂenvironmental hypothesisвЂ™ demonstrates the importance of minor climatic fluctuations on major historical events.Д«ased on intelligence gathered in the course of military operation in central Asia, the Mongols turned west and attacked Russia in 1235, moving westwards across the Eurasian grassland belt.

These circumstances arguably contributed to the determination of the Mongols to abandon Hungary and return to Russia. Marshy terrain across the Hungarian plain most likely reduced pastureland and decreased mobility, as well as the military effectiveness of the Mongol cavalry, while despoliation and depopulation ostensibly contributed to widespread famine. Documentary sources and tree-ring chronologies reveal warm and dry summers from 1238вЂ“1241, followed by cold and wet conditions in early-1242. Here we investigate annually resolved, absolutely dated and spatially explicit paleoclimatic evidence between 12 CE.

MONGOLIAN EMPIRE MAP DRIVERS

None of them, however, considered multifaceted environmental drivers and the coupled analysis of historical reports and natural archives. The Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe and especially its sudden withdrawal from Hungary in 1242 CE, has generated much speculation and an array of controversial theories.

Mongolian empire map