1.69 - Batu Consolidates

[00:00:26] Hello and welcome to the Russian Empire History Podcast, the history of all the peoples of the Russian Empire. I'm your host JP Bristow and this is Season 1, The Forest, The Steppe and the Birth of the Russian Empire and Episode 69, Batu Consolidates.

[00:00:49] Before we begin, a quick note for subscribers. I know you've been waiting and the next members episode is finished and will be released sometime in the next week. It's the longest one so far, which I hope makes up the delay. The Mongols had conquered the Dershli Kibchak, broken Rus and subdued the North Caucasus,

[00:01:17] but they had still not taken control of the entirety of the Western Steppe, and this remained their number one target. As we've seen, the attacks on the Rus were strikes north out of the steppe, followed by a return to the steppe, but they continued to pursue their main objective.

[00:01:41] At this point, it's best to regard the Mongol strategy as attacking Rus to secure their presence in the steppe. They knocked out the main cities near to the steppe, Vladimir, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Periaslavl, which had played the key role in projecting Rus power into the steppe.

[00:02:03] But it would take several years for the Mongols to actually establish their administrative presence in the Sknezhistva. In the Caucasus, the Mongols moving south met up with another force led by Chorma Khan, who had been dispatched earlier to loop around the south, conquering Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

[00:02:29] The meeting was delayed by the Alans, who put up fierce resistance for several months before eventually succumbing.

[00:02:53] Despite what must have been substantial losses over the years of campaigning and the recall of the non-Joshid Chinggisids to Mongolia, the integration of the newly conquered peoples, especially Kipchaks, Bashkirs and Bulgars, meant that Batu still had a substantial army at his command, most likely somewhere between 40 and 70 thousand.

[00:03:22] Some Rus towns were also already supplying troops. The invasion had begun with a Mongol core accompanied by Central Asian, Iranic and Turkic elements, but now the bulk of his army was of Eastern European origin.

[00:03:42] The departure of the other Chinggisids could have been a reason to call off further campaigns to the west. But Batu still saw his main goal as taking the whole of the steppe, and that meant going as far as Hungary. As we've seen with past waves of migration out of the steppe, their ultimate destination was the plains of Pannonia,

[00:04:11] where a succession of steppe peoples had carved out a kingdom. There is some evidence in the records that the Mongols viewed the conquest of Pannonia as the final stage of completing their declared mission of uniting all the world's nomads. A western base in Pannonia would also make the Mongols neighbours of a sedentary Europe,

[00:04:39] with a far greater population density than Rus had at the time, making access to the resources that nomads wanted from sedentary civilisations easier.

[00:04:53] At the time, Hungary was also a major power in Eastern Europe, a refuge for Kipchaks fleeing from the Rus and now for Kipchaks fleeing from the Mongols. Therefore, there were concerns about it providing a rallying point for resistance to the Mongols, and maybe even a counterattack.

[00:05:23] The battle began as usual, by sending Bela IV of Hungary messages demanding his obedience. He also sent messages to Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire. This took place even before the destruction of Kyiv. The messages probably gained new urgency when word of the fall of Kyiv made it to the west.

[00:05:51] Frederick wrote to inform King Henry III of England, They conquered Kyiv, which is the greatest city of the state, as well as the entire glorious state, killed its inhabitants and turned the whole country into a wasteland. The Pannonian steppe was partially shielded from the east by the Carpathian Mountains,

[00:06:18] and Hungary had potentially strong allies to the north and west. The Mongols also needed to leave troops behind in their newly conquered territories. They knew they were facing serious enemies. One of Ogade's letters refers to the king of Hungary as a rich and strong ruler, commander of many soldiers, and administrator of a great state.

[00:06:48] According to Djuwani, the Mongols thought that one of the Hungarians' weak points might be arrogance. Due to their large numbers, significance, and the power and strength of their arms, spies were sent to gather intelligence. Two were captured and questioned by the Hungarians.

[00:07:12] An Englishman arrested in Austria said that he worked for the Mongols and that he'd been visiting the king of Hungary as a messenger from the great Khan. The successful intelligence missions meant that the Mongols knew everything about Hungary's defences, armies and morale before they set out, including ongoing disputes between the king and his nobles.

[00:07:38] A clear strategic plan was needed for the campaign, and one was drawn up by Subutai, and executed so precisely that the major battles all took place within days of each other. The Arab historian Al-Umarie wrote that the plan was inspired by the Khan's hunt, a training exercise used by the Mongols.

[00:08:08] The intent was to surround the enemy from all sides and attack before opposing forces could be concentrated.

[00:08:46] Batu took personal command of a small force that went across the mountain passes, pushing through fortifications of sharpened tree trunks the Hungarians had placed at choke points to block the routes. They were in Hungary, storming the border fortresses by the 12th of March. Meanwhile, Cardan and Buczek led another force from the south going through Transylvania and Wallachia,

[00:09:14] which was the traditional route nomads followed from the steppe in the east to Pannonia. And Orda took a large contingent, two or three tumens, via Poland. Subutai stayed behind Batu with the reserve forces.

[00:09:36] Orda's contingent defeated a force trying to block them from entering Poland at Khmelnyk, and then burned Krakow on 24th of March. On April the 9th, after a series of major battles, Orda destroyed a combined Polish-German army at Legnica, and killed Henry II, the pious, of Poland.

[00:10:06] The battle was a classic Mongol set-piece. The Celesian cavalry kicked it off by attacking the Mongol vanguard, which retreated, separating them from the Polish infantry. The Mongols used a smokescreen to conceal their movements, pinned the poles with heavy cavalry assaults from the front, while light cavalry released volley after volley from the flanks.

[00:10:32] Estimates of losses ranged from thousands to basically the entire army. Wenceslas I of Bohemia had been heading to join the poles, but on the news of the defeat he turned back to look for reinforcements. A Mongol diversionary force found him in Lower Celesia. They were drastically outnumbered, but sufficient to keep the Bohemians tied up.

[00:11:01] The poles were out of the fight. With the risk neutralised, Orda turned his army south into Hungary to join up with Batu.

[00:11:44] Batu sent out an advanced detachment led by Siban, which reached the gate of Pest in just three days, taking the Hungarians completely by surprise. Several small Hungarian forces were defeated in skirmishing before Bela decided to give battle.

[00:12:04] The Mongols immediately began to fall back, and the Hungarians pursued Siban's retreating troops back towards the Sayo River and Batu's army. The arriving Hungarian army was large enough to give Batu second thoughts, perhaps double his own. He and Subutai had most likely planned to attack the Hungarians as they crossed the river.

[00:12:33] During the night, a small detachment of Mongols was sent to secure the 200-metre bridge across the river, but they were discovered and all killed. Batu sent a smaller force north to find a ford, while Subutai went south to build a bridge. Batu assembled catapults to use against the Hungarian crossbowmen on the other side of the bridge.

[00:13:00] When the contingent he sent north arrived, the Hungarians fled to their main camp. Bela was indecisive and unsure it would actually come to a full-scale battle. He did not have a proper battle plan. His brother Koloman, some other nobles and the master of the Templars, had to try to organise the men.

[00:13:30] Bela did not begin issuing orders until the full Mongol army had already crossed the river. But Batu was still outnumbered and took heavy losses, including 30 of his own bodyguard. When Subutai arrived after building his bridge, the Hungarians were forced to retreat to avoid encirclement.

[00:13:54] And Batu and Subutai argued over whether they should continue in the face of Batu's losses, before deciding that they would go on. The continuing bombardment began to affect the Hungarians, and many soldiers were crushed by men trying to get out of the way of missiles. The king had little authority. Koloman rallied enough to try to try an attack, but it was driven back.

[00:14:25] Finally, they broke and began to flee through the gap the Mongols had left them. Many were killed, including nobles, bishops and Koloman. Bela fled to Austria and then on to Dalmatia. Cardan and his two men chased him, reaching the shores of the Adriatic and the westernmost point of the Mongol incursion into Europe.

[00:14:52] This battle, known as the Battle of Muhi, is sometimes cited as the first use of gunpowder weapons in Europe. We'll return to that, but for now I'll just note that there isn't a consensus opinion on this. The Mongols were using smokescreens, flaming arrows and maybe something like Greek fire.

[00:15:15] But the word used in the records for projectile weapons is the same whether the projectile is thrown by gunpowder or whether it's a catapult.

[00:15:26] Batu gave every sign of intending to establish himself in Pannonia. He began imposing a Mongol administrative structure and appointed regional governors.

[00:15:53] The Hungarian population in the east was cleared to make way for pasture, with around 60% of settlements completely destroyed. He even began minting coins. Every army in the region that could have faced the Mongols had been defeated and mostly destroyed. When the Danube froze in the winter, they crossed and took Buda and Gran.

[00:16:23] But the following year, when Batu ordered his troops to take another couple of dozen Hungarian towns and cities, they failed. It was the first time since the initial forays into the west that this had happened. There's been a lot of debate over the centuries about why the Mongols stopped their westward expansion.

[00:16:49] To many of the contemporary writers, their appearance was completely unexpected and ascribed to divine intervention. The steady run of victory after victory from the fall of Bulgaria, from the fall of Volga Bulgaria to Pest and destruction of Polish, German and Hungarian armies,

[00:17:11] which seemed to leave the way open to keep going, made the fact that they stopped and then went back, inexplicable to some. Hidden reasons were sought or it was put down once again to divine intervention. The most likely reason is that the losses along the way had made the Mongol corps too small. The army was exhausted.

[00:17:39] Muhi had seen serious losses once again. By the time Batu establishes himself back on the Volga, the usual estimates put the number of actual Mongols in his hoard at just 8 to 13,000. Although the Mongols were experts at integrating their subject peoples into their forces,

[00:18:02] it was inevitable that these new recruits did not have the same level of training, horsemanship, speed and other skills that the Mongols had trained since childhood. Even the other steppe peoples, like the Kipchaks, had never had anything approaching the level of discipline the Mongols had.

[00:18:24] As historian Michael Cook says in his recent History of the Muslim World from its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity, The Mongols were what happened when steppe nomads finally got serious about the military advantages of being steppe nomads. In comparison, everyone who came before them was only playing.

[00:18:51] We already heard in the last episode about the entire contingent of Mordvin men who joined the Mongols being wiped out by the Germans. At Legnica, a German chronicler records someone from the Mongol army shouting at the Poles in a terrible voice, Begaitse, Begaitse. Even as a distorted transcription of someone shouting in a foreign language,

[00:19:19] The Poles and any other Slavs would have understood the message. Run! Run! Discipline was clearly cracking.

[00:19:49] So, Batu found himself in a rather precarious situation. He could no longer rely on his armies to continue their string of victories. And then news came from the east. Ugadde was dead. And Goyuk, who Batu had previously fallen out with, was the likely successor. If there was a conflict with the new Khan, Batu could be cut off in Pannonia, isolated from resources

[00:20:19] and surrounded by potential threats from people he had not been able to fully subjugate. The decision was made. The Mongols marched out of Hungary via the southern route, took the time to force the king of Bulgaria to accept vassaldom, and returned to the safety of the Volga. Hungary was left devastated. The population was reduced by half.

[00:20:49] In contemporary chronicles and historians who have taken them at face value, this was put down to mass slaughter by the Mongols. However, although the Mongols certainly killed tens of thousands, the speed at which the population recovered suggests that many had simply fled and returned once the Mongols had left.

[00:21:13] Bela IV also returned and began an extensive program of fortifying towns, castle building and creating a new army that enabled Hungary to successfully defeat subsequent Mongol campaigns over the next fifty years.

[00:21:49] Like previous steppe rulers, Batu set up his base on the Volga. He did this for the same considerations that others had followed. He had access to the kind of environments that the Mongols were used to and needed to continue their lifestyle. It provided access to the Caspian, Caucasus, west and east. He could control choke points on the north-south and east-west trade routes.

[00:22:19] If Pannonia was not available, the lower Volga was the next obvious choice. It's often stated that Batu and the Mongols abandoned their push to the west because the death of Ogadei meant that they had to return to Mongolia for the Kurultai to choose the new Khan. Although the succession was certainly a factor that Batu considered when choosing to return to the Volga,

[00:22:48] he never returned to Mongolia and did not attend the Kurultai. So this at least is not true. One reason not to go was because he was expecting trouble if Guyuk was elected as expected, and it turned out that he was correct. After a period of political horse-trading and manoeuvres, Guyuk was elected as the new Khan in 1246,

[00:23:18] and in 1248 he declared war on Batu. However, the first civil war of the Mongol Empire ended without starting as Guyuk died having barely set out. The next succession was far more favourable to Batu. With the support of Batu and the majority of the other Chinggisids from the western campaigns, Monke was elected as the new Great Khan.

[00:23:49] Unfortunately, Monke did not last for long either. He died in 1259. Following his death there would be a civil war that began the process of the Mongol Empire breaking apart.

[00:24:02] Batu imposed Mongol administration on his newly conquered lands.

[00:24:27] For the people of the Desh de Kupchak, this was an inclusive process that did not discriminate against anyone and affected everyone. Semi-nomadic societies of Bulgaria and the North Caucasus, which both farmed grain and maintained mobile herds of cattle, were included. The population was divided into two men. Those two men were divided into thousands.

[00:24:55] Thousands into hundreds, and the hundreds into tens. The new divisions and subordinations were done how the Mongols saw fit. Regardless of previously existing tribes, clans or states, all were subject to the same centralisation and integration. Each thousand had an appointed commander who administered the territory where his people lived.

[00:25:24] There were a lot of these. The Mongolian records mention 88,000 of them during Chinggis Khan's lifetime alone. The commander of the thousand was responsible for mobilising men for the army and ensuring that each arrived on a suitable horse with the appropriate equipment.

[00:25:44] He had to ensure that the postal and transportation systems operated properly, and had everything that they needed in his territory, and to supervise the work of his people in these areas. The thousands were not only intended to break up and replace the pre-existing social order of the newly conquered peoples.

[00:26:10] They were also aimed at breaking up the tribal system of the Mongols themselves, and forging them all into a united people. The Rus' were not part of this process. They had Darugachis or Bashkaks, as they're called in the chronicles, appointed.

[00:26:33] These officials represented the Khan in their districts, collecting taxes and tribute and resolving conflicts. The status of the Rus' in the early years of Mongol rule is rather unclear. Before the breakup of the empire, Knazes of Vladimir, seeking Mongol recognition of their authority, had to travel to Karakorum to receive their Yalik, the symbol of authority, from the great Khan.

[00:27:04] As the empire began to break up, they started receiving their Yalik from the Jur'chid Khan. Minor Knazes had always received their Yalik from Batu. In these first few years, a regular tribute had not been imposed, so the Knazes were not formally vassals.

[00:27:29] Defeat by the Mongols did not automatically lead to a change of political status. Tribute only came once the Mongols had carried out a census. The first censuses in Rus' were carried out in Kyiv and Chernihiv in 1246, after which these Knazes were formally became vassals of the Mongol Empire.

[00:27:54] They were conducted by imperial rather than Jur'chid officials, and the tribute may have been divided between the great Khan and the Jur'chids as well. Perhaps as recompense for the participation of the non-Jur'chid Genghisids in the Western campaigns. In the Knazes' that did not border the steppe, the census came much later.

[00:28:21] Smolensk, for example, had its census and the imposition of tribute only in 1275, more than thirty years after the fall of Kyiv. So while the Rus' Knazes' became vassals of the Jur'chids, they were not part of the Ulus of Jur'chi as such.

[00:28:59] Batu set up its first headquarters in the neighbourhood of Bulga, before establishing the city of Sarai in approximately the same location as the old Khazar capital of Attil. Batu and his court did not settle it either. He continued to follow a nomadic lifestyle, moving between the two regions, as did his successors. Later, the North Caucasus also became part of their range.

[00:29:30] When Genghis allotted a panegist to his sons, he made them promise to obey the great Khan. In theory, everything in the empire belonged to the great Khan. According to Giovanni da Piand del Carpini, Everything is concentrated in the hands of the emperor, so much that no one can say, this is mine or that is his.

[00:29:57] Everything belongs to the emperor, all the property, the livestock and the people. End quote. In practice, there was some division of power in ways that we've previously seen in steppe empires. There was a division between the right and the left, or east and west, wings of the empire.

[00:30:21] The eastern wing of the empire was naturally focused on China, and acquired the Chinese name Yuan. It became the domain of the great Khan. The western wing was formed by the Ulus of Jochi and the Ulus of Chagatai.

[00:30:41] The Ulus of Chagatai was the hapenage of Genghis' second son, and ran from the Antlai mountains to Bukhara, Samarkand and Kabul. Bordering the Yuan in the east, the Sultanate of Delhi in the south, the Ilkhanate in the west, and the Ulus of Jochi in the north. The western wing was nominally subordinate to the east, but seems to have quite quickly become autonomous.

[00:31:12] Giovanni de Piandelcarpine states that Batu was the most powerful of the Tatar princes, except the emperor. Giovanni says that all the court nobility and chiefs of the Mongol troops obeyed Batu. Other chroniclers provide similar statements. We also know that Ogadei directly appointed governors within the Ulus of Chagatai, but not within the Ulus of Jochi.

[00:31:42] So Batu seems to have had something of a special status from the beginning. And this was reinforced during the succession of Monkei. When Goyuk died, Batu, as the next oldest Chinggisid, was offered the throne of the great Khan.

[00:32:02] He declined saying that he already had extensive territories to run, and adding China, Turkestan, and Iran, the lands ruled from Karakorum, would be impossible. So he supported his close friend and cousin, Monkei, who took over those territories, the ones Batu said he was too busy to deal with.

[00:32:26] But Batu continued to acknowledge the authority of the great Khan in certain areas, primarily diplomatic relations, and the great Khan sent tax officials to the Ulus of Jochi. But Batu was a close second in authority. William of Rubrik wrote that Monkei is the most important man in the world of the Mongols. But he also quotes Monkei saying,

[00:32:54] Just as the sun's rays spread everywhere, so does Mayan Batu's sovereignty spread. He noted that Batu's officials were treated with more honour in Monkei's lands than Monkei's were in Batu's.

[00:33:10] When Batu died, he was succeeded by his son Sartak, who travelled back to the east, where Monkei recognised him as holding all the authority of his father to command his troops and rule his lands.

[00:33:38] He was declared to be second to the great Khan and allowed to return home. Sartak had the right to issue his own laws, so long as they did not contradict the laws of Genghis Khan, the Yasa.

[00:33:54] In the event, Sartak was short-lived and was succeeded in 1256 by his uncle Birkei, who assumed the same authority and even attempted to assert his power over the new Ulus of Hulagum in Iran and Mesopotamia.

[00:34:11] In 1260, Kublai Khan defeated his brother, Arik Bokei, in the contest for the eastern wing of the emperor and the throne of the great Khan. Birkei had supported Arik Bokei. One of Kublai's first acts was to affirm the Apanejis. He declared that Hulagu would rule from the Amu Darya to the gates of Egypt.

[00:34:40] From Altai to Amu Darya would belong to Chagatai's grandson, Algu. Or Kublai himself would rule from the Altai to the Pacific Ocean. He did not mention the Ulus of Jochi, where Birkei's position was secure, although a small part of its Central Asian territory went to the Ulus of Chagatai. Maybe nothing needed to be clarified.

[00:35:06] Maybe he was not able to project his authority that far. The transition marked the effective independence of the Jochids. Political rivalry was already clear, but greater differences would start to appear. The eastern wing of the empire would become increasingly Sinicised and influenced by Chinese and Jochun traditions of governance.

[00:35:36] Buddhism would become influential in the east, while the western wing adopted Islam. When Monke died, the Jochids did not join the Kurultais to settle the succession. It was not yet a full break, as the unifying authority of the Chinggisid clan was still acknowledged, and in the late 1260s the Jochids provided troops for Kublai's campaign against the southern Song when he asked them to.

[00:36:07] Declarations acknowledging the nominal superiority of the Yuan would continue to be made until the 14th century. But within twenty years of the conquest of the Western territory, any actual control over the Ulus of Jochi had been lost.

[00:36:30] Burke's successor, Mengu Timur, ordered that his name replace the Great Khans on coins minted in the Ulus of Jochi. After the 1250s, the Knazes stopped travelling to Karakorum to get their Yaliks from the Great Khan and started going to the Khan in Sarai instead. Mengu Timur also issued the Metropolitan's Yalik, confirming his authority in Rus'.

[00:37:00] Mongol rule in Rus' took different forms. In the East, the Grand Knazes of Vladimir submitted and ruled as vassals of the Mongols. Their rivalry for the support of the Mongols eventually leads to the emergence of Muscovy and then Russia. In the West, Daniel of Galicia attempts to avoid submission and maintain his own authority as king.

[00:37:29] Galicia will go on to play a key role in the emergence of a Ukrainian identity. The paths these two follow are often seen as laying the foundations for future differences. But how different were they really? Join me next episode as we look at the life of Daniel of Galicia. Thank you for listening and until next time, goodbye.