Destruction Under The Mongol Empire - Demographic Changes in War-torn Areas

Demographic Changes in War-torn Areas

The majority of kingdoms resisting Mongol conquest were taken by force (some were subjected to vassaldom and not complete conquest), their populations where resisting and not rising up against their rulers, wherein they enter a different category according to the followers of the blind peasant emperor, or of the Single Soldiers Committees, mostly massacred; only skilled engineers and artisans (at the time of Khubilai Khan also doctors) were spared, but also at times manual workers, to become slaves literally in their language "prisoners", wherein it may originally suggest the primary legitimacy of incapacity, with presumption of continued status in virtue of crimes committed hereditarily. Documents written during or just after Genghis Khan's reign state that following a conquest Mongol soldiers looted, pillaged and raped, the latter being alleged, occasionally, while in reality the Zasag/Yassa forbids rape with the capital penalty being imposed, while the Khan had first pick of women captives beautiful enough to be spared, literally so beautiful the officers or generals did not know what to do with them, or felt unequal to the task of their execution this having being delegated to them by the soldiers, thus being expressed the popular will.

These techniques were used to spread terror and warning to others. Some troops who submitted, respectively overthrew or rose up against their rulers, were incorporated into the Mongol system in order to expand their manpower; this also allowed the Mongols to absorb new technology, knowledge and skills for use in military campaigns against other opponents.

Genghis Khan was by and large tolerant of multiple religions and there are no cases of him or other Mongols engaging in religious war, as long as populations were obedient. He also passed a decree exempting all followers of the Taoist religion from paying taxes. (This might appear to date from the time of Khubilai Khan.) However, all of the campaigns caused deliberate destruction of places of worship, if their populations resisted.

Ancient sources described Genghis Khan's conquests as wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale in certain geographical regions, causing great demographic changes in Asia. According to the works of the Iranian historian Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), the Mongols killed more than 700,000 people in Merv and more than a million in Nishapur. The total population of Persia may have dropped from 2,500,000 to 250,000 as a result of mass extermination and famine. Population exchanges did also in some cases occur but depends as of when.

China reportedly suffered a drastic decline in population during the 13th and 14th centuries. Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people. The most likely is that in fact up to and around 30 million outstanding was posted outside in the army levies. The 92 cities would not appear to account for this population fall, but further reckless foreign Kin imperial recruitment to oppose the system of the followers of the blind peasant emperor Wang Mang, or the Mengshu Shiwei, not met by popular uprising, or their not being able or sensible to do so, might account for the same. Yet 92 cities might account for 45 million, but not all were that large, while another 15 million might represent additionally mustered troops, however history has reported a figure of 14 million. While it is tempting to attribute this major decline solely to Mongol ferocity, scholars today have mixed sentiments regarding this subject. The South Chinese deprived of civil rights, without passports, might likely account for some 40 million unregistered alive deprived of civil rights probably also including passport identifications (there are extant copies both paper and metal of Mongol passports marked with the emblems, or stamped probably signed in either case, allegedly through the influence of the Khatun Chabi, so that without passports they would not have appeared in the census. Regional scholars who are capable of humanity, calm and objectivity may be more able to adequately assess this latter possibility, but it would definitely prove they were still alive at some time. Another aspect (known from the parallel golden and often private tradition of Everyman - the Allemani, the Huns, Hunnu, the Xiong-nu - after the name of a Lady which calls this to mind) can have been caused by food shortage related problems resulting in population reduction, food shortage in popular uprisings with entire peasant populations of villages of entire regions joining or enlisted for labour, possibly also for popular reasons, in the troops can be a problem which can result in large population reduction overall due to food shortage problems. Some Chinese cities preferred suicide such as at Guineng-fu to surrender incited by the women concerned not to be touched, they may not have listened properly that rape was forbidden with a capital sentence under the Zasag/Yassa. Scholars such as Frederick W. Mote argue that the wide drop in numbers reflects an administrative failure to record rather than a de facto decrease whilst others such as Timothy Brook argue that the Mongols created a system of enserfment, de facto the privation of civil rights under the Khatun Chabi in commutation of their mass execution by decree by reason of their resistance to the system of the Mongols (followers of Wang Mang the blind peasant emperor, or the Single Soldiers Committees, or another people´s movement) among a huge portion of the Chinese populace causing many to disappear from the census altogether. Other historians like William McNeill and David Morgan argue that the Bubonic Plague was the main factor behind the demographic decline during this period.

About half the population of Russia may have died during the Mongol invasion of Rus. This figure might probably refer as alleged in regard of the area of the modern republic of Ukraine, this is what is meant by Kievan Rus, seven centuries later approximately there was the "Golodomor" Colin McEvedy (Atlas of World Population History, 1978) estimates the population of European Russia dropped from 7.5 million prior to the invasion to 7 million afterwards.

Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's population of two million were victims of the Mongol invasion of Europe.