The volume ends not with the fall of the empire, but with its fragmentation in the 1260s (the Toluid Civil War between Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke). Christian argues that the Mongols ultimately fell victim to the "Outer Eurasian" gravity well. As the empire conquered China, Persia, and Russia, the grandchildren of Genghis Khan began to settle down—learning Persian, adopting Chinese court rituals, and converting to Buddhism or Islam. They were absorbed by the very civilizations they had conquered. The unified, mobile empire of the steppe could not survive its own success.
Before Genghis Khan, there were the Göktürks (Turks). In the 6th century CE, the Turkic Khaganate emerged from the Altai mountains, creating the first transcontinental empire that explicitly identified as "Turkic." The volume ends not with the fall of
Christian argues that the Turks perfected the "Inner Eurasian" imperial model: They were absorbed by the very civilizations they
The Mongols represent the apex of the Inner Eurasian "mobile" strategy. A Mongol horseman carried dried curd (qurut), could ride for days on mare’s milk, and had a remount of four to five horses. An army of 100,000 could cross 500 miles of desert in a month—a feat impossible for any contemporary sedentary army. In the 6th century CE, the Turkic Khaganate
Christian also rehabilitates the Mongols as empire-builders, not just destroyers. Under Ögedei and Möngke, the empire created: