ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of the nomadic warband's cohesion before and, in particular, immediately after a conquest, and the role of the nomadic warband in creating imperial cohesion beyond the warband, particularly its position in the imperial organization and, to a lesser extent, its remuneration and cohesion. The cohesion of Eurasian empires before the age of European hegemony is often conceived as being the result of a particular form of imperialism, driven by the demands of nationalism and the industrial revolution, and realized thanks to new gunpowder technology. Domesticated about 6,000 years ago, the warhorse started its huge impact on world history about 2,000 years later, drawing the war-chariots of the Indo-European conquerors who swept across the great sedentary civilizations of the Middle East, India and China. Historians have interpreted the keshig as a typical Indo-European Mannerbund or comitatus.
