Introduction

Mongolia is intimately tied to its imperial past in the popular historical imagination. Like many earlier empires on the steppe, the Mongol Empire was forged through conquest. Historically, the steppe has passed through periods of greater and lesser integration in which the nomadic population formed large empires before they broke apart into smaller, competing political formations. The movement of people, goods, and ideas that stemmed from this Mongol universalism reshaped the economic map of Eurasia. For a very brief period, most of this vast expanse was ruled by a single government that was favourably disposed towards international commerce, with Mongol princes and princesses often providing the finance for merchants to bring them exotica and luxury items from the farthest reaches of the empire. The chapter also provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.