ABSTRACT
The Mongols were steppe people par excellence; they detested agricultural labor for themselves and believed in the freer life of the steppe, of animal husbandry, and of the warrior. Europe was saved from conquest when the successful Mongol armies, having heard of the death of Ogotai, son and successor of Genghis Khan, turned back in 1241 to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol empire, to participate in the election of his successor. The Mongols remained in China an alien people of conquerors whose aim was to exploit and enjoy the products of the labor of the conquered population. To rule they employed mostly alien people, Central and Inner Asians, Persians, Arabs, and Europeans. The Mongol conquest of China was accomplished at a tremendous cost both in lives and physical destruction. In China as in all their conquered countries, the Mongols remained an alien power, more successful in conquest than in establishing a lasting political system.
