ASIA CENTRAL (Los Mongoles) - Documental
Los mongoles son un grupo étnico que se originó en lo que en la actualidad es Mongolia, Rusia y la República Popular China, en esta última principalmente en lo que hoy en día es la región autónoma de Mongolia Interior, y las repúblicas de Buriatia, Kalmukia, Tuvá y Yakutia de la Federación de Rusia.
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00:00At the end of the twelfth century, with Europe plunged into the dark age,
00:04there are two cultures that set the level of human civilization.
00:10The Islamic states of Persia and Central Asia,
00:15and further east, a trio of fabulous kingdoms in China.
00:22The first of these cultures is the Chinese.
00:25Among them are vast and inhospitable plains,
00:29the Eurasian steppes.
00:32Although the steppes are imposing, they are not empty.
00:36There are nomadic tribes, the Tartars, the Mongols, and others,
00:40who survive as they can.
00:44Mongolia is one of the coldest places in the world,
00:47with temperatures of 35 to 40 degrees.
00:50For much of the year, you have to fight against nature.
00:55It is a life without margin of safety.
01:02In 1175, the Tartars revive an old conflict with the Mongols.
01:07The two tribes, so similar in lifestyle and beliefs,
01:10are bitterly confronted by the Mongols.
01:14The Tartars, on the other hand,
01:16are bitterly confronted by old rivalries,
01:19an endless cycle of alliances, betrayals, and revenge.
01:27Caught in their own struggles, they ignore their common enemy,
01:31the rich and powerful Qin of northern China.
01:35The policy of the Qin dynasty with Mongolia was that of divide and conquer.
01:40The Qin used the Tartars to attack other nomadic groups and tribes.
01:45They had become too strong or threatening.
01:55The Qin wisely perceived that the peoples of the steppes
01:59would not bother them while they were busy with each other.
02:03It is at this time of tension that the great Mongol conqueror,
02:07Genghis Khan, emerges in the 12th century.
02:11But he does not come from a family of kings or princes.
02:14He is an orphan and faces death with his family in the arid steppes.
02:20The name of Genghis Khan's pillar is Temujin,
02:23the Iron Worker.
02:25It suits him well.
02:27His life required an iron will.
02:32In 1175, when he was barely nine years old,
02:35his father, head of the clan, was poisoned by the Tartars.
02:40Genghis Khan's father had been an up-and-coming tribe chief.
02:44Perhaps if he had lived,
02:46he would have become the next Khan of the Mongols.
02:50But as soon as he was poisoned,
02:53the widows of the previous Khan led the Mongols
02:57to abandon the widows of Genghis Khan's father, Yesugei.
03:02As a result, Genghis Khan was left in the steppe,
03:06with his mother.
03:09Abandoned with his children,
03:11Temujin's mother gave him only one task.
03:15Revenge.
03:22He grew up, we imagine, with a strong sense of revenge.
03:26He was the son of one of the main clan chiefs,
03:29who had won victories where other chiefs had been defeated,
03:33but they had abandoned him.
03:35That created a very strong feeling of bitterness,
03:38a feeling that the world did not work as it should.
03:43For 30 difficult years,
03:45Temujin struggles to join his clan
03:47and obtain the title of Khan, Grand Chief.
03:51He learns to trust those who show him loyalty in combat
03:54and suspects everyone else.
03:57At 40, he has become a clan chief of great talent.
04:02We're looking at a man like Alexander, like Hitler,
04:08with immense charisma,
04:11who makes people follow him by the strength of his personality.
04:18Once his tribe was unified, in 1196,
04:21Temujin dedicated himself to his second task,
04:25to take revenge on the Tartars.
04:28The tactics were pretty much on horseback.
04:31He incorporated all the techniques that could be assumed.
04:34For example, techniques learned from hunting,
04:36which he used as tactics in battle.
04:38He often pretended to retreat,
04:40attracting the enemy to surround him and then swallow him.
04:44There were elements in his tactics
04:46reminiscent of those of the Blitzkrieg,
04:48German lightning war.
04:50What stands out in the case of Temujin, of Genghis Khan,
04:54is his reorganization of society.
04:57That has to be recognized as one of his most important contributions,
05:01not only in military innovations, but also in social ones.
05:05He takes the ancient tribal structure of Central Asian Mongols
05:08and refounds it in his own image,
05:10breaking the ancient tribal loyalties,
05:13but maintaining the power of tribal cavalry.
05:18It can be said that practically in all the battles they fought,
05:22the Mongols were substantially lower in number than their enemies.
05:26But they were much more mobile, because they had many horses,
05:30and they were able to operate in small tactical teams,
05:33with a few attacks.
05:35So the first thing you thought when you fought the Mongols
05:38was that they seemed to be everywhere.
05:41They often approached in a single row,
05:43and suddenly they dispersed,
05:45and they reappeared surrounding you everywhere.
05:48That was really disturbing.
05:53The Mongol combination of masterful equitation and tactical strategy
05:57overwhelmed its enemies.
06:00In less than two years,
06:02the Tartars are practically erased from the face of the earth.
06:06Only his name remains.
06:08And they are the first of many,
06:10because Temujin has designed for his army
06:13the most brilliant light cavalry that the world has ever known.
06:18And he does take revenge on the Tartars,
06:21the people who had caused so many misfortunes to his family,
06:25and to his relatives.
06:27And when he finally defeats them,
06:29he tells the legend that he had everyone executed
06:32who were taller than the axis of a chariot.
06:35So he annihilates this tribe.
06:39The ambitious chief is a religious man.
06:42He worships the natural hierarchy that surrounds him.
06:46The earth is sacred.
06:48The rivers are sacred.
06:50But above all is the sky,
06:52the protector of the nomads.
06:54For Temujin, human affairs must reflect that hierarchy,
06:58and a man must be above everyone else.
07:01Temujin has no doubt that fate has chosen him as chief.
07:05He believed that he belonged to a celestial lineage with a destiny.
07:10Why?
07:12Because when you get the victory in battle,
07:15it's something decided by heaven, by God,
07:18by this Mokhatengar,
07:20the eternal heaven,
07:22from which Genghis Khan firmly believed
07:25that he was in charge of all victories in battle,
07:29and all successes.
07:32In 1206, a council of chiefs of tribes of the steppe
07:36acclaims Temujin as universal chief, or Genghis Khan.
07:42Now he is ready to conquer the rest of the world
07:45and build his reputation as the bloodiest of all barbarians.
08:02Impulsed by the revenge of his father's murder,
08:05and legitimized by the instinct of his own destiny,
08:08in 1206, Genghis Khan emerges from the darkness
08:11to the edge of world domination.
08:14He is the supreme chief,
08:16the Khan of all the restless nomadic tribes of the steppes.
08:20His people lead a difficult life in a brutal environment.
08:24It is a society in perpetual movement.
08:27They are ready to set up camp at any time.
08:32What do they tell us about this town,
08:35the shops in which they live?
08:38They have a cane structure,
08:41and felts,
08:43and tiles,
08:45and all kinds of things,
08:47and they are ready to set up camp at any time.
08:51They are tied or sewn to individual cane panels,
08:58and they can be set up and dismantled in 15 minutes.
09:05The interior of the yurts was incredibly dark
09:08and was full of smoke,
09:10because they only had one hole at the top and another for the door.
09:13And the door was always facing south,
09:15because the Mongols had the superstition
09:17that the good news came from the south.
09:19There were felts on the walls,
09:21all very dark and impregnated with smoke.
09:24What did they burn?
09:26There is no wood in the steppe.
09:28So it's dung,
09:30and the smoke was also impregnated with that animal smell.
09:33This subsistence system
09:35forged the character of Genghis Khan,
09:38and his mother's words of revenge
09:40gave him a mission.
09:42It is indicative of the importance of the role
09:45that the Mongolian women played,
09:48and they have a fundamental educational role.
09:52Because of this stage of his life,
09:54Genghis Khan will always be very close to women,
09:57to his wife and to his mother.
09:59They are very prominent figures in his life,
10:01and both will be represented later in a relevant way.
10:04In fact, when Genghis Khan distributes his territory
10:07and his soldiers among his people,
10:09both women receive part of that domain.
10:12Towards the year 1206,
10:14Genghis Khan's dominion over the steppes is indisputable.
10:18Now he directs his revenge
10:20towards the rich and arrogant Qin of China.
10:27In 1211, the Mongols are ready to invade China.
10:31The huge and ancient nation
10:33considers them dirty atrocities
10:35that sometimes make a bit of a fuss.
10:37The Chinese have no idea what they are going to face.
10:43In the south of China, the Sun Dynasty,
10:45the Chinese in the south of the country
10:47often considered the Mongols as possible allies
10:50and developed a very interesting image of them.
10:53They believed that the Mongols were a barbaric,
10:56cruel and wild people,
10:58but at the same time incorruptible and unspoiled.
11:02In a few hours,
11:04the Mongol troops annihilate a much larger Chinese army.
11:10The nomads learn quickly.
11:12They copy the Chinese techniques of siege
11:14to open gaps in their walls.
11:16They become the personification of terror.
11:20Then they start playing the drums,
11:23which carry four men on ropes.
11:26The simple sound of the drums
11:28makes people go crazy with fear.
11:31They brought with them the prisoners
11:33of the previous conquered city
11:35and threw them into the moat
11:37to be able to walk over the corpses
11:40to the foot of the wall.
11:43And then they would kill all living beings,
11:46even dogs and cats.
11:50In 1215, they razed the capital of northern China,
11:53Chongqing.
11:55The Mongols were forced to flee
11:57to the south of the country.
11:59They razed the capital of northern China,
12:01Chengdu, now Beijing.
12:05But just when the victory was within reach,
12:08they heard that problems were brewing
12:10in the Mongolian homeland.
12:17The news reached Genghis Khan
12:19through 1,600 kilometers of territory,
12:22transported by a surprising communication system
12:25that will end up connecting the entire Mongol Empire.
12:29They developed very soon
12:31a system known as Yam,
12:33which worked like the Pony Express.
12:35Two messengers were dispatched
12:37with special badges around the waist
12:40indicating that they were official government emissaries.
12:43Horses were provided to them
12:45at post stations every 40 kilometers
12:47so that the two could continue galloping
12:49with rolls of messages in their hands.
12:55In 1218, the Yam riders
12:57brought Genghis Khan the news
12:59that Kuchlu, the Khan of the Naiman clan,
13:02was encouraging a rebellion
13:04among other unhappy tribes.
13:06The order that had cost Genghis Khan so much
13:09was threatened by the disloyalty of his own people.
13:12It could not be tolerated.
13:17Genghis Khan launched a crusade
13:19in search of the rebels
13:21who were keeping him away from his affairs in China.
13:27As they pursued the rebels
13:29to the west in Muslim land,
13:31they annexed one kingdom after another.
13:34Before crossing each border,
13:36Genghis Khan offers the local ruler
13:38the option of giving up the conspirators
13:40and surrender peacefully.
13:42If the ruler resists,
13:44Genghis Khan warns him that he will not have mercy.
13:47He writes to a chief,
13:49the disaster will reach you too.
13:53The revenge campaign of Genghis Khan
13:55has expanded his empire
13:57to cross the borders of the former kingdom of Khwarazm,
14:00what is now Uzbekistan.
14:05Although Khwarazm is an attractive objective,
14:08Genghis Khan decides not to go any further.
14:11He has learned something new.
14:14I think that the key moment
14:17of Genghis Khan's career
14:20that lifted him from being a territorial chief
14:23in outer Mongolia,
14:25and it is no coincidence that outer Mongolia
14:28means the fifth pine,
14:30behind, beyond,
14:32to become a major actor
14:34of the world stage.
14:36He realizes that his territories
14:38include the Silk Road
14:42and that he can change the fate of his people
14:45with trade.
14:47He sends a series of embassies
14:50to his closest neighbor,
14:52the Sultan Mohammed,
14:54who was the ruler
14:56of the east of the Islamic world.
14:59The embassies are followed
15:01by a caravan of 1,500 camels.
15:04And I think what happened there
15:07was that this particular caravan of camels
15:10was so rich
15:12that it triggered the greed
15:15of the Muslim governor
15:18of the border post of Uttar,
15:21that he simply seized it.
15:24The governor of the border city
15:26saw that an embassy
15:28of Mongol merchants was coming,
15:31and he asked Sultan Mohammed
15:33what he should do.
15:35He told him that it could be spies.
15:38He made him believe
15:40that the Mongol emissaries were spies.
15:43What can I do with them?
15:45Can I massacre them?
15:47And Sultan Mohammed said yes,
15:50and they were killed.
15:56Impassive,
15:57Genghis Khan sends a second emissary
16:00who is also captured.
16:03They shave his beard on the street
16:05as a humiliation,
16:07and send him back.
16:10The caravan of gifts, of course,
16:12is not sent back.
16:14Genghis Khan's final dispatch
16:16to Sultan Mohammed
16:18is simple and laconic.
16:20You have chosen war, he writes.
16:25And it was that greed,
16:27that breaking of the laws
16:29of the exchange of ambassadors
16:32and the permission of the merchants
16:35to cross borders freely
16:37that caused the catastrophe in Mongolia.
16:40A catastrophe that,
16:42according to a Russian chronicle,
16:44did not leave an open eye
16:46to mourn the dead.
16:48They came, they attacked,
16:50they plundered, they burned,
16:52they slaughtered and they left.
16:54It was a complete disaster
16:56for the civilized world
16:58that had been exploited
17:00by a small spark.
17:03While his soldiers prepare
17:05for the war in 1219,
17:07Genghis Khan is unconcerned.
17:10It will happen, he says,
17:12whatever has to happen,
17:14and whatever it is,
17:16we do not know.
17:18Only God knows.
17:21Carrying out God's celestial plan,
17:23Khan will teach his enemies
17:25a tremendous lesson
17:27and will continue a conquest
17:29that will destroy everything
17:31that comes his way,
17:33the entire civilization.
17:46Genghis Khan has unified
17:48the Mongolian nomads.
17:51He has subdued the oppressive Chinese
17:53and now, in 1219,
17:55is about to take down
17:57Sultan Mohammed,
17:59ruler of the Warazan Empire
18:02Genghis Khan is a man
18:04motivated by revenge.
18:07Inalchuk, the sultan's governor,
18:09has blatantly humiliated
18:11a Mongolian diplomat,
18:13an intolerable abuse.
18:17But the bastion of the sultan,
18:19Samarkand, is defended
18:21by an army much larger
18:23than that of Genghis Khan.
18:25To equal the disadvantage,
18:27Khan launches the tools
18:29of the past, mobility
18:31and surprise.
18:35The most interesting thing
18:37about this campaign in particular
18:39is that Genghis Khan divided
18:41his army against a superior adversary.
18:43This is the type of tactics
18:45that we associate with General Li
18:47or with the Blitzkrieg
18:49of World War II.
18:51The purpose is to cross the enemy
18:53to create confusion
18:55and distraction in the rear
18:57and then take those positions.
18:59I find that to be a very significant
19:01part of what he does.
19:05Genghis Khan attacks
19:07his first blow in the border city
19:09of Uttar, in 1219.
19:15After a siege of five months,
19:17the Mongols collapse through
19:19the defenses and destroy
19:21everything in front.
19:23His cruelty has no limits.
19:27Why were the Mongols
19:29so cruel?
19:31It's a difficult question.
19:33No one really knows
19:35the true explanation.
19:37But the fact of it
19:39is indisputable
19:41that these people
19:43did not wage war
19:45in the ordinary way.
19:49The greedy governor Inalchuk
19:51is reserved a special destination.
19:53He first discovers the meaning
19:55of the old Mongol proverb
19:57Give back what they gave you.
20:01Dragged out of his refuge
20:03in the citadel,
20:05he is held while silver is poured
20:07into his eyes and ears.
20:17In February 1220,
20:19Genghis Khan plans
20:21an attack in three phases
20:23in Parangon, Astucia and Malicia.
20:27First, two columns of Mongols
20:29attack Guarazan from opposite directions,
20:31east and west.
20:33Their main objective,
20:35make Mohammed believe
20:37that these weak attacks
20:39are the best the Mongols can show.
20:43The medieval armies of Europe
20:45and the Middle East
20:47had the strong conviction
20:49that retreating in front of the enemy
20:51was the best strategy.
20:53Another reason why they could not do it
20:55is that from the point of view
20:57of a general,
20:59once you start retreating,
21:01the others believe you have lost
21:03and suddenly you lose control
21:05of your army.
21:07Everyone would run away.
21:09We have lost, we have to flee.
21:11The Mongols retreated
21:13and as soon as they started
21:15to retreat,
21:17they dispersed suddenly
21:19Distracted by the Mongols'
21:21brawls and skirmishes,
21:23Sultan Mohammed deployed his forces
21:25along hundreds of kilometers
21:27of fertile land
21:29through the river valley
21:31to the south of Samarkand.
21:33But far north,
21:35Genghis Khan prepares
21:37the main assault.
21:39Genghis Khan carefully recruits
21:41as guides the smugglers
21:43and bandits who know
21:45the secret water wells
21:47of the desert of Kilz Kum.
21:49They are the ones
21:51who will guide their armies
21:53through 500 kilometers
21:55of sand-punished desert.
21:57It is the back door
21:59of the Sultan's kingdom.
22:01In March 1220,
22:03Genghis Khan and his army
22:05emerge from what the Sultan
22:07believed to be an impenetrable desert
22:09like the demons of his worst nightmare.
22:13In one of the most
22:15grandiose rear-guard strategies
22:17in the history of war,
22:19the proud Samarkand falls
22:21in just 10 days.
22:23Sultan Mohammed shows
22:25his true talent,
22:27fleeing from one city to another
22:29to save his life.
22:31As hunters chasing a fox,
22:33the great Mongol generals
22:35receive 20,000 men
22:37to crush any population
22:39that takes refuge in the fugitive sultan
22:41and follow the trail
22:44It was not just about
22:46defeating an army
22:48in the battlefield,
22:50but eradicating
22:52the power of a country
22:54to ground zero
22:56so that it could not recover.
22:58So they sowed salt fields,
23:00destroyed the wells,
23:02flooded the cities,
23:04cut the canals,
23:06tore the orchards
23:08as if tomorrow did not exist.
23:10The monstrous wave of Mongol devastation
23:12destroyed magnificent Persian cities
23:14like Balkh and Herat.
23:16Genghis Khan did not care.
23:21They couldn't care less.
23:23And the destruction
23:25that they committed
23:27in the eastern Islamic world
23:29has persisted to this day.
23:34The ruins of once-grand cities
23:36still lie wasted
23:38throughout Persia
23:41With the annexation of Khwarazm,
23:43the empire of Genghis Khan
23:45extends from the Yellow River
23:47to the Caspian Sea,
23:49the largest land empire
23:51in the history of the world.
23:54The most notable result
23:56of the Mongol conquest
23:58is that the East is open to the West
24:00for the first time in a thousand years.
24:04The Mongol Pax,
24:06a Mongol peace,
24:08allowed people for the first time
24:10to travel in absolute safety
24:12from Rome
24:14to Beijing.
24:18It was never possible before
24:20and it was not possible
24:22until the 20th century.
24:24It's not a small thing.
24:27There were people from the Middle East
24:29who traveled everywhere,
24:31even to China.
24:33A famous traveler,
24:35Ibn Battuta of Morocco,
24:37traveled through many of the successive states
24:39of the Mongols,
24:41states governed by the descendants
24:43of Genghis Khan.
24:45And that created a kind of knowledge
24:47of each civilization in Eurasia,
24:49acquiring more knowledge
24:51from each other.
24:55Ironically,
24:57the creation of such an empire
24:59was not the goal of Genghis Khan.
25:01The flame of revenge
25:03was still burning in his chest.
25:05He already has a game to win
25:07against the Chinese.
25:09And he decides to dedicate himself to it.
25:11But it is out of his reach.
25:15In 1227,
25:17at the age of 65,
25:19Genghis Khan dies on the way to China,
25:21according to legend,
25:23because of a tragic horse accident.
25:27His body is escorted
25:29by armed troops and slave maidens
25:31back to the steppe,
25:33to be buried in secret.
25:37There are some legends
25:39that say that 50 guards were chosen
25:41to bury him,
25:43who were murdered by another 50 guards,
25:45who were also murdered by others,
25:47so that his tomb remained
25:49in secret for various reasons.
25:51And the exact place is not known.
25:55The Mongol chiefs
25:57were buried in complete secrecy.
25:59They went off
26:01in a procession
26:03with the people who were going
26:05to bury them,
26:07making the horns sound
26:09and playing the drums,
26:11making as much noise
26:13as possible.
26:15If the procession met
26:17someone on the way
26:19from the secret place
26:21where the burial was going to take place,
26:23they killed him.
26:25The goal was that no one
26:27would ever open any tomb
26:29of a Mongol chief.
26:31They have never been found
26:33and we have no idea
26:35what they contain.
26:37Genghis Khan's empire
26:39seems to have been lost
26:41as much as his funeral tomb,
26:43because after his death,
26:45the state that had unified
26:47is divided into four kingdoms
26:49for his four sons.
26:51But the dream continues.
26:53It will become a nightmare
26:55and the story will trigger
26:57a reign of terror
26:59even more bloody and brutal
27:01than that of Genghis Khan.
27:09In an eruption
27:11of violent conquest,
27:13the Mongol empire continues
27:15its expansion
27:17after the death of Genghis Khan
27:19in 1227.
27:21In the west,
27:23in the south of Russia
27:25and in Warazan.
27:27In the Far East,
27:29the grandson of Khan
27:31defeats and unifies
27:33the three kingdoms of China.
27:35And in Persia,
27:37the Mongols become Islam
27:39building fabulous mosques
27:41to glorify their new god.
27:43However,
27:45although the Mongol empire
27:47is a success,
27:49its enormous size
27:51was not like China,
27:53for example.
27:55Perhaps the Mongol army
27:57was composed of about
27:59100,000 men,
28:01no more.
28:03So the larger the territory
28:05they dominated,
28:07the finer the Mongol control
28:09over it.
28:11In the middle of the 14th century,
28:13the Genghis Khan empire
28:15was very weakened.
28:17Like the old Mongol plans
28:19their rulers spent their time
28:21fighting each other
28:23instead of combining their forces.
28:27The actual power
28:29was going from the hands
28:31to the family of Genghis Khan
28:33and falling into the hands
28:35of the lords of the tribal wars
28:37who did not belong to the imperial family
28:39but who held the real power.
28:41In the middle of the year 1300
28:43in the lands of Warazan
28:45in modern Uzbekistan,
28:47a Mongol called Timur
28:49is about to steal a sheep from a neighbor.
28:51He is a cunning and stealthy adversary
28:53for the shepherd
28:55but this time his luck fails him.
29:01It is said that he receives
29:03a wound that he will never fully recover
29:05and will remain lame for life.
29:09When he comes to power
29:11they call him Timur the Lame
29:13or Tamerlan in the West.
29:15In the year 1360
29:17Timur is an important emir or chief
29:19a master of chess
29:21and a skilful strategist.
29:23Although he is Mongol
29:25he cannot prove to descend from Genghis Khan
29:27so an elaborate genealogy
29:29is invented
29:31linking him to the great chief.
29:33He even takes two wives
29:35descendants of Genghis Khan
29:37to legitimize the alliance
29:39between the two tribes.
29:41I think Timur saw himself
29:43as the restorer
29:45of the new version
29:47of the history of Genghis Khan
29:49which was his own version
29:51reflected through the prism
29:53of his ambitions.
29:55And at a certain point
29:57he saw himself as a man
29:59with a destiny
30:01not only as the messenger of heaven
30:03who had been Genghis Khan
30:05but as a person acting
30:07for the sake of the people
30:09in his own right.
30:15Around 1375
30:17the Mongol Empire
30:19is not the only restoration project
30:21of Timur.
30:23A century and a half after
30:25Genghis Khan set fire to Samarkand
30:27Timur hopes to make his city
30:29the jewel of the world.
30:31He was born in that area
30:33and he was always attached
30:35to what is now Uzbekistan
30:37as his birthplace
30:39and in the course of his
30:41campaigns
30:43wherever he went
30:45he would kill everybody
30:47in a city of the city
30:49but he would save all the artisans
30:51from there and transport them
30:53back to Samarkand.
30:55So you must imagine
30:57Samarkand alive with traditions
30:59from all over the Muslim world
31:01from China and India.
31:03Samarkand was something special
31:05Samarkand was a garden city
31:07and one of the biggest
31:09construction activities
31:11of Timur
31:13was the excavation of irrigation
31:15canals that filled the outskirts
31:17of wonderful gardens.
31:19Because Timur was a Muslim
31:21he also built religious buildings
31:23and he used a large part of the booty
31:25he acquired by conquering India
31:27to build an absolutely gigantic mosque.
31:29One of Timur's features
31:31seems to have been his pride
31:33and his megalomania
31:35and that can be seen
31:37in this mosque.
31:39It is colossal.
31:41Size, with a portal
31:43of 15 meters high
31:45the impression that you had to cause
31:47was, I am a poor and tiny faithful
31:49that I have to cross this door
31:51of 15 meters to get in.
31:53The magnificence of Samarkand
31:55is a testament
31:57to the power of Timur
31:59but it is also a testament
32:01to the power of Timur
32:03to impose order.
32:07Out of the walls of Samarkand
32:09his cruelty and mercy
32:11became legendary.
32:15From 1385
32:17Timur is dedicated to systematically
32:19looting all of eastern Persia
32:21as well as cities
32:23of all of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia
32:25and the Caucasus.
32:27Tens of thousands of people
32:29are killed along the way.
32:33In 1398
32:35Timur follows the steps of the Greeks
32:37leading a bold expedition
32:39through the most famous mountains
32:41in the world, the Hindu Kush.
32:43Then he invades
32:45the north of India.
32:47But the further away
32:49he extends his dominions
32:51the more difficult it is to control
32:53the hostile populations.
32:55When the inhabitants of Delhi
32:57rebel against their new Mongol lords
32:59Timur opens a page
33:01of the book of the terror of Genghis Khan
33:03and writes a new chapter
33:05even more horrible.
33:09The chronicles that tell
33:11that he cut off the heads of his victims
33:13and piled them in huge piles
33:15are too frequent
33:17to be mere rhetoric.
33:19In numbers there could be
33:21about 70,000 or 80,000 dead
33:23but it did not matter
33:25because we are talking
33:27about psychological weapons
33:29which is something that the Mongols
33:31introduced.
33:33One thing is to go to war
33:35and another to use terror
33:37as a weapon of war
33:39which is what Timur did.
33:43Timur took advantage
33:45of Genghis Khan's legacy
33:47He was more cruel
33:49in the sense that his killings
33:51were more brutal
33:53and faster
33:55although always respecting
33:57the artisans.
33:59When they say he destroyed a city
34:01it is a metaphor
34:03which means he killed so many people
34:05as if it were a disaster
34:07but then he took from every city
34:09he conquered the best workers
34:11the best artisans
34:13the best engineers
34:15and the best products.
34:17The line of the sky of the domes
34:19of the modern Istanbul
34:21is witness of a dynasty
34:23that got in the way of Timur's dream
34:25with a Mongol empire
34:27the size of Genghis Khan's
34:29the Ottoman Turks.
34:31In 1402 the territories
34:33in Timur's expansion
34:35reached the immovable borders
34:37of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid.
34:39Proud to scratch
34:41in arrogance
34:43neither of the two rulers
34:45tolerated the other.
34:47He even suggested that Bayezid's mother
34:49is of an uncertain birth
34:51meaning that she is a whore.
34:57Bayezid could not stand it anymore
34:59leading one of the best armies
35:01in the world
35:03the Sultan left his fortress of Ankara
35:05to meet with Timur's
35:07very inferior forces.
35:09Confident and imposing
35:11he knows little about the cunning genius
35:13of the Mongol Timur.
35:17In 1402
35:19aggravated by insults to his honor
35:21the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid
35:23hurries to face
35:25the Mongol army of Timur.
35:27But Timur, aware of the Sultan's route
35:29agilely surrounds the Turks.
35:33Traveling through unknown routes
35:35he surprises the Sultan
35:37and places the Turkish bastion
35:39Ankara itself.
35:41It is a turn of events
35:43humiliating for Bayezid
35:45who is forced to retreat
35:47to defend his city.
35:51When his exhausted troops finally arrive
35:53they are no rival
35:55for the well-rested army of Timur.
35:59And what is worse
36:01in the heat of battle
36:03a whole Turkish battalion
36:05deserts and passes to the Mongol side
36:07when they see a prince
36:09admired by them
36:11fighting alongside Timur.
36:15Deceived, betrayed
36:17and totally exhausted
36:19Sultan Bayezid refuses
36:21to leave the battlefield.
36:23He is determined to fight to the end
36:25but is captured and made a prisoner.
36:31The Ottoman defeat is sweet for Timur
36:33but it is even more delicious
36:35for Christian Europe.
36:39If you look at the situation
36:41on the great strategic map
36:43of Eurasia at that time
36:45the Ottoman sultans
36:47were forced to invade
36:49Constantinople.
36:51They had penetrated
36:53in Europe
36:55they had surrounded it
36:57they were ready to start the siege
36:59that would destroy the main city
37:01of Eastern Christianity.
37:03And just then
37:05they had bad luck
37:07someone came calling
37:09to the back door
37:11and that was Timur.
37:13The reaction of Europe
37:15to the defeat of Bayezid
37:17was of immeasurable joy.
37:23With the defeat of the Ottomans
37:25in 1402
37:27the empire of Timur
37:29approaches that of Genghis Khan
37:31in size and pretensions.
37:33Predictably it will not be enough
37:35to secure his place in history
37:37he must do better than his hero
37:39and the only way to get it
37:41is to take over
37:43what Genghis Khan could not
37:45China.
37:51But like Genghis Khan
37:53Timur mysteriously sick
37:55and dies on the way to China.
38:01In 1405
38:03he is buried in Samarkand
38:05in a tomb so ornamented
38:07as simple was that of Genghis Khan.
38:13There is a curious anecdote
38:15that tells that
38:17when he was agonizing
38:19he said
38:21do not desecrate my tomb
38:23because if you do
38:25you will fall a curse worse than me.
38:27And his grave remained
38:29completely sealed
38:31until June 22, 1941
38:33when Soviet archaeologists
38:35opened it
38:37and found the skeleton
38:39of a tall man
38:41with a damaged hip.
38:43And on June 22, 1941
38:45Hitler launched his attack
38:47on Russia
38:49which marked the beginning
38:51of a stage in which
38:53about 20 million Russians
38:55would die in four years.
38:57So you could say
38:59that his shadow
39:01lasted until the 20th century.
39:07Without the strength of personality
39:09and the leadership of Timur
39:11their heirs are unable
39:13to maintain the united empire.
39:15The Mongols begin to diffuse
39:17in history.
39:19Too few in number
39:21to govern their vast empire
39:23end up assimilating
39:25the cultures they conquer
39:27And yet
39:29it can be said that today
39:31its impact remains
39:33immeasurably present.
39:35By opening China to the West
39:37the Mongols created an insatiable thirst
39:39for Asian goods.
39:41The impulse to satisfy it
39:43promoted the era of discoveries
39:45and the trips that would lead
39:47Europe to America.
39:49In reality, by destroying
39:51the old empires of China and Persia
39:53the Mongols gave birth
39:55to an empire that extended
39:57from the sea of Japan
39:59to the Baltic, from Korea
40:01to the east of Germany
40:03and which occupied
40:05most of Eurasia
40:07except India and Southeast Asia.
40:09There was nothing like it.
40:13Will there ever be
40:15an equal empire?
40:17In Mongolia, some
40:19fervently hope so.
40:21Even today, there they worship
40:23Genghis Khan as a god.
40:25His name
40:27is a source of national pride.
40:29His tent, a sacred temple.
40:31It is not surprising that
40:33the Mongols eagerly wait
40:35for his spirit to resurface
40:37and for the barbarian to return.