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40 Awe-Inspiring Facts About Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire

Khalid Elhassan February 3, 2019 24 min

10. Genghis Committed His Greatest Atrocities Against the Western Xia

Genghis had reduced the Western Xia in China to vassalage in 1210, and for nearly a decade, they served him, assisting against the Jin and other enemies. However, when war broke out between Genghis and the Khwarezmians, the Western Xia took the opportunity to renounce their vassalage and ally with the other Chinese. Genghis responded to the betrayal by invading the Western Xia again in 1225, this time with the aim of exterminating them. He conducted a genocidal campaign, in which he systematically reduced and destroyed their cities, while massacring both the urban and rural populations.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.