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The Rise of Temujin From a Nobody to History’s Greatest Conqueror

Khalid Elhassan April 28, 2025 20 min

8. …and Exterminator of Peoples

Chinggis Khan statue at the Mongolian Parliament building in Ulan Bator. ABC News

Chinggis had reduced the Western Xia in China to vassalage in 1210. For nearly a decade, they served him, assisting against the Jin and other enemies. However, when war broke out between Chinggis and the Khwarezmians, the Western Xia took the opportunity to renounce their vassalage and ally with the other Chinese. Chinggis responded to the betrayal by invading the Western Xia again in 1225, this time intending to exterminate 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.