21. Growing Up in Desperate Want
After uniting the Mongols, Temujin conquered and absorbed neighboring tribes, and formed them into a greater Mongol nation. He then adopted the title Chinggis Khan, or Universal Ruler, and set out to conquer the world. He had been born the son of a minor Mongol chieftain, who was murdered when Temujin was nine. Tribal rivals then banished his widow and her family of five children to fend for themselves on the harsh Steppe. It was a veritable death sentence, but Temujin’s mother managed to keep her children alive. Or at least most of them: the family endured such dire want and poverty, and things got so bad, that Temujin killed an older brother for refusing to share a fish – or in some accounts, a marmot – a Steppe rodent. Temujin grew into a tough but charismatic man, and in his youth, began amassing a small and devoted following.
