The history of Mongolia merges with the history of the wandering people which populated the steppe of Central Asia.

With the sources of the River Love which is used as border with the China and the Russia, Mongolia is the heart of the steppe of central Asia and was often the starting point of frightening warriors which, when they knew to federate their tribes of wandering stockbreeders, could cut empires, while breaking with their arcs and their small horses until the south of China, and the India, and even in Western Europe (Huns of Attila, Bulgares, Avar S, Hungarians framed by a hunnic aristocracy).

Proud to have constituted at the 13th century with Gengis Khan the vastest empire of the world, pacified by the Manchu S at the 17th century, become independent of China as from 1911 with the assistance of the Russians, Mongolia is exerted today with the democracy with the assistance of the international community.

Prehistory

The man appears in Mongolia between 200.000 and 100.000 before our era. The first human agglomerations, discovered in the South of the areas of Khangaï and the Gobi, deliver a great number of cut stones and primitive weapons, made partly river rollers, one of the end of the roller having been cut to be sharp. They can be used to cut up the flesh of the killed animals, to skin and prepare their skins. They were manufactured by the man of the Ordos, near to the Homme of Néandertal, discovered in 1920. The climate of the territory of Ordos, at the end of the paleolithic superior (100 000), is much softer than nowadays. The mountains are covered with forests of fir trees and leafy trees. The meadows of the valleys nourish herds of Mammouth S, but also of the animals of the hot zones, like the Antilope S.

During the Paleolithic average, from 100.000 to 40.000 before our era, the period refrigerator modifies the lifestyles. The men have more and more needs for skins of animal and wood shelters. The stone tools improve and diversify. Fire is discovered, the men shelters in caves, takes the animals with the trap and digs pits with piles cut at a peak.

The Homo sapiens appears in Central Asia towards 40.000. The most important sites of Mongolia going back to the higher Paléolithique (- 40 000, - 12 000) are in the aïmak Boulgan, at the edge of the river Kharaa and close to Ulan-Bator, around Sar Khad. The excavations and the prehistoric objects of the edges of the Toula and the Selenga indicate that the area is occupied by Mammouth S, prehistoric stag S with large wood, Rhinocéros with fur of Siberia, Bison S and various types of Antilope S. the use of the weapons of jet is spread (Javelot with point of bone on the road connecting Ulan-Bator and Sukhebâtor). Men of this period, thanks to the development of the techniques of hunting (traps, beaten, weapons of jet), as attests it found furniture, are less wandering than their ancestors. Climate warming makes it possible to the men to leave the caves to be established in the valleys at the river banks (sites of the rivers Aga, Orkhon and Selenga) in huts with round or square base dug in the ground, on the ground filled of bone of animals or stones, with the covered walls of skins of animals and with the walls and the roofs of branches. It is supposed that the big families were formed for this period. These communities based on the common descent carry out necessary works and drives out jointly. The women collect the fruits and the grains, cultivate the ground in a primitive way, keep the hearth, prepare the skin of the killed animals and make clothing. Certain authors speak about a system matriarcal at the end of the period, when the big families of hunters managed to be established in order to little close stable.

The Neolithic begins in Central Asia in VIIe or thousand-year-old Ve. The excavations of A.P. Okladnikov undertaken in 1960 in the southern aïmak of the plate of Gobi delivered the remainders of workshops of stone tools, a hearth out of stone, cut weapons and tools, bones of animals (of which poultries), remainders of coal and ash. Among the stone tools one notes a great number of scrapers and arrows wrought of the two with dimensions ones. The Neolithic man controls drilling and polishing. Close to the river Yœrœ have summers discovered of the crushing mortars attesting of the knowledge of the transformation of the Blé. Elsewhere instruments of fishing out of stone were found. Objects discovered, among which tools makes in Néphrite where it does not meet, bring to suppose that the relationship between the human communities exceeds the borders of the Mongolia of today.

Stones with stags

In the plains of the north of Mongolia, mysterious horned representations of creature with nozzle of bird seem to climb along granite monoliths called stones with stags . These steles of which some reach 4,5 m height, show also belts equipped with arrows, axes and tools of the Bronze Age. According to the specialists who try to decipher these monuments, they were set up between 1100 and 800 av. J-C, approximately a millenium before the warriors of Genghis Khan do not dominate these steppes. They are homages to chiefs or warriors, perhaps fallen to the combat. These creatures semi-stag semi-bird were to probably show the way towards beyond. Some is their significance, it was strong, because, for each stele, several horses were sacrificed. Their heads were buried rings some around the monoliths, the muzzle pointed towards the rising sun. One already found nearly 600 stones in Mongolia, with the Kazakhstan and in Russia.

The Xiongnu

Xiongnu enter the history in -245, at the time of a confrontation against the Chinese kingdom of Zhao. The wandering confederation of the Xiongnu (Hiong-nou) creates by Touman (You eou-man), certainly made up people Proto-Turkish, finds his center in the area of the Orkhon and the Selenga, in current Mongolia. The '' chan-yu '' which holds the supreme capacity resides on the higher course of the Orkhon. It is followed in the hierarchy by both toukis (wise chiefs). The “wise chief of left”, heir to the title of '' chan-yu '', has his seat in the east close to the higher course of the Kerulen. The “wise chief of right-hand side” is installed in the mountain of the Khangaï, close to Ouliastaï. Civils servant theirs are subordinates. The empire is organized on a military base with a severe discipline. The army, made up of the whole of the men, is divided into ten regiments, subdivided in squadrons and “tenth”. The decimal division of the army, like the tactics and the military discipline, will survive the empire. The cavalry, very mobile, is the principal weapon. Xiongnu seldom fight an arranged battle, preferring to tighten ambushes. Of Chinese source, they are excellent archers.

As the excavations of Noïm-Oualaï attest it, Xiongnu practice the craft industry: ironwork (cast iron crockery and small bells), spinning and weaving of wool, goldsmithery. They are certainly chamanists. They adore the sky (Tengueri) and the spirits of the mountains and the collars. To carry mourning, they are wounded the face with a knife so that blood mingles with their tears. They often strangle the women and the servants of noble late to bury them with. They manufacture a cut of cranium of their enemies, to multiply by ten their forces while drinking inside. The principal festival with place in autumn when the population and the herds meet for a census on order of the chan-yu .

Empires of the steppes

Towards 150 the Xianbei exert their hegemony on Eastern Mongolia with the detriment of the septentrional Xiongnu. With the IIIe century, the Avars or Ruanruan form a confederation which extends to the Ve century from the Korea to the Irtych. The powerful empire Köktürks of Bumin beats them in 552. Mongolia is integrated into the first then with the second Turkish empire until in 744. The Ouïghours dominate then the area until in 840 when their empire falls under the blows from the Kyrgyz . The latter are driven out in their turn by the Khitans in 924. The Mongolia, emptied its inhabitants, escapes from now on the people Turkish (the Ouïgours refuse the proposal of the Khitan to reinstate the area) with the profit from the proto-Mongolian come mainly from Mandchourie (Tatars, Naïman, Keraït, Ongüt).

The empires of the steppes , according to the formula of Rene Grousset, were constituted starting from a clan which, on the initiative of an energetic chief proclaimed khaan (or large khan or qagan), joined together by the force of the weapons and matrimonial alliances a vast confederation of tribes. And after having broken and subjected rich person close sedentary kingdoms, generally its empire is dislocated under its successors as quickly as it was formed.

Several empires follow one another as follows:

• Hsiung-naked, vast confederation (beginning of our era).
• Tabghach, Topa (dynasty of Wei of north in China, 317 - 557).
• Huns, causes the great invasions of passing the the Volga and the Don (370), settles in Hungary then attack the Gaulle (406 - 453).
• Hsien Pei, several dynasties in China (340 - 600).
• Huns white or Yüeh-Chih, goes on the Amou Daria (420), attack the Perse, ruin the Gandhara and its gréco-Buddhist civilization (460), conquers the Indus (510).
• Juan-Juan (“swarming insects”), confederation of tribes, immense territory of Irtysh to the Korea (450 - 550).
• Avar, resulting from the precedents, passes in Europe and dominates the Slavic people between Hungary, Austria and Croatia (570 - 790).
• Türk or Turkmènes, is established in the Turkestan to which they give their name (VIe century).
• Khazar, empire between Kiev and Gazan partially converted with the Judaism (700 - 1000). - Uïghur of Mongolia, settles in the Sinkiang (VIIIe century).
• Khitan, established in China of north to the Ve century, founds with Beijing the Dynastie Liao (957 - 1125).
• Türk ghaznavide, reigns in Afghanistan and Penjab (970 - 1180).
• Türk saljuqide, resulting from Turkmènes of Oguz, settles with Bukhara (990), then subjects the Iran, “protects” the Califat in the Iraq, deshellénisent is Turkey and found the Sultanat of Rum (1050 - 1243).
• Jürchet, Tunguz of Mandchourie, founds the dynasty Kin and Beijing (1115 - 1234).
• Mamelukes of Egypt, former slaves generally resulting from turco-Mongolian.
• Othoman, resulting from Saljuqide, takes again their project and founds an empire (1359 - 1923).
• Timûride, clan türk close to Samarkand combined to Mongols, led by Tamerlan (Timûr-i Lang), pushes until Delhi in India and with the Turkey; reign in Iran, Turkestan, Afghanistan (1363 - 1517).
• Moghol, resulting from the precedents, conquers India (1520 - 1860).
• Uzbek, Türks driven out of Iran, remelt the khanats of Bukhara and from the Karesm or Khiva (1512 - 1860) and extend as far as China (Chinese Turkestan).
• Manchu, heirs to Jürchet, take again Beijing and the Mongolian project, founds the dynasty Ch' ing (1644 - 1912).

Most famous and vastest of these empires, that of Gengis Khan, had been initially made up starting from its tribe, Arlat, to which the other tribes properly Mongolian cousins had confederated initially, then Djelaïr, Tatar, Merkit, Oïrat, Tumat, Naïman, Ongüt, and especially the federation of Kereit where, as in the two preceding ones, dominated of the Christians nestoriens, and which under Thogril (Ong khan, “Jean Priest”), whose father of Gengis Khan was the sworn ally, had extremely advanced the project of confederation that Gengis will begin again on its account after having overcome its former Master.

The origin of the Mongols

It seems that these people appear already in the Chinese chronicles of the 4th century of the Christian era under the name of Meng-gu . It would be originating in the Western borders of the Mandchourie, i.e. of the area of the higher course of the Amour river.

It is a fact that the Mongols never were in direct contact with the Indo-European people (Iranian and Tokhariens) which dominated the Central Asia to the surroundings of the year 1000, contrary to the Peuples Turkish. That is explained by the fact why they at that time occupied moved back an enough position.

The Mongols have a particular bond with the mountainous solid mass of Khentei, located at the north of Ulan-Bator and the south of the Lac Baïkal. They locate at it their crowned mountain, Burqan Qaldun, where their mythical ancestors, the Blue Loup and the Fawn-coloured Biche (Börte Chino and Qo' have Maral) would have lived.

The first Mongolian confederation that one knows is formed in the east of Khentei, under the impulse of Qabul Khan, which probably lived between 1100 and 1150. Its conflicts with the Tatars, its Eastern neighbors, involved his dislocation.

The Mongolian Empire

Gengis Khan was a great-grandson of Qabul Khan. One does not know in which year its birth is: this perhaps 1155, 1162 or 1167. He died in 1227 has Qingshui in current the Gansu. Between 1187 and 1196, he was proclaimed khan (i.e. king). He demolished Taichi' ud, which lived in the south of current the Bouriatie, in Siberia, then Tatars, which enabled him to control Eastern Mongolia. In 1204, it subjected Merkid, the west of the Lac Baïkal, and a year later, it was with the turn of Naiman, the west of current Mongolia, to be overcome. Consequently, Genghis Khan controlled almost all the Mongolian territory. A large assembly, in 1206, named it khan universal.

The Ouïgours joined the Mongols in 1209. It was them which gave them their writing. This same year, Genghis Khan began its countryside against the kingdom of Xia Occidental, founded by the Tangoutes around the current Chinese province of Ningxia, but it did not finish it which 24 years later, right before dying. In 1211, it launched the attack against the Jin, a dynasty founded in 1115 by Jürchen, populates related with the Mandchous. The town of Beijing, capital of Jin, was taken and plundered in 1215, but the Jin sovereign had taken refuge with Kaifeng. This dynasty crumbled only in 1234, under the combined action of the Mongols and the Chinese of the South, who were then allied.

In 1220, Genghis Khan tackled the Turkish and Moslem empire Khwarezm, centered on current the Ouzbékistan. Its countryside, punctuated by terrible massacres, led it until the North-West of the India. A detachment of 10.000 men, led by Subötai and Djebé, ventured as far as Russia, from which it crushed the armies.

Two years after the death of Genghis Khan, in 1227, its third wire Ögödei succeeded to him. It was under its reign, between 1236 and 1242, that the countryside of Europe was held. The Russian armies, then Polish and Hungarian were swept, and the Mongols arrived on banks of the Adriatique. Their troops withdrew Central Europe however rather quickly.

In 1235, Ögödei built a wall around a place that Genghis Khan had chosen like “base camp”. This city became Karakorum, the capital of the Mongols. It is located at 320 km in the west of Ulan-Bator.

Ögödei being deceased in 1241, the capacity was held by the Töregene regent. Güyük, wire of the late emperor, reached the capacity in 1246, but he died two years later. July 1st 1251, Möngke, a first cousin of Güyük, became Large Khan. One can consider that it was the last true emperor of the Mongols, because after its reign, the Mongolian empire lost its unit. Möngke started the conquest of China of the South, then controlled by the remainder of the Dynastie Song. His/her brother Hülegü was named viceroy of Iran ( It-khan ) in 1253 and took Baghdad on February 10th, 1258. The caliph Al-Mustasim was carried out, which was a very hard blow carried to the Islam.

Rise and fall

Khubilaï, another brother of Möngke, succeeded the May 16th to him 1260, at the conclusion of what was a true coup d'etat: the sovereigns were normally made elect at the time of an assembly, the quriltaï , but Khubilaï did not convene practically any relative. That did not give him any legitimacy with the eyes of other Genghiskhanides.

Its merit is to have completed the conquest of the China. As of its advent, it settled with Beijing, and in 1271, it took a dynastic title with the Chinese manner: that of Yuan. But it did not become therefore a Chinese emperor. The Mongols remained always a foreign body with this country and practiced a policy of discrimination with regard to the autochtones.

On most of Eurasia, after the time of the war and from its atrocities, that had come from “Mongolian peace”. It is the safety of the transportation routes which made it possible Marco Polo to arrive to China. There however did not exist any more one single Mongolian empire, but several: that of the Yuan in China, that of Jaghataï (1227-1338) in Central Asia, that of the It-khans (1259-1411) in Iran and Afghanistan and that of the Horde of Gold (1243-1502) in Russia. The last resulted from Jöchi, the oldest son of Genghis Khan, while Jaghataï was the second wire of Genghis Khan. Möngke, Khubilaï and Hülegü were the children of its fourth wire, Tului.

The time of the invincibility of the Mongols had passed. The campaigns launched by Khubilaï with the Japan, the Vietnam and Java were failures. After the death of this sovereign in 1294, Yuan weakened gradually. Revolts occurred and the Chinese ended up driving out the Mongols. Large Khan Toghan Temür, arrived at the capacity in 1333, left Beijing in the night of September 10th 1368 and died on the ground of its ancestors four years later.

However Mongolia was in a pitiful state. The best of its sons had left to the conquest the world and this country had only little benefitted from it. More still, he had suffered from the conflicts between rival princes.

Dayan Khan

While the descendants of Genghis Khan were entretuaient, in a country delivered to plunderings and anarchy, Mongolian people which had not taken part in the conquests started to illustrate themselves. They are Oïrat, still called Western Mongols, who lived in the west of the Lac Baïkal and in the north of the Altaï. Their chief, Toghan, transformed into 1434 Mongolia in a protectorate. His/her son Esen Taïji successful a formidable blow the glare by capturing the emperor of China (of the Dynasty Ming), at the time of a battle where 100.000 Chinese soldiers lost the life. He was assassinated in 1455.

Oïrat were divided soon into three groups, Jüüngar ( Züün Gar Left hand” in modern Mongolian, group which gave its name to the Dzoungarie, area of the north of the Xinjiang), Khoshuut and Torguut (also known under the name of Kalmouks).

The restoration of the Eastern Mongols was the work of an exceptional woman, Mandukhaï Khatun. She collected one of the survivors of the descent of Khubilaï, Batu-Möngke, which was then seven years old. She put it on the throne, drove out Oïrat of Mongolia and ensured regency. At the 18 years age, Batu-Möngke married his/her adoptive mother and took the title of Dayan Khan ( Dayan coming from Chinese Da Yuan ). It reigned during step less than 73 years, until in 1543 on pacified Mongolia.

It carried out a distribution of the Eastern Mongols which exists still today. Khalkha and Chakhar formed the Eastern wing, the first in central Mongolia and the seconds in the east of current the Mongolia-Interior. Ordos and Tümet formed the Western wing, the first in the center of the Inner Mongolia and the seconds in north of the first. Chakhar, being directed by the elder branch of Dayanides, could carry the title of Large Khan.

Conversion with Buddhism

Altan Khan (1507? - 1582), grandson of Dayan Khan and king of Tümet, helped by his great nephew Khutukhtaï-sechen-khontaïji (1540-1586), prince of Ordos, continued military campaigns started by his grandfather. He overcame Oïrat, got a foothold in the current Chinese province of the Qinghai, at the North-East of the Tibet, and arrived in front of Beijing in 1550. Twenty years later, it obtained the opening of markets at the border of China. It founded Hohhot ( Khökh khot blue Ville” in modern Mongolian), current capital of the Mongolia-Interior , in 1575.

Khutukhtaï-sechen-khontaïji converts with the Bouddhisme Tibetan into 1566. Altan Khan followed its example the 15th day of Ve the moon of 1578, at the time of a meeting with Seunam Gyamtso, the abbot of the monastery of Drépoung. This last was regarded as the third successor by reincarnation of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the line of the Guélougpa. It accepted Altan Khan the title of Dalai Lama, where dalaï is a Mongolian term meaning “ocean”.

Later, it was with the turn of Abdaï Khan (1554-1588), king of Khalkha whose prerogative was in the area of Karakorum, to convert. The capital, taken again by the Mongols after their expulsion of China, had been destroyed by the Chinese in 1380. On its ruins, in 1585, Abdaï Khan began the construction of the large monastery of Erdene Zuu (the “Monastery Jewel”), which exists still today.

Domination of the Manchus

From 1604, Chakhar were controlled by Ligdan Khan (1592-1634), legitimate holder of the title of Large Khan. He dreamed to acquire the prestige of Altan Khan and to gather the Mongols around him, but he was a character arrogant and deprived of any political tact. The tribes of southernmost Mongolia preferred, as of 1616, to adopt the Mandchous, conquerors lately appeared.

Overcome by the Manchu troops, Ligdan Khan wanted to take refuge in Tibet, but he died of variola. The imperial seal fell to the hands from Abaqaï (1627-1643), the king of the Manchus, who could consequently claim with sovereignty on the Mongols. In 1636, forty-nine princes of southernmost Mongolia recognized Abaqaï like Bogda-khan (“Auguste Khan”) at the time of a great ceremony to the lake Doloon, to 400 km in the east of Hohhot.

In 1644, the Manchus reversed the Chinese dynasty of the Ming and founded the Dynastie Qing. The southernmost Mongols were kind attached to China. Living in what one calls the Inner Mongolia, they never found their independence.

The tender of Khalkha to the Manchus was caused by emergence at Jüüngar of a conqueror of great scale, Galdan, born in 1645. After having subjected the Ouïgours of the Xinjiang, its southernmost neighbors, it turned to Mongolia. Between 1688 to 1690, he managed to put in escape princes Khalkha, who had of another possibility only of asking for the assistance of the Manchus. The emperor Kangxi ran to the meeting of Jüüngar and pushed back them with its artillery. Khalkha proclaimed their allegiance in May to him 1691, with the lake Doloon.

Galdan set out again with the attack of Mongolia, but its troops were crushed (and his wife was killed) by Manchu artillery in the south of Ulan-Bator, the June 12th 1696. The time of the military supremacy of the nomads on the sedentaries, from now on equipped with modern weapons, was completed. Galdan gives itself death the May 3rd 1697. In 1757, the Jüüngar were definitively overcome, and practically exterminated, by the Chinese troops.

Little Khalkha disputed Manchu suzerainty. One announces a revolt led by prince Chingunjav, in 1756 and 1757. The Manchus imported into Mongolia the Chinese Bureaucratie, which allowed them an absolute control of the population. This system had as a merit to prohibit the internal quarrels of the Mongols, as well as the raids which they launched the ones against the others. But the small stockbreeders were crushed taxes of drudgeries and the Chinese merchants impoverished the Mongols by their doubtful transactions and their loans atrate usuaires. As from the XIXe century, the installation of Chinese colonists tended to drive back the Mongols towards north.

Organization of Mongolia under the Manchu domination

In 1789 and 1815, the Manchus promulgate new codes of laws in Mongolia. The execution of the laws and maintains it of an interior nature of the Mongolian khanats are entrusted to the representative supreme of the emperor Qing, who holds the military capacity, political and administrative and sits at Ouliastaï. It is pressed on military and civil representatives ( amban and hebeï-amban ). The Manchu administration removes the capacity of the Mongolian lords in the aïmaks , but maintains, by limiting it, the power of the assembly of the superiors of the aïmaks , called later hochúns . The president ( darga ) of the assembly ensures the connection with the Manchu administration. The country is divided into hochúns whose surface and administration are determined by the Manchu emperor, the first of the khans, and are directed by Mongolian lords on a purely hereditary basis ( djasaks ). The djasaks must attend the triennial assembly of the aïmak to receive the orders of the Manchu dynasty. They are assisted by toussoulaktchis specialized in the military questions ( djakhiragtchi ), financial ( meirene ), of the chancellery ( bitchiguetchi ), of the mails, etc the hochúns are subdivided in sumuns , unit soldiers being able to provide at least 150 soldiers directed by a sumun dzangaï (judge) which takes care that the provisions of the administration are carried out by the arates. The sumuns are divided into bag and arban . The minimal unit, the arban , directed by an elected chief, the dorga , provides ten soldiers. Between the sumun and the hochún , the dzalan is a unit judicaire chaired by a dzalan dzangaï .

The aristocracy receives Manchu titles and rows. The lords who lost their old capacities receive the title of taïdchi . Those which have marriage thereafter, tied family ties with the reigning dynasty, are called tabunags or efous . Old the khans preserves their title, but their capacity is limited.

The arates, shepherds related to the ground, are divided into three groups. The albatous , most important, are related to the ground of the djasak (main) of the hochún . They in kind owe him a tribute and services, as well as a permanent military service and a postal service. The hamdjilgas depend on the taïdjis , lords who do not form part of the administration. Their Masters have which it as he want but they are free of the mail service, sentry or soldier. The chabinars (pupils) in the beginning are yielded by the laic lords for the work of the grounds given to the convents, but starting from 1764 they are related to the grounds of the convents and the notable ecclesiastics.

In first half of the 19th century, confronted with misery, many arates leaves collectively the hardest hochúns for the close territories. Others, especially in the border region, desert for the Russia, in spite of the Russo-Manchu agreements stipulating the handing-over of the runaways to their Masters.

In 1803, Chinese merchants of the towns of Ourga and Ouliastaï are expelled on order of the Manchu emperor. Passing in addition to the restrictive measures, they exceeded the authorized duration of stay and establishes deposits and shops. This illegal activity is often supported by Mongolian lords, even Manchu, injured by the restrictive measures. During the first part of the 19th century, the Manchu aristocrats come into contact with business enterprises and financial Chinese interested by an intensive trade with the Mongolia. Under the pressure of the civils servant, majority of the Manchu lords and part of the Mongolian aristocracy, the imperial capacity refuses the applications aiming at blocking the trade. The urbanization develops in parallel and Ourga, Ouliastaï, Kiakhta and Kobdo becomes true commercial cities, attracting Russian merchants. The practice of wear atprohibitory rate gains ground, with for main victims the arates. Gigantic commercial firms and leagues of tradesmen appear and seize certain monopolies (transport, purchase of raw materials, etc) to the detriment of the local lords.

From second half of the 19th century, special forms of exploitation of the arates make their appearance, still worsening their misery. The habit of the sale of the right of the perception of the taxes by to the firms Chinese usurières by the djasaks or the taïdjis is propagated. Progressive impoverishment rising from the strong attrition rates applied involves the producing stagnation of the forces then the decline of the economy.

The lifting of prohibitory measurements makes it possible the Chinese capital to take possession of the Mongolian grounds. The installation of an office of immigration supports colonization. The misery and the appropriation of the best grounds force the arates to leave towards the thinnest pastures, while enormous farms are created.

Mongolian popular culture under the Manchu domination

About the middle of the XIXe century, popular poetry expresses the fight for independence and freedom. In the chansons de geste, the demons yield the place to the feudal khans and enemy civils servant of the heroes, invariably overcome, or personify them. The popular tales like “ the Malignant Daughter-in-law ”, “ the Poor Little boy ”, “the Little boy Eight Year old ”, whose heroes humiliate and drive out the leading class, testify to the anti-feudal and anti-Manchu feelings. The stories of Badartchines (monk begging) or of Balansengué express anti-lamaïstes feelings. One of the most eminent storytellers of the time is Sandag, author of allegorical poetries. Guélegbalsane becomes Master in the art of the songs requiring a blessing, in which it describes the misery of those which beseech.

A line of Tulku

Whereas the projection of the Mandchou S was in hand, Gombo-dorji (1594-1655), a grandson of Abdaï Khan, discovered in his/her three years old son (born in 1635) a crowned incarnation. It does not matter of what a Buddhist divinity this child was the incarnation! He could be a factor of unit between the Mongols and constitute a brake with the " tibétisation" Mongolian company. The idea of Gombo-dorji did not have a political consequence, but it leads to the creation of a holy line similar to that of the Dalaï Lama S: the child, who was called Zanabazar (Mongolian deformation of a word Sanskrit, Jñanavajra " Vajra de Connaissance"), from now on réincarner went after each death. These incarnations would be known under the name of Jebtsundamba-khutukhtu .

Zanabazar went to the Tibet to the fourteen years age, between 1649 and 1651, and accepted a tibéto-Mongolian education. It was named by the Dalaï LAMA under the title of Bogdo-Gegen (" pontiff éclairé" , one of the 3 important titles for the Mongolian Buddhists with that of Dalaï Lama, and Panchen LAMA). He was a character extremely shining: sculptor, painter, architect and translator. He invented even a phonetic writing of the Mongolian , Tibetan and Sanskrit. At age the 17 years (or only 13 years, according to certain sources), it founded the monastery of Da Khüriye, which became starting from 1778 and after several displacements the core of future Urga (Ulan-Bator). He died in 1723, shortly after a 10 years stay in China.

The force of its personality surely contributed to the prestige of the others Jebtsundamba khutukhtu . That these " Buddhas vivants" were not paragons of virtue (two died of syphilis!) changed nothing there. With died of the second of them, the Qing issued that they would be born with the Tibet, so that they were of origin Tibetan, but that did not change anything with the veneration either that the Mongols dedicated to them.

Also, when Mongolia declared its independence in 1911, she regarded herself as a monarchy directed by the eighth Jebtsundamba khutukhtu , which carried the title of Bogdo-Gegen.

The movement for independence

In 1890, with Kobdo, an adventurer of the name of Dambïdjanstan is made pass for the reincarnation of Armousana, the hero oïrat overcome in 1756 and acquires a great popularity among the arates . Feeling supported by the majority of the djasaks , it obliges the governor Mandchou to leave assembled aïmak .

At the end of the XIXe century, the movement for independence becomes powerful among the class seigneuriale and ecclesiastic as among the arates. The desertions begin again. The arates flee the great sino-Manchu fields to meet on the grounds of the lords favorable to the independence which protect them from the Manchu administration. Most known of these lords, Delguernamdjil, is private of its office of djasak . The fight takes also more violent forms. Deposits and the counters of Chinese firms, pastures belonging to the sino-Manchu companies and to the Mongolian lords combined with them are burnt.

In 1892, the report/ratio of a toussalaktchi of one of the hochúns of the aïmak khanal touchétou reveals not only that the arates cannot any more pay the taxes and provide the obligatory services but still which they pain to provide for their food. Many die of inanition, others desert the territory from the hochún . The djasak of the hochún , Tserendondub and the toussalaktchi itself address to the assembly aïmak , requiring cancellation, if not of totality, at least of part of the services and taxes imposed on the arates. The assembly of the aïmak refuses their request, the others hochúns suffering of the same catastrophic economic circumstances.

In 1899, the ecclesiastical and laic lords, under the pressure of the arates and of spangled lower row, send an imperative petition to the Manchu imperial court, requiring the limitation of the power and the activity of the sino-Manchu firms, the suspension of the despotism of the Manchu civils servant and the immediate resignation of the governor of Ouliastaï and his officers, and threatening to take the weapons. The imperial house is given the responsability to subdue the movement by the force and makes appear the signatories before the court. The years following, during the War of the Boxers, the Manchu dynasty issues a military recruitment in Mongolia which must gather 25  000 men. Recruitment is sabotaged by the arates as by the djasaks of the hochúns . Two thousand soldiers are hardly brought together. Shortly after to have summers placed at the disposal of the governor of Ouliastaï, they are raised, led by a arate of the name of Enhtaïvan. They besiege the palate of the governor, demolish the camps Manchu soldier, and return finally on their premises after having set fire to the deposits and the establishments of the large firms.

During these events, a rising starts in the aïmak tsetsene then is spread in the Eastern areas. Chinese warehouses and counters are destroyed, the ackowledgements of debt are burned.

In 1903, Several revolts fail in the aïmak khanal djachaktou, organized by Aiouchi, the leader of a minor administrative unit. The insurrectionists present a petition to the president of assembled aïmak and to the djasak of the hochún . They require a reduction in the taxes and services, the improvement of the living conditions of the arates, the setting-up of bodies representative of the arates. Aiouchi and its partisans is stopped, tortured and thrown in prison. A few months later, the djasak Manibadzar, in front of the movements of the interdependent arates, release them.

From 1905, under the influence of the Russian communist revolutionists, the movement Dougouylang is propagated in the khanats Khalkha S. the popular revolutionary circles, within the limit of their frameworks, carries out autonomy and the total equality and defends their interests with respect to the local lords. Their members arm themselves to prepare with the war, which seems inevitable. Encouraged by these circles, the increasingly many arates desert the exploitations of their lords and the companies sino-Manchu.

In 1906, the revolt includes in the majority of the sumuns of the aïmak khanal djachaktou whereas the leader Aiouchi is in prison with Ourga.

The revolt bursts in the aïmak khanal tsetsene in 1909. The warehouses and the shops of the Chinese merchants are set fire to, and many killed owners. Manchu troops sent to fight it oblige Toktokho, the chief of the revolt to be taken refuge beyond the Baïkal but the units partisanes carry out periodic raids against the aïmak .

Disorders burst with Ourga in March 1910. The arates and spangled them lower row claim the release of Aiouchi. Revolted receive the army sent against them with stones and sticks and miss killing the ambane even which sought to alleviate them.

Autonomy

With the beginning of the year 1911, the increased importance of the military government sent by the Manchu , the enrôlements of force, the construction of new barracks, increase the dissatisfaction with the arates like the feudal ones. In July, the Mongolian lords hold with Ourga a secret meeting in the presence of the Bogdo Gegen, which decides secession with the Mandchou empire and the bringing together with the Russia. A delegation led by Khandadordji is received with Saint-Pétersbourg by the Foreign Minister Sazonov the August 16th. The Russian empire only agrees to play a role of mediator between the Mongolia and the China. In October, under the pressure of the Russians, the Manchu government agrees to put an end to the military regime and to give up the arbitrary administration of Mongolia. The Russian government sends units in Mongolian territories officially to defend its consulate but also to protect Khandadordji from all reprisals.

Whereas the revolution bursts in China (October-November), the representatives of the hochúns are convened with Ourga. Mongolia, except for the territory of Ouriankhai (nowadays Touva, Russia), declares its independence and the eighth Bogdo Gegen is elected khan of Mongolia the November 28th. The Manchu governors of Ourga (November 30th) of Ouliastaï (December) are summoned to leave the country, as well as the Chinese troops stationed in Mongolia. The Russian units ensure the protection of the tradesmen and Chinese usurers who are not long in leaving the country. A government is formed the December 16th by Jebtsundamba with Ourga, composed of five members resulting from the ecclesiastical and laic aristocracy.

In 1912, the Manchu governor of Kobdo, discounting a help of the province of the Xinjiang, refuses to deliver the city. In May, 5000 insurgent besieges led by Djâ LAMA besiege Kobdo which capitulates the August 7th. With the approach of the Chinese troops, the resumption of the hostilities is avoided only by the Russian diplomatic intervention. Kobdo joined the new Mongolian state in winter 1913.

The November 3rd 1912 Russia prudently recognizes with Ourga the autonomy of the Mongolia and obtains commercial concessions. The following year, the government of the tsar grants so that the area of Kobdo is attached to the Mongolia but refuses any other territorial requirement. It authorizes the installation of an army of 1  900 men, equipped with modern weapons by the Russian government which authorizes a loan of two million roubles and framed by military experts Russian.

During the summer 1913, the China joins together important forces in the Xinjiang. The Russian government sends troops to Kobdo in order to guarantee the sovereignty of the country. The Chinese government of Yuan Shikai tries to subdue the revolt of the hochúns of Inner Mongolia which proclaimed their union with the Outer Mongolia, by requesting the assistance of the Bogdo Gegen, which intervenes. The Russia, having recognized the right of Japan to have the Inner Mongolia, cannot intervene.

The October 5th 1913, a sino-Russian agreement recognizes the autonomy of the Outer Mongolia. The Russian government prohibited to the Mongols any intervention in Inner Mongolia. With Saint-Pétersbourg, Mongolian the Prime Minister Nammansuren agrees to withdraw his troops of Inner Mongolia and to engage of the tripartite talks with the China and Russia. Russia provides him in exchanges of the weapons and grants a loan of three million roubles.

Indeed, the cases of the new autonomous Mongolian State are empty. It has recourse to loans near the Russians for a total of 5,1 million roubles (1913 - 1914). The major part of the public revenues (70%) is consisted taxes of customs. The Russian tradesmen profit from an exemption since 1912 and the role of the Chinese tradesmen is considerably tiny room of then the defeat of the Manchus. The excise taxes take importance.

In 1914, the Russian troops withdraw Kobdo. A Parliament with two rooms is created. The Upper House includes/understands the ministers, the djasaks, the governors Mandchou S and the feudal lords wandering, while at the Lower House sit the civils servant of less importance and the lords excluded from the capacity. The rights of the two rooms, convened by the Bogdo Gegen, are limited to the deliberations. The disproportionate power of the ecclesiastical lords runs up against the opposition of the injured laic nobility feeling. The attempts of the Bogdo Gegen to approach to the Japan and the China cause the anger of the aristocracy which turns to Russia. The Prime Minister, the healthy-noïon khan, of which popularity threatens theocracy, then is poisoned at the time of a ceremony at the court and is completed by the doctor sent by the Bogdo Gegen (1919).

The August 3rd 1919, the Soviet government declares null all the pacts passed between the governments of the Bogdo Gegen and the Russia tsarist and which it guarantees the independence of the Mongolia. Of October to November, the China obliges the Mongolia Extérieure to join again its bonds with it. The government of the Bogdo Gegen gives up the autonomy of the Mongolia the November 17th and the Chinese government announces by decree the suppression of the autonomy of the Mongolia the November 22nd. The December 2nd, a Chinese garrison settles with Ourga and disarms the Mongolian troops. The general Siu Cabbage-Tcheng founds a military dictatorship.

The revolution

It is with the favor of the collapse of the Dynastie Qing and the proclamation of the Chinese republic that Mongolia shook its yoke. The Bogdo Gegen dreamed of a theocracy similar to that of the Tibet. He also dreamed to reign on the totality of the Mongolian tribes. The Russian required of him to moderate its claims, in exchange of a military and financial protection. Actually, Mongolia was practically nothing any more but one toy between the hands of the great powers: according to an Russo-Chinese agreement of 1913, this country was autonomous under Russian protectorate and Chinese suzerainty…

Russian protectorate made it possible Mongolia to know a beginning of modernization, but the revolution of 1917 left it with the hands of the Chinese. In 1919, it was again nothing any more but one Chinese province. The Bogdo Gegen was placed under house arrest. This situation involved the creation of two independence movements, one by Sukhbaatar, 26 year old typographer, and the other by Tchoïbalsan, 23 year old telegraphist. Sukhbaatar had played a part in the mode of the Bogdo Gegen, like member of the Parliament. As for Tchoïbalsan, it had been allowed during Russian language Mongolian ministry of the Foreign affairs. In 1920, these two movements amalgamated and approached Moscow. Whereas Sukhbaatar and Tchoïbalsan settled with Irkoutsk, the Russian white were driven out of Russia by the Red Army . Eager to settle in Mongolia, the Japan board recruited among them a Baltic ex-officer, the baron Ungern von Sternberg. With their logistical support and a troop of 800 Cossacks, it seized Urga the February 4th 1921 by driving out the Chinese garrison. This one took refuge in Kiakhta, at the Russian border. Under pretext of punish the communist Mongols, Ungern was delivered at worst the atrocities, which was worth the nickname of " to him; baron fou". However, it gave the Bogdo Gegen on the throne.

With the beginning of the year 1921, the movement of Sukhbaatar and Tchoïbalsan took the name of " Popular party mongol" , in Siberia its first congress held and instituted a provisional popular government. The March 18th 1921, it drove out the Chinese of Kiakhta and is established there. Whereas Ungern had left Urga to sit its authority on the remainder of the country, Sukhbaatar attacked this city with Soviet auxiliaries and entered there on July 6th 1921. Three days later, the popular government settled in the capital. These events are celebrated at the time of the Mongolian national festival, the Naadam , July 11th, 12th and 13rd of each year. Roman Fedorovitch von Ungern-Sternberg tried to resist, but it was overcome and delivered to the Soviets, who shot it with Novossibirsk on September 15th 1921.

If the Bogdo Gegen preserved the title of sovereign of Mongolia, it lost any temporal power. Social reforms were undertaken, but it was necessary to await the death of the pontiff, the May 20th 1924, to found a true mode Communiste. Sukhbaatar (“the Hero with the Axe”) being deceased one year earlier, Urga was renamed in its souvernir Ulaan Baatar “the Red Hero”. The leaders of the new republic align on the Soviet Union.

The Communist regime (1929 - 1990)

The January 24th 1929, the marshal Tchoïbalsan becomes president of Mongolia, which it then controls like Prime Minister until his death in 1952. Under its reign of many purgings took place. In 1932, the forced collectivization of the grounds and herds, the prohibition of the Lamaïsme, involve a general insurrection repressed by the popular Army.

The January 5th 1951, the Chinese government recognizes Mongolia. The trade and the relations are restored between the two nations. The rupture sino-Soviet of end of the year 1950 puts a term at it.

To died of Tchoïbalsan in 1952, the General secretary of the revolutionary Parti the Mongolian people Yumjagiyn Tsedenbal directs the country.

The USSR supports the candidature of Mongolia for UNO in 1961. A frontier treaty is signed with China in 1962. Treaties of friendship and assistance are signed in 1966 with the USSR, renewed in 1986.

The August 8th 1984, Yumjagiyn Tsedenbal must resign due to authoritarianism. Its successor Jambyn Batmonkh makes it responsible for the “stagnation” of the country. He hardens the already close links with the USSR.

Of the end of the year 1989, meeting popular require the end of the reign of the sole party. New parties, democrat, social democrat and nationalists create for themselves and require reforms.

Within the Communist party, the economic crisis constrained Jambyn Batmonkh with the resignation the March 21st 1990. The reference to the role directing of the party is removed Constitution (March 1990). The first multi-party elections take place in July. The Communists are maintained with the capacity. Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat, former minister for the Foreign trade, their candidate with the presidency, triumphs easily. He inaugurates one period of political and economic liberalization.

Mongolia today

A new Constitution, respecting the principles of democracy, mixed economy, freedom of thought and neutrality in foreign politics is adopted in January 1992. The name of popular republic and the red star of the flag are abandoned.

The revolutionary Parti the Mongolian people (PPRM) reconstituted gains the legislative elections in the month of June 1992. Large Khural is abolished and new Large Khural unicaméral becomes the legislative Body of the country.

Last troops of the old Soviet Union (approximately 65  000 soldiers) leave Mongolia with the end of the year 1992.

In June 1993, take place the first elections presidential direct in Mongolia. The PPRM is beaten. He had proposed like candidate a communist ideologist against outgoing the Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat, supported by the democratic opposition. The political tensions prevent the government from taking measures against the economic crisis. Serious doubt on the conversion of the Communists is done day when the party, rehabilitates Tsedenbal, the “Brejnev Mongolian”, on a purely posthumous basis and develops a new founded national ideology on maintains of an important official sector and on the multiplication of the obstacles to the rise of the private companies. Democratic Alliance gains a narrow majority with the elections of 1996, putting fine at 75 years of uninterrupted Communist government. The June 20th 1997, Natsagiyn Bagabandi is elected with the presidency in the name of the PRPM. Re-elected in 2001, it is not presented to the elections of 2005 or Nambaryn Enkhbayar is elected.

References

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