Mongol Conquests ยท War Crimes & Atrocities
The Mongol conquests were accompanied by deliberate, systematic massacre on a scale rarely matched in history. The Mongols used terror as a calculated instrument of policy: cities that resisted were annihilated, their populations slaughtered, their walls thrown down, and their fate publicized to terrify others into surrender. The destruction of the great cities of Khwarezmia and the sack of Baghdad were among the deadliest urban catastrophes ever recorded, and the devastation of farmland and irrigation killed untold millions more through famine. Medieval death tolls are exaggerated, but the reality was a demographic catastrophe across much of Eurasia.
Victims: The urban populations of Khwarezmia (Merv, Nishapur, Urgench, and others)(Medieval chroniclers claim over a million at Merv alone; true figures are uncertain but the slaughter was immense)
Victims: The population of Baghdad(Estimates range from 100,000 to over 800,000; the true figure is unknown but catastrophic)
Victims: The population of Kyiv and the Rus principalities(Kyiv was nearly depopulated; a papal envoy passing years later found the land strewn with skulls and bones)
Victims: The rural population of northern China(Census figures suggest North China's registered population fell by tens of millions over the period of the wars)
Victims: Skilled artisans, craftsmen, and laborers of the conquered lands(Vast numbers forcibly deported and resettled rather than killed; many died on the journeys)