Why Genghis Khan's Actions Justified?

I, Kubilai Khan, believe that my grandfather Genghis Khan’s actions were justified by the benefits that came from his decisions. I would credit all my success to him because it was him who left behind a legacy for me to follow. My grandfather, Genghis Khan is still remembered today for all his great military tactics, encouraging trade and exchange, and most importantly having significant qualities that many rulers did not have such as being tolerant of different religions. Although, many people might only remember the millions of people he killed, I believe it is important to look past that and see how great of an impact his brutal ways of conquering have greatly affected me, as today I am the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and the founder
of the Yuan Dynasty in China. I would say that it was him who conquered some of the land I control today as he was known for conquering more territory than other individual in all of history and I appreciate all his help for the conquering because otherwise I would not be in the position I am in today. Thus, I believe that my grandfather Genghis Khan made great decisions which have been proved by the benefits of his actions, which I am enjoying today.

My grandfather Genghis Khan was very famous for his military tactics.
He built a well-organized and strong army in the goal of expanding his empire which he successfully achieved due to his military power. It has been noted that my grandfather Genghis Khan used his military tactics to conquer huge areas of central Asia and China creating the biggest land empire in history at that point. Although, I have not quite continued the tradition of having such a great military as my grandfather, I do use his tactics such as having rapid communication. That has helped me very well as I was able to conquer many areas using this tactic but mostly I used my own ways to conquer. For example, I conquered China by appearing to be just like the Chinese who lived there. I took a Chinese name, built a capital with Chinese architecture, and set up a Chinese-style administration. This worked very well for me but I must not forget that it was my grandfather’s harsh way of conquering which has put me in a position where I can be able to conquer areas not as harshly. I must credit all my success to the great Genghis Khan. Although, he was a conqueror by force and killed about 40 million people, he did have positive outcomes from those bloody moments. It was because of his military tactics and harsh killing in which he was able to create and rule the largest empire known to mankind at that point. This shows that he did use many violent ways to conquer but that is just like any ruler who has tried
to conquer has always used violent tactics. It just happened that Genghis Khan turned out to be more successful than other rulers which led him to kill more people in order to gain more land. To look at it through another perspective, it’s kind of like a mathematical equation. The number of people you kill depends on how much land you will conquer. Well, at least that worked for my grandfather. Therefore, although he did have bloodthirsty methods of conquering land, he made the right decision as he become to be known as the emperor of the largest conquered area in history.

Since my grandfather Genghis Khan had conquered so much land, he wanted it to be economically successful so he depended on trading. During his reign, the empire flourished economically because he was focused on trading and was usually anxious to foster trade with new nations. He made treaties with other empires to promote trade throughout Eurasia. This promoted the growth of trade between China and Europe while allowing the Mongols to gain essential supplies like food, weapons and other survival materials. I believe that was a great step for Genghis Khan to take because by depending on trading they were getting the needed goods, while also having a chance to show other empires how strong and well built the Mongol Empire was. However, the only reason that we the Mongols flourished at trading was because in the many distinct areas of the empire, different goods were produced which was the main reason trade increased. Most importantly, it is significant to remember that those areas were united under the empire because of Genghis Khan’s ways of conquering. Technically looking back, all the successes of the Mongols are really based on millions of people dying in order for my grandfather to unite the empire so then we could produce different goods in different areas and have items that can be traded. However, in the long run trading has positively benefited the empire and also has successfully led other areas to think fondly of the Mongols. Hence, Genghis Khan made the right decisions when it came to trading because that has led to great economic success for the Mongol Empire.

One reason of why my grandfather Genghis Khan was so successful at uniting the Mongol Empire is that he was very welcoming of others in regards to the newly conquered people whom he did not kill in the process of conquering.
For instance, Genghis Khan did not make his conquered nations abandon their law for his because he simply had them add his code of law called the Great Law, which was supreme over all the people in the Mongol empire to whatever existing legal system they already had. Also, my grandfather forbade bodily mutilation and torture as forms of punishment. Although, this seems weird since he killed many people related to the newly conquered people, and then he forbade torture as punishment for new citizens of his empire, this tactic worked quite well because the new citizens saw how much freedom they would have living in the Mongol Empire. I agree with my grandfather’s methods of ruling because I also believe that tolerance, acceptance, and equality are necessary when ruling over so many diverse people because this leads to little conflict between a subject and the ruler. Although many people thought that my grandfather was just a cruel man, it is actually proven that he was not cruel but very intelligent because he knew where to use harsh methods and where to use gentle methods in order to effectively rule his empire. This also led to people wanting to be part of the Mongol empire. Mostly rulers of other nations would fight back and not agree to be a part of
the Mongol Empire when being conquered but the citizens usually would easily agree since they wouldn’t really lose anything by becoming mongols since they could still live their same life and maybe even get freedoms which they did not have before. Accordingly, the decisions that my grandfather made to rule the empire were quite beneficial which is a key reason as to why him and the Mongol Empire were notably renowned around the world.

In conclusion, although my grandfather Genghis Khan did have a long history of killing, the list of positive effects that came from all that bloodshed is even longer. He was a very powerful and influential leader of the Mongol empire and I am glad I have inherited those traits from him. He had strong political tactics that enabled him to control a vast empire of hundreds of thousands of people. Although my political tactics are different from his, they are still very successful. However if it weren't for my grandfather I could not be able use my peaceful tactics because it was him who used the harsh ones to show people if if they don’t listen we know how to forcefully make them listen. My grandfather also encouraged a vast system of trade and economics. I also agree with this idea of his and still use trade as to bring new wealth into my empire just like he did. Genghis Khan had spread a nationalistic pride to all the newly conquered people to show them that they were now part of the Mongol Empire. I believe that spreading nationalistic pride to newly conquered people was a very good idea because it showed the people that we weren't as harsh as we seemed because we also gave them many freedoms. As a result, mostly all decisions that my grandfather Genghis Khan took were for the benefit of his empire and looking at the empire’s success it is true to say that all of his decisions were benefited from the results of the actions. Whether it was killing people or conquer land, or developing trade contacts to increase the economy’s stability or giving right to the newly conquered people, the results of all these events show that Genghis Khan made the right decisions for his empire.