Barriers to Mongolian horse horses flooded into Europe

The Mongol horse was once a terror to the land of this army. However, have you ever wondered why this powerful empire disintegrated or failed? The marshes formed in Hungary in the spring of 1242 smashed the ambition of conquering the entire European empire of the Mongolian empire.

In 1241, the Mongol army entered Hungary, defeating the Polish and Hungarian coalition, forcing the king of the country to flee. In 1242, despite no major military obstacles, the Mongol army suddenly stopped the invasion and retreated. A new study of Eastern European climate at that time gave an explanation for this mysterious retreat, according to LiveScience.

According to the study author, the Mongols were bogged down . The data collected from the tree ring shows that in 1242, Hungary experienced a cold winter and many snowfall followed the wet spring. As a result, large Hungarian grasslands turned into marshes, historian Nicola Di Cosmo of Princeton University, USA said.

The Mongols were dependent on horses, so it was impossible to move effectively on wet lands and the war horse had no food due to very few pastures remaining.

Picture 1 of Barriers to Mongolian horse horses flooded into Europe
The Mongols suddenly withdrew from Hungary in 1242. (Artwork: Wordpress).

The Hungarian invasion of the Mongol empire took place after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227. His successor son, O Khoat Dai, led the Mongols into Russia in 1235, followed by Eastern Europe in 1240. .

Many Mongolian generals carried at least 130,000 troops and 500,000 horses invaded Hungary in the spring of 1241, according to research published May 26 in the Scientific Reports journal. The Mongols continued to win important battles in April of that year, defeating both the Polish and Hungarian armies, and setting up a ruling system in eastern Hungary.

In the early months of 1242, the Danube and other rivers in the area freeze, allowing the Mongols to advance west of Hungary, where the army marched for several months before suddenly retreating.

Ulf Büntgen, climate researcher at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, co-authored the study, examined tree ring data in northern Scandinavia, polar Ural mountains, Carpat in Romania, Alp in Austria and Altai in Russia to explore climate factors leading to the withdrawal of Mongolian troops.

Previous assumptions suggested that the death of Oa Khoat Dai in December 1241 prompted the general to command the repatriated Mongol army. But this explanation is unreasonable because the general did not return to Mongolia with the intention of competing for power and stopping in Russia, according to Di Cosmo.

Tree rings record growth in the summer and level off in the winter of trees. Researchers can use tree rings to speculate weather conditions in a particular year. The data Büntgen examined indicated temperatures above the average in Hungary between 1238 and 1241, followed by sudden cold summers from 1242 to 1244. In 1242, the region surrounded southern Poland and the Republic. Czech, west of Clovakia, northwest Hungary and eastern Austria is extremely wet.

According to Di Cosmo, the conclusion that wet winters prevented the Mongol horse horseshoe very well because the Hungarian grasslands were well-known before the dredging plan took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. retreat through different routes with the original invasion route, along the foot of the Carpathians and many other high lands. " All of this is evidence that the Mongols are not happy with their terrain , " Di Cosmo said.