Commission: Alternate Cold War

[Ghostman]

Contributing to thread derailment

Just some points of clarification regarding the Mongols. The Mongols nearly did conquer Europe - they were extremely skilled at Siege Warfare. The Mongols learned siege tactics when they invaded China, which is arguably their first major invasion. They would have never succeeded to making China a Mongol state, had they not learned siege tactics. The Chinese threw gunpowder bombs from the castle walls, which the Mongols adopted and added into their siege war tactics. Mongols created siege machines and batterring rams.

I thought they simply "recruited" Chinese and Persian siege engineers and dragged them along on their campaigns, rather than make their own stuff. But I cannot claim expertise on this matter.

Mongols themselves were self sufficient (they could hunt and forage for their own food) - whereas European armies had to be fed or would disband

All steppe nomads (not just Mongols, but pretty much everyone that practiced that lifestyle: Scythians, Alans, Magyars, Huns, Turks, Bulgars, Xiong-Nu, Khitans...) were able to live off the land, because they derived their livelihood from massive herds of livestock that moved along with them. But this was only possible while on the steppe, because it takes sufficient tracts of pasture to actually feed all those animals. When ever operating on less suitable terrain, they'd adjust their logistical means. Hunting and foraging can NOT feed a large army for long, that is simply impossible. Nomadism CAN, but depends on availability of pasture.

Mongols definitely had the capacity to operate outside of steppe; their success in China, Persia and the Middle East proves this without doubt. That does not mean that they could just ignore logistics while in these places, however.

Really the only thing that stopped the Mongols from making Europe a Mongol state (as they had done to Russia) was their own laws which dictated that when the Khan in the homeland died, everyone had to attend the funeral

The timing of the Khan's death certainly was critical. And (in)convenient.

Since the next Khan did not view the conquest of Europe on his agenda, Europe was saved.

AFAIK it was more that the new Khan didn't have the power to truly reign in his subjects, who now viewed each other as their primary rivals and enemies. The Mongol empire was by then only nominally unified, being de-facto split into smaller states.

Not that Europe had ever been very high up on the Mongol's agenda, what with being a rather poor and backwards area. Especially compared to the lucrative targets of Middle-East, Egypt and India...