Two Emperors Make History
Even in two different eras, two men can be more similar than different. In July 356 BC, Alexander the Great was born to Philip of Macedonia, ruler of the Macedonian empire. After successfully conquering two million miles of land, Alexander returned to Babylon where he died of disease on June tenth, 323 BC. 1,485 years later, Genghis Khan was born to a mongolian chieftain or clan leader. He successful conquered and united twelve million miles of land and died of disease in 1227 AD. Both rulers lead entirely different empires but both were similar in their style of ruling and more. Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great were similar in many ways.
The desire to conquer has to start somewhere and for these two rulers, it started near the same age. Alexander the Great "Assumed the throne at age 12 (or 21)" after his father was murdered. The death of his father lead Alexander to accomplish what his father did not get the chance to do; Conquer the Persian Empire. Avenging his
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father’s death always gave Alexander drive to accomplish the conquering of the Persian empire. Many years later, “When [Khan] was 9, his father was killed … [Khan] vowed to avenge his father’s death” and did so when he was seventeen. Khan and his family were cast out of their tribe after his father died so Khan felt the need to do something. About eight years after his father died, Khan killed his half brother, starting Khan down the path of conquering. Both Alexander and Khan started their empires around the same age. While ruling an empire, both Khan and Alexander were open to those who did what they said.
After taking over Persia, Alexander adapted to the Persian ways and even took a Persian wife. Alexander was kind to others and "Saw no difference between Greeks and barbarians - all were brothers". Alexander accepted that he could not unify the entire world under the one culture so he let everyone have the freedom of religion and any other traditions they had. Because of this, the people in Alexander’s empire were open to him and never thought of revolting. Kahn was very similar to Alexander in his views. Khan was kind to all in his empire as long as you listened to and did what he said. Khan gave equal rights to women and “... granted religious freedom to everyone”. Just as in ALexander’s empire, the people in Khan’s empire were content with Khan and his views so they never felt the need to revolt. Both Khan and Alexander had a way of keeping their people content and preventing
revolt. After their deaths, Alexander and Khan’s empire had a long lasting effect on the world. Alexander the Great died just before his thirty third birthday, making him unable to continue the empire like he had planned. His empire was the largest empire of his time. Many historians such as "Historian Arnold Toynbee said, 'Had he not died young, he might have politically united the world'". Before he died, he built cities, roads, and expanded trade. His empire had a lasting effect on the world. Khan’s empire had a similar effect. Genghis Khan’s empire “... stretched … 12 million contiguous square miles” and lasted more “than 50 years” after he died. Cities were built, roads were expanded, and they was a huge increase in trade because of Khan and his empire. Both Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan had a large empire that left a lasting imprint on history. Even though they have their differences, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great were more similar than not. They both started conquering at a young age, let the conquered be free to practice their own religions and accepted everyone for who the were. They both nearly united all of the known world and successfully ruled it until their death. Everyone is unique, but two great rulers are greatly similar in their way they use power.
Alexander adopted Persian governing practices, but he had little use for Persian culture. According to his Greek biographer Plutarch, he considered himself "a governor from God and a reconciler of the world." He hoped that Greek culture would, through his actions, permeate all of Asia, inspiring its peoples to pursue virtue, excellence, and truth. This heroic idealism blended with practicality in his plan to develop the Tigris, Euphrates, and Indus rivers as commercial waterways linking all of Asia These undertakings promised to be long and difficult, however, and Alexander was an impatient man. His soldiers' unwillingness to proceed past the Indus was a great disappointment to him, for which he compensated by throwing his own festivals and celebrations. Alexander showed early leadership qualities. When King Phillip invaded Thrace, he left Alexander in charge of Macedonia at the age of 16. During his father's absence, one of the Thracian tribes, the Maedi, rebelled. Alexander was able to mobilize an army and put down the rebellion. In 336 B.C, Alexander's father was assassinated, putting Alexander on the throne at the age of 20. Shortly after this, Alexander left Macedonia with his armies to put down rebellions in the countries of Illyria, Thrace and Greece, all of which had previously been conquered by King Phillip. Alexander then moved his armies into Asia Minor and began to conquer the peoples there. Among the countries conquered by Alexander were Syria, Phoenicia and
The son of Philip II, Alexander the Great, will become the conqueror of the western world. Alexander received the Macedonian empire when his father passed, he was only twenty at the time. As soon as he had the power of the Macedonian army, several lightning fast campaigns led them into the west and north. Next, he compelled the city-states that rebelled against the League of Corinth. This action demonstrated how Alexander punished disloyalty [Martin 244]. Alexander was able to keep his rule on the territories he conquered by rewarded the cities who recognized his powers and punished the individuals that betrayed his trust or ambitions. The power he possessed depended on his superior force and his unwillingly desire to use it [Martin 245]. The
Alexander the Great and King Henry the VIII both have some similarities in their times. Alexander and Henry both where Ruthless and Blood thirsty which means that they loved war. Both Alexander and Henry killed a lot of people and didn’t die of the battles that they held. Another big similarity that Alexander and King Henry have in common is both had at least one wife and a child.
Unlike Attila, Genghiz Khan also known as Temujin and founder of the Mongol Empire in 1206, fought his way to the top after being exiled from his people at an early age. He was known to be just because he ensure that the spoils were distributed evenly among his warriors and he refrained his warriors from harming the innocents without his permission. Due to his fairness, he lost some friends that fought along with him to retrieve his wife, which the Merkits kidnapped. He was very diplomatic and laid down a solid rule for his army to abide by. He also came up with a good defense mechanism of dividing his army into “arbans (10 people), zuun...
“There is nothing impossible to him who will try” (Anonymous, Google). Alexander was not willing to give up in his lifetime. Nothing satisfied him. He always wanted to keep building his empire. Alexander the Great became a king at the young age of twenty. He was a strong leader who expanded his empire from Italy to India for eleven years with little rest. Alexander the Great was really great because Alexander made remarkable achievements while king of Greece, and he was very intelligent. Some may argue the achievements weren’t well earned, however these achievements lead to great successes.
Sent on a mission by their respective kings, both Ibn Fadlan and John of Plano Carpini gave us a look inside the culture, religion, and military prowess of the Viking Rus and the Mongols. Ibn Fadlans journey to the Bulgar king was not an easy one as he met with the Rus people near the Volga River. The same holds true for John, as he travels to the Mongols to learn much about them and their intentions behind their unprecedented military skills. The Viking Rus and the Mongols have similarities and difference in their culture, military conquest, and religion.
...nisms and used religious tolerance to obtain more people who would be “on their side”. The Persians were powerful because of the impact that they left on the world for other nations to grasp and understand in the future. They were the basis for many inventions that we use today, or have expanded upon. The differences between the Mongol and Persian Empire mostly dealt with religion and their motivation behind whether or not they were tolerant of other religions or not. The
The earlier of these two men was Alexander the Great, records indicate that he was born in the summer of 356 B.C. Alexander was the son of Philip II, King of Macedonia, and Olympias. Stories say that on the same day that Alexander was born, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, burned down. This occurrence was supposedly an omen, the force that would destroy Asia had entered the world.
Alexander the Great is hailed, by most historians, as “The Great Conqueror” of the world in the days of ancient Mesopotamia. “Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient world in little more than a decade. Alexander was born in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia in July 356 BCE. His parents were Philip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias. Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE and Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatile kingdom. He quickly dealt with his enemies at home and reasserted Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the massive Persian Empire” (Web, BBC History). It is important to note, which will maybe explain his brutal actions, that Alexander was only twenty years old when he became the king of Macedonia. “When he was 13, Philip hired the Greek philosopher Aristotle to be Alexander’s personal tutor. During the next three years Aristotle gave Alexander training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy, all of which became of importance in Alexander’s later life” (Web, Project of History of Macedonia). “In, 340, when Philip assembled a large Macedonian army and invaded Thrace, he left his 16 years old son with the power to rule Macedonia in his absence as regent, but as the Macedonian army advanced deep into Thrace, the Thracian tribe of Maedi bordering north-eastern Macedonia rebelled and posed a danger to the country. Alexander assembled an army, led it against the rebels, and with swift action defeated the Maedi, captured their stronghold, and renamed it after himself to Alexandropolis. Two years later in 338 BC, Philip gave his son a commanding post among the senior gener...
Born in 1162, Khan's birth name was actually Temujin. The name we come to know him as today he acquired In 1206 when he came to power as leader of the Mongolian people, he was given the name Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) which means universal ruler. Before this time, Khan had a hard life living in the wilderness with his mother and siblings after his father had been murdered by his tribe's enemies and his own clan had abandoned his family to die. While struggling to survive in the Mongolian wilderness, Temujin (Khan) met one of the most influential friends and adversaries he would ever have in his life, Jamuka. (Beckwith-185) He eventually became the leader of a small clan, but quickly turned into a warrior when his wife was kidnapped by a neighboring tribe. With his friend and ally Jamuka, Khan led a war party to the neighboring tribe to get his wife back and this started his military exploits. (Weatherford-51)
The Mongols were a group of people from around 1200 A.D to 1500 A.D. They dominated a large portion of the Asian and Western European world (Meagher). The Mongols were described in many various ways but one of the most common ways they were described was bloodthirsty. This description describes not only the Mongols, but the Mongols in my game of Civilizations. They were very similar but they also had some differences. Some of those similarities included their thirst for battle, their trait of independence, and their time of expansion. The differences included who the Mongols interacted with, what the Mongols produced, and how large their empire grew. The Mongols were the most powerful empire of their time and they were feared by everyone.
Alexander began his military campaign and his rule much where his father left off. Whether or not it was his aim, this created a sense of normality for the men that was part of his father’s regime. Alexander’s position as a warrior-king who stood side-by-side among his men also served to create respect among his peers. Gradually, as Alexander conquered more Persian land, he began to adopt the policies of Persian rulers. Alexander’s change in policy extended beyond just political roles, he gave consideration to the local gods in many of the lands that he conquered. Eventually, Alexander brought people in from the conquered nations to serve under him.
In the West, Genghis Khan and the Mongol tribe are often presented as brutal savages who wiped out entire cultures, destroyed cities and killed many people. While these accounts are true, there was certainly more to the Mongol empire than sheer brutality. Many of the practices that Genghis Khan put into place were responsible for the successes of the Mongol Nation. With an ability to adapt and innovate, Genghis Khan became known as the world’s greatest conqueror and is still revered in many countries today. Temujin, who later took the name Genghis Khan, came from humble beginnings which helped to form the foundations of the type of leader he became later in life.
Alexander the Great was born in 356 BC in Pella, Greece. He took over the throne when he was 21, in 336 BC, when his father was murdered. In his time as king, Alexander united the Greek city states and built over a dozen cities, including Alexandria. His empire stretched over 2 million square miles, and he never lost a battle in his lifetime. Alexander died of Malaria in 323 BC.
There is not an age limit on being a great ruler, great rulers are not trained. . . they are born. Being a great ruler is not something one can practice or prepare for (Alexander the Great: man behind the legend). If being a great ruler was something one could train for then there would be many more people with "the Great" added to their first name. Inspiring a happy person is easy, but inspiring a person who feels completely hopeless takes much more skill and talent, it takes being a great ruler. Alexander the Great inspired his troops by saying : "The conquered territory belongs to you; from your ranks the governors of it are chosen; already the greater part of its treasure passes into your hands, and when all Asia is overrun, then indeed I will go further than the mere satisfaction of our ambitions" (Alexander the Great: speech to his men). Alexander does not claim everything for himself, he uses the words: "our" "you" "your". The only time he uses the word "I" is when he says: " I will go further than the mere satisfaction of our ambitions" (A...