[Nagot Gick Fel]

[quote]Originally posted by Jasper:

Feudal strife and civil war were common to many empires considered to be "Orderly". I don't see the Mongols as being any different in this respect than any other empire in history. For example, I don't know of anything in their history quite like the strife seen in the Roman Empire.

There's a big difference in scope (politics vs social). The Roman etc. civil wars were headed by political figureheads, their supporters and their armies, certainly not the commoners who were the basis of the Roman etc. society. OTOH among the steppes nations (including the 13th+ century Mongols), vendettas were common and involved, to varying degrees, every member of a family, clan or tribe. IOW, almost every nomad in the steppes was concerned by this problem. GK and his successors edicted harsh rules to deal with this situation, but were only marginally succesful. That remained an endemic problem in the steppes until the russian conquest.

See the difference now? Strifes at the political level may be frequent in an "orderly" society, but would you call a country where every inhabitant is expected to cut the throat of his neighbor when honor is at stake, an "orderly" country?

[ November 23, 2003, 16:28: Message edited by: Nagot Gick Fel ]