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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanguinemetaldawn" data-source="post: 2378587" data-attributes="member: 23390">Well, I guess we have a fundamental difference of opinion here.  What you say the Mongols left behind is, when I read it, equal to nothing.Certainly, during their century or so of power they were impressive, but not moreso than any other imperial power.  And other imperial powers did create actual contributions in many other areas.Well, at least you didn't break out the fool's line "Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy".As for all peoples "who live in tents"...I suppose this is why the Turks are called Mongols? Look, you are attributing a variety of propeties and qualities to the Mongols: "encouraged trade and allowed the introduction of trade goods", "cross polination of ideas over a good portion", etc.  I am not contending that this is untrue, I am saying this is unremarkable, and not worthy of note, in and of itself.Pretty much ALL true imperial powers did this as well, but they did other things too.  Rome's sculpture was an unimpressive knock-off of the Greeks, but they created styles of architecture, and innovations in living (heated floors, etc).  Roman roads are not famous because they are long, or because they facilitated trade or some other such thing, but because of the technology of those roads.  One and a half millenia later, many of those roads still exist, those stones laid by hand, by the original builder.  The roads we drive on with our cars are built using the same principles pioneered by Roman road builders.Gunpowder, cannon, mortar, and the modern day firearm can all be traced back to China (which made poor use of it).There are many cultures throughout the world that made enduring contributions in faith and philosphy, science, engineering, architecture, agriculture, and so on that have real effects on people's lives.The Mongols aren't one of them.And having referenced gunpowder empires, I would have thought my awareness of the Moghuls of India would be implicit, but I guess not.  The tactic of using a powerful name for ones purposes was hardly unique to the Mongols.  One only need look to "Romania" to see another.Personally, I think your extremely broad definition (a definition many people included under that definition would themselves reject) is a cheap end-around the real issue:Mongols were really good at shooting bows while riding horses, and at appropriating other cultural elements, and not much else.</blockquote>

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