Climatic and Environmental Limiting Factors in the Mongol Empire’s Westward Expansion: Exploring Causes for the Mongol Withdrawal from Hungary in 1242

Stephen Pow

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00728-7_15

Abstract

AbstractFrom its formation in the early years of the thirteenth century, the Mongol Empire expanded rapidly along the steppe belt and trade routes comprising the Silk Road, forming partnerships with merchants and encouraging commerce, while also subjugating the resident nomadic and sedentary societies. In 1241–1242, the Mongols invaded and occupied Hungary for a year before mysteriously withdrawing eastward into the steppes. Many theories have been offered for this event and why Hungary’s border ended up marking the westernmost terminus of the Mongol Empire, including most recently Büntgen and Di Cosmo’s “environmental hypothesis” that short-term climatic fluctuation and environmental factors played a decisive role. This paper employs a comparative historical methodology to discuss three broad topics: the suitability of the Kingdom of Hungary for long-term occupation by the Mongols; the role that the climatic events of 1242 played in the famine that ravaged the kingdom after the withdrawal; and the role that environmental factors could have played in Mongol military setbacks and problems during the invasion. By doing so, this paper also aims to address additional points newly raised by Büntgen and Di Cosmo in a reply they made to an earlier article which questioned the enviromental hypothesis.

Highlights

IntroductionHungary escaped the fate of its neighbors to the east because the Mongol occupiers completely and suddenly pulled out of Europe
It is evident that the larger campaign which terminated in western Hungary and Croatia— ruled by the king of Hungary in the thirteenth century—was one that resulted in permanent conquests and the expansion of the Mongol Empire
I have attempted to demonstrate the suitability of the Kingdom of Hungary for incorporation into the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century

Summary

Introduction

Hungary escaped the fate of its neighbors to the east because the Mongol occupiers completely and suddenly pulled out of Europe. The Mongols were victorious in the decisive Battle of Muhi in April 1241, which largely destroyed the Hungarian royal army, hindering the kingdom from offering further unified resistance Recent archaeological findings, such as coin-hoards and rural settlement sites with traces of destruction, which can be positively dated to the invasion period (Fig. 15.1), bear witness to widespread destruction, on the Great Hungarian Plain (Vargha 2015; Laszlovszky 2012; Laszlovszky et al 2016). No persuasive reason for the withdrawal from Hungary is found in the source material, and the reasons for it are an ongoing topic of research and speculation

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Conclusion