Image: A nomad is getting his herd in shape
Courtesy: http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/mongolia-tour/detail
In this chapter, I would like to share my thoughts about steppe nomads.
This topic is very important for the development of my book which shows how the geographic imagination of Latin Europeans about the Far East altered. If up to the 13th century the furthest destination was India, it would later embrace China. What was in the middle? The fascinating world of the pastoralist nomads which was the antipode of Western Europe.
The nomads are currently receiving a better treatment in historical research. They are no longer considered the dead end of social and economic development but rather a specific mode of production conditioned by survival strategies of existence under the harsh climate and the tough competition.
Their mobility would give the steppe dwellers a fair chance to stay independent from the state authorities of the sedentary societies that would require taxes and conscription. The same lifestyle enabled the pastoralists to play a role in long-distance trade as the middle-men who can act as the guides or the guards or the travel companions of the merchant caravans.
Such environment demanded from the nomads to be arranged in kinship groups and seek the alliance of the warlords. Their endurance to severe conditions made them adroit raiders and troopers. The steppe aristocrats would exploit these qualities in time of crisis, amplifying the power that could allow them to form tribal confederations and even empires.
I have collected the new material and am trying to mix it with what I wrote before. This chapter will contrast with the previous one where I picked up the ancient and medieval perception of the nomads.
