The Eurasian Steppe is an endless, flat, almost treeless sea of grass that goes for thousands of mil

1
Early agriculture in the fertile crescent
established mixed economies, based on
cereal-cropping and stock-raising
The more one moved from rain-catchy hillsides to
the dryer plains of steppe grasses, the larger
the emphasis on herding
It was at the Western end of the Eurasian steppe
where pastoralism began as a separate form of
human subsistence, about 4,000 B.C.
Once they came into contact with
agriculturalists, hunter-gatherer populations
found it probably more attractive to live as
herders than as farmers
Migration and to master beasts came closer to
what hunter-gatherer populations preferred
Pastoralism spread as the dominant way of life
across the whole Eurasian steppe, the Arab
Peninsula and Northern Africa
2
The Evolution of Societies into three types
(1) Peasant troop communities in alluvial deltas,
leading to huge bureaucratic empires
(2) Family farm communities in rain-watered
lands, leading to small states with aristocratic,
sometimes democratic, constitutions
(3) Pastoral nomad communities in steppe areas,
leading to tribal confederations
3
The Eurasian Steppe is an endless, flat, almost
treeless sea of grass that reaches for thousands
of miles from Ukraine to Mongolia
This vast area has been the home of countless
nomad tribes, most of which are Turk peoples
4
Pastoralists are not sedentary but migrate on
search for pasture for their cattle.
The nomadic way of life does not allow for
the same division of labour and development of
arts and technology as the sedentary way of life
Pastoralists live from the meat and milk of
their livestock, plus the hunt of wild animals
5
The way of life of steppe pastoralists can be
summed up in one word
HORSE
Use of horses as pack animals from about 3,000
B.C. horse back riding from about 900 B.C.
6
Description of Daily Activities
Wake up, take down the tent, put it on a pack
horse
Saddle the horses and herd the cattle in search
of new pastures to graze the animals
Break-up the time with a horse-mounted hunt for
wild animals
Built up the camp for the night
7
Pastoralists entered into trade relations with
farming societies
Both types of societies produced perfectly
complementary goods
Because of their mobility, pastoralists were
natural carriers of goods and ideas between the
four great civilizations
8
Nomad communities are strongly patriarchal
probably because on the emphasis these societies
place on martial skills
Matrilineal families have to pay bride prices for
marriages
Polygeny is a system to allow widows to survive
and to have a social place
They live together in relatively small
communities of 50 to 100 people, which are often
parts of larger tribal societies of several
thousand people
There are considerable differences in wealth and
prestige, depending on the size of a mans herd
9
Nomad tribes were violent and war-like
Recurrent summer droughts and winter storms
made food raids on a neighboring tribe necessary
Nomads were contemptuous of settled people as
slaves of the dirt they farmed
They enjoyed terrorizing settled people and were
tempted by their luxury goods
10
There are many examples showing that nomads
adopted military innovations invented by
civilized peoples, and used them effectively
For instance, in 1700 B.C. bronze-wielding
battle axe folk of Indo-European origin spread
into Europe and subdued peacable village
communities, such as the Megalith-culture at the
Atlantic coast
11
Once, the light two-wheeled war chariot has been
invented, it came rapidly into use by nomad
tribes all over the whole Eurasian steppe
Chariotry allowed several tribes to overthrow
ruling dynasties and conquer existing empires
between 1500 and 1400 B.C. the Kassites invaded
Mesopotamia, the Hyksos invaded Egypt, the Aryans
invaded India, and Turk peoples invaded China
12
Nomad invasions often followed population
pressures, initiating Great Migrations
Such migrations caused chain reactions one tribe
in the steppe began to chase another tribe until,
at the end of the chain, tribes invade civilized
areas
Between 1200 and 1000 B.C. such migrations led
the Philistines, Aramaeans, Dorians and Medes to
their historic home
This second wave of invasisons, too, was promoted
by the adoption of a civilized technique
producing iron weapons
13
Once again, nomads could use the new technology
more to their advantage.
Once iron production became cheap enough, nomads
had no difficulty to arm all men
For bureaucratic empires, the shift of the
military advantage to massed infantery was
dangerous WHY?
14
Another incisive change occurred when nomads
perfected horse back riding and horse archery,
about 900 B.C.
15
The style of fighting was using bows to shoot
arrows from horseback
Steppe warriors could shoot arrows while
gallopping straight at their enemies, do a
U-turn, and keep shooting back over their horses
tails as they galloped away

• Military advantages
• Mastery of horse archery
• Extreme operation speed
• Advantage in numbers because
• of the militia system

16
The Impact of the Nomads Warlikeness
Around 600 B.C., the Scythians and Cimmerians
invaded the Middle East and overthrew the
Assyrian empire, giving rise to the Persian
empire of the Achaeminids
In China, the arrival of nomad cavalry techniques
affected first the marchland state of Chín. For
his defense the rulers of Chin built their army
themselves around horse archers, which enabled
them to unite the whole of China in one empire in
221 B.C.
Mediterranean Europe was sheltered from the
impact of steppe cavalry until the 4th century
A.D. Therefore, cavalry and archery played only a
minor role in ancient warfare, which was based on
infrantry maneuvring in mass formations
In terms of fertility of lands and the
receptivity to civilized aspects of life, the
Eurasian steppe followed a West-East gradient.
Not corrupted by the luxuries of civilized life,
this gave the more Eastern tribes a military
advantage, fueling nomad movements from East to
West, with the great Mongol expansion at the
climax
17
The Huns
The Huns overran the civilized world between 200
and 600 A.D.
Huns overthrew the Gupta empire in India
Huns caused the migration of the German tribes,
such as the Goths, Vandals and Franks, which
helped to destroy the Roman Empire
Europeans adopted cavalry and archery
18
Explosion of Nomad Invasions 900-1500 A.D.
- Seljuks and Almoravids (11th century) -
Mongols (13th century) - Tamerlane (14th century)
19
Genghis Khan (1206-27) and the Mongols
The greatest land empire of all times
20
Sometimes empires hired the nomads as mercenaries
to defend their marchland
Following pressure from tribal migrations, every
few generations a wave of nomad tribes attacked
the major civilizations
Nomads were always assimilated by the more
populous indigenous population
Sometimes empires defended themselves successfully
Sometimes nomads conquered an empire and imposed
themselves as a ruling nobility upon the
population, creating a new imperial dynasty
Summary
21
Effects of Nomad Explosion 900-1500 A.D.

• Destruction of irrigation infrastructure, in
  parts of the Middle East to such a degree that no
  economic recovery followed
• Destruction of agriculture and cities along the
  Silk Road an enduring setback for Central Asia
• Russia under the Mongols is isolated from
  European development for several hundred years,
  with far-reaching consequences
• Belt of Turkish Dynasty empires that fostered
  Islam Ottomans (Middle East), Safavids (Persia),
  Moguls (India)
• For India this created future problems that led
  to the bloody division between India and Pakistan
  in 1947

22
The military balance shifted to civilized peoples
very late with the invention of artillery in the
17th century
At the same time when the U.S. army destroyed
freedom of the horse-mounted plain Indians, the
Russian army subdued the last of the
Turko-Mongols in the steppe
23
What Remains?
Arab nomads transmitted Islam to the Seljuk Turks
and they transmitted it to almost all Turk peoples
The Eurasian steppe population adopted Islam
almost completely