Genghis Khan: Bum Rap from the West

Today's post is near to the heart of the Republic of Campanastan, which has its roots in the steppes of Central Asia.
If you're about the same age as Campanastan's President-for-Life, your schooling likely taught you that Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes were little more than barbarians who periodically swept across the steppes to pillage, rape and wreak havoc on "civilization". That's what I was taught. Now I realize that portrait of Genghis Khan and his people is little more than proof of the verisimilitude today's quote (see below).
I just finished a remarkable little book by Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. In it, Weatherford documents Genghis Khan (born Temujin, 1162; died, 1227), the rise of his empire, his death, and the fall of his empire after his death. He also describes some of the aspects of the modern world that can be attributed to this far-sighted man of the steppes.
He also notes how the West has promulgated a distorted view of the man and his people, and how the Asia of today is recognizing his legacy. Even the Japanese at one time claimed Genghis Khan was a samurai warrior who escaped to Mongolia after a falling out with a Japanese warlord.

This map, from Wikipedia's entry on the Mongol Empire, shows the extent of Genghis Khan's empire at the time of his death. 
After his death, the empire stretched all the way to eastern Europe and southward to encompass what is now modern-day China. They never really conquered the Arabian peninsula, India, or north Africa.
 
This map, from the same source, shows, in white, the approximate maximum extent of the Mongol empire, 1300-1405. The gray area is the Timurid dynasty.
Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, is the one who received Marco Polo.
Genghis Khan and his successors were not just a bunch of warriors who reveled in making life unpleasant for others. Some their empire's common precepts were ahead of their time. Consider these principles:

• paper money
• freedom of religion
• primacy of the state over the church
• diplomatic immunity
• international law 

The Mongols did not force their culture on the people they conquered. Contrast that with the Romans, British, Spanish, et al. In fact, they were famous for combining the best aspects of their vanquished and spreading them throughout the rest of the empire.
Women also played a substantial role in the administration of the empire. Who do you think ran the empire when the men were off on military campaigns? Wives and mothers, that's who.
The Mongols' military tactics are still emulated in modern times. Weatherford suggests that the German's concept of blitzkrieg was taken from the Mongols' mode of attack. And the Russian campaign against the Germans in World War II (and perhaps Napoleon, too), where they "drew" the Germans deeper and deeper into Russia till their supply lines were too long, is lifted from the Mongols' successful tactics against the Russians along the Kalka River in 1223. Turnabout is fair play.
So my view of Genghis Khan has done a "180" since reading Weatherford's book, similar to how my view of Tamerlane changed after reading Justin Marozzi's book.