Atrocitology - Matthew White

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in Asia: Delhi and the Ottomans. He had conquered in every direction but one: eastward into China. The native Ming dynasty led by Zhu Yuanzhang had recently tossed the Mongols out of China, and Timur decided that this could not be allowed to stand. With a new army, he set out to restore the empire of Chinggis Khan, but old age caught up with him and he died in 1405 before he got his army across the border.

      The significance of Timur’s conquests—however huge, bloody, and colorful—is minor and full of ironies. He was a devout Muslim who almost exclusively destroyed Muslim enemies, and it was the losers in his wars who established true legacies while Samarkand became a desert backwater under forgotten khans.16 The Ottomans regrouped and dominated the Middle East for a half millennium. The Golden Horde and its Tatar successors blocked Russian expansion into the steppe for several centuries. Timur’s most lasting impact is that one branch of his descendants forged its own destiny as the Mughals of India (see “Aurangzeb” for details).

      One final story is told about Timur. It involves his own severed head. In 1941, hoping to make the definitive portrait of Timur, the Soviet scientist Mikhail Gerasimov opened his tomb and took away his skull for facial reconstruction. Locals had warned him that a curse awaited any lord who disturbed the tomb of Lord Timur. Gerasimov scoffed and proceeded with his tomb robbery. Within a couple of days, the curse came true, and Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

      The new Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan is rehabilitating Timur as a national hero. A magnificent equestrian statue of him now dominates the main square of the capital city, Tashkent, replacing the bust of Karl Marx that had been there in the late Soviet era, which had replaced the earlier statue of Stalin, which replaced the original tsarist statue of Konstantin Kaufman, Russian conqueror of Central Asia. Apparently, this plaza has never honored a likeable person.17

CHINESE CONQUEST OF VIETNAM

      Death toll: probably not 7 million1

      Rank: 61

      Type: war of conquest

      Broad dividing line: China vs. Vietnam

      Time frame: 1406–28

      Location: Vietnam (also called Dai Viet or Annam at the time)

      Who usually gets the most blame: China

      WHEN HO QUY LY, THE CHIEF MINISTER OF DAI VIET (MEDIEVAL VIETNAM), usurped the throne in 1400, he smoothed it over diplomatically with his neighbors—especially China—by swearing that no heir remained from the previous Tran dynasty. Then an outcast Tran prince ruined everything by showing up in China to ask the Ming for their help in restoring his family to the throne. The Chinese mobilized 800,000 troops in their southern provinces during the summer of 1406 and invaded Vietnam.

      In previous invasions southward, Chinese troops experienced difficulty defeating the war elephants of Southeast Asian armies, but now they had horses disguised as lions and primitive guns shooting fire arrows to drive them back. The Chinese invaders overran most of the country, and in the middle of 1407, they captured and executed the current king of Vietnam, Ho Quy Ly’s son. They put their man on the throne, restoring the Tran dynasty.2

      But then the Chinese wouldn’t go home. They began to establish new administrative districts with tax offices, salt offices to enforce the monopoly, Confucian schools, and Buddhist registries. When the king of Vietnam insisted that it really was time for the Chinese to leave, war erupted. It was a confusing rebellion, with a new leader of the Tran dynasty popping up every time the Chinese killed the old one. In 1413, the last of these, Tran De Qui Khoang, was beaten in battle and captured, later committing suicide.

      The Chinese took direct control of Vietnam and set out to eradicate the native culture. “Chinese dress and customs were imposed on the people; women were compelled to wear short pants and vests; people had to wear long hair; public instructions were taught in Chinese while Vietnamese books were suppressed.”3 The people were brutally overworked to extract the country’s resources.

      An aristocratic landowner, Le Loi, rose in rebellion, but his forces were quickly scattered by the Ming in 1418. He regrouped and rebuilt his army deep in the inaccessible mountains. They hid in remote areas of the country, moving out occasionally to ambush Chinese forces for supplies. If that didn’t work, they ate their horses or scrounged wild rice and grass.

      Over the next ten years, Le Loi wore down the Chinese by attacking isolated garrisons and supply convoys and then retreating into the mountains when larger forces arrived. By paying off corruptible officials, Le Loi gained additional supplies and breathing space. Finally, the Chinese gave up and abandoned the country to Le Loi, who established the Le dynasty in 1428.

AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE

      Death toll: 1.2 million

      Rank: 45

      Type: human sacrifice

      Broad dividing line: priests vs. prisoners

      Time frame: ca. 1440 –1521

      Location: Mexico

      Who usually gets the most blame: Aztecs

      The unanswerable question everyone asks: Didn’t they notice that the sun came up every morning even if they didn’t sacrifice to it?

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