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Statue of Genghis Khan in Mongolia

There are periods of time in human history that, from global perspectives, are unmistakably remarkable in terms of territory or philosophy of the time. The period of the Great Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan is one of them. Once Genghis Khan came along, the regions east and west of the Eurasian continent came under control of Mongolia whether they liked it or not. The regions extending as far as the East Sea to the east and Russia, Anatolia, and the eastern Mediterranean coasts to the west became the territories of Mongolia. Even Western Europe, Egypt, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan, regions that were not under direct control of Mongolia, were also in contact with Mongolia for exchange in various areas including politics, economy, culture, art, science, philosophy, and religion. Almost all the regions of the world were influenced by Mongolia whether they liked it or not. Indeed, it was the era of Mongolia.
The Great Mongol Empire was conscious of 'the world,' as expressed in the title 'The History of the World Conqueror' of the book by Persian historian Ata-Malik Juvaini (1226-1283). The world-conscious Great Mongol Empire came up with the philosophy of the time for the unification of the human race known as the 'Pax Mongolica.'
The Pax-Mongolica was never a model of the destruction of civilizations, but a model of the unification of the human race that embraced all the ideologies and philosophies of the world. It was by this model that almost all the nations in the world were forced to break up their existing systems, either voluntarily or forcibly. Whatever forced that breakup, they evidently came across as innovators, not destroyers, to the people of any empire or any religious group.
The event in which the inhabitants of the earth were one day suddenly gathered into the single world was unprecedented in human history. From this point on, the earthlings launched into mutual exchange in the truest sense. For the first time in history, although for a short period of time, the human race lived in harmony in a single empire under a single ideal regardless of religion and race. From the perspective of human history, this marked the beginning of the true global community (the first global community empire). The philosophy of the time known as the Pax-Mongolica that they presented, as the reservoir of the ideology and the organization that unified the world, would later determine the course of history. In other words, it was a large watershed in world history.

The Pax-Mongolica was never a model of the destruction of civilizations, but a model of the unification of the human race that embraced all the ideologies and philosophies of the world. It was by this model that almost all the nations in the world were forced to break up their existing systems, either voluntarily or forcibly. Whatever forced that breakup, they evidently came across as innovators, not destroyers, to the people of any empire or any religious group.
The event in which the inhabitants of the earth were one day suddenly gathered into the single world was unprecedented in human history. From this point on, the earthlings launched into mutual exchange in the truest sense. For the first time in history, although for a short period of time, the human race lived in harmony in a single empire under a single ideal regardless of religion and race. From the perspective of human history, this marked the beginning of the true global community (the first global community empire). The philosophy of the time known as the Pax-Mongolica that they presented, as the reservoir of the ideology and the organization that unified the world, would later determine the course of history. In other words, it was a large watershed in world history.

The Core Value of the Pax-Mongolica: The Philosophy of the Multi-Ethnic Community in Harmony and Coexistence

Mongolian steppe rainbow

The Core Value of the Pax-Mongolica: The Philosophy of the Multi-Ethnic Community in Harmony and Coexistence
The Eurasian-Altaic culture from which the Pax-Mongolica emerged was the center stage of world history, to such an extent that 'History of Central Eurasia' has emerged as an independent discipline. Moreover, the Eurasian-Altaic peoples, the players on this stage, have historically very unique philosophies: the ideological philosophy of shamanisim that believes in respecting all things in the universe; the political philosophy of division of powers (harvest ritual) through direct participatory democracy; and the economic philosophy of valuing trade. I can say that the Pax-Mongolica is the systematic completion and application of the original form of the thinking system of the northern culture.
Even those with the closed-minded/settled/vertical mind might find something intriguing about the course of Genghis Khan's expansion; whenever the empire expanded its forces and territories, the newly included regions and groups served as outposts for the next war of conquest and the sources of supplying men and goods for the military. What does this mean? It suggests that the Great Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan was an open society that didn't care about ideology or race in the first place, and that the empire built on this social structure to establish the philosophy of multi-ethnic community.

The Great Mongol Empire, an Empire of Mixed-Blood Culture Boasting of Openness and Diversity

800 birth anniversary of Chinggis Khan monument

It wouldn't be an overstatement that the secrets of the dominant power of the Great Mongol Empire lie in the unique combination of the innovative internal system with the idealism of mixed-blood culture. By the innovative internal system I mean the strong military power based on the Thousand Households System and Keshigten and the thorough participatory democracy known as Khurita.
By mixed-blood culture I mean a hybrid culture boasting of openness and diversity. In a society of hybrid culture, partitions cannot exist. Without partitions, the empire is alive and changing, and able to create something new constantly. The power of hybrid culture may have been the driving force behind the rise of Mongolia as the empire that united the world with its excellent assimilability with its neighboring cultures. The characteristics and traits of the Great Mongol Empire (Yuan) established on the foundation of open society (horizontal mind) and multi-ethnic community may be summarized as follows: free trade in unlimited competition; the economic zone of a single paper currency; the society of specialized professions on contract with respect for experts in single fields; the revolution of transportation and communications (Jamchi); the empire of logistics base that connected the seas to the land; the empire of multilingual parties and contracts; the only empire free of religious problems; and the empire that treasured the information and science infrastructures. These characteristics and traits are drawing attention from around the world today when people look forward to the beginning of the second global community with the U.S. at its center.

The Pax-Mongolica of Genghis Khan Reborn as the Philosophy of the 21st Century

The leadership and the philosophies of Genghis Khan are under the big spotlight today, which may have to do with the pursuit of the philosophy of the unified global community for the 21st century. In particular, this year marks the 850th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan. Accordingly, all kinds of conferences for reviewing Genghis Khan are being held in countries around the world, including not only Mongolia but also China which declared Genghis Khan to be a great Chinese. But Korea is the country that should be as much interested in Genghis Khan as Mongolia is. A member of the G20 and one of the top 10 trading countries in the world, Korea needs global vision at least for the survival of its people. To this end, Korea needs to study and share the Pax-Mongolica, the philosophy of harmony and coexistence. Korea also needs to reconsider its education system in which the period of Great Mongolia is being taught as the period of Mongolian intervention. Video artist Paik Nam-June, through his artwork titled "The Rehabilitation of Genghis Khan (1993)," honored that the underlying idea of the Pax-Mongolica was derived from the original form of the northern culture based on humanitarianism. It is this active way of thinking that we need today.