Horse Country

 

#OnThisDay in AD 1241, the Mongol Empire defeated the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. In the aftermath, 50-80% of settlements in the Hungarian plains were destroyed, as evidenced by the lack of parish churches in the central Carpathian Basin.

In Central Hungary, the Tisza-Duna lowlands were populated by Mongol/Cuman horse-loving nomads. This was the consequence of the planned Mongol extermination policy to create vast open pasture, similar to their homeland in Asia. Even today, the area is called puszta (from the root pusztitani = to exterminate) and is open horse land. The same policy was debated when conquering Northern China, but in the end, Genghis Khan and his sons decided to enslave and exploit the highly productive natives.