In China's rich and long history, a long-standing problem has been stubbornly entangled for thousands of years, that is, the Central Plains Dynasty was frequently afflicted by the northern nomads. Among them, in the historical era of the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Mongolia in the north rose like lightning. In 1279, the Mongol warriors defeated the Southern Song Dynasty in the Battle of Yashan and conquered the land of China, setting a record for the first time in Chinese history to be conquered by a foreign race.
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty and drove the Mongol conquerors back to the steppe. Although the Ming Dynasty succeeded in defeating the Mongols, they were unable to subdue them completely. In 1449, Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty led an army of 500,000 troops to conquer Warat (a Mongol branch), but suffered a major defeat at Tumubao, and Yingzong himself was taken prisoner of Warat.
Subsequently, the internal contradictions in Mongolia gradually intensified, and the Ming Dynasty alleviated the border troubles in the north through means such as **. However, with the rise of the Later Jin (the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty) in the northeast, a dual threat posed to the Ming and Mongols. Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar tribe adopted a strategy of uniting the Ming Dynasty to jointly defend against the Later Jin, but it did not work. In less than twenty years, the Houjin swept through the Mongol ministries. In 1636, Emperor Taiji of the Later Jin Dynasty was revered as the Great Khan of Mongolia, and at the same time, he changed the name of the country to the Great Qing Dynasty, which later became the Qing Dynasty.
However, although the Mongols were superficially conquered, this conquest was based on strong force. Once the Qing Dynasty's power weakened, its control over Mongolia was bound to be unsustainable. To this end, the Qing court adopted a series of clever control methods. First of all, the implementation of the flag system, which divided the Mongolian pastoral areas into fixed flags, weakened the strength of the original large tribal leaders. This not only severed the traditional ties between the ministries, but also greatly weakened the power of the chiefs by setting up zasaks (consuls) in each banner to be directly accountable to the Qing **.
Second, the Qing used the influence of religion to consolidate their control over Mongolia. The Mongols embraced the Yellow Sect, the Gelug sect, and the Qing court took advantage of this to skillfully consolidate its rule by co-opting the religious forces of the Mongol tribes. However, the Qing Dynasty also prevented Mongolia from developing a unified religious leader, and by supporting Zhanggyalhutuktu, he fought against living Buddhas such as Jebtsundamba Hutuktu, who were highly regarded in the hearts of the Mongols.
Although the Qing Dynasty imposed a series of control measures on Mongolia in an endless stream, these were only at the level of "art". The more important reason is that the Qing Dynasty chose a unique opportunity. Beginning in the 16th century, the Tsar** expanded from Eastern Europe to the Far East, which directly led to the shrinking living space of the Mongols. At the time of the rise of the Qing Dynasty, the independent Khalkha Mongols (the collective name of the Mongol tribes in Mobei) were in trouble, sandwiched between the powerful Tsar** and the Qing Empire. Under the circumstances, it seemed only a matter of time before the Khalkha Mongols were annexed. Eventually, the Khalkha Mongols surrendered and joined the Qing Dynasty, which shared their religion.
In addition, with the advancement of ** technology, the widespread use of firearms has also influenced the situation to a certain extent. The once-invincible Mongol cavalry became powerless against firearms, leaving the Mongols increasingly weakened and eventually unable to resist the Qing rule.
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