Mongolia as a City-State

MONGOLIA

I. Introductory Statement

The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Gökturks and others. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols returned to their earlier pattern of constant internal conflict and occasional raids on the Chinese borderlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Mongolia came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism. At the end of the 17th century, all of Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence from the Republic of China, and until 1945 to gain international recognition.

I personally chose the nation-state of Mongolia because based on research it is one of the best examples of a nation-state. Its history interests me as to how it became independent. It overcame many different major countries including China and Russia and to this day it still stands as a proud independent nation-state. It is fully capable of standing on its own, and the country is handled well enough for them not to be on the front line of media reports.

II. People

Mongolia is a sparsely populated country. Approximately 30% of the Mongolian population are nomadic or semi-nomadic. The predominant religion in Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state's citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, though Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west.

Many visitors to Mongolia expect the country to be inhabited by a single ethnic group in fact this is not true. The people of Mongolia are in fact descendants of twenty different ethnicities.

80% of Mongolians belong to the Khalka ethnic group and can be found across all the regions of Mongolia. The second largest ethnicity is the Kazakhs...