Mongols, an Asiatic people belonging to the Ural-Altaic branch of the human family, derive their name from a word mong, which means 'brave,' 'bold.' Their origin and early history are lost in a dim antiquity. Chinese annals first speak of them as dwelling, 6th to 9th century, in what is now Mongolia north of the desert of Gobi, and in the regions south of Lake Baikal. The origin of the royal house is enshrined in myths, the maternal ancestor being by tradition a she-wolf; probably the house was descended from a ruling family of the Turks (Hiung-nu). The cradle of the Mongol people seems to have been on the plains between the river Onon, the Orkhon, and the Kerulon, the latter a tributary of the Argun. It was in that region that Genghis Khan was born, and in that region that he fixed his permanent camp or capital, at a place called Karakorum. An ancestor of the great conqueror ruled in the middle of the 12th century over a confederation of Mongol tribes powerful enough to be a serious menace to the Kin empire of North China; and at the same time he was able to carry on a bitter contest against the Tartars. That the confederation was loose—probably the only tie was the compelling will of the energetic chieftain—is indicated by Temujin's (i.e. Genghis Khan's) early struggles. It was only by dint of hard fighting and tenacious persistence that he was able to maintain undiminished the power possessed by his father, and his father's father before him. But the conqueror's genius was in him, and he died supreme monarch of all central Asia (see GENGHIS KHAN). By his will his conquests and territories were divided amongst his sons; the third, Ogotai, succeeded him as khakan or chief khan of all the Mongol people. Batu and Orda, the sons of the eldest son (Juchi), were invested with Khwarezm, the region watered by the rivers Ural, Oxus, and Jaxartes; Jagatai, the second son, received the territories between Bokhara, the Irtish, and the Gobi; the region between the Irtish and Lake Baikal was assigned to Ogotai; and to the youngest son, Tuli, was given the home country south of the Baikal. The first care of Ogotai was to complete, in conjunction with his brother Tuli, the conquest of North China. The capital of the Kins was taken in 1234, and the last emperor of the dynasty having hanged himself, the Mongol ruler became emperor in his stead. North China having been thus subdued, Ogotai proceeded to conquer China south of the Yellow River, then governed by the Sung dynasty, and to reduce Corea. Meanwhile another army, commanded by Batu, attacked and subdued the principalities of what is now Russia—Bulgaria on the Volga, Riazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Kieff. The force then divided: one division under Batu entered Hungary, crushed the Hungarians at Mohi near Tokay, and captured Pesth and Gran (1241); the other division overwhelmed the Poles near Liegnitz, and pushed on into Moravia. During the same period yet another Mongol army was assailing Khwarezm, which the son of the former ruler had recovered. This army drove Jelal ud-Din out of his kingdom, overran Azerbaijan, and in 1236 Armenia and Georgia, in all of which campaigns their path was marked by terrible cruelties and atrocities. Ogotai died in 1241. Kuyak, his son and successor, reigned seven years, and he was followed by his cousin Mangu, a son of Tuli. Both princes favoured Christianity. During Mangu's reign his brother Hulagu won great fame as the punisher of the Assassins (Ismaelites) in Persia, and as the destroyer of the caliphate of Bagdad. Moreover, he subjugated Syria, and captured Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened Jerusalem. Invested with these countries, he founded the kingdom of the Ilkhans in Persia (q.v.). Mangu's successor was his illustrious brother Kublai (q.v.) Khan, whose descendants ruled over China (q.v.) from 1294 to 1368. This eastern division of the Mongols was expelled from China, and its power finally crushed by the Chinese, in the end of the 14th century. The same people gradually absorbed in the following centuries the various small bodies of Mongols scattered over the centre of Asia, from the Great Wall to the Altai Mountains on the west and Tibet on the south-west. In the west of Asia and the east of Europe were formed the Kipchak (q.v.) states—in Russia, the Golden Horde, which subsequently broke up into the Tartar (q.v.) khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea; in Turkestan, the Uzbek (q.v.) principality, out of which grew the khanates of Bokhara and Samarqand. Towards the end of the 14th century Toktamish made himself chief of the eastern Kipchaks, and united thereto the chieftainship of the Golden Horde; but his power was crushed by the greater Tamerlane (q.v.). In 1519 Baber (q.v.), a descendant of Genghis' son Jagatai, founded the Mogul empire in India. The Kalmucks (q.v.) also belong to the western branch of the Mongols.
The total number of Mongols now under Chinese rule is estimated at two millions. They live for the most part in the immense plateau of central Asia called Mongolia (area, 1,288,000 sq. m.), which is girdled on all sides by lofty mountain-chains (Altai, Thian-Shan, Chingan, &c.). Its southern portion consists of the vast desert of Gobi. These people are still nomads, as their historic ancestors before them always were. Their wealth consists in flocks of sheep, herds of horses (small, but very enduring), cattle, camels, and goats. They are mostly Buddhists, though those in the west are in part followers of Shamanism, as all Mongols were before the days of the great conqueror. As a rule they are hospitable, though indifferent to personal comfort, addicted to cattle-stealing and to drink, but when sober good-hearted and friendly; on the whole, life being easy and they wants few and simple, they display a lack of foresight, and are lazy and dirty. They dwell in tents, which are their only protection against the violent sandstorms of summer and the still more terrible snow-hurricanes of winter. They are fond of making religious pilgrimages to Urga (q.v.), the religious capital of the country, and to various other shrines in China and Mongolia. Kalgan and Kiachta are the principal commercial centres. It is difficult to estimate the numbers of the western Mongols, as they have in many parts commingled with their Turkic neighbours; but see such articles as Kipchaks, Kirghiz, Russia, Siberia, Tartars, Turkestan, &c. See TURKS; ASIA, Vol. I., p. 463. The Buriats (q.v.), almost entirely subject to Russia, are a branch of the Mongol race.
The term Mongolic is used by ethnologists to describe the group of cognate languages which constitute one division of the Turanian (q.v.) family of speech. What Mongol literature there is consists for the most part of translations of religious works from Tibetan and Chinese, historical works (notably the chronicles of Ssanang Setsen in the middle of the 17th century), of folk and fairy tales, and a few poetic productions. Perhaps the best known of the folk-tales are the collection entitled Siddhi-Kār (ed. Jülg, 1868). Others have been published by him (1866-69), by Bergmann (1804-5), I. J. Schmidt (1839), and Russian savants.
See TURKS and ASIA, p. 463; Howorth, History of the Mongols (1876-88); Gilmour, Among the Mongols (1888), More about Mongolia, More about the Mongols (1893), and his Diaries (ed. Lovett, 1892).