It is incredibly refreshing when a Western historian acknowledges that not all history revolves around Western Europe or North America; it is doubly so when a French historian does this and then adds anecdotally that the Byzantine defeat of the Arab Fleets in the Mediterranean was much more important than Charles Martel's victory in Poitiers over "a detachment of Arabs."
Monsieur Chaliand in "Nomadic Empires" acknowledges the central and pivotal role that Central Asian nomadic groups played in the development of world history. The central idea in this short but great introduction to the great nomadic movements is the ripple effect they caused.
For two thousand years empires and khanates hinged their foreign policies, military strategies and survival on how they would deal with the frequently marauding nomadic invaders. For the Westerners of today, to whom World War Two may already be ancient history, it may take a little bit of imagination to understand that for centuries--centuries, meaning decade after decade after decade--China's main foreign policy element was how best to secure its northern frontiers against one invading nomadic people after another. One can loosely draw that this is where China learned to think strategically, as its rulers sought out ways and political or military means with which to keep these marauders at bay.
The Mongols' invasion of Russia changed it forever. With the subjugation of Kievan Rus, Novgorod, Riazan and other city-states, the Genghiskhanid nomads forever ruined any ability of the proto-Russians or Russians engage in even the semi-democratic politics they'd experienced before. It was the Mongols who installed Russia's ruling families, bequeathing its vanquished peoples native overlords who, after they pushed the Mongols out, remained in power with an even-tighter authoritarian grip. The occupation also left Russia with a sizeable population of Central Asian nomads, ensuring that this land would forever now be no longer exclusively European, but Eurasian. Thus, the ripple effect.
Ripple effect again: encroaching nomads pushed Ertughrul's tribe out of modern-day Turkmenistan, which led him to seek land under the Seljuk Turks. He then gave birth to one Osman, who would raise an Islamic empire whose military methods were largely drawn from its Central Asian predecessors.
The author keeps it short and still manages to pack this thin tome with rich details of the coming and goings of so many nomadic tribes: the Tu-chueh, the Avars, the Bulgars, the Alans, Oghuz, Genghiskhanid Mongols, the Turkic-speaking peoples who eventually became the Ottomans and today's Turks. Using modern-day geopolitical and military terminology Chaliand greatly enhances the reader's ability to see the various offensives and counter-attacks waged between nomads and the sedentary peoples that sought to raid, ravage or ruin. "Nomadic Empires" is a great and interesting introduction to a lost world of vast steppes, galloping horses, mounted archers, the rise and fall of countless nomad states and the ever-present struggle of man against man.
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