Genghis Khan Spawned His Own Army
There are few world leaders who were so prolific at physical act as Genghis Khan and his descendants. He was able to unite huge nomadic tribes under one Mongol empire and he did it, in part, by procreation. He would bear children with concubines or take wives from the different tribes who joined his ranks. Those sons and daughters would then hold loyalty to him and keep the tribes together and united. It was common for Ghengis to mate with women wherever he went and while not all of his children were legitimized many of them were in order to secure alliances.
When Genghis Khan died his empire reached far across Asia from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Caspian Sea. After his death, his descendants continued to expand the empire while also expanding their own harems and relationships with concubines. The eldest son of Genghis Khan was Tushi and he is credited with having 40 sons. It was routine that after the army would pillage and loot a new conquest, Khan would get the first pick of the beautiful women. Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson also followed in the prolific footsteps of his father and grandfather. He was said to have 22 sons and that more than 30 women would be added to his harem each year.
With so many men continuing to conquer and be quite prolific, the end result is a genetic legacy that is unparalleled. An international group of geneticists found that 8 percent of men living in the region that was once conquered by Genghis Khan have nearly identical Y-chromosomes to the warrior. When taken as a whole this means that 0.5% of the male population in the world today are related to Genghis Khan, in total about 16 million men. This is monumental in that a single genetic lineage was able to expand and have such an impact on a region in just a matter of a few hundred years.
This dominance is attributed not only to the prolific nature of the Khan family but also to the prestige that many societies attributed to someone that was descended from Ghengis Khan. In Russia being able to trace a lineage back to Genghis Khan was seen as a calling card for any would-be warlord. Indians also took great pride in being able to claim Genghiside heritage. In Islamic cultures, there were even some who put as much importance in someone being related to Ghengis Khan as being related to the prophet Muhammad. This prestige and importance often meant that descendants of Ghengis were not only high members of society but they were also ideal partners and were prolific with their prized lineage.