The continents of Europe and Asia share the largest plain in the world, a vast steppe, or grassland, that stretches five thousand miles from Hungary in the west to Manchuria in the east. From at least 4000 B. C., tribes of nomadic herders have struggled...

Mongolia has two histories, one before the Mongols emerged as a distinct people, and one after. Before the Mongols, the area of today's Mongolia was host to a variety of cultures, some directly ancestral to the Mongols, some not. They included...

Although humans have inhabited Mongolia since the Stone Age, Mongolia only became politically important after iron weapons entered the area in the 3rd century BCE. In general, Mongolia at this point had a similar history to the rest of the steppe that...