Greater Mongolia, as a geographical region, is the contiguous territories primarily inhabited by ethnic
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
. It approximately includes the modern
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
of
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
, the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous RegionInner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
in the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
(PRC), and the Buryat Republic as well as a few smaller territories in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The people in this area share the traditional
Mongolian cultureMongolian culture has been heavily influenced by the Mongol nomadic way of life. Other important influences are from Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, and from China. In the 20th century, Russian and, via Russia, European culture have had a strong effect on Mongolia...
to varying degrees, and they speak one of several
Mongolic languagesThe Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia, notably including Mongolian.Mongolic is sometimes grouped with Turkic and Tungusic as part of the larger Altaic family....
. With the exception of the Mongolian state, Mongols now only form a minority in most of these areas.
The notion of the people living in those territories being "Mongols" was established at the beginning of the 13th century, when
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
united the Mongol-
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes into a homogenous nation.
Greater Mongolia, as a geographical region, is the contiguous territories primarily inhabited by ethnic
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
. It approximately includes the modern
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
of
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
, the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous RegionInner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
in the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
(PRC), and the Buryat Republic as well as a few smaller territories in
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The people in this area share the traditional
Mongolian cultureMongolian culture has been heavily influenced by the Mongol nomadic way of life. Other important influences are from Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, and from China. In the 20th century, Russian and, via Russia, European culture have had a strong effect on Mongolia...
to varying degrees, and they speak one of several
Mongolic languagesThe Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia, notably including Mongolian.Mongolic is sometimes grouped with Turkic and Tungusic as part of the larger Altaic family....
. With the exception of the Mongolian state, Mongols now only form a minority in most of these areas.
History
The notion of the people living in those territories being "Mongols" was established at the beginning of the 13th century, when
Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
united the Mongol-
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
tribes into a homogenous nation. After the fall of the Mongol-ruled
Yuan DynastyThe Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was both the continuation of the Mongol Empire and the Mongol founded historical state in Mongolia and China, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. Although the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, he had his grandfather Genghis Khan placed on the...
in 1368, parts of Greater Mongolia were taken over by the Han-ruled
Ming DynastyThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
, with the rest splintering between several Mongol domains, mainly the Oirad and the
KhalkhaThe Khalkha, or Halh are a subgroup of the Mongols. They comprise the majority of the population of the independent state of Mongolia. The standard language of Mongolia is based on the Khalkha dialect.- History :The first reference to the Khalkha people is of the early 16th century...
. In the 17th century, all of the territory fell to the
ManchuThe Manchu people are a Tungusic people who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the seventeenth century, with the help of Ming rebels , they conquered the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which established a...
-ruled
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
.
After Outer Mongolia's Declaration of independence in late 1911, the
Bogd KhanThe Bogd Khan was enthroned as the Emperor of Mongolia on 29 December 1911, when the country declared independence from the Qing Dynasty...
government initially sought to unify both Inner and Outer Mongolia. Troops were sent into Inner Mongolia, but had to be called back after Russia became worried that these moves might provoke a conflict with
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. In 1919, the Japanese set up a so-called pan-Mongolian movement under
Grigory SemyonovGrigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov, or Semenov , was a Japanese-supported leader of the White movement in Transbaikal and beyond from December 1917 to November 1920, Lieutenant General and Ataman of Baikal Cossacks .-Biography:Semyonov was born in the Transbaikal region of eastern Siberia...
in northeastern Inner Mongolia, but the Bogd Khan government refused to join.
Roman Ungern von SternbergBaron Roman Nickolai Maximilian von Ungern-Sternberg , also known as the Bloody Baron and the "Mad Baron" was a Baltic German-Russian Yesaul , and self-proclaimed lieutenant-general who was...
also made some references to pan-Mongolism.
After Ungern von Sternberg's defeat by the Mongolian communists under Damdin Sükhbaatar, the new socialist regime further considered the idea. But under pressure of the Komintern, which regarded alienating China for the sake of less than two million Mongolians as a non-issue, these policies had to be dropped in the mid-1920s.
Another revival of pan-Mongol sentiments came at the end of World War II, when Outer Mongolian troops took part in the Soviet Operations against
MengjiangMengjiang , also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was an autonomous area in Inner Mongolia, operating under nominal Chinese sovereignty and Japanese control. It consisted of the then-Chinese provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, corresponding to the central part of modern Inner Mongolia...
(see Soviet invasion of Manchuria). However, Outer Mongolian troops were quickly withdrawn after the end of hostilities.
Following the democratic reform 1991, several non-governmental organizations reintroduced efforts to advocate pan-Mongolianism. In Mongolia those are the "Movement for Unity of the Mongol Nation", in Buryatia the "Movement for National Unity Negeden" and the "Buryat-Mongol People's Party". However, none of those organizations has gained any significant political influence.