Genghis Khan's reputation and siege terror

Genghis Khan's military success contributes to a reputation that can obscure the human cost. Estimates offered here range from twenty to sixty million deaths, alongside another claim about a third of humanity. Those figures are not reconciled into a settled total. The siege rationale was that slaughter after victory would frighten later cities into admitting the army without resistance. In that argument, terror would avoid further sieges and save lives, a justification that depends on making later populations fear the same violence.