Why were steppelanders often successful in their conflicts with the settled populations of Eurasia? What are two examples of this?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary but correct responses should include: Nomads threatened farming neighbors for various reasons. The nomadic life demanded immeasurably more land per head of population than the intensive agriculture that fed dense farming populations. Nomads were ill-equipped for some economic activities, including mining and silk manufacture and the production of favored commodities, such as tea, fruit, and grain. They depended, therefore, on theft, tribute, or trade from farming communities. The nomads were better equipped for war. Horsemanship made their way of life a preparation for battle. Sedentary peoples had not yet developed firearms or fortifications good enough to tilt the balance in their own favor. The nomads tended to cherish ideologies of superiority—variously of jihad or of divine election for empire—that clashed with the equal and opposite convictions of the settled peoples. Nomads could exploit farmers' lands, but agricultural communities did not yet have the technology—steel plows, mechanical harvesters—needed to turn the unyielding soils of the grasslands into productive farmland. Several nomadic tribes had varying degrees of success in defeating and overtaking the land of settled cultures in the Islamic, Byzantine, and Chinese civilizations.