How Culture Affected Military Strategy Genghis Khan’s sweeping meritocracy made his army fundamentally different from—and more powerful than—any that came before it. In most armies, the leaders were on horseback while everyone else was slow-moving infantry; Genghis’s army consisted entirely of cavalry, so they were all equals and they all moved fast. Most armies had large units dedicated to providing supplies; in Genghis’s army, each man carried what he needed: clothes for all weathers, flints for making fires, canteens for water and milk, files to sharpen arrowheads, a lasso for rounding up
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