The Gokturks forged the first true nomadic empire when they destroyed the Rouran Khaganate in 552 and established control over the eastern steppes from Manchuria to the Aral Sea. Unlike earlier steppe confederations that formed around charismatic war leaders and dissolved at their deaths, Gokturks created lasting political structures - an ordu (mobile court), a professional cavalry force, and most importantly, control of the Silk Road trade routes connecting China with Persia and Byzantium. This wasn't an economy based on raiding alone. Gokturk rulers taxed caravans, sold protection to merchants, and traded extensively with both Byzantine and Persian empires. Their most valuable commodity was often human - captives taken in raids on sedentary peoples or rival nomads. These slaves, along with horses and furs, flowed west to Byzantine markets while silk and silver flowed east. Each Gokturk warrior on horseback represented not just military power but mobile wealth, their herds and portable possessions moving with them across vast distances.
The Gokturk military system perfected light cavalry warfare. They recruited no infantry, gathered no grain themselves - instead they took what they needed from conquered peoples. When Gokturk armies defeated enemies, survivors became workers: herding Gokturk livestock, serving in camps, eventually being sold to merchants or settled in subject communities. This constant influx of labor meant successful campaigns literally paid for themselves in captured people who then supported more warriors. Gokturk cavalry moved faster than any contemporary force, their tactical flexibility surpassing anything sedentary kingdoms could field. They fought Byzantine armies, Chinese dynasties, Persian forces, and various steppe rivals with equal effectiveness. When they occupied good grazing land, their herds provided sustenance for their growing forces. The mobility that made them deadly in battle also meant their entire power structure could relocate if threatened, making them nearly impossible to decisively defeat.
But Gokturk success contained the seeds of fragmentation. The khaganate split into eastern and western portions by 582, each claiming legitimacy, each competing for trade revenues and tribute from sedentary states. Chinese dynasties played them against each other, Byzantine emperors funded one branch against another. Without cities or permanent installations, Gokturk power existed only through personal loyalty to khagans - when succession disputes arose, the whole structure could fracture. The Eastern Khaganate fell under Tang Chinese dominance by the 630s. The Western Khaganate fragmented into smaller confederations through the seventh century. Their pure cavalry armies, so effective in open battle, could neither storm fortifications nor occupy territory permanently. Their refusal to farm or gather resources made them dependent on others, ultimately limiting their political options. By 750, Gokturk identity had fragmented into various Turkic peoples across Central Asia, their language and customs surviving but their unified political power dissolved into the very mobility that had once made them invincible.
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