a, at the Sit; the Poles and Silesians at Liegnitz; the
Bohemians and Moravians at Olmutz. The Germans suffered nothing from
the invasion of the Mongols but the fear of it. It exhausted itself
principally on those plains of Russia which seem a continuation of the
steppes of Asia. Only in Russian history did the invasion produce
great results.

Batu built on one of the arms of the Lower Volga a city called Sarai
(the Castle), which became the capital of a powerful Tartar empire,
the "Golden Horde," extending from the Ural and Caspian to the mouth
of the Danube. The Golden Horde was formed not only of Tartar-Mongols
or Nogais, who even now survive in the Northern Crimea, but
particularly of the remains of ancient nomads, such as the Patzinaks
and Polovtsi, whose descendants seem to be the present Kalmucks and
Bashkirs; of Turkish tribes tending to become sedentary, like the
Tartars of Astrakhan in the present day; and of the Finnish
populations already established in the country, and which mixed with
the invaders.

Oktai, Kuluk, and Mangu, the first three successors of Genghis Khan,
elected by all the Mongol princes, took the title of "great khans,"
and the Golden Horde recognized their authority; but under his fourth
successor, Kublai, who usurped the throne and established himself in
China, this bond of vassalage was broken. The Golden Horde became an
independent state, 1260. United and powerful under the terrible Batu,
who died in 1255, it fell to pieces under his successors; but in the
fourteenth century the khan Uzbeck reunited it anew, and gave the
Horde a second period of prosperity. The Tartars, who were pagans when
they entered Russia, embraced, about 1272, the faith of Islam, and
became its most formidable apostles.

Meanwhile Yaroslaff, brother of the grand prince George II, was his
successor in Suzdal. Yaroslaff, 1238-1246, found his inheritance in
the most deplorable condition. The towns and villages were burned, the
country and roads covered with unburied corpses; the survivors hid
themselves in the woods. He recalled the fugitives and began to
rebuild. Batu, who had completed the devastation of South Russia,
summoned Yaroslaff to do him homage at Sarai, on the Volga. Yaroslaff
was received there with distinction. Batu confirmed his title of grand
prince, but invited him to go in person to the Great Khan, supreme
chief of the Mongol nation, who lived on the banks of the river
Sakhalian or Amur. To do thi