According to many historical accounts the Mongols were greatly feared for their cruel treatment of other people they encountered, and committed countless atrocities that would today be considered acts of genocide. My question is were the Mongols in reality any more destructive and cruel then the other civilizations of the period, or was their behaviour typical of warfare of the the time?
hi! FYI there have a been questions on this before; I pulled up a couple which may be worth checking out
Also, if the answer to OP's question is yes, the Mongols were much more destructive and cruel then similar civilizations and conquerors, what kind of sources inform this? Are they quantitative documents or qualitative documents? Could Mongolian psychological warfare blow reports of atrocities out of proportion?
The mongols were so successful precisely because of their cruelty, which motivate many of their targets to simply surrender without putting up a fight at all. They knew this and worked to be as cruel as possible precisely for this PR effect. Check out Hardcore History's series on Genghis for details, like mountains of bones that were mistaken for snow capped mountains from the distance and roads that became marshy and unstable to ride on from the volumes of human flesh and blood that saturated the ground.