At it's height, the mongol empire was the biggest empire by area that had ever existed. It owned the most profitable route in the middle ages - the silk route and reaped great profits off of it.

There are interesting factoids about mongols like:

1. 0.25% of all world's population are direct descendants of Gengis Khan

2. Mongols killed so many chinese during their chinese conquest that it effected the global climate because all the abandoned and deserted villages, towns and cities were reclaimed by nature and forests grew where chinese towns once were.

3. They were the only people in the history to have successfully campaigned in the east and the west almost simultaneously against persia (Sassanid) and china (sung)and win on both fronts under Kublai khan

4. The Byzantines were really afraid of the Golden Horde and the Illkhanate always did whatever they could to maintain alliance with them... And the Byzantines were a major power (along with the holy roman empire, franks, and the genoese ofcourse) Europe in the middle ages.

5. The only force that could barely stand up to the mongols were the mamelukes and that too it was because they too were on the rise around the same time under many able generals and leaders

Mongols had many more impressive feats no other civilization could match in terms of conquest.

My question is, when the Mongol Empire fell and disintegrated, what happened to all that wealth that mongols had ? Sure since some of them integrated with China and gave birth to Korea and other with Persia that wealth went be found in China & Korea and Iran respectively. The Golden Horde died and Russia was born and the wealth of Czars explains where the wealth of the Golden Horde went.

But what about the empire in the central asia region and the current day mongolia. That never really go away did it ? But Mongolia is not really a rich nation in the world today, None of the central asian countries are. All the central asian countries have not been relevant on the world stage for hundreds of years. It seems like all it's wealth magically vanished and they were back to where they started in terms of wealth and power...just a bunch of ordinary cattle herders, going about herding in the steppe.

How and why did they accept this after experiencing all the riches in the world ? Or am I way off about the wealth of mongolia ? I mean, when you look at Eurasian history, every major civilization, even after their fall somehow remained relevant - Distinct masses of land always relevant throughout history as Empires came and went. The cities remained relevant, their history remained relevant.

For example - Macedonian Empire's remnants turned into, Byzantine Empire, to Ottoman Empire...Roman Empire turned into Italian and Genoese, Persian Empires had many dynasties and turned into Saracens Empires and into the Ottoman Empire. In India the land under Mauryas, turned into Guptas into Sultanate, into Mughals... Chinese have tonnes of Dynasties came and went.

But, nothing of that sort is advertized for the Mongols or Mongolia ? It's just seems so strange to me...