Explaining about forgotten wars in general would violate our rule on "example-seeking" questions, but I'm happy to tell you about the Treaty of Kyakhta and the fizzled Mongolian revolutionary war between 1911 and 1915. I call it a fizzled revolutionary war because it was so greatly overshadowed by the events of 1917 and the subsequent setup of the Mongolian People's Republic in 1921.

But let's back-track to 1911. On Oct. 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution hits its full swing and the Republic of China overthrows the Qing dynasty. As with most imperial revolutions, nations at the periphery used the opportunity to make their own bids for independence or self-government. Mongolia was no different. At the time, it was under the dominion of China, and on Dec. 1, 1911, in the town of Urga, Mongolians issued their declaration of independence.

At the time, the boundaries of Mongolia were somewhat nebulous. Did it include inner Mongolia, or just outer Mongolia? Who would throw their support for the new Bogd Khan government, and who would side with the central government of China, and what exactly was the central government of China at this point in the Xinhai Revolution?

Support in Mongolia itself was mixed, and as in most revolutionary independence movements, there was an element of civil war as well as a war for independence. Fortunately, by the standards of later conflicts, fighting was light and casualties in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

The nascent Mongolian government knew it needed outside aid in order to win its fight, so it appealed to all the great powers of the world for recognition of its independence. As early as spring 1911, the revolutionaries had sought outside help. After the declaration of independence, the new Mongolia sought active aid from Russia and Japan but was only somewhat successful. Mongolia and Russia signed a treaty in 1912, but Russian support was limited, and after WWI began in 1914, Russia was more interested in settling matters in the East under any terms so it could concentrate in the West.

This led to intensive negotiations to settle the conflict. Russia didn't want to see the war spilling over into its borders, and Mongolia wanted to negotiate some kind of independence. China also faced its own challenges with the Xinhai Revolution, and so all three sides wanted a deal.

Mongolia had the weakest hand, and that shows in the resulting 1915 treaty. Mongolia was granted an element of independence, but it was placed under Chinese suzerainty and forbidden from conducting its own foreign policy.

In 1919, the new government of the Soviet Union recognized Mongolian independence, but the Soviet Union faced its own civil war and was unable to initially support militarily. Chinese forces drove the Soviets from a brief occupation and revoked Mongolia's semi-autonomous status, but the Chinese presence itself was short-lived.

In 1921, the anti-Bolshevik Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg and his tsarist cavalry occupied Mongolia, intending to use it as a base to prosecute the liberation of Russia from the Soviet Union. Instead, Ungern-Sternberg only gave the Soviet Union a pretext to invade Mongolia and establish the Mongolian People's Republic under Soviet domination. That government would last for the following 70 years, bringing a great degree of political stability ─ if not economic success ─ to the nation.