Genghis Khan, portrait, 14th century. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Image: wikimedia.

Genghis Khan, responsible for an extension of the Grand Canal, is legendary for tactics used to expand the Mongol Empire. Expanse of this empire did have a lasting impact on the world. The Guardian reports that Khan may have drastically decreased the carbon levels in the atmosphere by the very destruction of civilizations for which he may be sometimes scorned. Khan may also have helped replenish that carbon. National Geographic reports (as of 2003) that there are roughly 16 million genetic descendants of Khan in the world today. That’s .05% of the world’s population.

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G. Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.