steppe

(noun)

The grasslands of Eastern Europe and Asia. Similar to the North American prairie and the African savannah.

Related Terms

Examples of steppe in the following topics:

  • Overview of the Mongol Empire

    • The Mongol Empire began in the Central Asian steppes and lasted throughout the 13th and 14th centuries.
    • This route allowed commodities such as silk, pepper, cinnamon, precious stones, linen, and leather goods to travel between Europe, the Steppe, India, and China.

  • The Silk Road

    • Emperor Wu repelled the invading barbarians (the Xiongnu, or Huns, a nomadic-pastoralist warrior people from the Eurasian steppe) and roughly doubled the size of the empire, claiming lands that included Korea, Manchuria, and even part of Turkistan.

  • The Indo-Aryan Migration and the Vedic Period

    • It postulates that people of a so-called Kurgan Culture, a grouping of the Yamna or Pit Grave culture and its predecessors, of the Pontic Steppe were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language.
    • According to this theory, these nomadic pastoralists expanded throughout the Pontic-Caspian steppe and into Eastern Europe by early 3000 BCE.

  • The Mongal Invasions

    • Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206.
    • Khublai evoked his public image as a sage emperor by following the rituals of Confucian propriety and ancestor veneration, while simultaneously retaining his roots as a leader from the steppes.

  • The Double Disasters

    • Even more dangerous than the Normans was a new enemy from the steppe: the Turks.

  • Genghis Khan

    • By 1260, the armies of the Mongol Empire had swept across and outward from the Asian steppes.

  • The Mongols in Eastern Europe

    • Afterward, the Mongols turned their attention to the steppe, crushing various tribes and sacking Crimea to the west.

  • The Mongol Threat

    • These invaders originated on the steppes of central Asia and were unified under the infamous warrior and leader Genghis Khan.

  • The Formation of Russia

    • It took a number of months before the Khan retreated back to the steppe.

  • The Rise of the Han Dynasty

    • Emperor Wu repelled the invading barbarians (the Xiongnu, or Huns, a nomadic-pastoralist warrior people from the Eurasian steppe), and roughly doubled the size of the empire, claiming lands that included Korea, Manchuria, and even part of Turkistan.