Stretching from the Sea of Japan to the Mediterranean, the Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in world history with a territory covering approximately 14 million square miles (roughly the size of Africa). While contemporaries viewed the Mongols on par with natural disasters, the apocalypse, and even the anti-christ, the level of death and destruction caused in the conquest obscures an influence and legacy that continues to shape the world today.

Bio: Timothy May is Associate Dean of Arts & Letters and Professor of Central Eurasian History at the University of North Georgia. He earned his PhD in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is the author and editor of 9 books on the Mongol Empire and Mongolia including The Mongols (2019), The Mongol Empire (2018), and The Mongol Art of War (2007, 2016). His books have been translated into Polish, Korean, and Chinese.