Outer Mongolia , is also my country's neighboring country Mongolia . Historically, my country's Inner Mongolia and China's Inner Mongolia were areas where northern nomads gathered in ancient times. They are collectively called Mongolian grassland , and are also the areas where Mongolian people gather.
Mongolia has a very vast land area. It is located on the Mongolian Plateau , covering an area of approximately 156 square kilometers. It is a landlocked country between the People's Republic of China and Russia. It is also the second largest landlocked country in the world, second only to Kazakhstan in Central Asia. . Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, it is 38 kilometers from its westernmost point to the easternmost point of Kazakhstan.
However, Mongolia, which has such a vast territory, has a population of 3.278 million (2020), which is equivalent to less than 2 people living per square kilometer, which is even smaller than the population density of countries such as Australia and Canada. Moreover, Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is the largest city in the country, with 1.44 million people living there, equivalent to half of the country's population.
As you can see, Mongolia is a vast country with a sparse population, which is even smaller than the population density of countries such as Australia and Canada. As you can imagine, many places on the Mongolian prairie are uninhabited. The sky is vast and wild, but it is difficult to see human habitation. There are more cattle and sheep than people.
But in comparison, my country's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is about 1.18 million square kilometers, which is 380,000 square kilometers less than Outer Mongolia. It has a population of more than 24 million, and its population density is higher than that of Outer Mongolia. Moreover, the city of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia alone has a permanent population of 3.4956 million at the end of 2021, which is definitely better than the entire country of Outer Mongolia.
Therefore, people are curious as to why Outer Mongolia has such a small population. The reasons for all this can be traced back to history.
The Origin of Inner and Outer Mongolia
Now, let’s clarify the concept of Inner and Outer Mongolia. The Mongolian Golden Family, represented by Genghis Khan, originated from the Hulunbuir Prairie in Inner Mongolia today. After Genghis Khan unified the various tribes in Mongolia, today's Mongolian nation gradually formed. After that, Genghis Khan and his descendants expanded externally and established the Mongol Empire across the Eurasian continent. It can be said that the formation of Outer Mongolia was also the result of the expansion and aggression of the Mongolian nobles.
Due to the expeditions of the Genghis Khan family, the footprints and population of today's Mongolians have naturally spread all over the Eurasian continent. Currently, there are as many as 20 million descendants of Mongolians in the world. The Mongolians in Mongolia are a group. They are called Khalkha Mongols . There are also Buryat Mongols, Merle Mongols, Tatars and Mongolians in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in Russia, all of whom are descendants of the Mongols.
After the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty rule, the Mongolian aristocrats were entrenched in today's Inner and Outer Mongolia, and had frequent relations with the Ming and Qing dynasties of China . During the Qing Dynasty , Outer Mongolia was called "Khalkha Mongolia" and Inner Mongolia was called "Horqin Mongolia". The aristocratic circle of the Qing Dynasty, including the royal family, intermarried with Mongolia. The choice of spouse must be mainly based on the Horqin grassland of today's Inner Mongolia. Therefore, the relationship between Inner and Outer Mongolia can be compared to the relationship between branches and leaves.
The harsh natural environment of Outer Mongolia
The harsh natural environment of Outer Mongolia The area where Outer Mongolia is located was also called Mobei in history. The area where Inner Mongolia is located was historically also called Monan, or part of Monan.
The Mobei region where Outer Mongolia is located is a high-altitude area of the Mongolian Plateau, with an average altitude of over 1,580 meters. Most of the areas are close to the cold Siberia , a typical continental temperate steppe climate, easy to Affected by the Siberian cold current , the temperature difference between morning and evening is large, and the average temperature is definitely lower than that in Inner Mongolia.
For example, the climate in Outer Mongolia is characterized by obvious seasonal changes, with long winters and frequent heavy snowstorms. The average winter temperature is between -20 and -8 degrees; short summers with large temperature differences between day and night; and short spring and autumn seasons.
Generally speaking, the winter in Outer Mongolia is relatively long, with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, from November to April, which is very long. Then in mid-May the weather warms up, trees sprout and grasslands turn green. Summer is from July to August, but because it is located on the plateau, the climate will suddenly become colder. In autumn (September to October) the weather gets colder and it can even snow.
Due to the severe cold all year round in Outer Mongolia, there is less rainfall and the climate is relatively dry. In addition, there are no large rivers passing through the territory, and water resources are extremely scarce, which leads to the barrenness of the land here. The land is also rich in the Gobi Desert, deserts, and mountainous areas, and much of it is frozen soil, making it difficult to engage in agricultural production and suitable for human survival. Even in the central grassland areas, there is a serious problem of overgrazing.
Facts have proved that in high latitudes, because of the cold and dry climate, the chance of successful pregnancy is far lower than that in middle and low latitudes. This also makes Outer Mongolia, like Russia and Canada, have a sparse population since ancient times and cannot carry too many population.
Although the Mobei region of Outer Mongolia is located in the north of the desert and is too far from the Central Plains, it is difficult to attract a large number of people to migrate to the north for cultivation. The high altitude also makes it difficult for water vapor to reach and the climate is dry, making it difficult to develop agriculture. The only way is to have a nomadic economy. This has also made Outer Mongolia's agriculture maintain the form of a nomadic economy from ancient times to modern times. Therefore, it can be inferred that Outer Mongolia has had a small population since ancient times.
The ancient Xiongnu , Xianbei , Khitan , Mongolian and other nomadic peoples activities. However, these nomadic national regimes can have hundreds of thousands of cavalry. This is also because the ancient nomads were almost all old people from birth. The young, sick, weak, and all the people are soldiers.
Due to the harsh climate and environment of the ancient Mongolian Plateau, this also caused the nomads to go south one after another, harassing the Central Plains regime in warm-climate areas in order to obtain the food and various resources they wanted.
The superior natural environment of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is located in the Monan region, but in the low-altitude area of the Mongolian Plateau, the climate is relatively warmer than that of Outer Mongolia. There is Yellow River runoff inside, the rainfall is relatively high, and the land is also More fertile than Outer Mongolia. The topography of Inner Mongolia is characterized by east-west strips. The west is desert, but the central and western parts are located on the Hetao Plain with rich water and grass.
Baotou City in the Hetao area has a population of three to four million, which is several times larger than the population of the entire Outer Mongolia. Moreover, the eastern part of Inner Mongolia is the fertile Liaonen Plain, most of which is usable land. It can be said that Inner Mongolia is located in the resource-rich area of the Mongolian Plateau.
This is also the Inner Mongolia region in Monan. In addition to being nomadic, people are also more or less engaged in agricultural production. Since ancient times, nomads on the Mongolian grasslands have liked to graze on fertile pastures. During the Qin Dynasty , the Huns originally settled and grazed in the Hetao area, which was rich in water and grass.
However, with the growth of the Qin and Han Dynasties, nomadic people also migrated to the Mongolian plateau. In ancient times, the Mobei Outer Mongolia region experienced the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, Turk, Uighur, Mongolian and other ethnic minority regimes. In the wars with the Central Plains dynasties, these nomadic ethnic minorities also frequently They moved south to settle in Inner Mongolia.
In addition to their farming characteristics, people living in Inner Mongolia often have economic and cultural exchanges with people in the Central Plains due to their proximity to the Central Plains. For example, in ancient times, Inner Mongolia also attracted a large number of Shanxi merchants to engage in commercial activities, as well as Han Chinese immigrants to colonize Inner Mongolia. This also makes people in Inner Mongolia have better material living conditions than Outer Mongolia. Their life span is relatively higher and they have more children.
Therefore, this can also be explained historically. The population of Inner Mongolia has been larger than that of Outer Mongolia since ancient times.
The glory of the Mongol Empire
In history, there is actually only one period in which Outer Mongolia in Mobei is better than Inner Mongolia in South Mongolia, and that is the period of the Mongol Empire established by Genghis Khan and his descendants.
In the thirteenth century, on the grasslands of the Mobei region, Genghis Khan unified the various Mongolian tribes, and then established the Mongol Empire spanning the two continents of Europe and Asia, establishing the largest country in human history.
At that time, after Genghis Khan Temujin raised troops to conquer various nomadic tribes on the grassland, the population of Mobei was only 600,000. When was destroyed in the Southern Song Dynasty, the population of Mobei did not exceed 2 million. When was at its peak in the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of ethnic minorities joined Mobei's Outer Mongolia, and their number did not exceed 3 million (including Inner Mongolia). The population of the Mongolian Plateau area was only 4 million.
However, the Outer Mongolia region in Mobei had a large population at that time and was not very rich, but this was because Mobei was the base camp of the Mongol Empire. They plundered and plundered all kinds of wealth and resources from the conquered Eurasian regions, and then piled them all in the Mobei region. This also made Mobei rich and the population increased.
Since the disintegration of the Mongol Empire, let alone its disintegration, especially after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, Mobei has become less wealthy . Because the Mongolian nobles placed the center of their rule in the Central Plains and did not concentrate their wealth in Mobei, this also resulted in less wealth and a smaller population in Mobei.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty , the Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty fled to the Mongolian prairie in Mobei, established the Northern Yuan regime, and confronted the Ming Dynasty.
Later, the Northern Yuan regime split into two parts: Wala and Tatar . Due to the constant disputes between the two major Mongolian factions, they continued to launch wars, which consumed a large number of people. The death rate was higher than the birth rate, which restricted the development of the population and made the life of the Mongolians unstable. Due to the disputes and internal strife among the Mongolian tribes in the Mobei region, the Mongolian tribes were fragmented and disunified, making it difficult for the Mongols in the Mobei region to revive the glory of Genghis Khan's golden family.
The Qing Dynasty suppressed the population of Outer Mongolia
Later, the Jurchen tribe the Qing Dynasty rose. We know that the alliance with Mongolia was a very important reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to defeat Mingbao and enter the Pass to seize the country of the Central Plains. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was both united and wary of the once powerful Mongolia. Because the majority of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty who took over the Central Plains were Manchus , with only a few hundred thousand people, they were very uneasy and fearful of the nearly ten million Mongolians in the entire Mongolian desert.
As a result, the Manchu and Qing Dynasty nobles first sent a large number of Qing Dynasty clan girls to marry far away to Mongolia. Mongolian women also continued to join the Qing Dynasty court as concubines, thereby wooing the power of the Mongols to consolidate their rule. However, the marriage of Manchu and Mongolian women was limited to the Monan Mongolian Horqin tribe in Inner Mongolia.
For the remote and difficult-to-reach areas of Mobei Mongolia, the Manchu Qing Dynasty adopted the alliance flag system, which meant enfeoffing a large number of Mongolian aristocratic fiefs to stabilize these Mongolian tribes. At the same time, these Mongolian tribes were not allowed to interact with each other, nor were they allowed to change their pastures for grazing at will. This also gradually turned the various Mongolian tribes into a loose sand, making it difficult to confront the Qing Dynasty and regain the glory of Genghis Khan.
At the same time, in order to limit the Mongolian population in the Mobei region, the Qing Dynasty also promoted Lamaism among the Mongolians in the Mongolian desert. At that time, the Qing Dynasty built a large number of lamasery in the Outer Mongolia area of Mobei, and then stipulated that among the birth population of a Mongolian family, no matter how many boys were born, they must go to the lamasery to become a lama monk, and then only one could be left. The boy continues the family line.
Lamas in temples are not engaged in production, nor do they need to perform corvée or labor, nor do they need to pay taxes. On the surface, there is no problem. But the problem is that a large number of young and middle-aged Mongolian men have become monks and have become lamas without getting married or having children. This has reduced the number of Mongolian men who can get married and have children, which has led to a reduction in the young and middle-aged labor force.
Moreover, due to the lack of men, a lot of hard labor is performed by women. This also makes Mongolian women busy with labor and production all day long, and their health is getting worse and worse. Coupled with the harsh climate, backward economy and lack of medicine in the Mongolian Plateau, women's fertility will naturally be reduced.
In this way, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties adopted the policy of Marriage between Manchu and Mongolia , enfeoffment to control their power, and worship of Lamaism to control their livelihood. They constantly stabbed the Mongols in the back and restricted the growth of the Mongolian population in Mobei . The Outer Mongolia region in Mobei was ruled by the Manchus for more than 200 years. Until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the population also dropped sharply, from nearly 10 million in the late Ming Dynasty to less than 500,000.
In the second year of Xuantong at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the total population of Mongolia in Mobei was less than 300,000. If the Qing Dynasty does not perish and continues, the Mongolian population in Mobei may really become extinct. It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty's policy of building temples and sending lamas away was also very ruthless.
Outer Mongolia during the Republic of China
After the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongolian princes and Lamaists in Outer Mongolia, and even the supreme ruler Jebtsundamba, took advantage of the chaos to become independent, and were later suppressed by the Beiyang government army. In 1921, the Soviet Union took advantage of the melee between Chinese warlords and sent troops to control Outer Mongolia. At this point, China also completely lost control of Outer Mongolia.
At that time, the population of Outer Mongolia was only more than 700,000, which was not as large as the population of Beiping City at that time. It was not until the end of World War II in 1945 that, under the control of the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia finally officially became independent from China.
In fact, during the Republic of China, most Outer Mongolians were nomadic and their economy was backward. Coupled with Stalin 's purges and frequent wars in the 1930s, in 1945, the independent population of Outer Mongolia was only 760,000, with almost no significant population growth.
Outer Mongolia during the Soviet Union
Since then, Outer Mongolia has been under the control of the Soviet Union. It is a satellite state of the Soviet Union and implements a strict planned economic system domestically. It can be said that Outer Mongolia at that time served the geopolitics of the Soviet Union and served as a raw material base for the Soviet Union's livestock industry.
Although Mongolia's economy improved at that time, it mainly came from aid from the Soviet Union. Moreover, at that time, all industries in the Soviet Union were controlled by the Soviets, and the party, government, and army were basically in the hands of the Soviets.
This will inevitably make it difficult for Outer Mongolia to develop industry and establish an industrial system that suits its own national conditions. By the time of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia had almost no industrial production capacity. It was a very closed agricultural and animal husbandry country, and its people's living conditions were also very backward.
During the Soviet period, although successive governments of Outer Mongolia regarded encouraging women to have children as a basic national policy, women who gave birth to many children were called glorious mothers, and the president personally awarded medals. Moreover, an interesting phenomenon is that if a Mongolian official marries a Soviet woman as his wife, he will generally have a prosperous official career. At that time, many high-level officials in Mongolia had Soviet wives.
But even if more births were encouraged, Mongolia's population growth was limited at that time. The main reason was that poor and poor living conditions limited population growth.
The reason for the current slow population growth in Outer Mongolia
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population of Outer Mongolia also began to grow rapidly. However, even after getting rid of the control of the Soviet Union, Outer Mongolia has almost no industrial production capacity. It is a very closed agricultural and animal husbandry country, and the national production conditions are very backward, which also limits the growth of the population.
We know that the most important prerequisite for having children is to have your own home and your own house. However, due to industrial backwardness, it is conceivable that about 30% of Mongolia's population is now engaged in nomadic and semi-nomadic work, which also means that they have no fixed place to live, which is even more unfavorable for having children.Moreover, 45% of Mongolia’s population now lives concentratedly in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, which also means that Mongolia is about to become a city-state. The population is too concentrated, making it impossible for the population to spread out, and naturally it cannot spread on a large scale throughout the country. Propagate the population.
Another important reason for the slow population growth in Outer Mongolia is that Outer Mongolian men are influenced by the Soviet Union and are heavily alcoholic. Coupled with the backward medical conditions, the average life span of men in Outer Mongolia is significantly lower than that of women. More women than men is not conducive to population reproduction, which has also caused the slow growth of the population in Outer Mongolia.
The Development of Inner Mongolia
In contrast, Inner Mongolia has had a west exit since ancient times, which is the Great Wall Han residents in the south crossed the Great Wall and then migrated to live in Inner Mongolia. However, has also reached its peak in modern times. Especially people in the northwest areas such as Shanxi and northern Shaanxi are popular to take the west exit due to the lack of cultivated land resources and dense population.
In the early Qing Dynasty, it was originally forbidden to go through the west entrance, to prevent the Han people from introducing advanced production and living technologies to Mongolia. However, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government could not suppress it, which also caused the Han people in the northwest to migrate to Inner Mongolia.
Modern Inner Mongolia
Therefore, in today's central and western Inner Mongolia, most people's ancestors come from Shaanxi and Shanxi. Although Inner Mongolia has a population of more than 20 million, the real Mongolian population is about 6 million. , the others are Han people who migrated in modern times.
At present, the Han population in Inner Mongolia accounts for 79% of the total population. But even so, the Mongolian population in Inner Mongolia exceeds 4.2 million, which is still 1.1 million more than Outer Mongolia!
The large number of Han immigrants in Inner Mongolia not only enriched the population, but also brought many advanced production technologies, and also promoted the economic development of Inner Mongolia. Many families in Inner Mongolia that were originally nomadic gradually began to live in farming and settled down, and the population gradually multiplied and increased, thus forming a virtuous cycle of population growth and economic development.
In the early days of the founding of New China, Inner Mongolia was designated as China's heavy industry base. Inner Mongolia also made full use of its rich mineral resources to establish a complete heavy industry system.
Conclusion
After the reform and opening up, Inner Mongolia has also become an important animal husbandry base in the country. Not only are there high-quality pastures, but the quality of animal husbandry products is also very high. Dairy products, meat products, wool and other products are of high quality and low price, and are sold throughout the country. Inner Mongolia's rich forests and mineral resources have formed a heavy industrial system and promoted local economic development.
The central government has also implemented many preferential policies for the border areas of Inner Mongolia, such as the development of higher education, industrial subsidies, etc., which has also greatly promoted the development of Inner Mongolia. Economic development has naturally brought about extreme population growth. This is the fundamental reason why the population of Inner Mongolia is larger than that of Outer Mongolia, and the entire population of Outer Mongolia is less than that of the capital city of Inner Mongolia, Hoerhot.
