As an important neighbour of our country, Mongolia has always been our "most familiar stranger". Spanning more than 1.56 million square kilometers between the two great powers of the North and the South, this land is equivalent to the size of 10 Shanxi provinces, ranking 19th among all countries and the second largest landlocked country in the world.
However, such a country, which is 10 times the size of Shanxi Province, has a population of less than 1/10 of Shanxi Province. As of 2017, the total population of Mongolia was 3.08 million. Hong Kong, which covers an area of only 0.11 million square kilometers, has a population of 7.1 million in 2017.
Mongolia's population density is far below the world average!
So why is Mongolia so populous? There are the following reasons:
1, the population base is too small
A very important factor in Mongolia's small population is that the population base is too small.
On the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the entire population of Mongolia was less than 500,000! It took Mongolia more than 100 years to double its population.
The population base is small, even if the growth rate is high, it is impossible to achieve a population explosion in the short term.
So why is Mongolia's population base so small? This is due to the Qing Dynasty.
In 1691, the Kangxi Emperor presided over the "Duolun Hui League" in Duolunor, Inner Mongolia, marking the formal submission of the various departments of the Northern Khalkha Mongols to the Qing Dynasty, which is today's Outer Mongolia plus the Tangnu Wulianghai region of Siberia.
After Northern Mongolia belonged to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty directly transplanted the management policy of Southern Mongolia to the Northern Desert region and began to have a huge impact on Northern Mongolia. Qing policies included:
Flag System:
In view of the characteristics of the Mongolian ministries living by water and grass and having no fixed place to live, the Mongolian ministries are divided into fixed areas according to the region, and the alliance flag is set up for management. The Mongol ministries within the various league flags could not move around casually, and could no longer live freely by water and grass.
Because of the estrangement of the alliance flag, the Mongolian ministries can only produce and live in their respective regions, and over time, the marriage of close relatives will inevitably occur, which leads to a great increase in the proportion of deformed children in the Mongolian ministries.
In addition, when natural disasters occurred on the Mongolian plateau, Mongolian ministries could no longer move away from disasters. Can only wait for the Qing Dynasty rescue in the same place. In order to facilitate the management of the Qing Dynasty, it was always late in coming, causing heavy losses to the Mongolian departments!
Implementation of Yellow Religion:
The Qing Dynasty accepted the characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism in view of the Mongolian ministries, and built lama temples on the steppe to promote the return of the Mongolian ministries. At the same time as the construction of the lama temple, the Qing Dynasty stipulated that every Mongolian family must leave only one boy to pass on the generations, and all the remaining boys must become monks. Over time, the population of the Mongolian ministries became smaller and smaller.
Conscription of conscription:
An important feature of the Qing Dynasty's rule over the Mongol ministries was the continuous expropriation of the Population of the Mongol Ministries. For example, the Formation of the Eight Banners Mongol Army, a large number of young Mongolian soldiers were selected into the Eight Banners.
In the face of the invasion of Tsarist Russia in the north and the Dzungars in the west, the Qing emperor made a high degree of affirmation of the various departments of northern Mongolia, and then there was no more. Except for the approval of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongol ministries received little support and replenishment, and over time, the war made the population of northern Mongolia smaller and smaller.
In addition, the Mongolian ministries also had to obey the dispatch of the Qing Dynasty and participate in a series of wars such as counterinsurgency and foreign wars, which also led to the delay in increasing the Mongolian population!
So, from 1691 to 1911, after more than 200 years of development, the population of Mongolia was sharply reduced. From 500,000 to more than 3 million, Mongolia has worked hard.
2. Poor natural conditions
As a landlocked country, the Mongolian plateau is also a country with very harsh natural conditions.
The whole territory of Mongolia is located in the Mongolian Plateau, the average altitude of the Mongolian Plateau is 1580 meters, and the latitude is basically north of 40 degrees north latitude, such geographical conditions make the average temperature of Mongolia lower than that of the east and west regions.
The low temperature means that the crop growth period is short and the frost-free period is also short, which is extremely unfavorable for agricultural production, which means that Mongolia is not only unable to grow crops in large areas, but also impossible to have high yields! Of course, it is impossible to feed a large population.
In addition, because of topographic factors, the average annual precipitation in Mongolia is less than 200 mm, which determines that most of mongolia is distributed in steppe landforms rather than agricultural landforms.
Therefore, the amount of arable land in Mongolia is very small, which determines that Mongolia's agricultural development is very underdeveloped.
Then, since agriculture is not developed, it is always okay to vigorously develop animal husbandry. The Mongols also think so, so a large number of cattle and sheep are grazed, because the pasture grows slowly and the growth period is long, resulting in the replacement of pasture far from the consumption of cattle and sheep, and finally the desertification of the land is getting more and more serious.
Today's Mongolia is suffering from a serious desertification crisis. 90% of the country's land area is becoming desert, 69,000 square kilometers of pasture land are being encroached upon by the desert, and 75% of plants are extinct. As a result of deforestation, the average river level in Mongolia has dropped by half, and environmental problems have begun to threaten Mongolia's survival!
This story tells us that mongolia's environment is impossible to feed a large population! 3 million for such a country is almost the upper limit that the environment can afford.
3. Backward economic development
If the economic conditions are good enough, such as a country like Israel, although the environment is harsh, but with the continuous efforts of the people, finally created a miracle in the desert area!
But the Mongols' understanding of miracles is: just live!
Mongolia's economy has been at the top of the list, especially since 1911, and has been very stable. This is due to the close control of its northern neighbors.
During the Tsarist era, Mongolia was infiltrated in all directions, and Mongolia became the de facto colony of Tsarist Russia. After the founding of the Soviet Union, Stalin continued to exercise close control over Mongolia, including:
Economic control: expel third-country capital, expel all foreign capital except Mongolia and the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union will take over Mongolia's financial power and control Mongolia's national economy and people's livelihood!
Military control: The Red Army entered Mongolia in the name of expelling the White Army and took full control of the Mongolian high-rise;
Cultural brainwashing: abolishing the Mongolian script and implementing the Soviet-style Slavic script, completely separating Mongolian culture;
Ideological imprisonment: mass execution of old power figures such as lamas and princes, while forcibly screening and massacring a large number of political prisoners in Mongolia;
Political hostage-grabbing: Presiding over the marriage between the Soviet Union and mongolian high-level, and controlling the soviet elite in an old-fashioned and pro-japanese manner.
It has to be said that Stalin's way was very effective. Beginning with Stalin, Mongolia is regarded as the de facto 16th member state of the Soviet Union. Because it was subordinate to the overall situation of the Development of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union itself developed heavy industry and set up some insignificant projects in Mongolia, resulting in a deformed start to the Mongolian economy, a long-term backward economic level, and had to rely on soviet blood transfusions to maintain.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mongolia lost its patron and its economy was in trouble. However, the United States and Japan replaced the former Soviet Union in a very timely manner and became a new friend of Mongolia, and with the support of the United States and Japan, Mongolia's development has once made great progress.
However, with the economic crisis sweeping the world, Mongolia's development has also fallen into difficulties, and it has not been able to completely turn around!
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