While the development of the West temporarily stalled in a bog of internal conflict, while petty kings and popes struggled to assert their authority just a few miles from their seat of power, the Mongol khans of the 1200's were establishing the largest empire the world had ever known. Subduing vast territories with the shock tactics of a revolutionary mounted army, the khans stretched their authority across all of Asia, the former Soviet Union, and most of the Middle East. Brutal in conquest, the khans were accommodating and tolerant as rulers, and proved themselves to be skilled administrators of a vast empire that, despite the absence of modern transportation or communication, was effectively ruled throughout the country.