Genghis Khan adopted a policy of strategic marriages. He would marry off a daughter to the king of an allied nation. The king’s other wives were dismissed. Then he would assign his new son-in-law to military duty in the Mongol wars, while the daughter took over the rule of the kingdom. Most sons-in-law died in combat.
In this way Genghis Khan built a shield around the Mongol homelands, while expanding beyond them. In his marital instructions to his daughter Alaqai, “He left no doubt that this was a major military assignment. She was not there merely to administer, but to rule -- thereby beginning the expansion of the Mongols from a tribal nation into a global empire.”
By the time of Genghis Khan’s death, his daughters ruled from the Yellow Sea to the Caspian. Probably never before, or since, have women held so much power over so vast a region.
As the daughters aged and died, the sons (and grandsons) seized their kingdoms. A new generation of women gained power: the daughters-in-law of Genghis Khan, who took power while their husbands drank themselves to death.

成吉思汗采取了戰(zhàn)略聯(lián)姻的策略。他把女兒嫁給結(jié)盟國家的國王。國王的其他妻子都被除掉了。然后，他會讓他的女婿們參加蒙古的征戰(zhàn)，大多數(shù)女婿都戰(zhàn)死沙場，而他的女兒則接管了王國的統(tǒng)治。
成吉思汗就這樣在蒙古本土周圍建立了一個(gè)屏障，并向外擴(kuò)展。在他給女兒阿刺海別乞的婚姻指示中，他說“這是一項(xiàng)重大的軍事任務(wù)。她在那里不僅僅是為了管理，而是為了統(tǒng)治。這將是蒙古從一個(gè)部落國家擴(kuò)張成為一個(gè)全球帝國的開始。”
成吉思汗去世時(shí)，他的女兒們統(tǒng)治著從黃海到里海的所有地區(qū)。在此之前和之后，女性從未在如此廣闊的地區(qū)擁有如此大的權(quán)力。
隨著女兒們的衰老和死亡，兒子們(和孫子們)奪取了她們的王國。但新一代的女性仍然獲得了權(quán)力:成吉思汗的兒媳們在從酗酒而死的丈夫們手里獲得了權(quán)力。

The Mongol Empire began to fall apart into quarrelling provinces, but rulers always had to be of the Borijin family of Genghis Khan. Often they were mere children, installed by a locally powerful warlord and then killed when they grew old enough to be dangerous.
In 1464, the Great Khan Manduul took a teenage bride named Manduhai. But by the time Manduhai was 23, the Great Khan was dead, so was his heir apparent, and the last Borijin was a five-year-old boy in uncertain health.
Marriage to the Great Khan’s widow was the direct way to the throne (for what it was worth). But Manduhai turned down the likeliest suitor. Then she married five-year-old Batu Mongke and proclaimed him Dayan Khan.
In an anarchic society where family ties were everything, says Weatherford, “They were both totally alone in the world.... They had no parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews or even cousins.... The orphan and the widow could scarcely be expected to survive alone, but they were not alone. They had each other.”

其后雖然蒙古帝國四分五裂，各省紛爭不斷，但統(tǒng)治者總是來自成吉思汗的黃金家族。他們通常都是孩子，由當(dāng)?shù)貜?qiáng)大的軍閥當(dāng)作傀儡，當(dāng)他們長大到足以構(gòu)成危險(xiǎn)時(shí)就被殺害。
1464年，大汗?jié)M都魯娶了一個(gè)名叫滿都海的十幾歲新娘。但在滿都海23歲的時(shí)候，可汗和他的繼承人都去世了，黃金家族只剩了一個(gè)5歲男孩。
在當(dāng)時(shí)，與大汗的遺孀結(jié)婚是通往王位的直接途徑。滿都海拒絕了所有的追求者。然后嫁給了這個(gè)五歲的男孩巴圖孟克，并宣布他為達(dá)延汗。（巴圖孟克年幼之時(shí)，得到了滿都海撫養(yǎng)。成化二十三年（1487年），正式親政，先后征服衛(wèi)拉特部、亦思馬因、火篩、亦卜剌，統(tǒng)一漠南蒙古，成為右翼蒙古的“中興之主””。明孝宗和明武宗時(shí)期，多次入侵明朝北部邊境，但在明武宗時(shí)期多次被擊敗，《明史》稱其為“小王子”）

The warrior queen
While raising her husband, Manduhai also went to war. She had to unite her people, control strategic grasslands, and break the power of local warlords . She went into battle alongside her soldiers, and steadily won.
Meanwhile, she was giving her boy-husband a good education in how to be an effective ruler.
She succeeded remarkably well. It took 30 years of war and diplomacy, but Manduhai united Mongolia without fighting China. (The Ming preferred to build the Great Wall instead.)
She also had eight children by Dayan Khan; the succession was assured. His descendants would rule Mongolia until the Soviets arrived in the 1920s.

在撫養(yǎng)丈夫的同時(shí)，滿都海也參加了戰(zhàn)爭。她必須團(tuán)結(jié)人民，控制草原，打破地方軍閥勢力。她和她的士兵并肩作戰(zhàn)，并穩(wěn)步取得勝利。
與此同時(shí)，她教育她的丈夫如何成為一個(gè)有為的統(tǒng)治者。
她非常成功。經(jīng)過30年的戰(zhàn)爭和外交努力，滿都海在沒有與明朝開戰(zhàn)的情況下統(tǒng)一了蒙古。(明朝人更喜歡建造長城。)
她還和達(dá)延汗生了八個(gè)孩子;汗位繼承得到了保證。她的后代將一直統(tǒng)治蒙古，直到20世紀(jì)20年代蘇聯(lián)的到來。