The Great Hun (Xiongnu) Empire (209 BC – AD 216)

In 209 BC Mete (Modu in Chinese sources) became chanyu of the Huns (Xiongnu) and united the tribes of the Mongolian steppe into a single state. Under him Hun power stretched from Lake Baikal to Tibet and from Manchuria to Central Asia. Chinese dynasties had to strengthen the Great Wall against this powerful neighbour.

Mete is credited with an army organised on the decimal system — units of ten, a hundred, a thousand and ten thousand. This structure lived on in every later steppe state, from the Göktürks to the Mongols and the Ottomans. For this reason the Turkish Land Forces date their founding to 209 BC.

In the 1st century AD the empire split into Northern and Southern Huns. Part of the Northern Huns moved west, and the Huns who later appeared in Europe were most likely a continuation of this migration. The Southern Huns lost their independence in 216. Scholars still debate the Huns' language, but Turkish historiography regards them as the first great bearers of the Turkic state tradition.