The Golden Horde, while it sounds like the sort of fast-moving army that characterized Mongol invasions, was actually a geographical area--a section of the Mongol Empire that was not included in Kublai Khan's domain. The empire to the west of the steppes was controlled and greatly expanded by Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu Khan. The word horde in Mongolian means "base" or "headquarters," and the Turkic hortu means "tent" or "direction." It is possible that use of the term Golden Horde began with an actual golden tent used by Batu Khan.

The armies of the Golden Horde conquered and ruled most of eastern Europe, from Siberia to the Urals, and their western border was the Danube River in present-day Hungary. They defeated a combined European army at the Battle of Legnica and also invaded present-day Poland and Romania. The map below shows the area controlled by the Empire of the Golden Horde at the height of its power. (For political purposes, the empire was later divided into two areas--the Blue Horde and the White Horde.)

By Afil (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

As the Empire of the Golden Horde expanded into eastern Europe, the cultural effects of Mongol conquest were profound. The Mongols killed thousands of prisoners and conquered civilians, and sent hundreds to slavery. Some European languages adopted Mongol words. Russian, for instance, took thousands of words from either Mongolian or the Turkic languages of Mongol allies.