Mongolia (Mongolian: Mongol Uls) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders the Soviet Union to the north, Manchuria to the east, the People's Republic of China to the south and Shinjang to the west. Ulaanbaatar is the capital and largest city.
The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Gökturks and others. In 1206 Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, and his grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan Dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of constant internal conflict and occasional raids on the Chinese borderlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Mongolia came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism. At the end of the 17th century, all of Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence from the Republic of China, and until 19?? to gain international recognition.
The country came under strong Russian and Soviet influence; in 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was declared, and Mongolian politics began to follow the same patterns as the Soviet politics of the time. Mongolia participated in World War II as a member of the Axis Powers, fighting mostly against Japanese and GEACPS forces. At the end of the war, Inner Mongolia was separated from China and became part of Mongolia; subsequently, most Han Chinese in Inner Mongolia were either driven out or forced to Mongolianize. Parallel to the Soviet Union and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia has been democratizing and liberalizing slowly since the end of the Second World War, removing references to socialism from its constitution in 1992 and renaming itself from the "Mongolian People's Republic" to simply "Mongolia" in 2006.
Mongolia is a very sparsely populated country, with its population of around 11.45 million people concentrated mostly to the south in Inner Mongolia and around the capital Ulaanbaatar. The country contains very little arable land, as much of its area is covered by steppes, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Approximately 30% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic. The predominant religion in Mongolia is Tibetan Buddhism, and the majority of the state's citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs, Tuvans, Han Chinese and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west and south. About 20% of the population live on less than £1 per day. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade regimes.