The Xiongnu were a nomadic military confederacy who lived on the Eurasian Steppe north of China in the third and second centuries BCE. They transformed disparate groups of nomads into a centralized hierarchy and waged a war of conquest on northern China and Central Asia. The leader of the Xiongnu at its height, Modun (r. 210-174 BCE), was largely responsible for these developments; his success led to the rare admission on the part of the Han dynasty emperor that the two peoples, Han and Xiongnu, were equals. The Xiongnu eventually collapsed following Modun's death and repeated Han attacks, but they mark the first major nomadic empire on the world stage.
The Xiongnu Empire at its peak:
Sources:
Strayer, p. 526.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiongnu
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