{"href":"https://api.simplecast.com/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthe-rest-of-history.simplecast.com%2Fepisodes%2Fthe-sneeze-that-stopped-the-mongols-IaTlwu57","width":444,"version":"1.0","type":"rich","title":"The Sneeze That Stopped the Mongols","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/96a10b54-3566-4ae1-87fd-fd8bff7bd182/0e4303a1-2092-491e-a49a-e18cf4c76606/the-20rest-20of-20history.jpg","thumbnail_height":300,"provider_url":"https://simplecast.com","provider_name":"Simplecast","html":"<iframe src=\"https://player.simplecast.com/4443a833-e98a-45fd-98dc-de42f2ce3371\" height=\"200\" width=\"100%\" title=\"The Sneeze That Stopped the Mongols\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>","height":200,"description":"In 1241, the Mongol army had just annihilated European forces at the Battle of Legnica and stood virtually unopposed on the road to Paris — then inexplicably turned around and never came back. Historians credit internal politics, but the real answer might live in a single sentence buried in a Hungarian chronicle about a sick horse, a flooded river, and one general's superstition about omens. This week, we pull on that thread — and the Europe that almost wasn't."}