1200's.
Genghis Kahn conquered the middle of Eurasia, from China to Hungary. It was total domination. Total. The mongols were completely unstoppable.
His youngest son, Obadiah, blasted through the west, and was on the edge of the europe that would, eventually, discover North America. These mongols were completely dominant. They would soon take over all of China. They razed Turkey, Hungary, and nearly everywhere else their horses could take them.
Obadiah died abruptly of alcoholism at the age of 40. Airag is their traditional fermented drink, but he was probably drinking more traditional wine and mead drinks too. If he hadn't died just then, it's likely that the Mongols would have continued on to the North Sea, and dominated the entire region.
If not for Airag, Obidiah would likely have conquered Europe and (given lots of assumptions) we'd be speaking his language, which would be either Chinese or Turkish.