but, the mongols were never this group of noble savages like the germans, slavs and celts were; they had empires (and emperors), they enforced taxes, they colonized, etc.
so, it was more like you had competing ethnic groups with more or less the same governing ideology.
the division in europe was about more than race - there was a distinct ideological boundary. so, it was that much more profound, and the clash that occurred was that much more substantive.