Division of the Mongol Empire

This article is about the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire. For administrative divisions of the earlier Mongol Empire and its khanates, see Political divisions and vassals of the Mongol Empire.
Division of the Mongol Empire
Date1260–1294
LocationMongol Empire
CauseDeath of Möngke Khan, resulting in a succession war
Participants
OutcomeThe Mongol Empire fractured into four separate khanates

The division of the Mongol Empire began after Möngke Khan died in 1259 in the siege of Diaoyu Castle with no declared successor, precipitating infighting between members of the Tolui family line for the title of khagan that escalated into the Toluid Civil War. This civil war, along with the Berke–Hulagu war and the subsequent Kaidu–Kublai war, greatly weakened the authority of the great khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire, and the empire fractured into four khanates: the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in Iran, and the Yuan dynasty[a] in China based in modern-day Beijing – although the Yuan emperors held the nominal title of khagan of the empire.

The four divisions each pursued their own interests and objectives and fell at different times. Most of the western khanates did not recognize Kublai as Great Khan. Although some of them still asked Kublai to confirm the enthronement of their new regional khans,[5] the four khanates were functionally independent sovereign states.[6] The Ilkhanate and the Yuan dynasty had close diplomatic relations, and shared scientific and cultural knowledge, but military cooperation between all four Mongol khanates would never occur again — the united Mongol Empire had disintegrated.[6]

  1. ^ Kublai (18 December 1271), 《建國號詔》 [Edict to Establish the Name of the State], 《元典章》[Statutes of Yuan] (in Classical Chinese)
  2. ^ Robinson, David (2019). In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Ming China and Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781108482448.
  3. ^ Robinson, David (2009). Empire's Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Harvard University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780674036086.
  4. ^ Brook, Timothy; Walt van Praag, Michael van; Boltjes, Miek (2018). Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan. University of Chicago Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780226562933.
  5. ^ Rossabi 1988, p. 62.
  6. ^ a b Allsen 1994, p. 413.


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