Mongol Empire

Not to be confused with Mughal Empire.

Great Mongol Nation
ᠶᠡᠬᠡ
ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ
ᠤᠯᠤᠰ
Yeke Mongɣol Ulus (Middle Mongol)
Expansion of the Mongol Empire 1206–1294 superimposed on a modern political map of Eurasia
Expansion of the Mongol Empire 1206–1294
superimposed on a modern political map of Eurasia
StatusNomadic empire
Capital
Common languages
Demonym(s)Mongol
Government
Khagan-Emperor[b] 
• 1206–1227
Genghis Khan
• 1229–1241
Ögedei Khan
• 1246–1248
Güyük Khan
• 1251–1259
Möngke Khan
• 1260–1294
Kublai Khan (nominal)
• 1333–1368
Toghon Temür (nominal)
Area
1206[4]4,000,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)
1227[4]13,500,000 km2 (5,200,000 sq mi)
1294[4]23,500,000 km2 (9,100,000 sq mi)
 Succeeded by
Chagatai Khanate
Golden Horde
Ilkhanate
Yuan dynasty
  1. ^ Especially western Kipchak dialects in the Golden Horde,[1] Chagatai in the Chagatai Khanate[2] and Old Uyghur in the Yuan dynasty.
  2. ^ Decades before Kublai Emperor announced the dynastic name "Great Yuan" in 1271, khagans (Great Khans) of the "Great Mongol State" (Yeke Mongγol Ulus) already started to use the Chinese title of Emperor (Chinese: 皇帝; pinyin: Huángdì) practically in the Chinese language since the enthronement of Genghis Emperor (成吉思皇帝; 'Chéngjísī Huángdì') in Spring 1206.[3]

The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous empire in history.[5] Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, extending northward into parts of the Arctic;[6] eastward and southward into parts of the Indian subcontinent, mounted invasions of Southeast Asia, and conquered the Iranian Plateau; and reached westward as far as the Levant and the Carpathian Mountains.

The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of several nomadic tribes in the Mongol heartland under the leadership of Temüjin, known by the more famous title of Genghis Khan (c. 1162 – 1227), whom a council proclaimed as the ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that of his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction. The vast transcontinental empire connected the East with the West, and the Pacific to the Mediterranean, in an enforced Pax Mongolica, allowing the exchange of trade, technologies, commodities, and ideologies across Eurasia.

The empire began to split due to wars over succession, as the grandchildren of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from his son and initial heir Ögedei or from one of his other sons, such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi. The Toluids prevailed after a bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagatayid factions, but disputes continued among the descendants of Tolui. The conflict over whether the Mongol Empire would adopt a sedentary, cosmopolitan lifestyle or continue its nomadic, steppe-based way of life was a major factor in the breakup.

After Möngke Khan died (1259), rival kurultai councils simultaneously elected different successors, the brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai Khan, who fought each other in the Toluid Civil War (1260–1264) and also dealt with challenges from the descendants of other sons of Genghis.[7][8] Kublai successfully took power, but war ensued as he sought unsuccessfully to regain control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families. By the time of Kublai's death in 1294, the Mongol Empire had fractured into four separate khanates or empires, each pursuing its own interests and objectives: the Golden Horde khanate in the northwest, the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Ilkhanate in Iran, and the Yuan dynasty[note 1] in China, based in modern-day Beijing.[13] In 1304, during the reign of Temür, the three western khanates accepted the suzerainty of the Yuan dynasty.[14][15]

The part of the empire that fell first was the Ilkhanate, which disintegrated in the period of 1335–1353. Next, the Yuan dynasty lost control of the Tibetan Plateau and China proper in 1354 and 1368, respectively, and collapsed after its capital of Dadu was taken over by Ming forces. The Genghisid rulers of the Yuan then retreated north and continued to rule the Mongolian Plateau. The regime is thereafter known as the Northern Yuan dynasty in historiography, surviving as a rump state until the conquest by the Qing dynasty in the 1630s. The Golden Horde had broken into competing khanates by the end of the 15th century and its rule on Eastern Europe is traditionally considered to have ended in 1480 with the Great Stand on the Ugra River by the Grand Duchy of Moscow, while the Chagatai Khanate lasted in one form or another until 1687.

  1. ^ Kołodziejczyk, Dariusz (2011). The Crimean Khanate and Poland-Lithuania: International Diplomacy on the European Periphery (15th–18th Century): A Study of Peace Treaties Followed by Annotated Documents. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-19190-7 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Kim, Hyun Jin (2013). The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-107-06722-6. Retrieved 20 November 2016 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ 太祖本纪 [Chronicle of Taizu]. 元史 [History of Yuan] (in Literary Chinese). 元年丙寅，帝大会诸王群臣，建九斿白旗，即皇帝位于斡难河之源，诸王群臣共上尊号曰成吉思皇帝。 [In the first year of Bingyin [1206], the emperor gathered all the kings and ministers to build the Jiumai White Banner, that is, the emperor was located at the source of the Onan River, and all the kings and ministers honored him as Emperor Genghis.]
  4. ^ a b c Taagepera, Rein (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 499. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. ISSN 0020-8833. JSTOR 2600793. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  5. ^ Morgan. The Mongols. p. 5.
  6. ^ Pow, Stephen (6 April 2020). "The Mongol Empire's Northern Border: Re-evaluating the Surface Area of the Mongol Empire". Genius Loci – Laszlovszky 60. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  7. ^ "The Islamic World to 1600: The Golden Horde". University of Calgary. 1998. Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  8. ^ Michael Biran. Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongol State in Central Asia. The Curzon Press, 1997, ISBN 0-7007-0631-3.
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ Robinson, David (2019). In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire: Ming China and Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781108482448. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Robinson, David (2009). Empire's Twilight: Northeast Asia Under the Mongols. Harvard University Press. p. 293. ISBN 9780674036086. Archived from the original on 6 October 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2022 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Brook, Timothy; Walt van Praag, Michael van; Boltjes, Miekn (2018). Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan. University of Chicago Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780226562933 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ The Cambridge History of China: Alien Regimes and Border States. p. 413.
  14. ^ Jackson. Mongols and the West. p. 127.
  15. ^ Allsen. Culture and Conquest. pp. xiii, 235.


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