Mongol Empire: the story on HearLore

Mongol Empire

Temüjin was born into a world of brutal survival, the son of a minor chieftain who was poisoned by Tatars when the boy was only nine years old. His family was abandoned by their own tribe on the frozen steppe, leaving his mother Hö'elün to raise him and his siblings by gathering wild plants and hunting small game. This period of penury forged a ruthless character in the future Genghis Khan, who would eventually kill his own older half-brother to secure his position within the family. The young Temüjin survived the hostility of rival tribes like the Merkit and the Tatars, and the harsh realities of the Mongolian Plateau, before forming alliances with his father's friend Toghrul and his childhood companion Jamukha. These alliances allowed him to retrieve his kidnapped wife Börte, though the paternity of her first son Jochi remained uncertain due to her rape during captivity. By 1201, Temüjin had defeated a coalition led by Jamukha, and by 1203, he had overcome Toghrul, the Naimans, and the Merkit, leaving him as the undisputed ruler of the Mongol heartland. The shaman Teb Tenggeri proclaimed him khan of the Great Mongol Nation at a kurultai in 1206, granting him the title Genghis Khan, which translates to Ocean Ruler or Universal Ruler. This moment marked the beginning of a social revolution that would reconstitute steppe society into a military-industrial complex based on the decimal system, redistributing tribal peoples into units of ten, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand. Genghis Khan instituted the Yassa, a new code of law that forbade the selling of women, theft, and fighting among Mongols, while also granting religious freedom and exempting the poor and clergy from taxation. He encouraged literacy and ordered the Uyghur Tata-tonga to teach his sons the Uyghur script, which became the foundation of the Mongolian writing system. The empire he built was not merely a collection of tribes but a unified state with a centralized command structure that allowed for unprecedented mobility and coordination. Genghis Khan's death on the 18th of August 1227 left an empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea, twice the size of the Roman Empire or the Muslim Caliphate at their height. His burial in a secret location remains one of history's greatest mysteries, ensuring that no grave marker could ever reveal the resting place of the world's most powerful conqueror.

The Hammer of Europe

Ögedei Khan, the third son of Genghis Khan, ascended to the throne in 1229 after a regency period held by his brother Tolui. His reign was defined by relentless expansion, as he sent armies to subjugate the Bashkirs, Bulgars, and other nations in the Kipchak-controlled steppes. In the east, Ögedei's forces crushed the Eastern Xia regime and the Water Tatars, while personally leading campaigns against the Jin dynasty of China. The great Khan's general Subutai captured the capital of Emperor Wanyan Shouxu in the Siege of Kaifeng in 1232, and the Jin dynasty collapsed in 1234 when the Mongols captured Caizhou. The western flank of the empire saw Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis, overrun the territories of the Bulgars, Alans, and Kypchaks. By 1237, the Mongols were encroaching upon Ryazan, the first Kievan Rus' principality they attacked, and after a three-day siege, they massacred its inhabitants. The Mongols then destroyed the army of the Grand Principality of Vladimir at the Battle of the Sit River and captured the Alania capital Maghas in 1238. By 1240, all Kievan Rus' had fallen to the Asian invaders except for a few northern cities. The advance into Europe continued with invasions of Poland and Hungary, where a European alliance of Poles, Moravians, and Christian military orders attempted to halt the Mongol advance at Legnica. The Hungarian army, supported by Croatian allies and the Knights Templar, was defeated by the Mongols at the banks of the Sajo River on the 11th of April 1241. Before Batu's forces could continue on to Vienna and northern Albania, news of Ögedei's death in December 1241 brought a halt to the invasion. As was customary in Mongol military tradition, all princes of Genghis's line had to attend the kurultai to elect a successor. Batu and his western Mongol army withdrew from Central Europe the next year, though researchers now doubt that Ögedei's death was the sole reason for the withdrawal. Batu did not return to Mongolia, so a new khan was not elected until 1246. The invasion of Europe had reached its western limit, and the Mongols had demonstrated their ability to traverse large distances, even crossing the river Sajó in spring flood conditions with thirty thousand cavalry soldiers in a single night during the Battle of Mohi. The Mongol military organization, based on the decimal system, allowed them to fight on several fronts at once, with each soldier traveling with multiple horses to ensure speed and endurance. The success of the Mongol armies was not just due to their martial prowess but also to their ability to traverse large distances, even in unusually cold winters, and their skillful use of couriers to maintain contact with each other. The Mongol Empire had become a force that could not be stopped by the fragmented states of Europe, and their withdrawal was a strategic decision rather than a defeat.

When was Genghis Khan born and what was his early life like?

Temüjin was born into a world of brutal survival and became the son of a minor chieftain who was poisoned by Tatars when the boy was only nine years old. His family was abandoned by their own tribe on the frozen steppe, leaving his mother Hö'elün to raise him and his siblings by gathering wild plants and hunting small game.

When did Genghis Khan die and how large was his empire?

Genghis Khan died on the 18th of August 1227 leaving an empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. This territory was twice the size of the Roman Empire or the Muslim Caliphate at their height.

When did the Mongol Empire fracture into separate khanates?

The Mongol Empire fractured into autonomous khanates after the death of Möngke Khan on the 11th of August 1259 which triggered a civil war. The war ended with Ariqboke surrendering to Kublai at Shangdu on the 21st of August 1264 and the empire splitting into the Yuan dynasty and three western khanates.

When did the Black Death spread through the Mongol Empire and how many people died?

The plague known as the Black Death started in the Mongol dominions and spread to Europe in the 1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75 million with up to 50 million deaths in Europe alone.

When did the Yuan dynasty fall and what happened to the Mongol Empire?

The Han Chinese overthrew the Yuan dynasty in 1368 launching their own Ming dynasty and pursuing a policy of economic isolationism. The Mongols fled to their heartland in Mongolia and the empire disintegrated into smaller khanates that declined steadily in power over four centuries.

The Purge of the Elite

Möngke Khan, a grandson of Genghis from his son Tolui's lineage, was elected great khan on the 1st of July 1251, marking a major shift in the leadership of the empire. The decision transferred power from the descendants of Genghis's son Ögedei to the descendants of Tolui, and it was acknowledged by only a few of the Ögedeid and Chagataid princes. One of the other legitimate heirs, Ögedei's grandson Shiremun, sought to topple Möngke with a plan for an armed attack, but Möngke was alerted by his falconer of the plot. Möngke ordered an investigation of the plot, which led to a series of major trials all across the empire. Many members of the Mongol elite were found guilty and put to death, with estimates ranging from 77 to 300, though princes of Genghis's royal line were often exiled rather than executed. Möngke confiscated the estates of the Ögedeid and the Chagatai families and shared the western part of the empire with his ally Batu Khan. After the bloody purge, Möngke ordered a general amnesty for prisoners and captives, but thereafter the power of the great khan's throne remained firmly with the descendants of Tolui. Möngke was a serious man who followed the laws of his ancestors and avoided alcoholism, and he was tolerant of outside religions and artistic styles. He led to the building of foreign merchants' quarters, Buddhist monasteries, mosques, and Christian churches in the Mongol capital, Karakorum. One famous example was a large silver tree with cleverly designed pipes that dispensed various drinks, crafted by Guillaume Boucher, a Parisian goldsmith. Although he had a strong Chinese contingent, Möngke relied heavily on Muslim and Mongol administrators and launched a series of economic reforms to make government expenses more predictable. His court limited government spending and prohibited nobles and troops from abusing civilians or issuing edicts without authorization. He commuted the contribution system to a fixed poll tax which was collected by imperial agents and forwarded to units in need. His court also tried to lighten the tax burden on commoners by reducing tax rates. He also centralized control of monetary affairs and reinforced the guards at the postal relays. Möngke ordered an empire-wide census in 1252 that took several years to complete and was not finished until Novgorod in the far northwest was counted in 1258. In another move to consolidate his power, Möngke assigned his brothers Hulagu and Kublai to rule Persia and Mongol-held China respectively. The southern part of the empire saw continued struggle against the Song dynasty, with Möngke dispatching Mongol armies under his brother Kublai to Yunnan, and under his uncle Iyeku to subdue Korea and pressure the Song from that direction. Kublai conquered the Dali Kingdom in 1253 after the Dali King Duan Xingzhi defected to the Mongols and helped them conquer the rest of Yunnan. Möngke's general Qoridai stabilized his control over Tibet, inducing leading monasteries to submit to Mongol rule. Subutai's son Uryankhadai reduced the neighboring peoples of Yunnan to submission and went to war with the kingdom of Đại Việt under the Trần dynasty in northern Vietnam in 1258, but they had to draw back. The Mongol Empire tried to invade Đại Việt again in 1285 and 1287 but were defeated both times. Möngke's death on the 11th of August 1259 while leading his army in southern China began a new chapter in the history of the Mongols, as again a decision needed to be made on a new great khan. The event triggered a succession crisis that would fracture the empire into four separate khanates, each pursuing its own objectives.

The Civil War of Brothers

The death of Möngke Khan in 1259 triggered a civil war that would define the fate of the Mongol Empire. His brother Hulagu broke off his successful military advance into Syria, withdrawing the bulk of his forces to Mughan and leaving only a small contingent under his general Kitbuqa. The opposing forces in the region, the Christian Crusaders and Muslim Mamluks, both recognizing that the Mongols were the greater threat, took advantage of the weakened state of the Mongol army and engaged in an unusual passive truce with each other. In 1260, the Mamluks advanced from Egypt, being allowed to camp and resupply near the Christian stronghold of Acre, and engaged Kitbuqa's forces just north of Galilee at the Battle of Ain Jalut. The Mongols were defeated, and Kitbuqa executed. This pivotal battle marked the western limit for Mongol expansion in the Middle East, and the Mongols were never again able to make serious military advances farther than Syria. In a separate part of the empire, Kublai Khan, another brother of Hulagu and Möngke, heard of the great khan's death at the Huai River in China. Rather than returning to the capital, he continued his advance into the Wuchang area of China, near the Yangtze River. Their younger brother Ariqboke took advantage of the absence of Hulagu and Kublai, and used his position at the capital to win the title of great khan for himself, with representatives of all the family branches proclaiming him as the leader at the kurultai in Karakorum. When Kublai learned of this, he summoned his own kurultai at Kaiping, and nearly all the senior princes and great noyans in North China and Manchuria supported his own candidacy over that of Ariqboke. Battles ensued between the armies of Kublai and those of his brother Ariqboke, which included forces still loyal to Möngke's previous administration. Kublai's army easily eliminated Ariqboke's supporters and seized control of the civil administration in southern Mongolia. Further challenges took place from their cousins, the Chagataids. Kublai sent Abishka, a Chagataid prince loyal to him, to take charge of Chagatai's realm. But Ariqboke captured and then executed Abishka, having his own man Alghu crowned there instead. Kublai's new administration blockaded Ariqboke in Mongolia to cut off food supplies, causing a famine. Karakorum fell quickly to Kublai, but Ariqboke rallied and re-took the capital in 1261. In southwestern Ilkhanate, Hulagu was loyal to his brother Kublai, but clashes with their cousin Berke, a Muslim and the ruler of the Golden Horde, began in 1262. The suspicious deaths of Jochid princes in Hulagu's service, unequal distribution of war booty, and Hulagu's massacres of Muslims increased the anger of Berke, who considered supporting a rebellion of the Georgian Kingdom against Hulagu's rule in 1259, 1260. Berke also forged an alliance with the Egyptian Mamluks against Hulagu and supported Kublai's rival claimant, Ariqboke. Hulagu died on the 8th of February 1264. Berke sought to take advantage and invade Hulagu's realm, but he died along the way, and a few months later Alghu Khan of the Chagatai Khanate died as well. Kublai named Hulagu's son Abaqa as new Ilkhan, and nominated Batu's grandson Möngke Temür to lead the Golden Horde. Abaqa sought foreign alliances, such as attempting to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Egyptian Mamluks. Ariqboqe surrendered to Kublai at Shangdu on the 21st of August 1264, ending the Toluid Civil War. The war had weakened the authority of the great khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire, and the empire fractured into autonomous khanates: the Yuan dynasty and the three western khanates, the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate, and the Ilkhanate. Only the Ilkhanate remained loyal to the Yuan court but endured its own power struggle, in part because of a dispute with the growing Islamic factions within the southwestern part of the empire. The civil war had transformed the Mongol Empire from a unified state into a collection of rival khanates, each pursuing its own objectives.

The Pax Mongolica

Kublai Khan, after having conquered all of China and established the Yuan dynasty, died in 1294, and was succeeded by his grandson Temür Khan, who continued Kublai's policies. At the same time the Toluid 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 autonomous khanates, the Yuan dynasty and the three western khanates: the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate and the Ilkhanate. Only the Ilkhanate remained loyal to the Yuan court but endured its own power struggle, in part because of a dispute with the growing Islamic factions within the southwestern part of the empire. After the death of Kaidu, the Chatagai ruler Duwa initiated a peace proposal and persuaded the Ögedeids to submit to Temür Khan. In 1304, all of the khanates approved a peace treaty and accepted Yuan emperor Temür's supremacy. This established the nominal supremacy of the Yuan dynasty over the western khanates, which was to last for several decades. This supremacy was based on weaker foundations than that of the earlier Khagans and each of the four khanates continued to develop separately and function as independent states. Nearly a century of conquest and civil war was followed by relative stability, the Pax Mongolica, and international trade and cultural exchanges flourished between Asia and Europe. Communication between the Yuan dynasty in China and the Ilkhanate in Persia further encouraged trade and commerce between east and west. Patterns of Yuan royal textiles could be found on the opposite side of the empire adorning Armenian decorations; trees and vegetables were transplanted across the empire; and technological innovations spread from Mongol dominions toward the West. Pope John XXII was presented a memorandum from the eastern church describing the Pax Mongolica: "... Khagan is one of the greatest monarchs and all lords of the state, e.g., the king of Almaligh (Chagatai Khanate), emperor Abu Said and Uzbek Khan, are his subjects, saluting his holiness to pay their respects." However, while the four khanates continued to interact with one another well into the 14th century, they did so as sovereign states and never again pooled their resources in a cooperative military endeavor. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia. The Mongol unification in 1206 and subsequent peace in the region allowed for trade routes to form through the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan had encouraged foreign merchants early in his career, even before uniting the Mongols. Merchants provided information about neighboring cultures, served as diplomats and official traders for the Mongols, and were essential for many goods, since the Mongols produced little of their own. Mongol government and elites provided capital for merchants and sent them far afield, in an ortoq (merchant partner) arrangement. In Mongol times, the contractual features of a Mongol-ortoq partnership closely resembled that of qirad and commenda arrangements, however, Mongol investors were not constrained using uncoined precious metals and tradable goods for partnership investments and primarily financed money-lending and trade activities. Moreover, Mongol elites formed trade partnerships with merchants from Italian cities, including Marco Polo's family. As the empire grew, any merchants or ambassadors with proper documentation and authorization received protection and sanctuary as they traveled through Mongol realms. Well-traveled and relatively well-maintained roads linked lands from the Mediterranean basin to China, greatly increasing overland trade and resulting in some dramatic stories of those who travelled through what would become known as the Silk Road. Western explorer Marco Polo traveled east along the Silk Road, and the Chinese Mongol monk Rabban Bar Sauma made a comparably epic journey along the route, venturing from his home of Khanbaliq (Beijing) as far as Europe. European missionaries, such as William of Rubruck, also traveled to the Mongol court to convert believers to their cause, or went as papal envoys to correspond with Mongol rulers in an attempt to secure a Franco-Mongol alliance. It was rare, however, for anyone to journey the full length of Silk Road. Instead, merchants moved products like a bucket brigade, goods being traded from one middleman to another, moving from China all the way to the West; the goods moved over such long distances fetched extravagant prices. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia.

The Plague and the Fall

The fall of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century led to the collapse of the political, cultural, and economic unity along the Silk Road. Turkic tribes seized the western end of the route from the Byzantine Empire, sowing the seeds of a Turkic culture that would later crystallize into the Ottoman Empire under the Sunni faith. In the East, the Han Chinese overthrew the Yuan dynasty in 1368, launching their own Ming dynasty and pursuing a policy of economic isolationism. The plague known as the Black Death, which started in the Mongol dominions and spread to Europe, added to the confusion. Disease devastated all the khanates, cutting off commercial ties and killing millions. The plague may have taken 50 million lives in Europe alone in the 14th century. As the power of the Mongols declined, chaos erupted throughout the empire as non-Mongol leaders expanded their own influence. The Golden Horde lost all of its western dominions (including modern Belarus and Ukraine) to Poland and Lithuania between 1342 and 1369. Muslim and non-Muslim princes in the Chagatai Khanate warred with each other from 1331 to 1343, and the Chagatai Khanate disintegrated when non-Genghisid warlords set up their own puppet khans in Transoxiana and Moghulistan. Janibeg Khan (r. 1342, 1357) briefly reasserted Jochid dominance over the Chaghataids. Demanding submission from an offshoot of the Ilkhanate in Azerbaijan, he boasted that "today three uluses are under my control". However, rival families of the Jochids began fighting for the throne of the Golden Horde (Great Troubles, 1359, 1381) after the assassination of his successor Berdibek Khan in 1359. The last Yuan ruler Toghan Temür (r. 1333, 70) was powerless to regulate those troubles, a sign that the empire had nearly reached its end. His court's unbacked currency had entered a hyperinflationary spiral and the Han-Chinese people revolted due to the Yuan's harsh impositions. In the 1350s, Gongmin of Goryeo successfully pushed Mongol garrisons back and exterminated the family of Toghan Temür Khan's empress while Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen managed to eliminate the Mongol influence in Tibet. Increasingly isolated from their subjects, the Mongols quickly lost most of China to the rebellious Ming forces and in 1368 fled to their heartland in Mongolia. After the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty the Golden Horde lost touch with Mongolia and China, while the two main parts of the Chagatai Khanate were defeated by Timur (Tamerlane) (1336, 1405), who founded the Timurid Empire. However, remnants of the Chagatai Khanate survived; the last Chagataid state to survive was the Yarkent Khanate, until its defeat by the Oirat Dzungar Khanate in the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr in 1680. The Golden Horde broke into smaller Turkic-hordes that declined steadily in power over four centuries. Among them, the khanate's shadow, the Great Horde, survived until 1502, when one of its successors, the Crimean Khanate, sacked Sarai. The Crimean Khanate lasted until 1783, whereas khanates such as the Khanate of Bukhara and the Kazakh Khanate lasted even longer. The Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 1340s, may have traveled from China along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire. In 1347, the Genoese possessor of Caffa, a great trade emporium on the Crimean Peninsula, came under siege by an army of Mongol warriors under the command of Janibeg. After a protracted siege during which the Mongol army was reportedly withering from disease, they decided to use the infected corpses as a biological weapon. The corpses were catapulted over the city walls, infecting the inhabitants. The Genoese traders fled, transferring the plague via their ships into the south of Europe, from where it rapidly spread. The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75, 200 million with up to 50 million deaths in Europe alone. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia, but the plague had turned these routes into highways of death.

The Legacy of Destruction

Genghis Khan's conquests caused wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale in certain geographic regions, leading to changes in the demographics of Asia. Genghis and his hordes killed approximately 11% of the world's population, with the significant loss of human life even resulting in improvements in the environment's health. A 2003 study indicated 8% of men in Mongolia and 1 in 200 worldwide are direct descendants of Genghis. Western researcher R. J. Rummel estimated that 30 million people were killed by the Mongol Empire. Other researchers estimate as many as 80 million. The population of China fell by half during fifty years of Mongol rule. Before the Mongol invasion, the territories of the Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census recorded only 60 million. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia, but the destruction had also left a legacy of fear and trauma. The Mongol Empire, at its height of being the largest contiguous empire in history, had a lasting impact while unifying large regions. Some such as eastern and western Russia, and western parts of China, remain unified today. Mongols might have assimilated into local populations after the fall of the empire, and some of their descendants adopted local religions. For example, the eastern khanate adopted Buddhism, and the three western khanates adopted Islam, largely under Sufi influence. The non-military achievements of the Mongol Empire include the introduction of a writing system, a Mongol alphabet based on the characters of the Old Uyghur, which is still used in Mongolia. Moscow rose to prominence while it was still under the rule of the Mongol-Tatar yoke, some time after Russian rulers were accorded the status of tax collectors for the Mongols. The fact that the Russians collected tribute and taxes for the Mongols meant that the Mongols themselves rarely visited the lands which they owned. The Russians eventually gained military power, and their ruler Ivan III completely overthrew the Mongols and formed the Russian Tsardom. After the Great Stand on the Ugra River proved that the Mongols were vulnerable, the Grand Duchy of Moscow gained independence. Europe's knowledge of the known world was immensely expanded by the information which was brought back to it by ambassadors and merchants. When Columbus sailed in 1492, his mission was to reach Cathay, the land of the Grand Khan in China. Some studies indicate the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the 1340s, may have traveled from China along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia, but the destruction had also left a legacy of fear and trauma. The Mongol Empire had created a vast network of trade routes, the Silk Road, which allowed for the exchange of goods, ideas, and technologies across Eurasia, but the destruction had also left a legacy of fear and trauma.