The Mongols make up one of the chief ethnic divisions of Asian peoples. Their traditional homeland is a vast plateau in Central and Northeast Asia.
The origin of the Mongols is unknown. The earliest reference to them by name is in a document of the Chinese T'ang Dynasty (618-907). By the 13th century these nomadic tribes had become a powerful military force. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors, they established an empire that reached from what is now China and Korea in the east to Eastern Europe and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Click to see map.
In 1206 Temujin was elected head of a federation of Mongol tribes. His title within the All the Mongols league was Genghis Khan. Between 1206 and 1227, when Genghis Khan died, the Mongols conquered a dominion that stretched from the China Sea to the Caspian. On the north it bordered the forest belt of Siberia, and on the south it touched the Pamir range, Tibet, and the central plains of China.
The first attack was launched against the Hsi-Hsia, who occupied a border state in northwestern China. By 1215 all of northern China, including the capital at Ta-tu (now called Beijing), had been taken. In 1218 the Mongols moved into eastern Turkestan. Between 1219 and 1225 they added western Turkestan. Advance troops penetrated into southern Russia and raided cities in the Crimea.
The Mongol Empire created by Genghis Khan was not a unified state but a vast collection of territories held together by military force. Because it was controlled by so many military leaders, all theoretically responsible to the great khan, the empire carried within it the seeds of its own breakdown.
Central power rested with the khan and his councillors. Although they were well organized militarily, the Mongols had no developed concept for ruling settled populations. The various territories were under the authority of military commanders. New conquests were not administered just economically exploited. In areas that were under subjugation longer, there was some growth of administration. Local bureaucracies, though dominated by Mongols, usually followed administrative patterns that had been locally developed. This was especially true in China, with its ancient and vast bureaucracy.
While Genghis Khan was still living, he divided the empire between his four favorite sons. Tului, the youngest, received the original Mongol homelands and parts of northern China. Ogadai received western Mongolia and part of northwestern China. Chagatai was given most of Turkestan in Central Asia. The oldest son, Juchi, received southwestern Siberia, western Turkestan, and Russian lands stretching north of the Black Sea. A fifth section of the empire was later added when Hulagu, a son of Tului, conquered Iran, Iraq, and Syria in the 1250s. (See also Genghis Khan.)
Genghis Khan and his eldest son, Juchi, both died in 1227. At a convocation of Mongol leaders, Ogadai was appointed supreme khan. Juchi's lands in the west were inherited by his son Batu. Ogadai made his capital at Karakorum in central Mongolia. He immediately set out to add more of China to the Mongol conquests. By 1234 all but the southernmost region of China had been incorporated.
In the west Batu Khan began a series of campaigns in 1236 in Russia and Eastern Europe. Central and northern Russia at this time consisted of city-states and principalities. These fell one by one to attacks of Batu's Golden Horde, as his Mongol armies came to be called. Resistance in Russia ceased after the fall of Kiev in 1240. Batu's armies reached central Germany before turning southward to establish themselves in Hungary by 1241. The Mongol advance in Europe was stopped in 1241 by the death of Ogadai. Batu and his generals gave up their Eastern European territory to return for the election of a new khan. Because the succession was disputed for several years, Europe was saved from further incursions.
Guyuk, a son of Ogadai's widow, was elected khan in 1246 but died two years later. He was succeeded by Mongke, a son of Tului. Under him the empire was expanded into unsubdued neighboring countries. The main new conquest was in the Middle East. Hulegu, a brother of Mongke, overthrew the Islamic caliphate of Baghdad in 1258 (see Caliphate). The only defeat the Mongols suffered was at the hands of the Mameluke Dynasty of Egypt in 1260. Hulegu's conquests resulted in the creation of a kingdom of nearly independent rulers, the Il-khans of Persia, which lasted until 1353.
In the east another campaign was opened against China. During the conflict Mongke died in August 1259. He was succeeded by his brother Kublai. The selection of Kublai Khan marked a turning point in Mongol history. In theory he was ruler of the whole empire, but he came to regard himself primarily as a Chinese emperor. The other parts of the empire began to go their separate ways. Under Kublai the center of power moved away from Mongolia into China. He completed the conquest of China and founded the Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty, which endured until 1368. (See also Kublai Khan; [photo], China, "The Yuan Dynasty")
After Kublai's death in 1294 the Mongol Empire fragmented. The most enduring of the resulting areas was the Golden Horde, which flourished until 1480. The territory of the Golden Horde, at its peak, included most of European Russia from the Urals to the Carpathians, and it extended eastward deep into Siberia. The capital was Sarai Batu, on the Volga River.
The only other notable Mongol conqueror appeared in the 14th century
in the person of Timur Lenk. Although his conquests
were extensive, they were temporary and never matched the extent of the
empire under Kublai Khan. (See also Timur
Lenk.)
