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In the following area I intend on going even further into detail about the Mongol Empire and its timeline. In this section you will probably learn more about the Mongol Empire than you may have ever thought. However since one page is already devoted to Genghis Khan and his life the following will only have information from 1227 on, since that was the year of Genghis Khan's death.
Unlike the deaths of other Khans there was no great confusion in the leadership when Genghis died. This is mostly due to the fact that Genghis had decided that one of his sons, Ogadei, would follow in his footsteps. Ogadai officially became Khan in 1229 when he was elected Khan. However he was not elected in a democratic way like you may think but instead it was more ritualistic since they knew who would be next Khan. Genghis did leave a few orders upon his death that he intended to be used to increase the size and strength of the Mongol Empire. His main wish when he died was to see his Mongol Empire finally and completely conquer China and he even left a strategic plan on how to do so.
It only took five years for the great Mongol armies to conquer the Qin, or Chin, Empire. The Qin emperor was finally killed in 1234 and the taking of the Qin Empire of China was complete.
In the year 1235 the Mongol congress convened and decided to send troops both east and west to capture the lost Asian lands after Genghis's death, to venture into Europe, and to reoccupy the Korean peninsula after a rebellion had occurred. Around 1236 150,000 troops headed off toward Europe capturing lost Asian lands and capturing many lands that were never held by the Mongol Empire previously. Also in 1236 Korea was once again reoccupied after the rebellion that took place was crushed.
The 150,000 troops were headed by Batu, one of Genghis Khans grandson's, and they made their march and conquered lands to Europe in the years between 1236 to 1242. The troops entered Russian lands in late December during the coldest and darkest times of the year but they had finally reach the land that they had set out to conquer. The Mongols then took nearly a year to regather the troops, fatten up the horses, and replenish their supplies. It was not until 1237 that the Mongols made their first attack on the ill fated city of Riazan which would become the first of many cities to fall to the Mongols. Riazan was offered the standard surrender that the Mongols gave to almost everyone. The standard surrender is, if the enemy agrees to surrender and hand over one tenth of everything, including people, and pay constant tribute, the Mongols would spare the city. The city refused and it was destroyed.
Throughout 1237 and 1238 each Russian principalities was conquered one by one capturing the land and the people. One of the last cities in Russia to be conquered was Kiev but it too fell to the catapults and poisoned arrows of the Mongols in 1240. The city was burned to ashes and most of the population was slaughtered. After the attack on Kiev the Mongol army was divided into three units so that more area could be invaded at once, the next area was Poland and Hungary.
Between 1240 and 1241 the Mongols seized many cities on a line from Poland to Hungary and their march continued deeper into Hungary toward the cities of Buda and Pest, today they are one city of Budapest. The cities of Buda and Pest were subsequently destroyed and the wrath of the Mongols continued toward Vienna, Austria. During these battles well over 220,000 Polish, Hungarian, and other soldiers were killed by the might Mongol forces.
Before reaching the outskirts of Austria, the three divisions of the Mongol army once again rejoined so that it could give one powerful thrust into Austrian lands. It is worth noting that during the onslaught of the Mongol invasions the European kingdoms could not even once put aside their bickering to fight a common enemy. During the Mongol invasion of Hungary, Austria took the chance to take some Hungarian lands. It was even suggested the the Pope tried to persuade the Mongols to invade his enemies. If the European countries had been able to form one unified force it may have been possible to put off the Mongols before they could do the damage that they did.
As luck would have it in early 1242 just as the Mongols were reaching the outskirts of Vienna a messenger arrived informing them that the Khan Ogadei had died a month earlier. With this news the Mongols retreated to their Russian territory so that they could participate in the choosing of a new Khan. Batu, the leader of the European Mongol forces had high hopes of becoming the next great Khan. Due to the political upset with no Khan the invasion of Europe was never to take place again instead the Mongols were to remain in control of Russia for the next 250 years. Rather than the name Russia for the time that the Mongols controlled the area it was known as the Golden Horde. Batu, who was in control of the armies that attempted the invasion of Europe was made a minor Khan and was put in control of the Golden Horde. The minor Khan Batu died in 1255.
This control of Russia led to one unified Russian state since that was the was the way that the Mongols had governed it. Little did the Mongols know that the unification that they had achieved for the Russians is exactly what would drive them out.
With Ogadei dead his main wife, Toragene, took control of the empire. However this was only to last while a new Khan was to be instated. This control of a woman is actually quite surprising since woman were not well regarded in the Mongol Empire, this attitude also reflects a good part of the world for that era. In fact most Mongols had four "main wives" and several concubines or as we know them, prostitutes.
After four years in 1246 Guyuk, a son of Ogadai was made the next third great Khan. Guyuk was not a very good leader and history has actually made him more of a drunk that tried to enjoy life too much. It is believed that his outlandish behavior is exactly what caused his death, too much drink. Only two years in the throne Guyuk died in 1248. About the only notable thing to happen in Guyuk's reign is that the Pope Innocent the IV sent a message to the Mongol Empire asking them to please not invade Europe and to become Christian. Guyuk responded with a letter basically telling the Pope to drop dead. Actually the message told the Pope to submit to his rule and pay tribute to the Great Mongol Empire.
Once again turmoil erupted in the Mongol Empire over who would become the next great Khan. It took three years but in 1251 Mongke, son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis, was made the next Khan. Mongke was another Khan that was too infatuated with the pleasure of life that he ignored the empire. However Mongke did make a few advancements for the Mongol Empire. In 1253 Mongke sent a fighting force of over 150,00 troops to the Middle East. Through the next five years the middle east army ravaged the area and finally in 1258 the major Muslim city of Baghdad is attacked and sacked. This army was led by Hulagu who happened to be another grandson of Genghis Khan. This would be one of Mongke's only contribution to the Mongol Empire since he died in 1259.
This time after Mongke Khan's death there was not the normal confusion that followed that normally came after a Khans death. However the problem was that two men had been declared Khan! The men were Arigh Boke and Kublai who were both related to Genghis Khan. The conflict that resulted would be somewhat of a major turning point of the Mongol Empire. In fact after 1260 there is not really much of a unified Mongol Empire left to speak of. This minor break up of the Mongol Empire is blamed on the conflict at home which caused a major loss of communication between the homeland and its outlying areas. Around 1264 Kublai would be victorious over Arigh Boke and he would be proclaimed the only Khan to rule.
The year 1264 is believed to be the beginning of the end of the Mongol Empire. What happened is that Kublai moved the Mongol capitol from Karakorom, in central Mongolia, to Daidu, which is modern Beijing. Kublai had Daidu especially built, over the former Qin capitol, to be the new Mongol Empire capitol. He did this because he had spent most of his life in China, he enjoyed the culture of the Chinese, and he felt more at home in these lands. However the loss in communication and morale of the Mongols due to the capitol being moved is unimaginable. It took much more time for the messages to travel across the empire and now since many Mongols could not relate to China they felt that their centralness of a culture and livelihood had been lost. This action sent much of the empire to self rule and what Genghis Khan had created, a unified Mongol people, was beginning to crumble and Kublai did not see it.
Despite the unknown break up of the Mongol Empire Kublai continued to expand it on his side of the empire and in 1267 he began his campaign to unite all of modern China with the Mongol Empire. The Qin Empire, northern China, had been under Mongol control for quite some time but Kublai set his sights on the Sung Empire, modern Southern China. Kublai also began this new age of conquest with the name of the Yuan Dynasty, this was a major step in completely assimilating his culture into a Chinese one.
In 1274 Kublai decided to expand his empire beyond the reaches of the coast. Kublai put together an attack on the island of Japan. The fate of his fleet would be determined by the weather and many of his troops were lost to a typhoon before they could even reach land. Kublai Khan would decide to send two more sea attacks in the effort to expand his empire. His next attack would again be on Japan in 1279 and that attack would result in heavy casualties for only the Mongols. Once again they ran into a typhoon in trying to invade Japan. It is estimated that over 2/3 of their force was lost. Kublai's other attempt by sea was made against the Java Empire in 1292, modern Indonesia, which just as the other attacks by sea was a dismal failure.
On the happier side for the Mongol they were having great success against the Sung Empire, in 1276 they captured the Sung capitol of Hangzhou and in 1279 the enter Sung Empire was united with the Mongol Empire but more importantly it was united with the rest of China. The unification of China is very similar in comparison with what happened in the Russian principalities. China had once consisted of three separate empires but after the Mongols took control they were united into one. This taking of the Sung Empire was actually much more of a gain for China than for the Mongols. It gave the Chinese a nation that would persist even today just as Russia does. It would also give the Chinese people the power that they needed to eventually drive out the Mongols.
Kublai's reign of power would finally end in 1294 when he died leaving the lasting legacy of a unified China. The death of the Khan resulted in the complete loss of communication in the Mongol Empire and each division acted almost completely independent. The Mongol Empire had become fragmented with poor rulers in control of most of the areas. By 1335 they would be forced out of the Middle East and revolution or attack would leave much of the empire in pieces. Finally in 1368 the Yuan Dynasty that was started by Kublai in China would be overthrown by the Chinese people and replaced with the Ming Dynasty, who drove out all remaining Mongol armies and leaders from the area.
As of 1368 by all practical means the main force of the Mongol Empire had been destroyed. However there would be some areas where Mongol leaders would remain in power. It would not be until 1502 when Russia, the Mongol Golden Horde, would be completely free of all Mongol influence. The Golden Horde was the last vintage of the Mongol Empire, the Mongol Empire was now destroyed in both land and name. The whole of the Mongol Empire lasted from 1206, when Genghis was proclaimed Khan of Khans, until 1368, when the Yuan Dynasty of Kublai Khan was overthrown. The Mongol Empire one of the largest empires ever created in the world was destroyed in a matter of 168 years.
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