Background

The Mongols are one of the chief groups of people in Asia. Their traditional homeland is a vast plateau in Central and Northeast Asia that now lies in Mongolia and part of China. In the 13th century they lived as nomads, traveling across the country to find enough food for their livestock. They based their society on the family, the clan, and the tribe.

Over the years the tribes had sometimes come together to form alliances. One such group was called All the Mongols. A leader named Temüjin came to power within the All the Mongols league in the late 12th century. In 1206 he was given the title of Genghis Khan, which meant “Universal Ruler.” Temüjin soon gained control over the Mongols outside the league, and he replaced the systems of clans and tribes with one Mongol nation.

Establishment of the empire

For the first time, the Mongols also expanded beyond their traditional homeland. During this period they earned a reputation for savagery and terror. They turned first toward the east and by 1215 had taken all of northern China. They then moved west toward the Caspian Sea and north into southern Russia. By the time Genghis Khan died in 1227 the Mongols controlled the land from the China Sea in the east to European Russia in the west. The forest belt of Siberia was the northern border of the empire, and the Pamir range in Tibet was the southern border.

After Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan's death did not end the expansion of the Mongol Empire. Before his death he had divided the empire between his sons Jochi, Chagatai, Ögödei, and Tolui. Jochi died in the same year as his father, so his son Batu Khan took his place. Ögödei became the most powerful of the brothers and soon was leading the Mongols. By 1234 he had incorporated all but the southernmost region of China.

Batu Khan also expanded the land he had inherited. In 1236, he began a series of military campaigns in Russia and Eastern Europe. His Mongol armies became known as the Golden Horde. They reached central Germany, then turned southward. By 1241 they were in control of Hungary.

Ögödei died in 1241, and several years later Tolui's son, Möngke became the great khan. He and his brother Hülegü expanded the empire into what are now Iran, Syria, and Iraq. The Mongols were defeated only by the Mameluke Dynasty of Egypt in 1260.

Möngke died in August 1259, and in 1260 the Mongols selected his brother Kublai to be the new khan. Mongol power reached its highest point during his rule, though Kublai Khan was interested mainly in China and thought of himself as a Chinese emperor. He even moved his capital to what is now Beijing. He then defeated the Song Dynasty of southern China and established the Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty over all of China. That dynasty lasted until 1368.

After Kublai Khan's death in 1294, the empire began to break up. The only other notable Mongol conqueror was Timur Lenk, who lived in the 14th century.

End of the empire

The Mongol khans lost power in part because of the way that they ruled their possessions. The Mongols were a well-organized military force. However, they did not have any concept for ruling settled populations. When the Mongols defeated an area and took control, they allowed the local officials to follow the same procedures that they followed before the conquest. They depended on their subjects and on foreigners to run the day-by-day events of the empire. As a result, the advisors and bureaucrats became more and more powerful.

The Mongol Empire began to disintegrate in the 14th century. The Ming Dynasty took China from the Mongols in 1368. In 1380, the Golden Horde was defeated by a Russian-led group. Finally, the vast empire was reduced to the original Mongol homeland and scattered small kingdoms. The final blow that ended the Mongol Empire came when the Ming invaded Mongolia.