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East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties
Mongol Empire
1206–c. 1368
The Mongol Empire (1206–c. 1368), founded by Genghis Khan (Temüjin, proclaimed 1206), became the largest contiguous land empire in history, spanning from Korea to Eastern Europe. Through campaigns of Genghis and his successors (Ögedei, Möngke), it destroyed Western Xia, Jin, the Abbasid Caliphate, and many others.
- Existed
- 1206–c. 1368
- Shown on the map
- 1206–1293
- Peak area
- 30.5M km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Mongol Empire (1206–c. 1368), founded by Genghis Khan (Temüjin, proclaimed 1206), became the largest contiguous land empire in history, spanning from Korea to Eastern Europe. Through campaigns of Genghis and his successors (Ögedei, Möngke), it destroyed Western Xia, Jin, the Abbasid Caliphate, and many others. Administered via the yam relay system and religious tolerance, it fostered Eurasian exchange ("Pax Mongolica"). It fragmented after 1260 into four khanates (Yuan, Chagatai, Ilkhanate, Golden Horde).
Common questions
- What was the Mongol Empire?
- The Mongol Empire (1206–c. 1368), founded by Genghis Khan (Temüjin, proclaimed 1206), became the largest contiguous land empire in history, spanning from Korea to Eastern Europe. Through campaigns of Genghis and his successors (Ögedei, Möngke), it destroyed Western Xia, Jin, the Abbasid Caliphate, and many others.
- When did the Mongol Empire exist?
- The Mongol Empire existed 1206–c. 1368. On this map it is drawn 1206–1293.
- How large was the Mongol Empire?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Mongol Empire covered about 30 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Mongol Empire en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire
This entry was last updated .
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
Further reading in Knowledge
- War & Warriors · Kingdom of Hungary The Mongol Invasion of Europe (1241): Legnica, Mohi and the Withdrawal In 1241 Mongol armies crushed the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi, then withdrew. What the eyewitnesses wrote, and why the Mongols turned back.
- People · Mongol Empire Subutai: Genghis Khan's Greatest General, Fact and Fiction Subutai (1176–1248) led Mongol armies from China to Hungary. What the Yuan shi, the Secret History and the chronicles say, and where the legend begins.
- People · Mongol Empire Jochi: Genghis Khan's Eldest Son and the Question of His Father Jochi, eldest son of Genghis Khan, gave his name to the Golden Horde. What the sources say about his birth, the succession quarrel, and his early death.
- Religion & Belief · Rostov-Suzdal Kitezh: The Invisible City and the Legend of 1238 The legend of Kitezh, the Russian city that became invisible to escape Batu in 1238: where the story comes from, what the chronicles say, what the lake holds.
- War & Warriors · Kievan Rus' The Mongol Invasion of Rus' (1237–1240): How the Cities Fell How the Mongols conquered Rus' in 1237–1240, city by city from Ryazan and Vladimir to Kyiv, what chronicles and graves show, and where the "Tatar yoke" began.
- People · Mongol Empire Batu Khan: Genghis Khan's Grandson and the Conquest of Rus' Who Batu Khan was, how he led the Mongol conquest of Rus' and the invasion of Hungary, why he turned back in 1242, and what eyewitnesses saw at his court.
See the Mongol Empire in its world
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