Rise and Fall of the Mongols, 1162–1783

Timeline

Layers

Vassal and tributary states · Mongol Empire → Yuan → Northern Yuan → Khalkha Mongols · Golden Horde (Ulus of Jochi) · Chagatai Khanate → Moghulistan · Ilkhanate (Persia) · Timurid Empire (Turco-Mongol, non-Genghisid) · Kazan, Astrakhan and Sibir khanates · Crimean Khanate · Oirat Mongols: Dzungar, Khoshut, Kalmyk · Uzbek and Kazakh khanates (Jochid)

Events

• 1 May 1162, Temüjin is born: Born to Yesügei of the Borjigin clan, by tradition at Delüün Boldog near the Onon River. After his father was poisoned, the clan abandoned the family and the boy grew up in poverty and danger.
• 1 May 1206, Kurultai on the Onon: Genghis Khan: In spring 1206 a great assembly of the steppe tribes proclaims Temüjin “Genghis Khan” (Chinggis Khan). He reorganises the tribes into decimal army units and a personal guard, the start of the Mongol Empire.
• 1 Sep 1211, Battle of Yehuling (Wild Fox Ridge): Mongol cavalry destroys a huge Jin army in the passes north-west of Zhongdu, at Wild Fox Ridge and Badger Mouth (Huan'erzui), opening north China to invasion.
• 1 Jun 1215, Fall of Zhongdu (Beijing): After a long blockade and famine, the Jin capital surrenders in June 1215 and is plundered. The Jin court had already fled south to Kaifeng.
• 1 Sep 1219, Siege of Otrar: Otrar's governor had massacred a Mongol trade caravan in 1218, and the Shah then had one of Genghis Khan's envoys killed and the others humiliated. Genghis answers with the full-scale invasion of Khwarazm.
• 31 May 1223, Battle of the Kalka River: Jebe and Subutai, on a reconnaissance ride round the Caspian, draw a Rus’ and Cuman army after them with a feigned retreat, then turn and crush it: the Mongols’ first clash with the Rus’.
• 18 Aug 1227, Death of Genghis Khan: Genghis Khan dies in August 1227 during the final campaign against Western Xia, most likely in camp near the Liupan mountains (the exact place and cause are uncertain). His burial place in Mongolia was kept secret and has never been found.
• 6 Dec 1240, Fall of Kiev: Batu storms the greatest city of the Rus’.
• 11 Apr 1241, Battle of Mohi: Two days after Legnica, Batu and Subutai annihilate the Hungarian army of King Béla IV. The Mongols withdraw in 1242, traditionally linked to news of Ögedei’s death in December 1241.
• 10 Feb 1258, Sack of Baghdad: Hulagu takes Baghdad, executes the last Abbasid caliph and massacres much of the population, ending the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad.
• 5 May 1260, Kublai proclaimed Great Khan: Kublai’s supporters elect him at Kaiping (later Shangdu). A rival kurultai in Mongolia chooses his brother Ariq Böke, and the civil war begins.
• 3 Sep 1260, Battle of Ain Jalut: With Hulagu gone east after Möngke’s death, the Mamluks of Egypt defeat and kill the general Kitbuqa: the first major check on Mongol expansion.
• 18 Dec 1271, Kublai founds the Great Yuan: An edict names the dynasty Da Yuan, “Great Origin”, after the Book of Changes. Dadu (Khanbaliq, today’s Beijing) becomes its capital.
• 19 Mar 1279, Battle of Yamen: The last Song fleet is destroyed; an official leaps into the sea with the child emperor. Kublai now rules all of China.
• 15 Aug 1281, Second invasion of Japan: A huge Yuan fleet is wrecked by a typhoon in Imari Bay off Kyushu: the “kamikaze”, or divine wind.
• 14 Sep 1368, Ming armies take Dadu: The last Yuan emperor, Toghon Temür, flees north to the steppe; his heirs continue as the Northern Yuan.
• 9 Apr 1370, Timur takes power at Balkh: After his rival Amir Husayn surrenders Balkh and is killed, Timur becomes sole master of Transoxiana. Not a Genghisid, he rules through a puppet khan and as a royal son-in-law.
• 1 Jun 1465, Kazakh Khanate founded: The Jochid sultans Kerei and Janibek leave Abu’l-Khayr’s Uzbek khanate with their clans and settle on the Chu river. Kazakh tradition dates the khanate to about 1465.
• 8 Oct 1480, Great Stand on the Ugra: Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde faces Ivan III’s army across the Ugra, waits in vain for Lithuanian help and withdraws. Russian tradition dates the end of the “Tatar yoke” to this standoff.
• 12 Jun 1635, The Yuan seal passes to the Manchus: After Ligdan Khan’s death in 1634, his son Ejei Khan surrenders in the Ordos to Hong Taiji’s army and hands over the Yuan imperial seal. The Northern Yuan ends; the Manchus proclaim the Qing dynasty in 1636.
• 8 Apr 1783, Epilogue: Mongolia under the Qing until 1911: The Mongol homeland, under Qing rule since 1691, declares independence in 1911 under the Bogd Khan.
• 8 Apr 1783, Russia annexes Crimea: Catherine II annexes the khanate, ending some 340 years of rule by the Giray khans, descendants of Genghis Khan through Jochi. Genghisid khans still reign on the Kazakh steppe until the 1820s.

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