The Mongol Empire, 1206–1368

Timeline

Layers

Kereit · Naiman · Tatars · Merkit · Western Xia (Tangut) · Jin dynasty (Jurchen) · Southern Song · Dali kingdom · Qara Khitai (Western Liao) · Ghurid sultanate · Khwarazmian Empire · Atabegs of Azerbaijan (Eldiguzids) · Nizari Ismailis (the Assassins) · Abbasid Caliphate · Ayyubids → Mamluk Sultanate (1250) · Crusader states · Delhi Sultanate · Cumans and Kipchaks · Volga Bulgaria · Rus' principalities (independent) · Rus' principalities under Mongol overlordship · Grand Duchy of Lithuania · Kingdom of Georgia · Seljuk Sultanate of Rum · Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia · Turkmen beyliks of Anatolia (incl. the Ottomans) · Tibet · Goryeo (Korea) · Kamakura Japan · Đại Việt · Champa · Mongol Empire (Temüjin's Mongols to 1206) · Mongol vassals and tributaries · Ariq Böke, rival khan in Karakorum (1260–64) · Great Khan → Yuan dynasty (from 1260) · Golden Horde (Ulus of Jochi) · Chagatai Khanate · Moghulistan (eastern Chagatai Khanate, 1347) · Ilkhanate (Hülegü and heirs) · Ilkhanid vassal dynasties (Kartids, Salghurids …) · Jalayirids (Ilkhanate successor, Baghdad) · Chobanids (Ilkhanate successor, Tabriz) · Eretnids (Ilkhanate successor, Anatolia) · Injuids → Muzaffarids (Fars, Kerman) · Khorasan: Togha Temür, Sarbadars, Kartids · Red Turban and rebel regimes (Ming Xia in Sichuan) · Ming dynasty · Campaign routes · Campaign routes (second column) · Campaign routes (third column) · Campaign routes (fourth column) · Campaign routes (fifth column)

Events

• 15 Sep 1203, Battle of the Jeje'er Heights: Temüjin surprises his former overlord Toghrul (Ong Khan) and takes over the Kereits. A year earlier he had wiped out the Tatars, his father's killers.
• 1 Jun 1204, Battle of Chakirmaut: The Naimans of Tayang Khan, the last great rival confederation, are crushed. Tayang dies; his son Kuchlug flees west to the Qara Khitai.
• 15 Apr 1206, Great Kurultai on the Onon: An assembly of the steppe peoples proclaims Temüjin Chinggis Khan. He reorganises them into decimal units under loyal commanders instead of tribes.
• 1 Apr 1209, The Uyghurs submit: The Uyghur idiqut Barchuq throws off Qara Khitai rule and submits to Chinggis Khan, who adopts him as a 'fifth son'. The Uyghur lands are integrated into the empire and Uyghur scribes give the Mongols their script.
• 15 Sep 1211, Battle of Yehuling (Badger's Mouth): A huge Jin army is routed in the passes north-west of Zhongdu. The Jin frontier collapses and the Mongols raid the North China Plain for three years.
• 1 Jun 1215, Fall of Zhongdu: The Jin Central Capital (modern Beijing) falls and is sacked. The Jin court had already moved south to Kaifeng in 1214.
• 15 Sep 1219, Siege of Otrar: The governor of Otrar had massacred a Mongol trade caravan and the Khwarazm-shah killed Chinggis's envoys. Four Mongol armies cross the Syr Darya.
• 16 Mar 1220, Fall of Samarkand: After Bukhara (February), the capital of the Khwarazmian empire surrenders. Its Turkic garrison is massacred; craftsmen are deported east.
• 25 Feb 1221, Sack of Merv: Tolui takes Merv, one of the largest cities of the Islamic world. Persian chroniclers report the killing of nearly the whole population.
• 24 Nov 1221, Battle of the Indus: Chinggis catches Jalal al-Din, the Khwarazm-shah's son, on the Indus. He escapes by riding his horse into the river; the Mongols do not follow into India.
• 31 May 1223, Battle of the Kalka: On a reconnaissance raid round the Caspian, Jebe and Subutai lure a Rus'–Cuman army into a running retreat and destroy it. Captured princes are crushed under a victory platform.
• 1 Aug 1225, Jalal al-Din back in Iran: Returning from India, Jalal al-Din seizes western Iran and ends the Eldiguzid atabegs of Azerbaijan (Tabriz, 1225); he sacks Tbilisi in 1226.
• 18 Aug 1227, Death of Chinggis Khan: Chinggis dies in the Liupan mountains while the Tangut capital is under siege. The city surrenders weeks later and its people are put to the sword.
• 15 Aug 1231, Jalal al-Din killed: Chormaqan's army ends the revived Khwarazmian realm in western Iran. Jalal al-Din is murdered by a Kurd in the mountains near Mayyafariqin.
• 9 Feb 1234, Fall of Caizhou: the end of the Jin: A Mongol–Song army storms the last Jin refuge. Emperor Aizong hangs himself; his successor dies in the street fighting the same day.
• 15 Oct 1236, Destruction of Bilär: Batu and Subutai's western campaign begins with Volga Bulgaria; its capital is destroyed and the Bashkirs and Mordvins submit.
• 21 Dec 1237, Sack of Ryazan: The first Rus' city to fall in the winter campaign. Kolomna, Moscow and Vladimir (8 February 1238) follow within weeks.
• 4 Mar 1238, Battle of the Sit River: Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir is killed and his army destroyed. The thaw stops the Mongols short of Novgorod.
• 15 Dec 1239, Fall of Magas: The capital of the Alans in the North Caucasus falls; the Cuman khan Köten flees to Hungary with 40,000 families.
• 6 Dec 1240, Fall of Kiev: The old capital of the Rus' is stormed after a short siege. Pereyaslavl and Chernigov had fallen in 1239.
• 9 Apr 1241, Battle of Legnica: Duke Henry II of Silesia is killed and his army of Poles, Moravians and military orders destroyed. The column then turns south to join Batu.
• 11 Apr 1241, Battle of Mohi: Batu and Subutai destroy King Béla IV's army on the Sajó river. The Mongols occupy the Hungarian plain east of the Danube for a year.
• 11 Dec 1241, Death of Ögedei: The Great Khan dies after a drinking bout. The princes in Europe withdraw in spring 1242, through Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria.
• 26 Jun 1243, Battle of Köse Dağ: Baiju defeats the Seljuk sultan of Rum, who becomes a tributary. Georgia, Cilicia and Trebizond submit in the following years.
• 24 Aug 1246, Güyük enthroned: After a five-year regency of his mother Töregene, Güyük becomes Great Khan. The papal envoy John of Plano Carpini attends.
• 15 Jan 1247, Sakya Pandita meets Köten: At Liangzhou the Tibetan abbot submits for Tibet to Prince Köten: the start of the Sakya–Mongol partnership.
• 1 Jul 1251, Möngke enthroned: A coup by the house of Tolui. Möngke purges the Ögedeid and Chagatayid princes and sends his brothers Hülegü west and Kublai south.
• 15 Dec 1253, Kublai takes Dali: Kublai and Uriyangkhadai march through the Tibetan borderlands and take the Dali kingdom (Yunnan), outflanking the Song from the south-west.
• 15 Dec 1256, Fall of Alamut: The Nizari imam Rukn al-Din surrenders (19 November, at Maymun-Diz) and orders his castles to open. The Assassins' state ends.
• 10 Feb 1258, Sack of Baghdad: The capital of the Abbasid caliphate falls to Hülegü after a twelve-day siege. The last caliph, al-Musta'sim, is killed (20 February).
• 11 Aug 1259, Death of Möngke: The Great Khan dies (of disease, or a wound) besieging the Song fortress of Diaoyucheng. The armies in Syria and China pause for the succession.
• 5 May 1260, Kublai elected at Kaiping: Kublai's supporters proclaim him Great Khan; a month later his brother Ariq Böke is proclaimed at Karakorum. Civil war follows.
• 3 Sep 1260, Battle of Ain Jalut: Sultan Qutuz and Baybars defeat Kitbuqa's reduced army in Galilee. Syria is lost; the Euphrates becomes the Mongol–Mamluk frontier.
• 13 Jan 1263, Battle on the Terek: Berke of the Golden Horde, a Muslim and an ally of the Mamluks, defeats Hülegü's army: the first open war between Mongol khanates.
• 21 Aug 1264, Ariq Böke surrenders: Ariq Böke gives up at Shangdu. Kublai wins, but the Golden Horde, the Chagatayids and the Ilkhans now rule as separate khanates.
• 1 Apr 1269, Talas kurultai: The Chagatayid and Ögedeid princes divide Central Asia; Kaidu soon leads a lasting war against Kublai.
• 18 Dec 1271, The Great Yuan proclaimed: Kublai adopts a Chinese dynastic name, Da Yuan, and builds a new capital, Dadu, on the site of Zhongdu.
• 15 Mar 1273, Fall of Xiangyang: The twin cities on the Han River fall after a five-year siege, broken by counterweight trebuchets built by engineers from the Ilkhanate.
• 19 Nov 1274, Battle of Hakata Bay (Bun'ei): A Mongol–Korean force lands at Hakata and fights the samurai, then re-embarks; a storm wrecks part of the fleet on the way home.
• 15 Feb 1276, Hangzhou surrenders: The Song capital opens its gates to Bayan; the child emperor and the empress dowager are taken north. Loyalists fight on in the south.
• 19 Mar 1279, Battle of Yamen: The last Song fleet is destroyed in the Pearl River delta. Minister Lu Xiufu jumps into the sea with the boy emperor: the end of the Song.
• 15 Aug 1281, The kamikaze: second invasion of Japan: Two fleets, from Korea and from southern China, are wrecked by a typhoon off Takashima after weeks of fighting along the Hakata wall.
• 15 Feb 1285, Second invasion of Đại Việt: Prince Toghan's army takes Thăng Long, while Sogetu marches up from Champa; guerrilla war, heat and disease force a retreat by summer.
• 15 Jan 1287, Fall of Pagan: Yuan forces reach the Burmese capital; the Pagan kingdom breaks up, although the Mongols do not stay.
• 9 Apr 1288, Battle of Bạch Đằng: Trần Hưng Đạo traps the Yuan fleet on stakes planted in the river bed at low tide. The third invasion of Đại Việt fails.
• 15 Mar 1293, Yuan landing on Java: A fleet of about 20,000 men lands to punish King Kertanegara; it is drawn into a civil war and expelled by Raden Wijaya, founder of Majapahit.
• 18 Feb 1294, Death of Kublai: Kublai dies in Dadu aged 78; his grandson Temür succeeds him.
• 22 Dec 1299, Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar: Ghazan defeats the Mamluks near Homs and holds Damascus for a few months.
• 1 Sep 1301, Battle of Qaraqada; Kaidu dies: Kaidu's last offensive against the Yuan ends in a costly battle; he dies soon after, and his allies make peace.
• 1 Sep 1304, Peace among the khanates: Envoys of the Yuan, the Chagatayids, the Ilkhans and the Golden Horde agree to a general peace that recognises the Yuan emperor's primacy.
• 1 Jun 1307, Soltaniyeh founded: Öljeitü builds a new Ilkhanid capital; Gilan and Kerman are brought under direct rule.
• 1 Oct 1323, Treaty of Aleppo: The Ilkhanate and the Mamluks end sixty years of war.
• 30 Nov 1335, Death of Abu Sa'id: The last ilkhan of Hülegü's line dies without an heir. Rival amirs raise puppet khans; by 1338 the realm has split into regional dynasties.
• 1 Sep 1346, Siege of Caffa: Jani Beg's army besieges the Genoese port; plague breaks out among the besiegers. Ships from the Black Sea carry the Black Death to Europe in 1347.
• 1 Jun 1347, Tughlugh Timur, khan of Moghulistan: The eastern Chagatayid nomads raise their own khan; the west (Transoxiana) is ruled by Turkic amirs with puppet khans.
• 15 May 1351, The Red Turban rebellion: Labourers on the Yellow River dykes rise under the White Lotus banner. Rebel regimes spread over central and southern China.
• 10 Apr 1356, Zhu Yuanzhang takes Nanjing: The former monk turned Red Turban commander makes Nanjing his base. In Korea, King Gongmin throws off Yuan supervision the same year.
• 1 Jun 1358, Red Turbans take Kaifeng: Liu Futong makes the old Song capital the seat of the rebel 'Song' emperor; other columns raid Shandong, Shanxi and even burn Shangdu (1358). The Yuan retake Kaifeng in 1359.
• 1 Sep 1359, Berdi Beg murdered: The Golden Horde enters 'the Great Troubles': more than twenty khans in twenty years, while the beglerbeg Mamai rules the west.
• 1 Oct 1362, Battle of Blue Waters: Algirdas of Lithuania defeats three Tatar princes; Kiev and Podolia pass from the Horde's orbit to Lithuania.
• 14 Sep 1368, Ming army takes Dadu: Zhu Yuanzhang, proclaimed Hongwu emperor of the Ming in January, sends Xu Da north; the last Yuan emperor flees to the steppe.
• 10 Apr 1370, Timur takes power in Balkh: After defeating his rival Husayn, Timur rules Transoxiana in the name of Chagatayid puppet khans; he will build an empire of his own.
• 23 May 1370, Death of Toghon Temür: The last Yuan emperor to rule China dies at Yingchang. His successors rule the Northern Yuan from Mongolia.