When did Genghis Khan try to invade China?
History of East Asia
In the Early 13th century Genghis Khan united warring Mongolian tribes into the united Mongol Empire in 1206. The Mongols would proceed to conquer the majority of modern East Asia. Meanwhile, the Chinese were divided into five competing states. From 1211, Mongolia's forces invaded North China. In 1227 the Mongolian Empire destroyed Xixia and its Tangut people entirely. In 1234 Mongolian Ogedei Khan extinguished the Jin Chao.
Genghis Khan
Contrary to popular belief, Genghis Khan did not conquer the whole area of the eventual Mongol Empire. At the time of his death in 1227, the empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Sea of Japan. Its expansion continued for one or more generations. Under Genghis's successor Ögedei Khan the speed of expansion reached its peak. Mongol armies pushed into Persia, finished off the Western Xia and the remnants of the Khwarezmids, clashed with the imperial Song dynasty of China, and eventually took control of all of China in 1279. They also pushed further into Russia and eastern Europe.
Mansur Khan (Moghul Khan)
In 1513 the Qara Del prince of Hami, which lay to the east of Turfan, switched his allegiance from the Chinese Ming Emperor to Mansur Khan. After this several expeditions were undertaken by the khan against China proper. Mansur Khan army annexed Shazhou (Dunhuang) and reached the Jiayu Pass in Gansu- the westernmost point in Great Wall of China. He furthermore fought the Kazakhs in northern Moghulistan (present Semirechye of Kazakhstan), but was defeated; after this the campaigns against his neighbors became fewer.
Genghis Khan (unfinished film)
Set in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the movies tells the life story of Temudjin (1162–1227), who was later bestowed the title "the Genghis Khan" and became the most powerful emperor of Mongolia.
Ongud
The Ongud chief Ala Kush Tegin revealed the Naimans plan to attack Genghis Khan in 1205 and allied with the Mongols. When Genghis Khan invaded the Jin Dynasty in 1211, Ala Kush Tegin supported him. Genghis bestowed his daughter Alaga Bekhi on his son. However, the political opponents killed Ala Kush Tegin. Genghis put down the rebellion and took the family under his protection. Genghis Khan's daughter Alaga ruled the Ongud as regent for several underage princes until the reign of Güyük Khan (1246–48).
Tibetan sovereignty debate
A proclamation issued by 13th Dalai Lama in 1913 states, "During the time of Genghis Khan and Altan Khan of the Mongols, the Ming dynasty of the Chinese, and the Qing Dynasty of the Manchus, Tibet and China cooperated on the basis of benefactor and priest relationship. [...] the existing relationship between Tibet and China had been that of patron and priest and had not been based on the subordination of one to the other." He condemned that the "Chinese authorities in Szechuan and Yunnan endeavored to colonize our territory Chinese" in 1910–12 and stated that "We are a small, religious, and independent nation".
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
The Mongol conquest of Western Xia was a series of conflicts between the Mongol Empire and the Western Xia (Xi Xia) dynasty, also known as the Tangut Empire. Hoping to gain both plunder and a powerful vassal state, Mongol leader Genghis Khan commanded some initial raids against Western Xia before launching a full-scale invasion in 1209. This marked both the first major invasion conducted by Genghis and the beginning of the Mongol invasion of China. Despite a major set-back during a nearly year-long siege of the capital, Yinchuan, when the diverted river accidentally flooded their camp, the Mongols convinced Emperor Li Anquan to surrender in January 1210. For nearly a decade the Western Xia served the Mongols as vassals and aided them in the Mongol–Jin War, but when Genghis invaded the Islamic Khwarazmian dynasty in 1219, Western Xia attempted to break away from the Empire and ally with the Jin and Song dynasties. Angered by this betrayal, in 1225 Genghis Khan sent a second, punitive expedition into Western Xia. Genghis intended to annihilate the entire Western Xia culture, and his campaign systematically destroyed Western Xia cities and the countryside, culminating in the siege of the capital in 1227 along with forays into Jin territory. Near the end of the siege, in August 1227, Genghis Khan died from an uncertain cause, though some accounts say he was killed in action against Western Xia. After his death, Yinchuan fell to the Mongols and most of its population was massacred.
Mongol conquest of China
After their defeat in 1210, Western Xia served as faithful vassals to the Mongol Empire for almost a decade, aiding the Mongols in their war against the Jin dynasty. In 1219, Genghis Khan launched his campaign against the Khwarazmian dynasty in Central Asia, and requested military aid from Western Xia. However, the emperor and his military commander Asha refused to take part in the campaign, stating that if Genghis had too few troops to attack Khwarazm, then he had no claim to supreme power. Infuriated, Genghis swore vengeance and left to invade Khwarazm, while Western Xia attempted alliances with the Jin and Song dynasties against the Mongols.
History of the Great Wall of China
In 1550, having once more been refused a request for trade, the Tümed Mongols under Altan Khan invaded the Xuan–Da region. However, despite several attempts, he could not take Xuanfu due to Weng Wanda's double fortified line while the garrison at Datong bribed him to not attack there. Instead of continuing to operate in the area, he circled around Weng Wanda's wall to the relatively lightly defended Gubeikou, northeast of Beijing. From there Altan Khan passed through the defences and raided the suburbs of Beijing. According to one contemporary source, the raid took more than 60,000 lives and an additional 40,000 people became prisoners. As a response to this raid, the focus of the Ming's northern defences shifted from the Xuan–Da region to the Jizhou (薊州鎮) and Changping Defence Commands (昌平鎮) where the breach took place. Later in the same year, the dry-stone walls of the Jizhou–Changping area (abbreviated as "Ji–Chang") were replaced by stone and mortar. These allowed the Chinese to build on steeper, more easily defended slopes and facilitated construction of features such as ramparts, crenelations, and peepholes. The effectiveness of the new walls was demonstrated in the failed Mongol raid of 1554, where raiders expecting a repeat of the events of 1550 were surprised by the higher wall and stiff Chinese resistance.
Genghis Khan
Before Genghis Khan died he assigned Ögedei Khan as his successor. Later his grandsons split his empire into khanates. Genghis Khan died in 1227 after defeating the Western Xia. By his request, his body was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia. His descendants extended the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia by conquering or creating vassal states in all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and substantial portions of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. Many of these invasions repeated the earlier large-scale slaughters of local populations. As a result, Genghis Khan and his empire have a fearsome reputation in local histories.
Kublai Khan
Maritime archaeologist Kenzo Hayashida led the investigation that discovered the wreckage of the second invasion fleet off the western coast of Takashima District, Shiga. His team's findings strongly indicate that Kublai rushed to invade Japan and attempted to construct his enormous fleet in one year, a task that should have taken up to five years. This forced the Chinese to use any available ships, including river boats. Most importantly, the Chinese, under Kublai's control, built many ships quickly in order to contribute to the fleets in both of the invasions. Hayashida theorizes that, had Kublai used standard, well-constructed ocean-going ships with curved keels to prevent capsizing, his navy might have survived the journey to and from Japan and might have conquered it as intended. In October 2011, a wreck, possibly one of Kublai's invasion craft, was found off the coast of Nagasaki. David Nicolle wrote in "The Mongol Warlords", "Huge losses had also been suffered in terms of casualties and sheer expense, while the myth of Mongol invincibility had been shattered throughout eastern Asia." He also wrote that Kublai was determined to mount a third invasion, despite the horrendous cost to the economy and to his and Mongol prestige of the first two defeats, and only his death and the unanimous agreement of his advisers not to invade prevented a third attempt.
Western Xia
Using his rival Nilga Senggum's temporary refuge in Western Xia as a pretext, Temujin launched a raid against the Western Xia in 1205 in the Edsin region. The Mongols plundered border settlements and one local Western Xia noble accepted Mongol authority. In 1206, Temujin was formally proclaimed Genghis Khan, ruler of all Mongols, marking the official start of the Mongol Empire. In the same year, Huanzong was killed in a coup by his cousin Li Anquan, who installed himself as Emperor Xiangzong of Western Xia. In 1207, Genghis led another raid into Western Xia, invading the Ordos Loop and sacking Wulahai, the main garrison along the Yellow River, before withdrawing in 1208.
Northern Yuan dynasty
The Mongols under Kublai Khan (r. 1260–94) of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), a grandson of Genghis Khan (r. 1206–27), had conquered all of China by eliminating the Southern Song dynasty in 1276 and destroyed the last Chinese resistance in 1279. The Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) ruled all of China for about a century, and dominated Northern China for more than 140 years, since the time when the Jurchen Jin dynasty was annihilated. As Han Chinese people in the countryside suffered from frequent natural disasters such as droughts, floods and the ensuing famines since the late 1340s, however, the government's lack of effective policy led to a loss of popular support. In 1351, the Red Turban Rebellion started and grew into a nationwide turmoil. Eventually, Zhu Yuanzhang, a Han Chinese peasant, established the Ming dynasty in South China, and sent an army toward the Yuan capital Khanbaliq or Dadu (present-day Beijing) in 1368. Toghon Temür (r. 1333–70), the last ruler of the Yuan, fled north to Shangdu (located in present-day Inner Mongolia) from Dadu in 1368 after the approach of the forces of the Míng dynasty (1368–1644). He had tried to regain Dadu, but eventually failed; he died in Yingchang (located in present-day Inner Mongolia) two years later (1370). Yingchang was seized by the Ming shortly after his death.
History of Xinjiang
In 1132, remnants of the Liao dynasty from Manchuria and North China entered Xinjiang, fleeing the onslaught of the Jurchens into North China. They established an exile regime, the Qara Khitai, which became overlord over both Kara-Khanid-held and Uyghur State-held parts of the Tarim Basin for the next century. In 1208, a Naiman prince named Kuchlug fled his homeland after being defeated by the Mongols. He fled westward to the Qara Khitai, where he became an advisor. However, he rebelled three years later and usurped the throne of Qara Khitai. His regime proved to be short-lived however because the Mongols under Genghis Khan would soon invade Central Asia including the Qara Khitai.
Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty
When the conquest of the Tangut-led Western Xia empire started, there were multiple raids between 1207–1209. When the Mongols invaded Jin territory in 1211, Ala 'Qush, the chief of the Ongut, supported Genghis Khan and showed him a safe road to the Jin dynasty's heartland. The first important battle between the Mongol Empire and the Jin dynasty was the Battle of Yehuling at a mountain pass in Zhangjiakou which took place in 1211. There, Wanyan Jiujin, the Jin field commander, made a tactical mistake in not attacking the Mongols at the first opportunity. Instead, he sent a messenger to the Mongol side, Shimo Ming'an, who promptly defected and told the Mongols that the Jin army was waiting on the other side of the pass. At this engagement, fought at Yehuling, the Mongols massacred thousands of Jin troops. The Mongols learnt at an early age to always fight on the move. They would pass through towns to draw their opponent away from their animals. When they fell for the Mongol army's trap, the Mongols would kill them and take their animals. While Genghis Khan headed southward, his general Jebe travelled even further east into Manchuria and captured Mukden (present-day Shenyang). However, Genghis Khan was wounded by an arrow in his knee in 1212 after the Mongols returned from their relaxation in the borderlands between grass and the Gobi Desert. The Khitan leader Liu-ke had declared his allegiance to Genghis in 1212 and freed Manchuria from the Jin.
Siege
In the Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire's campaign against China (then comprising the Western Xia Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, and Southern Song dynasty) by Genghis Khan until Kublai Khan, who eventually established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271, with their armies was extremely effective, allowing the Mongols to sweep through large areas. Even if they could not enter some of the more well-fortified cities, they used innovative battle tactics to grab hold of the land and the people:
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was probably born in 1162 in Delüün Boldog, near the mountain Burkhan Khaldun and the rivers Onon and Kherlen in modern-day northern Mongolia, close to the current capital Ulaanbaatar. "The Secret History of the Mongols" reports that Temüjin was born grasping a blood clot in his fist, a traditional sign that he was destined to become a great leader. He was the second son of his father Yesügei who was a Kiyad chief prominent in the Khamag Mongol confederation and an ally of Toghrul of the Keraite tribe. Temüjin was the first son of his mother Hoelun. According to the "Secret History", Temüjin was named after the Tatar chief Temüjin-üge whom his father had just captured.
Xinjiang
After Genghis Khan unified Mongolia and began his advance west, the Uyghur state in the Turpan-Urumchi area offered its allegiance to the Mongols in 1209, contributing taxes and troops to the Mongol imperial effort. In return, the Uyghur rulers retained control of their kingdom. By contrast, Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire conquered the Qara Khitai in 1218. During the era of the Mongol Empire, the Yuan dynasty vied with the Chagatai Khanate for rule over the area, with the latter taking control of most of this region. After the break-up of the Chagatai Khanate into smaller khanates in the mid-14th century, the region fractured and was ruled by numerous Persianized Mongol Khans simultaneously, including the ones of Moghulistan (with the assistance of the local Dughlat Emirs), Uigurstan (later Turpan), and Kashgaria. These leaders engaged in wars with each other and the Timurids of Transoxania to the west and the Oirats to the east, the successor Chagatai regime based in Mongolia and in China. In the 17th century, the Dzungars established an empire over much of the region.
Pax Mongolica
The new Mongol Nation quickly moved to annex more territory. The first Mongol conquests were campaigns against the Western Xia in north-western China. In 1209 the Mongols conquered the Western Xia. Between 1213 and 1214 the Mongols conquered the Jin Empire, and by 1214 the Mongols had captured most of the land north of the Yellow River. In 1221 Mongol generals Jebe and Subodei began their expedition around the Caspian Sea and into Kievan Rus'; Genghis Khan defeated Turkic Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu at the Battle of Indus and the war with the Khwarezmian Empire concluded the same year. In 1235 the Mongols invaded Korea. Two years later in 1237 Batu Khan and Subodei began their conquest of Rus'; they invaded Poland and Hungary in 1241. In 1252 the Mongols began their invasion of Southern China; they would seize the capital of Hangzhou in 1276. In 1258 Hulagu Khan captured Baghdad.
Chinese emperors family tree (late)
The following is the Yuan dynasty family tree. Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire in 1206. The empire became split beginning with the succession war of his grandsons Kublai Khan and Ariq Boke. Kublai Khan, after defeating his younger brother Ariq Boke, founded the Yuan dynasty in China in 1271. The dynasty was overthrown by the Ming dynasty during the reign of Toghun Temür in 1368, but it survived in Mongolia, known as the Northern Yuan dynasty; years of reign over the Northern Yuan dynasty (up to 1388) are given in brackets.
Genghis Khan (2004 TV series)
The 30 episodes long television series depicts the major events in the life of Temüjin, the founder of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. It begins with his birth and his struggle for survival in his childhood and adolescent years after the death of his father, Yesugei. With support from his allies and his father's former followers, Temüjin becomes the leader of the Borjigin tribe and emerges as one of the most powerful warlords in Mongolia. After spending decades on the battlefield, Temüjin eventually succeeds in uniting all the Mongol tribes under his rule and adopts the honorific title "Genghis Khan" (means "supreme ruler" in the Mongol language). Genghis Khan continues to lead his armies to attack the Khwarezmid Empire in the west and the Jurchen-led Jin Empire in the south before dying from illness during a campaign against the Western Xia kingdom.
Mongol conquest of China
During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219, along with the main Mongol force, Genghis Khan used a Chinese specialist catapult unit in battle. They were used in Transoxania again in 1220. The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time (although there were other siege engineers and technologies used in the campaigns, too.) While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Central Asia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving with Genghis's army. "Whole regiments" entirely made out of Chinese were used by the Mongols to command bomb hurling trebuchets during the invasion of Iran. Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia. One of these was the huochong, a Chinese mortar. Books written around the area afterward depicted the use of gunpowder weapons which resembled that of China.
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
The destruction of Western Xia during the second campaign was near total. According to John Man, Western Xia is little known to anyone other than experts in the field precisely because of Genghis Khan's policy calling for their complete eradication. He states that "There is a case to be made that this was the first ever recorded example of attempted genocide. It was certainly very successful "ethnocide"." However, some members of the Western Xia royal clan emigrated to western Sichuan, northern Tibet, even possibly northeast India, in some instances becoming local rulers. A small Western Xia state was established in Tibet along the upper reaches of the Yarlung River, while other Western Xia populations settled in what are now the modern provinces of Henan and Hebei. In China, remnants of the Western Xia persisted into the middle of the Ming dynasty.
Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia
The Shah was very suspicious of Genghis' desire for a trade agreement, and messages from the Shah's ambassador at Zhongdu (Beijing) in China described the savagery of the Mongols when they assaulted the city during their war with the Jin dynasty.
Of further interest is that the caliph of Baghdad had attempted to instigate a war between the Mongols and the Shah some years before the Mongol invasion actually occurred. This attempt at an alliance with Genghis was made because of a dispute between Nasir and the Shah, but the Khan had no interest in alliance with any ruler who claimed ultimate authority, titular or not, and which marked the Caliphate for an extinction which would come from Genghis' grandson, Hulegu. At the time, this attempt by the Caliph involved the Shah's ongoing claim to be named sultan of Khwarezm, something that Nasir had no wish to grant, as the Shah refused to acknowledge his authority, however illusory such authority was. However, it is known that Genghis rejected the notion of war as he was engaged in war with the Jin dynasty and was gaining much wealth from trading with the Khwarezmid Empire.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan organized his people, army, and his state to first prepare for war with Western Xia, or Xi Xia, which was close to the Mongolian lands. He correctly believed that the more powerful young ruler of the Jin dynasty would not come to the aid of Xi Xia. When the Tanguts requested help from the Jin dynasty, they were refused. Despite initial difficulties in capturing its well-defended cities, Genghis Khan managed to force the emperor of Xi Xia to submit to vassal status.
Mongol conquest of China
In the early 1200s, Temujin, soon to be Genghis Khan, began consolidating his power in Mongolia. Following the death of the Kerait leader Ong Khan to Temujin's emerging Mongol Empire in 1203, Kerait leader Nilqa Senggum led a small band of followers into Western Xia, also known as Xi-Xia. However, after his adherents took to plundering the locals, Nilqa Senggum was expelled from Western Xia territory.
History of Ladakh
In 747, the hold of Tibet was loosened by the campaign of Chinese General Gao Xianzhi, who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir. After Gao's defeat against the Qarluqs and Arabs on the Talas river (751), Chinese influence decrease rapidly and Tibetan influence resumed.
Inner Mongolia
After Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes in 1206 and founded the Mongol Empire, the Tangut Western Xia empire was ultimately conquered in 1227, and the Jurchen Jin dynasty fell in 1234. In 1271, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established the Yuan dynasty. Kublai Khan's summer capital Shangdu (aka Xanadu) was located near present-day Dolonnor. During that time Ongud and Khunggirad peoples dominated the area of what is now Inner Mongolia. After the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Han-led Ming dynasty in 1368, the Ming captured parts of Inner Mongolia including Shangdu and Yingchang. The Ming rebuilt the Great Wall of China at its present location, which roughly follows the southern border of the modern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (though it deviates significantly at the Hebei-Inner Mongolia border). The Ming established the Three Guards composed of the Mongols there. Soon after the Tumu incident in 1449, when the Oirat ruler Esen taishi captured the Chinese emperor, Mongols flooded south from Outer Mongolia to Inner Mongolia. Thus from then on until 1635, Inner Mongolia was the political and cultural center of the Mongols during the Northern Yuan dynasty.
Yuan dynasty
Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206. He and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, conquering most of northern China. Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani. He sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedei's son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251. He granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals, and endorsed policies that stimulated agricultural and commercial growth. He adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu.
Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima (, Liu Ni), and the Khitan Xiao Zhala () defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan. Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols. There were 4 Han Tumens and 3 Khitan Tumens, with each Tumen consisting of 10,000 troops. The three Khitan Generals Shimobeidier (), Tabuyir () and Xiaozhacizhizizhongxi () commanded the three Khitan Tumens and the four Han Generals Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, and Liu Heima commanded the four Han tumens under Ogödei Khan.
Western Xia
The destruction of Western Xia during the second campaign was near total. According to John Man, Western Xia is little known to anyone other than experts in the field precisely because of Genghis Khan's policy calling for their complete eradication. He states that "There is a case to be made that this was the first ever recorded example of attempted genocide. It was certainly very successful "ethnocide"." However, some members of the Western Xia royal clan emigrated to western Sichuan, northern Tibet, even possibly Northeast India, in some instances becoming local rulers. A small Western Xia state was established in Tibet along the upper reaches of the Yalong River while other Western Xia populations settled in what are now the modern provinces of Henan and Hebei. In China, remnants of the Western Xia persisted into the middle of the Ming dynasty.
History of Central Asia
The most spectacular power to rise out of Central Asia developed when Genghis Khan united the tribes of Mongolia. Using superior military techniques, the Mongol Empire spread to comprise all of Central Asia and China as well as large parts of Russia, and the Middle East. After Genghis Khan died in 1227, most of Central Asia continued to be dominated by the successor Chagatai Khanate. This state proved to be short lived, as in 1369 Timur, a Turkic leader in the Mongol military tradition, conquered most of the region.
Genghis Khan (1950 film)
"Genghis Khan" tells the story of Temujin (Manuel Conde), a young Mongol prince who takes part in a series of challenges against rival tribes for land rights. Under the auspices of Burchou (Lou Salvador) and his beautiful daughter, Lei Hai (Elvira Reyes), Temujin uses his wits to prevail against larger, stronger opponents to emerge victorious. 
Unknown to any of the participants, Burchou’s advisor had arranged for his lord’s forces to massacre all the rival tribal leaders at that evening’s celebratory feast. Temujin barely escapes with his life, and makes his way home to find his village destroyed and his mother near death. 
Instilled with a desire for revenge, the young prince begins spreading the word of Burchou’s treachery, competing at the Man of Men contest, falling in love with the enemy commander's daughter, and struggling to restore his demolished hometown, forging alliances and building a power base that will culminate with him ascending to the position of great conqueror.The prints of the first ever Filipino movie to be shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1952 were lost—and found.
History of East Asia
The sudden rise of the nomadic Mongol Empire disrupted East Asia, under the leadership of leaders such as Genghis Khan, Subutai, and Kublai Khan brought the majority of East Asia under rule of a single state. All of China and Korea were annexed under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols also attempted and failed to conquer Japan in maritime invasions. The Mongol era in East Asia was short lived due to natural disasters and poor administrative management. In the aftermath of the Yuan Dynasty's collapse new regimes such as China's Ming Dynasty and Korea's Joeson embraced Neo-Confucianism as a style of governance. Japan at this time fell into feudal civil war known as the "Sengoku Jidai" which persisted for over a century and a half. At the turn of the 16th century European merchants and missionaries traveled to East Asia by sea for the first time. The Portuguese established a colony in Macau, China and attempted to Christianize Japan. In the last years of the Sengoku period, Japanese warlords attempted to create a larger empire by invading Korea only being defeated by the combined forces of Korea and China in 1598.
Western Xia
In 1219, Genghis Khan launched his invasion of Khwarezmia and Eastern Iran and requested military aid from Western Xia. However, the emperor and his military commander Asha refused to take part in the campaign, stating that if Genghis had too few troops to attack Khwarazm, then he had no claim to supreme power. Infuriated, Genghis swore vengeance and left to invade Khwarazm while Western Xia attempted to create alliances with the Jin and Song against the Mongols.
1270s
In Asia, the Mongols continued expanding their territories. Kublai Khan moved his capital to present-day Beijing and renamed his empire the Yuan Dynasty, reflecting the new eastward focus of the empire. The Yuan Dynasty conquered the Southern Song Dynasty of China by the end of the decade. By this time the Mongols had subjugated most of continental Asia. The conquest of Southern Song witnessed the first use of firearms in war. The western Ilkhanate established a capital at Tabriz, in present-day Iran. The Mongols were able to quell the Sambyeolcho Rebellion in Korea and defeat the Nakhi and Pagan Empires, but failed an attempted invasion of Japan in 1274. Marco Polo reached Kublai Khan's summer court Shangdu by 1275, and stayed with the court for over 20 years.
Siege of Caizhou
The siege of Caizhou between 1233 and 1234 was fought between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty and the allied forces of the Mongol Empire and Southern Song dynasty. It was the last major battle in the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty. They had fought for decades beginning in 1211, when the Mongols first invaded under the command of Genghis Khan. The Jin capital, Zhongdu (present-day Xicheng and Fengtai districts, Beijing), had been besieged in 1213, then captured by the Mongols in 1215. In the intervening years, the Jin dynasty moved its capital to Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province). Ögedei Khan, the successor to Genghis Khan, rose to power after his predecessor died in 1227. In 1230, the war effort against the Jin dynasty recommenced. Emperor Aizong, the Jin ruler, fled when the Mongols besieged Bianjing. On February 26, 1233, he reached Guide (present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province), and then moved on to Caizhou (present-day Runan County, Henan Province), on August 3. The Mongols arrived at Caizhou in December, 1233. The Southern Song dynasty had rebuffed Emperor Aizong's plea for assistance, and joined forces with the Mongols. The Southern Song dynasty ignored Emperor Aizong's warning that they would become the Mongol Empire's next target.
Inner Mongolian People's Party
Inner Mongolia is located between the Republic of Mongolia and the People's Republic of China. China was under Mongol rule when Genghis Khan toppled the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Kublai Khanm proclaimed the Mongolian Yuan State (1271–1368). After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, China was returned to Han Chinese control and stayed that way through the Ming (1368–1644) Dynasty until the Qing (1644–1911) Dynasty when China was invaded and ruled by the Manchu people.
Khan (title)
The higher, rather imperial title Khaqan (""Khan of Khans"") applies to probably the most famous rulers known as "Khan": the Mongol imperial dynasty of Genghis Khan (his name was Temüjin, "Genghis" Khan a never fully understood unique title), and his successors, especially grandson Kublai Khan: the former founded the Mongol Empire and the latter founded the Yuan Dynasty in China. The ruling descendants of the main branch of Genghis Khan's dynasty are referred to as the "Great Khans".
Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming dynasty
In 1207, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan (r. 1206–1227) conquered and subjugated the ethnic Tangut state of the Western Xia (1038–1227). In the same year, he established diplomatic relations with Tibet by sending envoys there. The conquest of the Western Xia alarmed Tibetan rulers, who decided to pay tribute to the Mongols. However, when they ceased to pay tribute after Genghis Khan's death, his successor Ögedei Khan (r. 1229–1241) launched an invasion into Tibet.
Genghis Khan (1965 film)
A stranded Chinese ambassador is helped out by Temujin, who accompanies the diplomat into China, where he is proclaimed "Genghis Khan, the Prince of Conquerors". His Mongol army stays in Peking for a long period, training, learning, and growing complacent. The imprisoned Jamuga escapes at one point. Finally, feeling trapped, the Mongols break out of their "captivity" and begin their conquest of Asia.
Mongol conquest of China
After defeating Khwarazm in 1221, Genghis prepared his armies to punish Western Xia for their betrayal, and in 1225 he attacked with a force of approximately 180,000. After taking Khara-Khoto, the Mongols began a steady advance southward. Asha, commander of the Western Xia troops, could not afford to meet the Mongols as it would involve an exhausting westward march from the capital Yinchuan through 500 kilometers of desert, and so the Mongols steadily advanced from city to city. Enraged by Western Xia's fierce resistance, Genghis engaged the countryside in annihilative warfare and ordered his generals to systematically destroy cities and garrisons as they went. Genghis divided his army and sent general Subutai to take care of the westernmost cities, while the main force under Genghis moved east into the heart of the Western Xia Empire and took Ganzhou, which was spared destruction upon its capture due to it being the hometown of Genghis's commander Chagaan.
Kublai Khan's Campaigns
The campaign for Kublai Khan to conquer China under the Song dynasty were specified under the years between 1266-1276. This included the declaration of Kublai Khan as the new emperor of China in the year 1271 This was the start of the Yuan dynasty that was a rule incorporated with elements of both Mongul and Chinese influences.
After successfully eliminating all resistance to the new Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khan wanted to expand his empire by attacking Japan and built around 300-600 vessels in preparation for the assault on Japan.
Battle of Nghĩa Lộ (1952)
The Battle of Nghĩa Lộ was a battle of the First Indochina War. In the fall of 1952 the French army encountered its most serious crisis since the disasters near the Chinese border (Chiến dịch biên giới – Borderland Campaign) at Cao Bằng, Đông Khê and RC 4 occurred in 1949 and 1950. The Battle of Nghĩa Lộ was the opening salvo in a series of offenses and counter-offenses in late 1952 during the First Indochina War. It was part of a Việt Minh offensive in the T’ai region of Tonkin in the vicinity of the Black River (Northwest Campaign or Black River Offensive). The French countered with Operation Lorraine to attack Việt Minh rear supply bases in an attempt to cut off the offensive. The Việt Minh did not cease or divert the offensive to protect its supply bases. The Việt Minh continued its offensive attack against Nà Sản where there was an outpost and a short airstrip, both guarded by the French army. This series of battles lasted for three months between October 1952 and December 1952. These actions and the Việt Minh successes set the stage for the subsequent Invasion of Laos in April 1953.
Eljigidei
He supposedly commanded a strong contingent when Genghis Khan invaded Khwarizm in 1219–1223. Ogedei was close to Eljihidey. That's why Eljigidei was given command over the Mongol forces in Persia, by the new khan Güyük in 1246, replacing Baiju. Supposedly possessed of Christian sympathies like the khan, Eljigidei was ordered to advance into Syria, and planned an advance on Baghdad. This advance was, ideally, to be conducted in alliance with Louis IX of France, in concert with the Seventh Crusade. However, Güyük's sudden death made Eljigidei postpone operations until after the interregnum.
Proto-Mongols
In the 12th century, Genghis Khan was able to unite or conquer the warring tribes, forging them into a unified fighting force that went on to create the largest contiguous empire in world history, the Mongol Empire, which was finally able to conquer the whole of China—beginning with his invasion of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty and ending with his grandson Kublai Khan's conquest of the Southern Song Dynasty, establishing the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
Mongol conquest of China
In 1209, the Genghis undertook a larger campaign to secure the submission of Western Xia. After defeating a force led by Kao Liang-Hui outside Wuhai, Genghis captured the city and pushed up along the Yellow River, defeated several cities, and besieged the capital, Yinchuan, which held a well-fortified garrison of 150,000. The Mongols, at this point inexperienced at siege warfare, attempted to flood out the city by diverting the Yellow River, but the dike they built to accomplish this broke and flooded the Mongol camp. Nevertheless, Emperor Li Anquan, still threatened by the Mongols and receiving no relief from the Jin dynasty, agreed to submit to Mongol rule, and demonstrated his loyalty by giving a daughter, Chaka, in marriage to Genghis and paying a tribute of camels, falcons, and textiles.
Mansur Khan (Moghul Khan)
During the Moghul war against China, the Chinese Ming Dynasty defeated multiple raids by the Turpan Kingdom under Mansur allied with the Mongols under Ibrahim who fled Batumöngke Dayan Khan of Mongolia-based Northern Yuan, over disputes on tribute. In 1517, 1524, and 1528 battles brok out. The Ming had rejected many tribute missions from Turpan. Mansur tried to attack China in 1524 with 20,000 men, but was beaten by Chinese forces. The Ming forces repulsed the Turpan forces and Mongols from their raid on Suzhou District. The Chinese refused to lift the economic blockade and restrictions that had led to the battles, and continued restricting Turpan's tribute and trade with China. Turfan also annexed Hami.
Military history
In China, the Sui Dynasty had risen and conquered the Chen Dynasty of the south. They invaded Vietnam (northern Vietnam had been in Chinese control since the Han Dynasty), fighting the troops of Champa, who had cavalry mounted on elephants. After decades of economic turmoil and a failed invasion of Korea, the Sui collapsed and was followed by the Tang Dynasty, who fought with various Turkic groups, the Tibetans of Lhasa, the Tanguts, the Khitans, and collapsed due to political fragmentation of powerful regional military governors (jiedushi). The innovative Song Dynasty followed next, inventing new weapons of war that employed the use of Greek Fire and gunpowder (see section below) against enemies such as the Jurchens.
The Mongols under Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and Kublai Khan conquered most of Eurasia. They took over China, Persia, Turkestan, and Russia. After Kublai Khan took power and created the Yuan Dynasty, the divisions of the empire ceased to cooperate with each other, and the Mongol Empire was only nominally united.
Taisun Khan
When the Ming refused the Mongols their request to allow additional Mongol envoys to China and a Chinese princess, Esen decided to invade the Ming. Taisun Khan was apprehensive of this and did not support Esen at first. However, he was induced to lead the easternmost force of Uriankhais to Liaodong in 1449. He besieged the city and ravaged its outskirts for 40 days while Esen crushed the Ming armies en route to Beijing.
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
Using his rival Nilga Senggum's temporary refuge in Western Xia as a pretext, Temujin launched a raid against the state in 1205 in the Edsin region. The Mongols plundered border settlements and one local Western Xia noble accepted Mongol supremacy. During a raid on Ganzhou (present-day Zhangye), the Mongols captured the son of the city's commander. This young boy joined Mongol service and took a Mongol name, Chagaan, and eventually rose through the ranks to become commander of Temujin's personal guard. The next year, 1206, Temujin was formally proclaimed Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Mongols, marking the official start of the Mongol Empire, while Li Anquan killed Huanzong of Western Xia in a coup d'état and installed himself as Emperor Xiangzong. In 1207, Genghis led another raid into Western Xia, invading the Ordo region and sacking Wuhai, the main garrison along the Yellow River, before withdrawing in 1208. Genghis then began preparing for a full-scale invasion. By invading Western Xia, he would gain a tribute-paying vassal, and also would take control of caravan routes along the Silk Road and provide the Mongols with valuable revenue. Furthermore, from Western Xia he could launch raids into the even more wealthy Jin dynasty.
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
After defeating Khwarazm in 1221, Genghis prepared his armies to punish Western Xia for their betrayal. Meanwhile, Emperor Shenzong stepped down from power in 1223, leaving his son, Xianzong, in his place. In 1225, Genghis Khan attacked with a force of approximately 180,000. After taking Khara-Khoto, the Mongols began a steady advance southward. Asha, commander of the Western Xia troops, could not afford to meet the Mongols as it would involve an exhausting westward march from the capital Yinchuan through 500 kilometers of desert. With no army to meet them in pitched battle, the Mongols picked the best targets for attack and as each city fell the Mongols would draw on prisoners, defectors, supplies, and weapons to take the next one. Enraged by Western Xia's fierce resistance, Genghis engaged the countryside in annihilative warfare and ordered his generals to systematically destroy cities and garrisons as they went. Two months after taking Khara-Khoto, the Mongols reached a point where the Qilian Mountains force the Etsin River eastward, about 300 kilometers south of Khara-Khoto. At this point, Genghis divided his army, sending general Subutai to take care of the westernmost cities, while the main force moved east into the heart of the Western Xia Empire. Genghis lay siege to Suzhou, which fell after five weeks. Genghis then moved to Ganzhou, the hometown of his general Chagaan. Chagaan's father still commanded the city garrison, so Chagaan attempted negotiations with him. However, the second-in-command of the city staged a coup, killed Chagaan's father, and refused to surrender. The city took five months to subdue, and though the now furious Genghis threatened vengeance, Chagaan convinced him to only kill the 35 conspirators who killed Chagaan's father.
Descent from Genghis Khan
The Qing of China completely exterminated one branch (Ligdan Khan's descendants) of the Borjigids after an anti-Qing revolt in 1675 by Ejei Khan's brother Abunai and Abunai's son Borni against the Qing.
The Qing Emperors then placed the Chahar Mongols under their direct rule.
The Emperors of the Qing dynasty and the Emperor of Manchukuo were also indirect descendants by Qasar, a younger brother of Genghis Khan.
Battle of Parwan
When Genghis Khan heard of the news of Shigi Qutugu's defeat, he immediately made forced marches in order to catch Jalal al Din before he escaped into India. Genghis marched with Shigi Qutugu, and instructed him on where he went wrong at the battlegrounds. The Shah attempted to cross Indus river to the area north of the present city of Kalabagh, Pakistan. However, Mongols caught up with him on the banks of the Indus and defeated him what in now referred to as the Battle of Indus.
Proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan
The proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan, also known as the Sichuan invasion, Szechwan Invasion, Chongqing Operation, Chongqing Campaign or Operation 5, was the Imperial Japanese Army's failed plan to destroy the Chongqing-based Chiang Kai-shek government during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was to be a stepping stone for Japan's final control of the Chinese mainland.
History of Asia
The Mongol Empire conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Medieval Asia was the kingdom of the Khans. Never before had any person controlled as much land as Genghis Khan. He built his power unifying separate Mongol tribes before expanding his kingdom south and west. He and his grandson, Kublai Khan, controlled lands in China, Burma, Central Asia, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Estimates are that the Mongol armies reduced the population of China by nearly a third. Genghis Khan was a pagan who tolerated nearly every religion, and their culture often suffered the harshest treatment from Mongol armies. The Khan armies pushed as far west as Jerusalem before being defeated in 1260.
Ten Great Campaigns
The Ten Great Campaigns () were a series of military campaigns launched by the Qing Empire of China in the mid–late 18th century during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–96). They included three to enlarge the area of Qing control in Inner Asia: two against the Dzungars (1755–57) and the "pacification" of Xinjiang (1758–59). The other seven campaigns were more in the nature of police actions on frontiers already established: two wars to suppress Jinchuan Tibetans in Sichuan, another to suppress the Taiwanese (1787–88), and four expeditions abroad against the Burmese (1765–69), the Vietnamese (1788–89), and the Gurkhas in Nepal on the border between Tibet and India (1790–92), with the last counting as two.
Mongol invasions of Georgia
During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219 Genghis Khan used a Chinese catapult unit in battle, they were used again in 1220 in Transoxania. The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time. In the 1239-1240 Mongol invasion of the North Caucasus, Chinese weapons were once again used.
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
In 1209, Genghis undertook his campaign to actually conquer Western Xia. Li Anquan requested aid from the Jin dynasty, but the new Jin emperor Wanyan Yongji refused to send aid, stating that "It is to our advantage when our enemies attack each other. Wherein lies the danger to us?" After defeating a force led by Kao Liang-Hui outside Wulahai, Genghis captured the city and pushed up along the Yellow River, defeating several cities as he went, until he reached the fortress Kiemen which guarded the only pass through the Helan Mountains to the capital, Yinchuan. Containing an army of up to 70,000, plus 50,000 reinforcements, the fortress proved too difficult to capture, and after a two-month stand-off the Mongols feinted a retreat, luring the garrison, led by Wei-ming Ling-kung, out onto the field where it was easily destroyed. His path now open, Genghis advanced to the capital. Well fortified, Yinchuan held about 150,000 soldiers, nearly twice the size of the Mongol army. One of their first endeavors at siege warfare, the Mongols lacked the proper equipment and experience to take the city. They arrived at the city in May, but by October were still unsuccessful at breaking through. Genghis attempted to flood the capital by diverting the river and its network of irrigation canals into the city, and by January 1210 the walls of Yinchuan were nearly breached. However, the dike used to divert the river broke, and the ensuing flood wiped out the Mongol camp, forcing the Mongols to take higher ground. Despite this setback, the Mongols still posed a threat to Western Xia, and with the state's crops destroyed and no relief coming from the Jin, Li Anquan agreed to submit to Mongol rule, demonstrating his loyalty by giving a daughter, Chaka, in marriage to Genghis and paying a tribute of camels, falcons, and textiles.
Chinese expedition to Tibet (1720)
The 1720 Chinese expedition to Tibet or the Chinese conquest of Tibet in 1720 was a military expedition sent by the Qing dynasty to expel the invading forces of the Dzungar Khanate from Tibet and establish a Chinese protectorate over the country. The expedition occupied Lhasa and marked the beginning of Qing rule in Tibet, which lasted until the empire's fall in 1912.
Mongols
The Khitan fled west after being defeated by the Jurchens (later known as Manchu) and founded the Qara Khitai (1125–1218) in eastern Kazakhstan. In 1218, Genghis Khan destroyed the Qara Khitai after which the Khitan passed into obscurity. With the expansion of the Mongol Empire, the Mongolic peoples settled over almost all Eurasia and carried on military campaigns from the Adriatic Sea to Indonesian Java island and from Japan to Palestine (Gaza). They simultaneously became Padishahs of Persia, Emperors of China, and Great Khans of Mongolia, and one became Sultan of Egypt (Al-Adil Kitbugha). The Mongolic peoples of the Golden Horde established themselves to govern Russia by 1240. By 1279, they conquered the Song dynasty and brought all of China under control of the Yuan dynasty.
Dayan Khan
From 1513 Mongol invasions of China recommenced. Dayan Khan built forts in Xuanhua and Datong. He also stationed 15,000 cavalry on Ming territory. His Mongols numbering up to 70,000 invaded China in 1514 and 1517. His sons established a series of permanent bases along the Chinese border where the Mongols could keep watch on the Chinese. Batumongke Dayan Khan repeatedly sought trade relation with the Ming, but rejection turned him more and more to outright warfare.
Ögedei Khan
Ögedei (also Ogodei; , Mongolian: "Ögedei", "Ögüdei"; ; c.1186– 11 December 1241), was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was a world figure when the Mongol Empire reached its farthest extent west and south during the Mongol invasions of Europe and East Asia. Like all of Genghis' primary sons, he participated extensively in conquests in China, Iran, and Central Asia.
Genghis Khan II: Clan of the Gray Wolf
In the third scenario, you are at the point of the Yuan Dynasty (1274 AD), where Kublai Khan is the ruler of Mongolia and China. You are trying to rule the world.
Genghis Khan
Accounts of Genghis Khan's life are marked by claims of a series of betrayals and conspiracies. These include rifts with his early allies such as Jamukha (who also wanted to be a ruler of Mongol tribes) and Wang Khan (his and his father's ally), his son Jochi, and problems with the most important shaman, who allegedly tried to drive a wedge between him and his loyal brother Khasar. His military strategies showed a deep interest in gathering intelligence and understanding the motivations of his rivals, exemplified by his extensive spy network and Yam route systems. He seemed to be a quick student, adopting new technologies and ideas that he encountered, such as siege warfare from the Chinese. He was also ruthless, demonstrated by his tactic of measuring against the linchpin, used against the tribes led by Jamukha.
Empire
In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan expanded the Mongol Empire to be the largest contiguous empire in the world. However, within two generations, the empire was separated into four discrete khanates under Genghis Khan's grandsons. One of them, Kublai Khan, conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty with the imperial capital at Beijing. One family ruled the whole Eurasian land mass from the Pacific to the Adriatic and Baltic Seas. The emergence of the Pax Mongolica had significantly eased trade and commerce across Asia.
Genkō Bōrui
The Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer Japan. After the failure of the first invasion, the Kamakura shogunate initiated a series of projects in 1275 to prepare for the next invasion, which they felt was imminent.
Battle of Yehuling
In 1210, Genghis Khan insulted Wanyan Yongji by publicly stating that the Jin emperor was cowardly and unfit to be a leader. He also added, "The emperor should be a man from the sky like me." When Wanyan Yongji received news of this, he was so enraged that he executed the Mongol ambassador. Tensions between the Mongols and Jin dynasty started to escalate. In March 1211, the Mongols rallied 90,000 troops for a campaign against the Jin dynasty, leaving behind only about 2,000 men to guard their base in Mongolia. This meant that well over 90% of the Mongol forces had been mobilised for the campaign. Before embarking, Genghis Khan prayed to the sky deity Tengri along the Kherlen River to bless the Mongols with victory, and made a symbolic vow to avenge his ancestor, Ambaghai, who was executed by crucifixion in 1146 at the order of Emperor Xizong of the Jin dynasty.
History of the Great Wall of China
In the 13th century, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan, once a vassal of the Jurchens, rose up against the Jin dynasty. In the ensuing Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty, the nomadic invaders avoided direct attacks on the Jin fortifications. Instead, when they could, the Mongols simply rode around the walls; an effective example of this tactic is in 1211, when they circumvented the substantial fortress in Zhangjiakou and inflicted a terrible defeat upon the Jin armies at the Battle of Yehuling. The Mongols also took advantage of lingering Liao resentment against the Jin; the Khitan defenders of the garrisons along the Jin walls, such as those in Gubeikou, often preferred to surrender to the Mongols rather than fight them. The only major engagement of note along the main Great Wall line was at the heavily defended Juyong Pass: instead of laying siege, the Mongol general Jebe lured the defenders out into an ambush and charged in through the opened gates. In 1215, Genghis Khan besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of Yanjing (modern-day Beijing). The Jin dynasty eventually collapsed following the siege of Caizhou in 1234. Western Xia had already fallen in 1227, and the Southern Song resisted the Mongols until 1279.
Genghis Khan (1965 film)
Genghis Khan is a 1965 Technicolor film depicting the life and conquests of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan in Panavision. It was released in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1965 by Columbia Pictures, it was directed by Henry Levin and featured Omar Sharif, who that same year starred in another epic, "Doctor Zhivago". The film also included James Mason, Stephen Boyd, Eli Wallach, Françoise Dorléac and Telly Savalas.
Terek Pass
Marco Polo crossed the pass to enter China and it was used by Genghis Khan to enter central Asia.
Genghis Khan (video game)
The game has two different ways to play. The first is "Mongol Conquest", which begins in the year 1175 A.D, which is a one player mode. Players assume control of Lord Temujin and they must conquer the land by keeping their economy stable, having their army ready to fight, and by attacking other lands. The second is "World Conquest", where the goal is to conquer every opposing country.
Invasions of Afghanistan
In the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia (1219-1221), Genghis Khan invaded the region from the northeast in one of his many conquests to create the huge Mongol Empire. His armies slaughtered thousands in the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad etc. After Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia, there was a rebellion in the region of Helmand which was brutally put down by his son and successor, Ogedei Khan, who put all male residents of Ghazni and Helmand to the sword in 1222; the women were enslaved and sold. Thereafter most parts of Afghanistan other than the extreme south-eastern remained under Mongol rule as part of the Ilkhanate and Chagatai Khanate.
Political divisions and vassals of the Mongol Empire
When Genghis Khan was campaigning in Central Asia, his entrusted general Muqali (1170–1223) attempted to set up provinces and established branch departments of state affairs. But Ögedei abolished them and divided the areas of North China into 10 routes (lu, 路) according to the suggestion of Yelü Chucai, a prominent Confucian statesman of Khitan ethnicity. He also divided the empire into Beshbalik administration, Yanjing administration while the headquarters in Karakorum directly dealt with Manchuria, Mongolia and Southern Siberia. Late in his reign, Amu Darya administration was established. Under Möngke Khan, these administrations were renamed Branch Departments.
The Private Life of Genghis Khan
The second section deals with a conversation between the Khan and his son, Ogdai, after the Battle of Samarkand. Ogdai tells the khan of his plans to attack Persia the following morning and proceed further in their campaign. Khan replies in a laid-back manner about his busy schedule for the next week and eventually the month of March. He then complains that he will be too busy in April since he has plans to go to Africa. A troubled Ogdai pleads with his father to conquer the world in May. Khan replies "Well, I don't like to commit myself that far in advance. One feels so tied down if one's life is completely mapped out beforehand. I should be doing more reading, for heaven's sake, when am I going to find the time for that? Anyway —" as the Khan pencils down "May — possible conquest of the world" in his scroll without committing to it. Just then, a dark green figure arrives in the tent and introduces himself as Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged. He first approaches the Khan and asks him to check the spelling of his name on his clipboard. When the Khan agrees that the spelling is correct, he proceeds to insult the khan before taking off in his spaceship. The story ends with, "Later that year Genghis Khan stormed into Europe in such a rage that he almost forgot to burn down Asia before he left."
History of Manchuria
In 1211, after the conquest of Western Xia, Genghis Khan mobilized an army to conquer the Jin dynasty. His general Jebe and brother Qasar were ordered to reduce the Jurchen cities in Manchuria. They successfully destroyed the Jin forts there. The Khitans under Yelü Liuge declared their allegiance to Genghis Khan and established nominally autonomous state in Manchuria in 1213. However, the Jin forces dispatched a punitive expedition against them. Jebe went there again and the Mongols pushed out the Jins.
Baurchuk Art Tekin
In September 1219, Baurchuk joined Genghis Khan in an attack against the Khwarezmian Empire, personally commanding 10,000 "tuman" troops and taking part in the siege of Otrar and Nishapur (razed to ground by Mongols). In the spring of 1226, he took an active part in the two-year Mongol expedition against the Tangut Kingdom (known as "Western Xia" in Chinese chronicles), led by Genghis Khan himself, and completed in almost full annihilation of the Tangut people, who were declared to be responsible for Genghis Khan's death under the walls of besieged Tangut capital, in September, 1227. Baurchuk's participation in the expedition for destruction of the Tangut state was motivated not only by his obligations as ally of the Mongols, but also by the enmity that existed between the Tanguts and the Uyghurs since the destruction of the Buddhist/Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom in Gansu (848-1036) two centuries before, during the Uyghur-Tangut war of 1028-1036, followed by mass killings of its inhabitants. The population of Tangut Kingdom was reduced from around 3,000,000 people to less than one hundred thousand, which eventually had been assimilated by other ethnic groups, mostly of Mongolic, Turkic and Tibetan origins.
Qiu Chuji
In 1219 Genghis Khan invited Changchun to visit him in a letter dated 15 May 1219 by present reckoning. Changchun left his home in Shandong in February 1220 and journeyed to Beijing. Learning that Genghis had gone West, he spent winter there. In February 1221, Changchun left, traversing eastern Mongolia to the camp of Genghis' youngest brother Otchigin near Lake Buyur in the upper Kerulen - today's Kherlen-Amur basin. From there he traveled southwestward up the Kerulen, crossing the Karakorum region in north-central Mongolia, and arrived at the Altai Mountains, probably passing near the present Uliastai. After traversing the Altai he visited Bishbalig - modern Ürümqi - and moved along the north side of the Tian Shan range to Lake Sutkol, today's Sairam, Almaliq (or Yining City), and the rich valley of the Ili.
Mongol conquest of China
Genghis Khan declared war in 1211, and while Mongols were victorious in the field, they were frustrated in their efforts to take major cities. In his typically logical and determined fashion, Genghis and his highly developed staff studied the problems of the assault of fortifications. With the help of Chinese engineers, they gradually developed the techniques to take down fortifications. Islamic engineers joined later and especially contributed counterweight trebuchets, "Muslim phao", which had a maximum range of 300 meters compared to 150 meters of the ancient Chinese predecessor. It played a significant role in taking the Chinese strongholds and was as well used against infantry units on the battlefield. This eventually would make troops under the Mongols some of the most accomplished and most successful besiegers in the history of warfare.
Genghis Khan (2018 film)
Genghis Khan (Chinese: 战神纪) is a Chinese historical / fantasy epic film produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud and directed by Hasi Chaolu. It stars William Chan as the titular Genghis Khan. The film, originally slated to be released in China on December 22 2017, was subsequently postponed to April 28 2018 to allow the team more time for post-production work. The film was also the closing film at the 8th Beijing International Film Festival.
Muqali
Muqali (; 1170–1223), also spelt Mukhali and Mukhulai, was a Mongol slave ("bo'ol", "one who is bound" in service) who became a trusted and esteemed commander under Genghis Khan. The son of Gü'ün U'a, a Jalair leader who had sworn fealty to the Mongols, he became known by his epithet "Muqali", "the Darling", earned through his committed and able service to the Great Khan and the Mongol Empire. During the invasion of Jin China, Muqali acted as Genghis Khan's second-in-command, and was promoted to Viceroy of China, and was entrusted with a great degree of autonomy once Genghis Khan departed to conquer Central Asia. Unlike many Mongol leaders who were willing to massacre to gain any advantage, Muqali usually attempted to convert foes into friends by more conciliatory means, and change the Mongol image in China. By the time of Ogedei's reign (1229-1241), he was viewed as the best of the extraordinarily talented pool of Mongol generals. Given his undefeated record despite very limited resources, he is likely one of the greatest military commanders in history.
Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
Starting from the early 13th century, the Jin dynasty began to feel the pressure of Mongols from the north. Genghis Khan first led the Mongols into Western Xia territory in 1205 and ravaged it four years later. In 1211 about 50,000 Mongol horsemen invaded the Jin Empire and began absorbing Khitan and Jurchen rebels. The Jin had a large army with 150,000 cavalry but abandoned the "western capital" Datong (see also the Battle of Yehuling). The next year the Mongols went north and looted the Jin "eastern capital", and in 1213 they besieged the "central capital", Zhongdu (present-day Beijing). In 1214 the Jin made a humiliating treaty but retained the capital. That summer, Emperor Xuanzong abandoned the central capital and moved the government to the "southern capital" Kaifeng, making it the official seat of the Jin dynasty's power.
Siege of Diaoyu Castle
The Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan conquered vast lands and subjugated nations. Genghis Khan's last battle was fought in Western Xia but his life had come to an end before he was able to conquer it. His successors carried on his ambition. In the year 1234, the Mongols conquered the Great Jin with the assistance of the Song dynasty.
Genghis Khan
There are conflicting views of Genghis Khan in the People's Republic of China. The legacy of Genghis and his successors, who completed the conquest of China after 65 years of struggle, remains a mixed topic. China suffered a drastic decline in population. The population of north China decreased from 50 million in the 1195 census to 8.5 million in the Mongol census of 1235–36. An unknown number of people migrated to Southern China in this period.
Muqali
After his death, Genghis Khan gave command to Muqali's son, Bol. In seven years of campaigning in northern China, he had reduced the Jin dynasty's territories to only Henan Province. He had proven himself to be an excellent general who was indefatigable in his efforts to serve Genghis Khan. His extraordinary tenure was demonstrated by the inefficacy of other Mongol generals who failed to make any headway in China after his death. By the time of Ogedei's ascension in 1229, the Mongol detachments in China had suffered numerous setbacks, which led to a mini-revival of Jin fortunes until Subutai and Tolui were dispatched with the main Mongol army in 1232.
Genghis Khan (1998 film)
Genghis Khan () is a 1998 Chinese film directed by Sai Fu and Mai Lisi, produced by Inner Mongolia Film Studio. The film was selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty
In the early spring of 1227, Genghis Khan ordered a small fraction of the army to advance into Song's Circuit of Lizhou (利州路), in the name of attacking Jīn and W. Xia. The five "zhou"s of Jie（階）, Feng （鳳）, Cheng（成）, He （和） and Tianshui（天水）were ravaged. Then the Mongols moved southward and seized Wénzhou（文州）. In July, the Mongols returned to the north. Genghis Khan further realized that to destroy the Jīn dynasty the Mongol army must make its way via the Song. The 1227 incident（丁亥之變） was the first armed conflict between the Mongols and the Song. But until this time the main target of the Mongols was Jīn dynasty.
Foreign relations of imperial China
The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) of China was the easternmost part of the vast Mongol Empire (stretching from East Asia to Eastern Europe), which became politically separated into four khanates beginning with the succession war in 1260. The Mongol leaders Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and Hulagu Khan were able to conquer the Tangut-led Western Xia kingdom and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in northern China, as well as invading Korea under the Goryeo dynasty, turning it into a vassal state that was ruled indirectly. The Mongols withdrew after Korean monarchs agreed to move its capital back to the mainland from Ganghwa Island.
History of Beijing
When Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, visited Yanjing in 1261, much of the city lay in ruin, so he stayed in the Daning Palace on Qionghua Island. Unlike other Mongol leaders who wanted to retain the traditional tribal confederation based in Karakorum in Outer Mongolia, Kublai Khan was eager to become the emperor of a cosmopolitan empire. He spent the next four years waging and winning a civil war against rival Mongol chieftains and in 1264 ordered advisor Liu Bingzhong to build his new capital at Yanjing. In 1260, he had already begun construction of his capital at Xanadu, some due north of Beijing on the Luan River in present-day Inner Mongolia, but he preferred the location of Beijing. With the North China Plain opening to the south and the steppes just beyond the mountain passes to the north, Beijing was an ideal midway point for Kublai Khan's new seat of power.
Sakya Pandita
According to later Tibetan historiography, Genghis Khan subjugated a king of Tibet in 1206 and then sent a letter to the Sakya abbot. After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, the Tibetans stopped sending tribute. This is, however, a legend without historical foundation. It is known, however, that the grandson of Genghis Khan and second son of Ögedei Khan, Godan Khan was granted an appanage at Liangzhou (present-day Wuwei, Gansu) in 1239. In 1240 he sent an invasion force under Dorta into Tibet. The Mongols reached the Phanyul Valley north of Lhasa, killing some 500 monks and destroying and looting monasteries, villages and towns. The Gyal Lhakhang Monastery went up in flames and many monks of the Reting Monastery were slaughtered by the horsemen. The Drigung Monastery was saved, ostensibly since the Mongols believed that a sudden avalanche of stones could be attributed to the supernatural powers of the lamas. According to L. Petech, the Reting Monastery itself escaped destruction when Dorta reached Dam, and its abbot suggested the Mongols to contact Sakya Paṇḍita, who was a famous author and religious figure and could represent the Tibetans vis-à-vis the Mongols. According to J.Y. Chang, it was rather the Drigung abbot who made the proposal. Later chronicles assert that Dorta sent message to Prince Godan and enumerated the four foremost sects and lamas of Tibet: Kadam, Taklung, Drigung, and Sakya. Godan drew the conclusion that Sakya Pandita was an important and wise lama who could show the road to salvation, and ordered to send a letter of "invitation" and presents to him. The actual reason for selecting the Sakya might have been that the sect was specialized in magic rituals that resonated with Mongol beliefs, and was prominent in spreading Buddhist morality. It was also important that Sakya Paṇḍita was a religious hierarch by birth, and thus represented a dynastic continuity useful for the Mongol aim to rule via respected intermediaries.
Great Wall of China
Towards the end of the Ming, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong, the Ming army held the heavily fortified Shanhai Pass, preventing the Manchus from conquering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, after Beijing had already fallen to Li Zicheng's rebels. Before this time, the Manchus had crossed the Great Wall multiple times to raid, but this time it was for conquest. The gates at Shanhai Pass were opened on May 25 by the commanding Ming general, Wu Sangui, who formed an alliance with the Manchus, hoping to use the Manchus to expel the rebels from Beijing. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and eventually defeated both the rebel-founded Shun dynasty and the remaining Ming resistance, establishing the Qing dynasty rule over all of China.
History of the Yuan dynasty
Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206. He and his successors expanded the Mongol Empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234 and conquered most of northern China. Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese, but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani. He sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedei's son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251. He granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals, and endorsed policies that stimulated agricultural and commercial growth. He made the city of Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu, his capital.
Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
The Mongols invaded the Jin under Genghis Khan in 1211 and inflicted catastrophic defeats on their armies. Though the Jin seemed to suffer a never-ending wave of defeats, revolts, defections, and coups, they proved to have tenacity. The Jin finally succumbed to Mongol conquest 23 years later in 1234.
Mausoleum of Genghis Khan
At the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist guard at the temple fled before the Communist advance into Gansu in the summer of 1949. Plans were put forward to move the khan's shrine to the Alxa League in western Inner Mongolia or to Mount Emei in Sichuan. Ultimately, Qinghai's local warlord Ma Pufang intervened and moved it west to Kumbum Monastery near his capital Xining, consecrating it with the help of local and Mongolian lamas under Ulaan Gegen. Following the Communist conquest of Xining a few months later, the Communist general He Banyan sacrificed three sheep to the khan and offered ceremonial scarves ("hadag") and a banner reading "National Hero" ( "Mínzú Yīngxióng") to the temple housing his shrine.
Mongol siege of Kaifeng
Genghis Khan was declared Khaghan in 1206. The Mongols had united under his leadership, and defeated the rival tribes of the steppes. In the same period, China was divided into three separate states. In the north, the Jurchen Jin dynasty controlled Manchuria and all of China north of the Huai River. The Tangut Western Xia ruled parts of the western China, while the Song dynasty reigned over the south. The Mongols subjugated Western Xia in 1210. In that same year, the Mongols renounced their vassalage to the Jin. Hostilities between the Jin and Mongols had been building up. The Mongols coveted the prosperity of Jurchen territory. They may have also harbored a grudge against the Jin for assassinating Ambaghai, one of Genghis' predecessors, and for the Jin emperor Wanyan Yongji's rude behavior to Genghis when Wanyan Yongji was still a Jurchen prince.
The Mongols learned that a famine had struck the Jin, and invaded in 1211. Two armies were dispatched by the Mongols into Jurchen territory, with one under the command of Genghis. The Jin built up its armies and reinforced its cities in preparation for the Mongol incursion. The Mongol strategy was based on capturing small settlements and ignoring the fortifications of major cities. They looted the land and retreated in 1212. The Mongols returned the next year and besieged Zhongdu, the capital of the Jin, in 1213. The Mongols were not able to penetrate the walls of the city in the Battle of Zhongdu, but intimidated the Jin emperor into paying tribute. They withdrew in 1214. Later in the year, fearing another siege, the Jin moved their capital from Zhongdu to Kaifeng. The Mongols besieged Zhongdu once more in 1215 once they learned that the Jin court had fled from the city. The city fell on May 31, and by 1216, large swaths of Jin territory were under Mongol control.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan died in August 1227, during the fall of Yinchuan, which is the capital of Western Xia. The exact cause of his death remains a mystery, and is variously attributed to being killed in action against the Western Xia, illness, falling from his horse, or wounds sustained in hunting or battle. According to "The Secret History of the Mongols", Genghis Khan fell from his horse while hunting and died because of the injury. He was already old and tired from his journeys. The "Galician–Volhynian Chronicle" alleges he was killed by the Western Xia in battle, while Marco Polo wrote that he died after the infection of an arrow wound he received during his final campaign. Later Mongol chronicles connect Genghis's death with a Western Xia princess taken as war booty. One chronicle from the early 17th century even relates the legend that the princess hid a small dagger and stabbed him, though some Mongol authors have doubted this version and suspected it to be an invention by the rival Oirads.
Genghis Khan
The Mongols learned from captives of the abundant green pastures beyond the Bulgar territory, allowing for the planning for conquest of Hungary and Europe. Genghis Khan recalled Subutai back to Mongolia soon afterwards, and Jebe died on the road back to Samarkand. The famous cavalry expedition led by Subutai and Jebe, in which they encircled the entire Caspian Sea defeating all armies in their path, remains unparalleled to this day, and word of the Mongol triumphs began to trickle to other nations, particularly Europe. These two campaigns are generally regarded as reconnaissance campaigns that tried to get the feel of the political and cultural elements of the regions. In 1225 both divisions returned to Mongolia. These invasions added Transoxiana and Persia to an already formidable empire while destroying any resistance along the way. Later under Genghis Khan's grandson Batu and the Golden Horde, the Mongols returned to conquer Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus' in 1237, concluding the campaign in 1240.
Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia
During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219, along with the main Mongol force, Genghis Khan used a Chinese specialist catapult unit in battle; they were used again in 1220 in Transoxania. The Chinese may have used the catapults to hurl gunpowder bombs, since they already had them by this time. While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Persia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving with Genghis's army. Historians have suggested that the Mongol invasion had brought Chinese gunpowder weapons to Central Asia. One of these was the huochong, a Chinese mortar.
Kertanegara of Singhasari
Following the conquest of Song China, the Mongol Yuan dynasty sought to extend its power in Southeast Asia. In 1289 Kublai Khan, Genghis' grandson, sent his own ambassadors to Java to ask for tribute. Kertanegara took grave offense to the request and arrested the envoys. He branded their faces, cut their ears and sent them back to China with disfigured faces.
Mongol conquest of Western Xia
The Mongol Empire, at last successful in defeating Western Xia despite the death of Genghis, now, under Genghis Khan's successors, concentrated on subduing the rest of China. The Jin dynasty, already reeling from great losses of land and troops due to the ongoing Mongol campaign since 1211, finally collapsed in 1234. The Kingdom of Dali in southwest China fell in an invasion in 1253, and the Song dynasty of southern China, after over four decades of a conflict begun 1235, surrendered in 1279.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin, c. 1162 August 18, 1227, Modern Mongolian pronunciation [ˈt͡ɕʰiŋɡɪs χaːɴ], Middle Mongol pronunciation [ˈt͡ɕʰiŋːɡɪs ˈkaχaːn] or [ˈt͡ʃʰiŋːɡɪs ˈqaχaːn]) was the founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia. After founding the Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he launched the Mongol invasions that conquered most of Eurasia. Campaigns initiated in his lifetime include those against the Qara Khitai, Caucasus, and Khwarazmian, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were often accompanied by large-scale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in the Khwarazmian and Western Xia controlled lands. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China.
Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia
After compiling information from many intelligence sources, primarily from spies along the Silk Road, Genghis Khan carefully prepared his army, which was organized differently from his earlier campaigns. The changes had come in adding supporting units to his dreaded cavalry, both heavy and light. While still relying on the traditional advantages of his mobile nomadic cavalry, Genghis incorporated many aspects of warfare from China, particularly in siege warfare. His baggage train included such siege equipment as battering rams, gunpowder, and enormous siege bows capable of throwing 20-foot arrows into siege works. Also, the Mongol intelligence network was formidable. The Mongols never invaded an opponent whose military and economic will and ability to resist had not been thoroughly and completely scouted. For instance, Subutai and Batu Khan spent a year scouting central Europe, before destroying the armies of Hungary and Poland in two separate battles, two days apart.