Barbarians-The Mongols

Extra Credit

Mongols are Central and Northern Asian (Inner Asia) ethno-linguistic group. Although the largest Mongolic group are those of Mongolia, they also live as minorities across Northern Asia, including Russia, China, and many of the former Soviet Union states. Mongolic peoples belonging to the Buryat ethnic group live predominantly in what is now the autonomous Republic of Buryatia, Russia. In China, they live mainly either in Inner Mongolia or, less commonly, in Xinjiang. Mongolic peoples are bound together by a common culture and language, a group of related tongues known as Mongolic languages.

The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and then under the rule of his descendants, who sent invasions in every direction. The area around Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of North China had been controlled by the Liao Dynasty since the 10th century.

The empire began to split as a result of wars over succession, as the grandchildren of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from Genghis's son and initial heir Ögedei, or one of his other sons such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi.

The Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 marked the high-water point of Mongol conquests, and was the first time a Mongol advance had ever been beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield. Though the Mongols launched many more invasions into Levant, briefly occupying it and raiding as far as Gaza after a decisive victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299, they withdrew due to various geopolitical factors.

By the time of Kublai's death in 1294, the Mongol Empire had fractured into four separate khanates or empires, each pursuing its own separate interests and objectives: the Golden Horde khanate in the northwest, the Chagatai Khanate in the west, the Ilkhanate in the southwest, and the Yuan Dynastybased in modern-day Beijing.