Mongol Invasions and Conquests

During the 13th and 14th centuries, Mongol invasions and conquests created the world's biggest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire, which by 1300 had conquered huge swaths of Eurasia. Historians consider the Mongol invasion to be one of history's bloodiest episodes. Furthermore, Mongol expeditions may have carried the bubonic plague across much of Eurasia, contributing to the 14th-century Black Death. The Mongol Empire grew during the 13th century due to a series of successful battles across Asia, eventually reaching Eastern Europe in the 1240s. The Mongol Empire was a land power, driven by grass-foraging Mongol cavalry and cattle, unlike later "Kingdoms of the Sea" such as European colonial powers. As a result, most Mongol conquests and pillage occurred during the warmer seasons, when their herds could find enough grass. In addition, the Mongols' ascension was preceded by 15 years of rainy and warm weather from 1211 to 1225, which provided ideal circumstances for horse breeding, which aided their expansion immensely. The conflict between the Mongols and Eastern European polities lasted for centuries after the Mongol Empire disintegrated in 1260. Mongol authority in China lasted until the 14th century under the Yuan dynasty, and Mongol rule in Persia lasted until the 15th century under the Timurid Empire. The latter Mogul Empire in India lasted into the nineteenth century.

Starting with the Mongol tribes Merkits, Tartars, and Mongols, Genghis Khan, established the first Mongol Empire in Central Asia. The Uighur Buddhist Kingdom of Qocho submitted and became part of the empire. The conquest of the Qara Khitai and the Khwarazmian dynasty allowed him to continue his invasion. Every city or village that resisted the Mongols was destroyed, depopulating large portions of Islamic Central Asia and northeastern Iran. According to the circumstances, each soldier was allotted a quota of opponents to kill. After the invasion of Urgench, for example, every Mongol warrior in an army of two tumens (20,000 troops) was obligated to execute 24 people. The Mongols utilized divide and conquer tactics against the Alans and Cumans, telling the Cumans to stop supporting the Alans, whom they then defeated before turning on the Cumans. The Mongol troops enlisted Alans in one regiment known as the "Right Alan Guard," which was made up of recently surrendered soldiers. A Chinese military colony founded by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi was established by Mongols and Chinese soldiers stationed in the erstwhile Kingdom of Qocho and Besh Balikh. The majority of the Mamluk military was made up of Kipchaks during the Mongol onslaught on the Mamluks in the Middle East. The Golden Horde's supply of Kipchak troops refilled the Mamluk armies and helped them drive off the Mongols. Hungary became a haven for Cumans escaping the region. Unlike the unified Karakhanid organization comprising the Yaghma, Qarluqs, and Oghuz, who switched to world faiths earlier, the decentralized, stateless Kipchaks converted to Islam after the Mongol conquest. The conquest of the Kipchaks by the Mongols resulted in a combined society with a Mongol ruling elite over a Kipchak-speaking populace known as Tatar, which subsequently engrossed Armenians, Italians, Greeks, and Goths on the Crimean point to form the modern-day Crimean Tatar people.

The Mongols conquered present-day Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, and sections of Syria and Turkey by warfare or voluntary surrender, with later Mongol incursions reaching southwards into Palestine as far as Gaza in 1260 and 1300. The Siege of Baghdad (1258), in which the Mongols sacked the city that had been the centre of Islamic power for 500 years, and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, in which the Muslim Mamluks defeated the Mongols in the battle at Ain Jalut in the southern part of the Galilee, marking the first time the Mongols were decisively stopped. During the Mongol Khan Hulagu's conquest of the Middle East, many northern Chinese engineer squads accompanied him.

Genghis Khan and his descendants invaded China in stages, conquering the Western Xia in 1209 before destroying them in 1227, overthrowing the Jin dynasty in 1234, and finally crushing the Song dynasty in 1279. They made Dali a tributary state in 1253 after Dali King Duan Xingzhi deserted to the Mongols and assisted them overcome the rest of Yunnan. They pressed Korea to yield through invasions, but kamikaze storms destroyed their fleets. Kublai Khan's founding of the Yuan dynasty in China in 1271 was the Mongols' greatest victory. The dynasty produced a "Han Army" out of defected Jin troops and a "Newly Submitted Army" out of defected Song forces. The Mongol force that invaded southern China was considerably larger than the one that invaded the Middle East in 1256. To oversee Tibet, which was captured by the Mongols and placed under the Yuan administration, the Yuan dynasty formed the top-level federal agency Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. Between 1264 and 1308, the Mongols attacked Sakhalin Island. For almost 80 years, Korea (Goryeo) was a semi-autonomous vassal state of the Yuan dynasty.

By 1206, Genghis Khan had conquered all of Mongolia and southern Siberia's Mongol and Turkic tribes. In 1207, his eldest son Jochi conquered the Uriankhai, Oirats, Barga, Khakas, Buryats, Tuvans, Khori-Tumed, and Kyrgyz peoples of Siberia. The Siberians were then divided into three tumens. Qorchi, an old friend, was given the Telengit and Tolos along the Irtysh River by Genghis Khan. The Telengit, Tolos, Oirats, and Yenisei Kirghiz were counted into the usual tumens, while the Barga, Tumed, Buriats, Khori, Keshmiti, and Bashkirs were arranged in separate thousands. After the initial phase of the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty, Genghis Khan established a community of Chinese craftsmen and farmers at Kem-kemchik. For tribute, the Great Khans preferred gyrfalcons, furs, ladies, and Kyrgyz horses. The Golden Horde conquered Western Siberia. The territory was administered directly by the heirs of Orda Khan, Jochi's eldest son. To aid the collecting of tribute, dog sled Yam stations were established in the wetlands of western Siberia. In 1270, Kublai Khan dispatched a Chinese official and a new group of settlers to the Kyrgyz and Tuvan basins to act as judges. From 1275 onwards, Ogedei's grandson Kaidu occupied parts of Central Siberia. In 1293, the Yuan dynasty army led by Kublai's Kipchak general Tutugh retook the Kyrgyz territory. The Yuan dynasty ruled over much of Central and Eastern Siberia from then on.

Before attacking Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and other areas, the Mongols invaded and devastated Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus'. Except for Novgorod and Pskov, the Mongols demolished all of Russia's main cities during the span of three years (from 1237 to 1240). Then assaulted Rus, wreaking havoc by destroying cities and fortifications and slaying soldiers; and they besieged Kiev, Rus' capital; after a long siege, they captured the city and executed the population. Kiev used to be a very huge and densely inhabited city. Still, it has now been reduced to nearly nothing, with only two hundred dwellings remaining and the population held in utter servitude. The Mongol invasions uprooted populations in Central Asia and Eastern Europe on a scale never witnessed before. Fear and dread increased as word of the Mongol hordes' arrival spread.

The Mongol Empire invaded the Indian subcontinent seven times between 1221 and 1327. For decades, the Mongols occupied sections of Punjab. Finally, however, they were driven from India's heartland after failing to reach beyond the outskirts of Delhi. The Mughals, whose founder Babur had Mongol ancestors, founded their empire in India centuries later.

Between 1277 to 1287, Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty invaded Burma, leading to the Pagan Kingdom's capitulation and dissolution. The Burmese Myinsaing Kingdom, on the other hand, repelled the invasion of 1301. The Mongol invasions of Vietnam and Java were defeated, but most of Southeast Asia consented to pay tribute to avert more slaughter.

Estimates of the brutality involved with the Mongol conquests vary greatly due to a dearth of historical sources. However, between 1206 and 1405, between 20 and 57 million people were probably killed throughout the numerous campaigns of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and Timur, excluding deaths from the Plague in Europe, West Asia, and China. Battles, sieges, early biological warfare, and massacres were among the mayhem.