Mongol Empire

State · 1206–1293 CE · at its largest around 1279 CE

Genghis Khan's horsemen built the largest land empire the world had seen, and the Pax Mongolica that followed let merchants, envoys and ideas cross Eurasia safely. Marco Polo traveled under its protection, and gunpowder, paper money and the plague moved along the same roads.

Its battles, in Battle View

Battle of Ain Jalut (1260 CE)

In the guided tours

The Mongol conquests: How the steppe tribes united under Genghis Khan built the largest contiguous land empire in history.

On its lands while it lasted

Silk Road (c. 130 BCE – c. 1450 CE): A network of overland caravan routes linking China with Central Asia, Persia and the Mediterranean, along which silk, spices, horses, religions, technologies and diseases travelled for more than 1,500 years.
Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 CE): The Abbasid dynasty, descended from Muhammad's uncle, took the caliphate from the Umayyads and ruled from Iraq, presiding over the Islamic Golden Age.
Goryeo (918–1392 CE): Dynasty founded by Wang Geon with its capital at Kaesong; the name Korea derives from it.
Song dynasty (960–1279 CE): Founded by Zhao Kuangyin with its capital at Kaifeng, the Song saw a commercial revolution, paper money and advances in printing and science.
Knights Templar (c. 1119–1312 CE): Hugues de Payens and fellow knights founded this military order in Jerusalem around 1119 to protect pilgrims, with headquarters on the Temple Mount. It grew rich and powerful until Pope Clement V dissolved it in 1312 under pressure from Philip IV of France.
Genghis Khan (c. 1162 CE – 1227 CE): Temüjin united the Mongol tribes and, as Genghis Khan, launched conquests that created the largest contiguous land empire in history.
Kamakura shogunate (1192–1333 CE): First military government of Japan, based at Kamakura.
Founding of the Mongol Empire (1206 CE): A great assembly near the source of the Onon River proclaimed Temüjin as Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Mongols.
Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 CE): Series of Muslim dynasties ruling from Delhi, beginning with Qutb ud-Din Aibak in 1206 and ending with the Lodi defeat at Panipat in 1526.
Kublai Khan (1215 CE – 1294 CE): Grandson of Genghis Khan who founded the Yuan dynasty and completed the Mongol conquest of China.
Mongols invade Khwarazm (1219–1221 CE): After the massacre of a Mongol trade caravan at Otrar, Genghis Khan invaded the Khwarazmian Empire, sacking Bukhara, Samarkand and other cities and pursuing Jalal ad-Din to the Indus.
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' (1237–1242 CE): Mongol armies under Batu Khan destroyed Ryazan, Vladimir and Kyiv, subjecting the Rus' principalities to Mongol overlordship for over two centuries.
Mongol sack of Baghdad (1258 CE): Mongol forces under Hulagu Khan captured and sacked Baghdad, killing the last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad and ending the Abbasid Caliphate there.
Battle of Ain Jalut (1260 CE): The Mamluks of Egypt under Qutuz and Baybars defeated a Mongol army in Galilee, halting the Mongol advance towards Egypt.
Marco Polo’s journey to China (1271–1275 CE): The Venetian merchant Marco Polo, with his father and uncle, travelled from Acre across Persia, the Pamirs and the Tarim Basin to the court of Kublai Khan. His book of travels shaped European ideas of Asia for centuries.