Battles
& maps 15-04-2004 Battles
& maps 15-04-2004
1206-1405 Mongol Conquests
1218-1221 First Mongol-Persian War
1221-1398 Mongol Invasions of India
1221 Battle of the Indus River
1221-1223 First Mongol Invasion of Russia
1231-1234 Mongol Conquest of the Chin Empire
1231-1241 Mongol Invasions of Korea
1237-1242 Mongol Invasion of Europe
1234-1279 Mongol Conquest of the Sung Empire
1241 Battle of Mohi
1255-1260 Mongol Conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate
1260-1264 Mongol Civil War
1274 First Mongol Invasion of Japan
1277-1287 Mongol-Burmese War
1299-1300 Mongol-Burmese War
1356-1368 Mongol-Chinese War
Bamian, Mongol Destruction of(1221).
Pursu-ing Jalal-ad-Din (d. 1231), son of the recently vanquished
shah ofKhwarizm (see BUKHARA, MONGOL DESTRUCTION OF), Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis)
Khan (1167?-1227) led his Mongol army south from Samarkand to Afghanistan, where
Jalal-ad-Din had formed a new Muslim army. (At Parwan, a Mongol defeat in a
minor rout caused the unharmed Persian cities of Herat and Merv to rebel; Genghis
Khan had them destroyed. ) The Mongols were blocked near the Afghan city of
Bamian, in a pass between the Hindu Kush and the Koh-i-Baba mountains. Genghis
Khan began to besiege the city, and, angered by the death of a grandson at the
hands of its defenders, he captured it after suffering heavy losses, razed it,
and slaughtered all its inhabitants. Even the Mongols referred to Bamian as
"the city of sorrow. " Genghis Khan then continued his pursuit of
Jalal-ad-Din into India (see INDUS RIVER, BATTLE OF. See also MONGOLIAN-PERSIAN
WAR, FIRST).
Bukhara, Mongol Destruction of (1220).
In pursuit of the Khwarizmian shah after the
Battle of Khojend ( see MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR, FIRST), Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis)
Khan (1167?-1227) and his Mongol army faced a Khwarizmian defensive line established
near the city of Bukhara in central Uzbek (south-central Asia). Genghis Khan
arranged ten cavalry divisions into four columns; three of them converged to
crumple the shah's right (southern) flank near the city of Samarkand, and Genghis
Khan took the fourth column (40,000 men) and approached Bukhara from the west
(rear flank). This four-pronged Mongol maneuver of so many troops (some 100,000)
exemplified a precision never surpassed by other military strategists. The shah
concentrated on the larger forces, abandoning Bukhara. After a brief siege,
the city was sacked and accidentally burned; its in-habitants died to a man.
Afterward Genghis Khan and the other columns converged at Samarkand. Admitted
to the city by traitors after a five-day Mongol siege in 1220, Genghis Khan
partially duplicated the destruction of Bukhara. The shah escaped and was pursued
northwestward (see MONGOL INVASION OF RUSSIA); Genghis Khan chased the shah's
son to Bamian (see BAMIAN, MONGOL DESTRUC-TION OF).
Genghis Khan, Conquests of (1190-1227).
Temujin, the original name of Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227),
began life as the son of an obscure Mongol tribal chief. Deprived of his father
through poison-ing by another Mongol group, the Tatars (Tar-tars) , he lived
as an outlaw from the age of nine, shepherding his mother and his siblings and
developing the magnetic personality and organizing genius that enabled him to
become the dominant leader of the Mongols in 1202 after more than ten years
of terrible but suc-cessful warfare against the Tatars and other tribes. In
1206, Genghis Khan was proclaimed supreme ruler (khakhan) of the Mongols, and
by the time of his death he had conquered and become the ruler of central Asia
and northern China ( see MONGOL CONQUESTS) .Though he could neither read nor
write, his keen intellect and natural administrative talent enabled him to transform
the usually independent and frac-tious nomad tribes into a disciplined military
force organized by a decimal scheme until it reached 200,000 men; he devised
inexorable blitzkrieg strategies for an armored, sword-and-Iance-equipped heavy
cavalry and a bow-and-javelin-aided light cavalry, teaching famous generals
new tactics; he learned by list -ening and imitating, hiring engineers to con-duct
his sieges; he made use of a system of post houses on caravan routes and developed
an ef-ficient communication and intelligence net-work. Ruthless in war and vengeful,
believing that those who resisted his demands for sur-render should be slaughtered,
Genghis Khan invented an effective kind of psychological warfare so powerful
that he received sur-renders before his armies ll!ade appearances. He began
his conquests by warring against the Hsia Empire ( see GENGHIS KHAN'S WARS WITH
THE HSIAEMPIRE); he conquered the Chin Em-pire ( see GENGHIS KHAN'S WAR WITH
THE CHIN EMPIRE), had his Mongols invade Russia (see MONGOL INVASION OF RUSSIA,
FIRST), India (see MONGOLINVASIONSOFINDIA), and Persia (see MONGOL-PERSIANWAR,FIRST),
and made plans to attack Europe (see MONGOL INVASION OF EUROPE). After each
campaign, he repaired to his tent-capital at Karakorum in what is now the Mongolian
People's Republic. His sons and grandson completed his work and divided the
conquered domains among thems-elves. See also TAMERLANE. CONQUESTS OF.
Genghis Khan's First War with the Hsia Em-pire (1206-1209).
The Hsi Hsia Empire, located south of the Gobi Desert and west of the Chin Empire
(Cathay), was the weakest in China. Ruled by Tanguts, Tibetan in race and Buddhist
in religion, the Hsia kingdom was warlike, conducting border raids in a struggle
with the Sung Empire over control of the Yangtze River valley. It was also a
thorn in the Mongols' southern flank; a war would allow Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis)
Khan (1167?-1227) to test the performance of his massed, disciplined Mongol
raiders, and conquest would give the Mongols control of revenues from caravan
routes connecting China to the West. The war involved no cities, for the Mon-gols
had not yet learned the art of siege mak-ing; it was a war of attrition in which
the Mon-gols ravaged the countryside so thoroughly that the Hsi Hsia sought
peace terms and ac-cepted Mongol suzerainty in 1209. The victor-ious Mongols
were now free to move against the Chin Empire and to plan for farther west-ward
expansion (see GENGHIS KHAN'S WAR WITH THE CHIN EMPIRE).
Source: "The Great Khans", by Mike Edwards, National Geographic, vol. 191, february 1997.
Genghis Khan's Second War with the Hsia Empire (1226-27).
Genghis Khan had a personal reason for re-suming his conquest of the Hsi Hsia
Empire: it had not acted as a compliant vassal state should. To mobilize for
the First MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR (q.v.), the Mongol leader had demanded troops;
the Tangut tributary ruler replied that if Genghis Khan had too few soldiers,
he had no right to supreme power. Be-sieging the Hsia capital Ning-Hsia (Hsing-ch'ing)
while involving the open country in annihilative warfare avenged the insult.
After Genghis Khan's death in 1227, the capital fell, and the entire population
was put to the sword. Tangut power, intact after the first war, was now completely
destroyed.
Genghis Khan's Sack of Peking (1215).
Early history gave Peking (Beijing) many names; the Chin called the city Yen-king
and Yen-chu; Kublai Khan (1216-94), the Mongolian emperor, was to call it Tai-
Tu; the Turks named it Khanbaligh, from which Marco Polo (1254?-1324?), the
Venetian traveler who arrived there in 1266, derived Cambulac and Kanbalu. However
labeled, Peking in 1214 was a disheartened place: the Chin court had moved south
after an earlier, unsuccessful Mongol encirclement; Chin engineers had joined
Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) and were now directing the Mon-gols
in a second siege. Though low in morale, the Chinese were obstinate within their
well-fortified city, and the siege was long and pain-ful. A Mongol blockade
weakened its defenders, and, with help from Chinese def-ectors, the walls were
finally breached. The Mongols entered to loot palaces and public buildings.
Peking's governor committed sui-cide, and many inhabitants were massacred. The
city was only partially destroyed, but con-temporary records indicate that it
burned for a month. The Mongols established control, and then Genghis Khan took
his armies west (see MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR, FIRST), leaving the city's Tangut bureaucracy
in place.
Genghis Khan's War with the Chin Empire (1211-15).
The move by the Mongols under Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) against
Chin territories, known to the West as Cathay (China), had been carefully planned.
Genghis Khan had earlier won over both the Turkish Onguts and the Chi-tan, ben-efiting
from the Ongut location on Cathay's northern border and the Chi-tan desire for
re-venge against Peking (Beijing). All he needed was a reason to commence. In
1210, Peking or-dered him to do homage to a new Chin ruler; Genghis Khan refused
and mobilized his forces, ordering Ongut raids on the northern Chin border and
conducting raids deep into the area south of the Great Wall of China in 1211.
As he captured Chin engineers know-ledgeable in siegecraft, he developed a more
systematic plan; his armies now divided and made a three-pronged attack into
Hopei and Liao-ning. When he began to threaten Peking, the Chin court moved
200 miles south to K'ai-feng. By 1214, Genghis Khan's forces had begun to surround
the Chin capital, and by 1215, the sack of Peking was over (see GEN-GHIS KHAN'S
SACK OF PEKING). A call for aid from Kara- Kithai (see MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR, FIRST)
interrupted the Mongol action against the Chin until 1231 (see MONGOL CONQUEST
OF THE CHIN EMPIRE).
Mohi (Sajo River), Battle of (1241).
During the Mongol advance into Hungary (see MoN-GOL INVASION OF EUROPE), King
Bela IV (1206- 70) of Hungary left his main army at Pest (Budapest), where he
expected the Mon-gols to strike in force, and took 100,000 men to the plain
of Mohi on the Sajo River in Tokaj (Tokay). He engaged the Mongols under Batu
( d. 1256) with a small detachment at abridge and kept most ofhis men in camp.
Meanwhile, Mongol forces led by General Subedei (d. c. 1258) had hidden on the
east side of the Sajo, crossed over at night, and attacked on April 11, 1241
Europe's most formidable army from the rear; other Mongol detachments im-mediately
attacked its wings. The Hungarians were completely surprised, and when the main
Mongol force made a frontal attack, bet-ween 40,000 and 70,000 were slain. Fully
dem-oralized, Bela fled, with the Mongols in pursuit until they decided to rest
and enjoy the spoils of war; they would have renewed the conquest of Europe
in the winter of 1242 had not the death of their supreme ruler (khakan), Ogedai
(d. 1241), demanded the return of the Mongol armies to Karakorum for the election
of a new ruler .
Mongol-Burmese War of 1277-1287.
Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty in China (see MONGOL
coN-QUEST OF THE SUNG EMPIRE), attempted to exact tribute from the Burmese king
of Pagan, Narathihapate (d. 1287), who refused to ac-cept Mongol vassalage and,
in 1273, executed Kublai's envoy sent to demand payment. In 1277, Narathihapate's
soldiers, mounted on elephants, advanced into China's Yunnan re-gion after making
successful raids along the border. At the Battle of N gasaunggyan ( 1277) ,
Mongol archers on horseback dismounted when their horses became frightened by
the el-ephants, regrouped on foot, dispersed the el-ephants, remounted, and
made a victorious charge against the Burmese, who outnumbe-red them about three
to one. Later, after stopping another Burmese border raid, the Mongols invaded
and crushed the Burmese near Bhamo (1283). Kublai's grandson Yesin Timur (1267-1307)
led invaders down the Ir-rawaddy Valley , captured the city of Pagan (from which
Narathihapate had fled south to Bassein) , and set up a puppet government. De-ciding
to recognize Mongol suzerainty, Nar-athihapate was murdered by his son soon
after
(1287).
Source: "The Great Khans", by Mike Edwards, National Geographic, vol. 191, february 1997.
Mongol-Burmese War of 1299-1300.
When the Shans, a Mongoloid Thai group in north-east Burma, overthrew the Mongol
puppet government at Pagan on the Irrawaddy River (see MONGOL-BURMESE WAR OF
1277-87), a small Mongol army was dispatched to ree-stablish control of the
area. At the fortified, three-walled town of Myinsaing, Shan forces checked
the Mongols, of whom about 500 were killed in battle. The Shan leaders, fearful
of possible Mongol reinforcements, offered the Mongol commander a large bribe;
he ac-cepted it and withdrew with his army to Yunnan province in southwestern
China. Later, the Mongol commander was executed by Yunnan's governor for his
actions; the Mongols, however, decided not to invade again.
Mongol-Chinese War of 1356-68.
The seeds of rebellion that caused the collapse of the Yuan dynasty established
by Kublai Khan (1216-94) were unwittingly planted by Kublai himself. Unlike
his grandfather, Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227), who had a ren-owned
Chinese adviser, Kublai distrusted the Chinese and appointed mostly Muslim advis-ers,
thereby offending the mandarins (high Chinese officials). He offended the intel-lectuals
by disbanding the Confucian system of civil service examinations, and he angered,
all Chinese by denying the privilege of learn-ing Mongol and by treating them
as second-class citizens. Minor rebellions occur-red early, but one so alert
and magnetic as Kublai Khan quelled them easily. As the qual-ity of the Yuan
emperors declined, as the Mon-gols increasingly distanced themselves from the
Chinese, and as the court became more frationalized and more dissolute, the
Mongols lost all authority. In the 1350s, rebellions in the Yangtze River valley
grew uncontrollable. Warlords set themselves up as independent rulers, and one-the
first Ming emperor, Chu Yuan-chang (Hung-wu) (1328- 98)-estab-lished his dynasty,
with its capital at Nanking, taking Peking (1368), he drove the Mongols first
to Shang-tu and then to Outer Mongolia, where for a century they vainly considered
themselves the legitimate rulers of China no longer theirs to govern.
Mongol Civil War of 1260-64.
The death of the great Mangu Khan (1207?-59) threw the Mon-gol Empire into disunity.
His brother Kublai (1216-94), representing the modern, sinicized Mongol, found
himself confronted by the old Mongols, led by his younger brother Arik-Boke
( d. 1255) .Both of them summoned sep-arate great Mongol meetings (kuriltais);
Kublai first at Shang-tu (May 1260), then Arik-Boke about two weeks later at
Kar-akorum. Both were elected supreme ruler (khakhan).Their actions unleashed
forces neither side could control, and the Mongol hostilities lasted for the
rest of the century. Arik-Boke had alienated his brother Hulegu (d. 1265), a
supporter of Kublai, and had set him against Berke (d. 1266), leader of the
Gol-den Horde, thus precipitating the GOLDEN HORDE-IL-KHAN CIVIL WAR (q.v.).
In 1260, Kublai sent an army toward Karakorum; Arik-Boke then retreated westward.
Their armies clashed and withdrew without a decisive victory (1261), and Arik-Boke
tried vainly to recapture the capital, Karakorum. He finally capitulated after
losing in battle to Kublai in 1264. Arik-Boke was allowed to go free, an inconsequential
political figure until his death two years later.
Mongol Conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate (1255-60).
Mangu Khan (1207?-59), the Mon-gols' supreme ruler (khakhan) from 1251 until
his death, planned to eradicate the Mus-lim Assassins, a secret order of hashish-eating
terrorists and murderers, and to reach the borders of Egypt by conquering the
Abbasid caliphate (dominion). His brother Hulegu (d. 1265) , founder of the
11- Khan dynasty border-ing the caliphate, was put in charge of the con-quest;
he therefore marched his forces from the Oxus (Amu Darya) River almost to the
Nile. Persia wanted to have Mongol control reestablished, particularly against
the Muslim ambitions. Effecting Hulegu's careful, thorough plan, officered by
his general Ked-Buka (d. 1260), the Mongols departed from Samarkand in 1256,
obliterated the Assassins in their Elburz Mountains' caves and castles (1256),
beseiged Baghdad, the Caliph's cap-ital, from three sides (1257), secured its
defeat (1258), and then looted and burned it. Then Hulegu murdered the caliph
by rolling him in a carpet and allowing horses to kick and trample him to death.
With 400,000 Mongols, he took control of the remainder of Mes-potamia (Iraq)
in 1258, attacked Syria the next year, and conquered Aleppo, Damascus, Gaza,
and Sidon in 1260. Egypt was threat-ened, but the death of Mangu Khan forced
Hulegu to return home, leaving Ked-Buka in charge with 10,000 soldiers. Afterward
the Egyptians attacked them and killed Ked- Buka and won (the second Mongol
defeat of the thirteenth century). Psychologically uplifted by this victory,
Egypt became a strong Mus-lim power and was able to retake Syria, thus destroying
Mangu Khan's original expecta-tion.
Mongol Conquest of the Chin Empire (1231-34).
The second supreme ruler (khakhan) of the Mongols was Ogedei (d .1241), son
of Gen-ghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227), who decided to fight the Chin
(northern Chinese dynasty) in the east and then begin a MONGOL INVASION OF EUROPE
(q.v.). Since the Chin still held territories in Honan province and were furthermore
exceedingly rich, Ogedei, his brother Tolui (d. 1232), and General Subedei (d.
c. 1258) led forces to the Chin holdings. A double military strategy governed:
Ogedei and Subedei would advance from the north and west to form a left wing;
Tolui would advance from the south (right wing). With some 30,000 men, Tolui
met no opposition until reaching the mountains; there, although harried by the
Chin warriors, the Mongols outwitted them until the Chin withdrew to K'ai-feng,
the Chin capital, where the other Mongols waited. Tolui died, and Subedei commanded
the siege of the capital, whose many inhabitants looked over their 40-mile circuit
of defensive walls to see a second set of walls being erected for siege machines,
liquid fire balls, and gunpowder-aided projectiles. Starvation and plague helped
the besiegers under Subedei, who attacked, aided now by Sung soldiers. The Chin
emperor fled, sacrificed his wives, and hanged himself. K'ai-feng was entered;
Ogedei's Chinese adviser saved both valuable artifacts and buildings, gained
mercy for scholars and peasants, and prevented wholesale looting and slaughter
. Ogedei next declared war on the Sung Empire (see MONGOL CONQUEST OF THE SUNG
EMPIRE). See also GENGHIS KHAN'S WAR WIlH THE CHIN EMPIRE; JUCHEN MONGOL INVASION
OF THE SUNG EMPIRE.
Mongol Conquest of the Sung Empire (1234--79).
The Mongol war against the Sung (Chinese dynasty) lasted through the reigns
of five great khans (rulers) not only because the Sung proved to be the most
formidable foe en-countered by the Mongols but also because the demands of other
wars and civil strife from 1234 to 1264 ( see MONGOL CIVIL WAR OF 1260-61; MONGOL
CONQUEST OF THE ABBASID CAL-IPHATE; MONGOL INV ASION OF EUROPE) diver-ted men,
money, and attention from its vigorous pursuit. Speeded up in the 1260s, after
the accession of Kublai Khan (1216-94) as the Mongol's supreme ruler (khakhan),
the conquest of the Sung had begun as a war of sieges led by the famous General
Subedei (d. c. 1258) .Even Kublai Khan was personally in-volved in the early
period: in 1252, after he es-tablished his Honan capital Shang-tu (the poet
Coleridge's Xanadu), he led 100,000 soldiers through Tibet into Yunnan, turned
back a flank of the Sung, then marched his men through what is modern Laos to
attack the Sung southern flank. By 1254, he had mar-ched north to encounter
his first Sung forces using elephants, which he fought with flaming arrows.
His losses were heavy, however, and by 1254 he commanded only 20,000 soldiers.
Nonetheless, the Mongols under Kublai Khan's brother, Mangu Khan (1207?-59),
won a series of brilliant campaigns between 1257 and 1259. The sudden death
of Mangu Khan from dysentery halted the war and sub-sequently allowed the Sung
to revive. In 1260, Kublai Khan was elected khakhan and did not turn his full
attention to subjugating the Sung unti11268. The Mongols led by Bayan (1237--95),
Subedei's grandson, won many battles, seizing many large Sung cities, including
the never-before ravaged Sung capital of Hang chow in 1276, but the war dragged
on in the outlying provinces. A loyal Sung force pro-tected the boy emperor
in a fleet in the Bay of Canton, where a Mongol fleet destroyed the Sung ships
in a battle in 1279 (the emperor drowned). The Mongols had won, and their wish
expressed in 1260 to unite China was ful-filled when Kublai Khan, placating
the Chinese gentry by assuring property rights, established the Yuan dynasty.
As khakhan, Kublai Khan gave little attention to the other areas of the huge
Mongol Empire, and so each of the subsidiary khanates became almost in-dependent
kingdoms after the Sung capitula-tion. See also VIETNAMESE-MONGOL WAR OF 1257-88.
Mongol Conquests (1206-1405).
Eurasian history relates many accounts of the victories of migrating pastoral
nomads-the Huns, Magyars, Turks, and others-but none so fascinates and impresses
the reader as that of the explos-ive Mongols. From a group of loosely knit tribes
with a penchant for isolated raids, the Mongols, and other peoples attracted
to their prowess, were transformed into a united and disciplined military machine
that, by the end of the thirteenth century, controlled ter-ritories stretching
from the Sea of Japan to the Mediterranean and from the Siberian steppes to
the Arabian Sea. The uniting and disciplin-ing force was Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis)
Khan (1167?-1227), originally named Tem-ujin, whose organizing genius and charisma
enabled him to become the Mongols' supreme ruler (khakhan) in 1206 (see GENGHIS
KHAN, CONQUESTS OF) .He molded the usually unruly tribes into a victorious army,
conquering Cen-tral Asia and northern China by the time of his death. His descendants,
assigned sub-ordinate control in Mongol territories, com-pleted his work, extending
Mongol rule by 1300 over Persia ( see MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR, SECOND), southern
Russia (see Mongol Iriva-sion of Russia, Second), and most of China (see MONGOL
CONQUEST OF THE SUNG EM-PIRE). The Mongols also stormed Europe (1237-42) but
did not remain to govern it (see MONGOL INV ASION OF EUROPE). A grandson, Kublai
Khan (1216-94), founded China's Yuan dynasty in 1260 and made attempts to control
Japan, Indochina, and northern India. But disunity among the Mongol leaders
in the fourteenth century led to a weakening of control, the loss of Il-Khan
Persia, the col-lapse of the Yuan dynasty, civil war in the Kip-chak(Russian)
territories ( see GOLDEN HORDE DYNASTIC WAR), and a last blazing of Mongol intrepidity
in the conquests of Tamerlane (see
TAMERLANE'SINVASION OF RUSSIA), who was a Turk reared in the Mongol traditions.
The Mongol tribes finally declined to warring among themselves. For almost 200
years, the incandescence of Mongol militance had amazed Asia and frightened
Europe. See also TAMERLANE, CONQUESTS OF.
Mongol Invasion of Europe (1237-42).
Long proposed, the Mongol assault on Europe was carefully planned at a great
assembly (kuriltai) in 1235, and by 1236, some 150,000 troops were marching
west. A leisurely con-quest of Russian principalities (1237-40) mar-ked their
entry into Europe and gained these territories for the Golden Horde (see MONGOL
INVASION OF RUSSIA, SECOND ). The winter of 1240 found the Mongols in Poland,
where the brilliant strategies of General Subedei ( d. c. 1258) enabled them
to attack Lublin, sack Sandomierz, rout the Poles at Boleshlav and Chmielnik,
burn Cracow, and defeat 40,000 Poles, Germans, and Teutonic Knights at WAHLSTADT
(q.v.) near Liegnitz (Legnica) in 1241. Liegnitz resisted entry and was leveled
by the Mongols. Still energized, the Mongol army swiftly turned southward to
Hungary over the Carpathian Mountains, entering from Galicia, marching from
Moldavia into Transylvania and German Saxony, and reaching the Danube River.
The Hungarians, frightened and weakened by battles with the Kipchaks, who were
blamed for the coming of the Mongols, had little room to maneuver in the four-way
pincer action initiated by the Mongols. King Bela IV (1206- 70) of Hungary mistakenly
thought the main Mongol force would come from the north (near Pest, now Budapest)
and sent some troops along the Sajo River. The Battle of MOHI ( q .v. ) in 1241
crippled Hungary and allowed the Mongols to burn Pest (Christmas Day, 1241),
make a westward raid into Austria, and then rest and rearm for the summer of
1242. There would have been a resumption of the campaign had not the death of
the Mongols' supreme ruler (khakhan)Ogedei(d.1241) summoned every-one back to
Asia.
Mongol Invasion of Japan, First (1274). In power in Korea, the
Mongols were curious about Japan and issued their standard sum-mons to surrender;
Japan refused. Kublai Khan (1216-94) sent a Mongol-Korean fleet, which seized
two offshore islands and then made a landing at Hakata (Fukuoka) in north-ern
Kyushu. Japanese weapons proved to be inferior to those of the Mongols, and
a Mongol bridgehead was almost fully established when a big storm wrecked part
of the invaders' fleet. This and the gathering of more Japanese warriors compelled
the Mongols to retreat back to Korea. Convinced that another inva-sion was due,
the Hojo rulers of Japan erected fortifications. Second Mongol Invasion of Japan
(1281). Angered because the Japanese had killed Mongol envoys and rejected Mongol
suzerainty, Kublai Khan launched a large Mongol- Korean armada ( 4,500 junks
with supposedly 150,000 men) from north China and Korea. The invaders again
seized the offshore islands and again landed on northern Kyushu; they met a
double-edged resistance: fortifications kept the Mongols from advancing inland,
and a Japanese fleet made successful raids against the larger Mongol fleet.
The fight-ing on land lasted two months; then a severe storm destroyed most
of the armada. With their supplies running low, the Mongols were soon defeated;
only a few thousand of them escaped death and managed to return to Korea. The
Japanese, convinced of their islands' sacredness, gave credit to divine winds
(kamikaze) sent by the gods for their reprieve.
Kublai Khan forbore a third invasion attempt, and problems in his empire after
his death in 1294 saved Japan thereafter from the Mongols.
Source: "The Great Khans", by Mike Edwards, National Geographic, vol. 191, february 1997.
Mongol Invasion of Russia, First (1221-23).
A pursuit of the renegade shah of Khwarizm after the Mongol destruction
of Bukhara, a city in central Uzbek, brought the Mongols to Russia for the first
time. Two Mongol gener-als tracked the shah to the Caspian area and found him
dead in 1221. Their armies then rai-ded through Azerbaijan into Georgia, conque-red
the city of Tiflis (Tbilisi) in 1221, ruined the town of Maragha, annihilated
the popula-tion of Hamadan, and then (1222) entered the steppes north of the
Caucasus region. The Mongols next confronted an alliance of Alans, Cherkess,
and Kipchak Turks (the last known as Polovtsians and Cumans; perpetual en- emies,
they later figured in the MONGOL INV A-SION OF EUROPE [q.v.]). The Kipchaks
were routed and fled west; the others, along with Russian princes, were defeated
at the Battle of the KALKA RIVER ( q .v. ) in 1223. The Mongols then captured
the Genoese port of Sudak on the Crimean peninsula, advanced up the Volga River
to chastise the Muslim Bulgars and Kangli Turks, and later returned to Em-peror
Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) in Persia. This territory, to be
assigned to Genghis Khan's eldest son, Jochi (d. 1227), became the Kipchak Khanate
(the "Golden Horde") after a battle at Kiev in 1240. Second Mongol
Invasion of Russia (1236-40). The earlier Mongol invasion had not given the
Golden Horde control; its second khan (ruler), Batu (d. 1256)-he of the golden
tents that gave the khanate its nickname-had to fight to gain the Russian land
he was to rule. In 1236, Mongol divisions gathered in Great Bulgaria near the
Volga, destroyed that state and its capital, and proceeded to march into Europe;
forces under Mangu (1207?-59), his friend Batu Khan, and General Subedei ( d.
c. 1258) paused to establish Mongol suzerainty. In 1236, Mangu fought the Bashkirs
and Kip-chaks in the area then called "Great Hun-gary ," driving the
latter before him into Hun-gary itself by 1241. Batu Khan remained after the
Mongols crossed the Volga into a politic-ally divided, weak Russia and annihilated
the cities of Riazan and Kolomna in 1237; he then moved into central Russia,
conquered the princedom of Vladimir (Suzdal) in 1238, attacked Tozhok, and advanced
toward Nov-gorod but became bogged down in a muddy spring thaw and turned back;
he rested for all of 1239 until fresh Mongol troops and horses overcame heavy
losses. In 1240, Batu Khan's forces attacked the middle Dnieper area, cul-tural
center of old Kievan Russia, devastated many cities, destroyed Kiev for killing
Mongol envoys, established complete control there, and afterward joined other
Mongol soldiers as they marched toward Poland.
Mongol Invasions of India (1221-1398).
Unlike those in Persia, China, and Europe, the Mongol raids into India lacked
detailed plans for total conquest. The earliest raid was an ac-cidental result
of the FIRST MONGOL-PERSIAN WAR (q.v.); the son ofKhwarizm'sshah, Jalal-ad-Din
(d. 1231), had escaped Mongol clutches, mobilized Khorasan, fled to Afghan-istan
and further mobilized, then moved to the Hindu Kush (mountains). The Mongols
under Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) followed Jalal-ad-Din, fought
the slaughterous 1221 Battle of BAMIAN (q.v.), and then quickly pursued Jalal-ad-Din
into India to fight the strategically remarkable Battle of the INDUS RIVER (
q .v. ) the same year . The Mongols also conducted raids into India in 1241,
1292, and from 1299 to 1308, chiefly in the vicinity of Lahore in the Punjab.
The city of Delhi was threatened by them in 1329; the biggest campaign in India,
however, occur-red nearly 70 years later in 1398 during the Mongol invasion
under Tamerlane (Timur) (1336-1405), which resulted in Delhi's destruc-tion
(see TAMERLANE'S INVASION OF INDIA).
Mongol Invasions of Korea (1231-1241).
The murder of a Mongol envoy in 1231 caused Ogedei (d. 1241), son of Genghis
(Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) and the second supreme ruler (khakhan)
of the Mongol Em-pire, to order an invasion led by General Sub-edei (d.c. 1258).
Korea had suffered incur-sions as early as 1218 as a result of Genghis Khan's
continuing struggles with Chin vassal states, but relations generally had been
amic-able. Subedei's Mongol invasion secured the submission of the larger Korean
cities, and Mongol governors were put in charge. How-ever, a rebellion in 1232
caused the frightened puppet king of Korea to flee his country. Ordered to appear
at Karakorum, the capital of the Mongols, the king refused, and in 1235 Ogedei
dispatched a punitive expedition to Korea. The slow-paced Mongol expedition
took six years to regain control; the king sub-mitted, sent hostages, and was
reinstalled as puppet ruler.
Mongol-Persian War, First (1218-21).
The Mongol war initiated by Genghis (Jenghiz, Chingis) Khan (1167?-1227) against
Persia, then made up of Khwarizm, Transoxiana, and Khorasan, was the bloodiest
conflict ever fought by the Mongols. Unexpected, it was the sad result of Genghis
Khan's attempt to pre-pare a peaceful future for his territories. Gen-ghis Khan
had interrupted his fighting with the Chin Empire (see GENGHIS KHAN'S WAR WITH
THE CHIN EMPIRE) to come to the aid of Muslim Turks opposed in Kara- Khitai
("Black Cathay") by an usurper, the former king of the Naimans, defeated
earlier in the century. Liberated by two divisions of Mon-gols, Kara- Khitai
lay to the east of Khwarizm, and Genghis Khan sent a peaceful Mongol trade mission
to its oppressive and ambitious shah. Afraid of spies, some men of Khwarizm
seized the caravan and executed the mission's members. Genghis Khan demanded
repara-tion; receiving none, he declared war (1218) on Persia. Pillaging and
sacking all cities that refused to surrender, the 200,000-man Mon-gol army saved
only engineers and artisans (whom they recruited) as it smashed Utrar and Khojend
in 1219. Once subjugated, the conquered Persian cities were allowed to re-build
and to resume trade. The Khwarizmian shah fled, and the Mongols pursued him;
his flight resulted in the destruction of BUKHARA (q.v.) (1220), the sacking
of the capital, Sam-ark and (1220), and the surrender of Herat and Merv (1220).
The war continued with the 1221 pursuit of the shah's heir into Afghanis-tan,
the destruction of BAMIAN (q .v.) , the Mongol invasion of INDIA (q.v.), the
Battle of the INDUS RIVER (q.v.) and the destruction of suddenly rebellious
Herat and Merv .By 1221, Genghis Khan's empire stretched from Pek-ing to the
Aral Sea, and in 1222 he rested dur-ing the FIRST MONGOL INV ASION OF RUSSIA
( q .v. ) before renewing his war with the Hsia (see GENGHIS KHAN'S SECOND WAR
WITH THE HSIA EMPIRE). Second Mongol-Persian War (1230-43). The escape of Jalal-ad-Din
(d. 1231), son of the defeated shah of Khwarizm, from the Battle of the Indus
River (q.v.) led him to a cordial reception in Delhi; he married the sultan's
daughter, gained his father-in-law's help, and recrossed the Indus (1225) after
inflicting punishment on Lahore and the Punjab. Occupying dominions formerly
con-trolled by a brother in western Mesopotamia (Iraq), Jalal-ad-Din's forces
captured Tabriz (1225) and Tiflis (Tbilisi) in Georgia, took Armenia ( 1227)
, and defeated a small Mongol army. In 1230 a large Mongol force was sent by
Khakhan Ogedei (d. 1241) to crush him; the force surrounded him at Diyarbakr
in 1231, only to have him escape to his death in Kurdistan that year. Pushed
westward by ex-pansionist zeal, the Mongols continued warfare from a center
near Azerbaijan, sys-tematically conquering Syria, Syrian Mesopotamia, and Anatolia
(Turkey). They attacked Christian kingdoms like Georgia and Armenia (1235-36)
to keep lines of com-munications open for a war in Europe set for 1236-37. The
Mongols' westward march shat-tered Georgian unity, gutted Armenia's cap-ital
(1239), and, despite the eventual MONGOL INVASION OF EUROPE (q.v.), buffeted
Muslim Rum (Byzantine Empire) in 1241, reducing it to vassalage by 1243. The
major fighting ceased when the chief Mongol leader Khakhan Ogedei died in 1241;
other leaders then returned to Karakorum, the Mongol cap-ital, for the election
of his replacement. How-ever, continued warfare against Rum briefly gave the
Mongol Empire a Mediterranean out-let.
Mongol Revolts of 1755-1760.
Numerous strong Mongol tribes, including the Dzungars, in Chinese or Eastern
Turkistan and western Mongolia were constant rebels on China's nor-thwestern
frontier. Chinese Emperor Ch'ien Lung (1711-99) dispatched armies under his
able but ruthless general Chao-hui (1708-64) to subjugate these peoples and
take controlof the region. After some difficulty in 1757, Chao-hui defeated
the Dzungars and other Mongols who had refused to pay annual tri- ,
bute to the Chinese gover.nment and had killed officials sent to collect payments.
Meanwhile, Muslims in southern Chinese Turkistan had revolted, and Chao-hui
and his forces moved south to suppress these rebels, who finally sub-mitted
to Chinese rule after long, fierce battl-ing. Chinese Turkistan and western
Mon-golia, including Dzungaria, became the Sinkiang-Uigur Autonomous Region
under China's suzerainty. See also MUSLIM REBELLION IN CHINA.