In a single lifetime, after Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols at the kurultai of 1206, the Mongol Empire went from a confederation of steppe tribes to the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen — roughly 24 million square kilometres, from Korea to the gates of Hungary. No one before or since has conquered so much so fast.
It could not hold. The empire was too vast to rule from one centre, and after the death of Möngke Khan in 1259 it split into rival khanates that warred with each other. Each fragment then dissolved into the civilization it had conquered: the Ilkhanate turned Persian and Muslim, the Yuan turned Chinese until the Ming expelled it in 1368. The Mongols died less by defeat than by absorption — conquerors swallowed by the conquered.
Worth remembering
- It ran the Yam, a pony-express relay spanning Eurasia, and a 'Pax Mongolica' so secure it was said a virgin carrying gold could cross the empire unharmed.
- Under one realm from Korea to Hungary, ideas and goods — gunpowder, paper money, plague — moved along the Silk Road faster than ever before.
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Sources
- Founded 1206 by Genghis Khan; largest contiguous empire ever Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Fragmented into khanates; Yuan expelled from China 1368 Wikipedia
- The Mongol Empire at its height c. 1270 controlled roughly 24 million square kilometres, connecting East Asia to Eastern Europe along the Silk Road and enabling the 'Pax Mongolica' World History Encyclopedia
- Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols at the kurultai of 1206 and within 20 years had conquered territory from the Pacific coast to the Caspian Sea World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.