The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206 and is a nomadic empire, this is the

most contiguous empire. The empire at this time consisted of Mongolian tribes and Turkish
descents. Genghis Khan fought for supremacy in the steppe regions south and the southeast of
Lake Baikal which he got in the same year the kingdom was made. The Mongol Empire forbade
looting enemies without permission and Genghis Khan implemented a policy to share the spoils
with his army instead of giving it all to the aristocrats. Genghis Khan promotes his army based
on merit.
The first conquest is Western Xia or also called the Tangut Empire. This lasted from 1205 to
1210. Genghis Khan’s goal was to make the Tangut Empire a vassal state. Even though it
lasted from 1205, Genghis Khan only took it seriously in 1209, Li Anquan which was the current
emperor of Tangut that time, asked aid from the Jin dynasty, however the Jin dynasty refused to
help as not helping would be an advantage to them as they consider both Tangut and the
Mongolian Empire their enemies. Without help, Genghis Khan easily wiped most of Tangut’s
territory. However, the capital is proven to be too difficult to capture as the capital has twice as
much soldiers than Genghis Khan’s. Genghis Khan faked his army’s retreat, and then easily
eliminating the garrison that Li Anquan sent. They then continued to the capital and started a
siege, however they lacked the proper equipment and experience to take the city. They arrived
to the city on May but was still unsuccessful until October. However, they were not ready to give
up yet, Genghis attempted to flood the capital by diverting the river and it nearly worked but the
dike used to divert the river broke and wiped the Mongol’s camp, forcing them to move to higher
grounds. Despite this, the Mongols still pose a huge threat to Tangut. So, Li Anquan agreed to
submit to Mongol’s rule in 1210. The Mongol’s were fast to adapt to the better military
equipment in Tangut to continue and invade other kingdoms.
After the unexpected death of Mongke Khan in 1259, a civil war happened, this war was caused
by Kublai and Hulagu Khan continued advancing through the Yangtze River after Mongke’s
death, and Kublai’s brother, Ariqboke proclaiming himself as the new emperor. After learning
about this, Kublai summoned his own army to fight against Ariqboke. Kublai’s army easily
defeated Ariqboke’s army and controlled south Mongolia. Kublai’s new administration cut off
supplies and food to Ariqboke, causing famine. Hulagu was killed in 1264 by their cousin Berke,
Berke then died a few months later. Ariqboke then surrendered to Kiblai 6 months after Hulagu’s
death as there was no supplies available and he is being pressured to do so. Ariqboke was then
imprisoned and later died in 1266 for unknown reasons, although there were allegation that his
death was caused of Kublai poisoning his food.
The golden age is in 1264-1294 and is under the rule of Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan changed the
Mongolian Empire to Yuan Dynasty to win over the Chinese people, the Song Imperial Family
surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty in 1276. Making Mongols the first non-Chinese people to
conquer all of China. However, they lost a devastating defeat on his attempted invasions of
taking Champa and Annam.
After his death, things only went downhill as there was another civil war, this marks the near end
of the Mongols. After many decades of war, the Mongols finally fell in 1368, the main reason
they fell was because of the black death plaque. Despite the Mongolian Empire being short
lived, it also took a lot of lives, 60-70 million people died, excluding the estimated 1 million who
committed suicide out of fear of getting slaughtered by the Mongolians in that time 11% of the
world population was slaughtered. So many lives were taken as the Mongols also kills the
citizens of a kingdom unless you have an important role to them, such as engineers or
blacksmiths.
The Mongolian Empire was the first ones to create an International Postal System by using
boats but mainly horses, the Mongols also somewhat linked the culture of Asia and Europe.
They were also the first to use gunpowder as weapons.