The Mongol people were a group of tribes from the grasslands of central Asia. In the early 1200s, a warrior named Genghis Khan united the tribes and built a mighty empire. At the height of its power, the empire stretched from what is now China and Korea to eastern Europe.

As the largest nomadic empire in history, Mongol conquests created the world’s largest land-based empire from China to Eastern Europe.

– The Mongol Empire was established under the leadership of Genghis Khan (Chinggis Khan) and later divided after his death.

– Resulted in the creation of four major khanates, or the division of the empire into political regions ruled by a different khan.

The Mongols’ homeland lay in Mongolia and northern China. Mongol tribes raised animals and moved from place to place. The tribes sometimes banded together in groups. Near the end of the 1100s, a leader named Temujin took control of a group called the Mongols. In 1206 he took the title of Genghis Khan, which means “universal ruler.”

People across Asia feared Genghis Khan’s armies. His soldiers rode horses and fought with bows and arrows. By 1215 the Mongols had taken northern China. When Genghis Khan died in 1227, the Mongols controlled land from the coast of China to European Russia.

Genghis Khan’s sons continued to build the empire after his death. A Mongol group called the Golden Horde moved west from Russia into Hungary. Another group moved into Iran and what is now Iraq.

In 1260, Kublai, a grandson of Genghis Khan, became the new khan. Mongol power reached its highest point during his rule. Kublai Khan was interested mainly in China, though, and thought of himself as a Chinese emperor. He even moved his capital to what is now Beijing. He defeated the Song dynasty of southern China and established the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty over all of China. That dynasty lasted until 1368.

Led by Batu, the Mongols successfully invaded Russia and established the Golden Horde.

– Mongol rulers had complete control over Russians, who later used this model for tsar rule over nobility and serfs.

– Russians were required to provide Mongols tribute payments, but were allowed to retain traditional culture and practice Russian Eastern Orthodoxy.

– The model of serfdom expanded in Russia during Mongol rule and was characteristic of Russia society into the 19^th century.

– Isolated from Western Europe, Russia would not have access to new technologies which made it behind Western Europe in development and progress, until they broke free from Mongol control.

The Mongol empire began to fall apart in the 1300s. The Ming dynasty took over China in about 1368. In 1380 a group led by Russians defeated the Golden Horde.

The last important Mongol ruler was Timur, or Tamerlane, who died in 1405. His conquests ranged from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea. But Timur’s empire was gone by 1506. Finally, the vast Mongol empire was reduced to the original Mongol homeland and scattered into small kingdoms.

The Mongols lost power partly because of the way that they ruled their territories. The Mongols depended on local people to rule the conquered lands daily. As a result, power slipped away from the Mongol rulers.