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Line 1: {{Short description|13th- and 14th-century empire originating in Mongolia}} {{Distinguish|Mughal Empire}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox former country Line 14 ⟶ 13: | demonym = Mongol | government_type = {{ubl|[[Elective monarchy]]|Later also [[Hereditary monarchy|hereditary]]}} | title_leader = [[Khagan]] | year_leader1 = 1206–1227 | leader1 = [[Genghis Khan]] Line 29 ⟶ 28: | stat_year1 = 1206 | stat_area1 = 4000000 | ref_area1 = <ref name="Taagepera499">{{cite journal |date = September 1997 |title = Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |journal = [[International Studies Quarterly]] |volume = 41 |issue = 3 |pages = | stat_year2 = 1227 | stat_area2 = | ref_area2 = <ref name="Taagepera499" /> | stat_year3 = 1294 Line 45 ⟶ 44: {{Campaignbox Mongol invasions and conquests}} The '''Mongol Empire''' of the 13th and 14th centuries was the [[List of largest empires|largest contiguous empire]] in [[human history|history]].<ref>Morgan. ''The Mongols''. p. 5.</ref> Originating in present-day [[Mongolia]] in [[East Asia]], the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the [[Sea of Japan]] to parts of [[Eastern Europe]], extending northward into parts of the [[Arctic]];<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pow |first=Stephen |title=The Mongol Empire's Northern Border: Re-evaluating the Surface Area of the Mongol Empire |url=https://www.academia.edu/37799970 |journal=Genius Loci – Laszlovszky 60 |access-date=6 April 2020 |date=6 April 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929022301/https://www.academia.edu/37799970 |url-status=live}}</ref> eastward and southward into parts of the [[Indian subcontinent]], The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of several [[nomad|nomadic tribes]] in the [[Mongol heartland]] under the [[leadership]] of Temüjin, known by the more famous title of [[Genghis Khan]] ({{circa| 1162}} – 1227), whom a council proclaimed as the ruler of all [[Mongols]] in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that of his descendants, who sent out [[Mongol invasions|invading armies]] in every direction. The vast transcontinental empire connected the [[Eastern world|East]] with the [[Western world|West]], and the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], in an enforced ''[[Pax Mongolica]]'', allowing the exchange of trade, technologies, commodities, and ideologies across [[Eurasia]]. Line 57 ⟶ 56: == Name == The Mongol Empire is also referred to as the "Mongolian Empire" or the "Mongol World Empire" in some English sources.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-china/rise-of-the-mongolian-empire-and-mongolian-rule-in-north-china/45194CDE5E52D31FF2DEF5FF3D40160F | chapter = The rise of the Mongolian empire and Mongolian rule in north China | doi = 10.1017/CHOL9780521243315.006 | access-date = 7 September 2023 | title = The Cambridge History of China | date = 1994 | last1 = Allsen | first1 = Thomas | pages = 321–413 | isbn = 9781139054744 | archive-date = 7 September 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230907203311/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-china/rise-of-the-mongolian-empire-and-mongolian-rule-in-north-china/45194CDE5E52D31FF2DEF5FF3D40160F | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Historical Dictionary of the Mongol World Empire|last = Buell|first = Paul|publisher = Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year = 2018|isbn = 9781538111376|page = 214 The empire referred to itself as {{MongolUnicode|ᠶᠡᠬᠡ<br />ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ<br />ᠤᠯᠤᠰ}} {{lang|xng|yeke mongɣol ulus}} ({{lit}} 'nation of the great Mongols' or the 'great Mongol nation') in Mongol or {{lang|xng|kür uluγ ulus}} ({{lit}} the 'whole great nation') in Turkic.<ref name=philology>{{cite book|title= Introduction to Altaic Philology: Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu|year= 2010|page= 169|author1= Igor de Rachewiltz |author2=Volker Rybatzki}}</ref> After 1260 to 1264 [[Toluid Civil War|succession war]] between [[Kublai Khan]] and his brother [[Ariq Böke]], Kublai's power became limited to the eastern part of the empire, centered on China. Kublai officially issued an imperial [[edict]] on 18 December 1271 to give the empire the [[Han Chinese|Han]]-style dynastic name of "Great Yuan" (''Dai Yuan'', or ''Dai Ön Ulus'''; {{zh|c={{linktext|大|元}}|p=Dà Yuán}}) and to establish the [[Yuan dynasty]]. Some sources give the full Mongol name as ''Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus''.<ref>Rybatzki. p. 116.</ref>▼ ▲After the 1260 to 1264 [[Toluid Civil War|succession war]] between [[Kublai Khan]] and his brother [[Ariq Böke]], Kublai's power became limited to the eastern part of the empire, centered on China. Kublai officially issued an imperial [[edict]] on 18 December 1271 to give the empire the [[Han Chinese|Han]]-style dynastic name of "Great Yuan" (''Dai Yuan'', or ''Dai Ön Ulus'''; {{zh|c={{linktext|大|元}}|p=Dà Yuán}}) and to establish the [[Yuan dynasty]]. Some sources give the full Mongol name as ''Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus''.<ref>Rybatzki. p. 116.</ref> == History == Line 385 ⟶ 386: * Western researcher [[R. J. Rummel]] estimated that 30 million people were killed by the Mongol Empire. Other researchers estimate that as many as 80 million people were killed, with 50 million deaths being the middle ground. The population of China fell by half during fifty years of Mongol rule. Before the Mongol invasion, the territories of the Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported that China's total population was roughly 60 million. While it is tempting to attribute this major decline in China's population solely to Mongol ferocity, today scholars have mixed opinions about this subject. Scholars such as Frederick W. Mote argue that the wide drop in numbers reflects an administrative failure to keep records rather than a ''de facto'' decrease, while others such as Timothy Brook argue that the Mongols reduced much of the south Chinese population, and very debatably the Han Chinese population, to an invisible status through cancellation of the right to passports and denial of the right to direct land ownership. This meant that the Chinese had to depend on and be cared for chiefly by Mongols and Tartars, which also involved recruitment into the Mongol army. Other historians such as William McNeill and [[David O. Morgan]] argue that the [[bubonic plague]] was the main factor behind China's demographic decline during this period.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} * The [[Muslim world|Islamic world]] was subjected to massive changes as a result of the Mongol invasions. The population of the Iranian plateau suffered from widespread disease and famine, resulting in the death of up to three-quarters of its population, possibly 10 to 15 million people. Historian Steven Ward estimates that Iran's population did not reach its pre-Mongol levels again until the mid-20th century.<ref name="Steve Ward">{{cite book |last=R. Ward |first=Steven |title=Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eUTLaaVOOQC&pg=PA39 |publisher=[[Georgetown University Press]] |year=2009 |page=39 |isbn=978-1-58901-258-5 |access-date=13 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015234934/https://books.google.com/books?id=8eUTLaaVOOQC&pg=PA39 |archive-date=15 October 2015 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> * Mesopotamia, for millennia a showplace and pinnacle of human civilization and achievement, was depopulated and pastoralized, never to resume its previous pre-eminence. In his ''[[The Outline of History|Outline of History]]'', [[H. G. Wells]] attributed this to a Mongol prejudice against urban life: <blockquote>[I]n this region [Mesopotamia] nomadism really did attempt, and really did to a very considerable degree succeed in its attempt, to stamp a settled civilized system out of existence. When Jengis Khan first invaded China, we are told that there was a serious discussion among the Mongol chiefs whether all the towns and settled populations should not be destroyed. To these simple practitioners of the open-air life the settled populations seemed corrupt, crowded, vicious, effeminate, dangerous, and incomprehensible; a detestable human efflorescence upon what would otherwise have been good pasture. They had no use whatever for the towns. **** But it was only under Hulagu in Mesopotamia that these ideas seem to have been embodied in a deliberate policy. The Mongols here did not only burn and massacre; they destroyed the irrigation system that had endured for at least eight thousand years, and with that the mother civilization of all the Western world came to an end.<ref name=Wells>{{Cite web |url=http://archive.org/details/hgwellsoutlinehistoryvol2 |title=The Outline of History, Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind |volume=Two |first=H. G. |last=Wells |author-link=H. G. Wells |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref></blockquote> * David Nicole states in ''The Mongol Warlords'', "terror and mass extermination of anyone opposing them was a well tested Mongol tactic."<ref name="Mongol Conquests">{{cite web |url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm#Mongol |title=Mongol Conquests |publisher=Users.erols.com |access-date=15 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041028051334/http://www.usna.edu/Users/history/kolp/HH345/PRE1492.HTM#Mongol |archive-date=28 October 2004 |url-status=live}}</ref> About half of the Russian population may have died during the invasion.<ref name="parallelsixty.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.parallelsixty.com/history-russia.shtml |title=History of Russia, Early Slavs history, Kievan Rus, Mongol invasion |publisher=Parallelsixty.com |access-date=15 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100121024544/http://www.parallelsixty.com/history-russia.shtml |archive-date=21 January 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, [[Colin McEvedy]] in ''Atlas of World Population History, 1978'' estimates the population of Russia-in-Europe dropped from 7.5 million prior to the invasion to 7 million afterward.<ref name="Mongol Conquests" /> Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's two million population were victims of the Mongol invasion.<ref>{{cite * One of the more successful tactics employed by the Mongols was to wipe out urban populations that refused to surrender. During the Mongol invasion of Rus', almost all major cities were destroyed. If they chose to submit, the people were generally spared, though this was not guaranteed. For example, the city of Hamadan in modern-day Iran was destroyed and every man, woman, and child executed by Mongol general Subadai, after surrendering to him but failing to have enough provisions for his Mongol scouting force. Several days after the initial razing of the city, Subadai sent a force back to the burning ruins and the site of the massacre to kill any inhabitants of the city who had been away at the time of the initial slaughter and had returned in the meantime. Mongol armies made use of local peoples and their soldiers, often incorporating them into their armies. Prisoners of war sometimes were given the choice between death and becoming part of the Mongol army to aid in future conquests. Due to the brutal methods employed to subdue their subjects, Mongols maintained long lasting resentment from those they conquered. This resentment towards the Mongol rule has been highlighted as a cause for the empire's rapid fracturing.<ref>The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars= Historia Mongalorum Quo s Nos Tartaros Appellamus: Friar Giovanni Di Plano Carpini's Account of His Embassy to the Court of the Mongol Khan by Da Pian Del Carpine Giovanni and Erik Hildinger (Branden BooksApril 1996 {{ISBN|978-0-8283-2017-7}})</ref> In addition to intimidation tactics, the rapid expansion of the empire was facilitated by military hardiness (especially during bitterly cold winters), military skill, meritocracy, and discipline. * The [[Kalmyks]] were the last Mongol nomads to penetrate European territory, having migrated to Europe from Central Asia at the turn of the 17th century. In the winter of 1770–1771, approximately 200,000 Kalmyks began the journey from their pastures on the left bank of the [[Volga River]] to [[Dzungaria]], through the territories of their [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] and [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] enemies. After several months of travel, only one-third of the original group reached Dzungaria in northwest China.<ref>{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Khodarkovsky |date=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ti51WfA68RYC |title=Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making Of A Colonial Empire, 1500–1800 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017141939/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ti51WfA68RYC&pg=&dq&hl=en |archive-date=17 October 2015 |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |page=142 |isbn=0-253-21770-9}}</ref> | |||