Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was an empire established around the khaganate of Mongolia by Genghis Khan.
Contents
History
Temüjin consolidated power over all the khanlig by 1207. He claimed the name/title Genghis Khan.
He established the Golden Horde under command of his eldest son, Jochi. After Jochi's death the horde was divided; Batu led the west and Orda led the east.
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Genghis died in 1227 during the conquest of China. His third son, Ögedei, rose to power.
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Ögedei died in 1242. An succession crisis followed; at first his widow Töregene Khatun reigned as regent for several years. Güyük Khan formally inherited but faced immediate challenge from Batu. Güyük himself died before there could be a confrontation between the two. Finally, Möngke Khan rose to power in 1251.
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Following Möngke's death in 1259, the empire began to disintegrate. Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke fought for succession in the Toluid Civil War, with the former finally emerging as the victor in 1264. To the west, the Berke-Hulegu war broke out over command of the Ilkhanate. Finally, Kaidu led the Chagatai Khanate to challenge Kublai's claim.
Kublai established the Yuan dynasty, and was succeeded by his grandson Temür Khan. Temür settled the so-called Kaidu-Kublai war by 1301, but there was no longer a central governance in the Mongol world.
Structure
Khanates are, to some degree, elective. All of the recognized Mongol khagans (khan of khans) starting from Genghis Khan were elected in kuriltai. Even the subordinate (i.e. before the empire collapsed) khanates elected their khans this way.
There was no fundamental state to the Mongol Empire. Armies were organized and administered as separate ulus; before the Golden Horde was an independent khaganate, it was a horde. Conquered city-states and kingdoms were offered vassalization and the occupying ulus would collect.
Jaghun (plural: jaghut) of 100 men were the smallest strategic unit. A jaghun may be deployed for scouting or as a vanguard.
10 jaghut form a mingghan (plural: mingghat), with 1,000 men total. A mingghan is large enough to man a sort of frontier base, but small enough to be highly mobile. Certain administrative and tributary actions would be executed from the base of a mingghan. Furthmore, scouting jaghut were sent out from these bases. But the base could be packed up and the mingghan redeployed on short notice.
10 mingghat form a tumen (plural: tumet), with 10,000 men total. This represents the smallest possible army. A conventional army, chun, was formed of three tumet.
Legacy
The direct successor states of this empire are:
Yuan dynasty of China
Golden Horde centered in Crimea
- Ilkhanate centered in Iran
- Chagatai Khanate between all three
Much of the lands of the latter two were reunited by the Timurid Empire, which also claimed to be a Mongol successor state.
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