The Mongol Empire exists during the 13th and 14th centuries, and is one of the largest contiguous land empires in history.
Beginning in the Central Asian steppes, it eventually stretches from Central Europe to the Sea of Japan, covering Siberia in the north and extending southward into Indochina, the Indian subcontinent, the Iranian plateau, and the Middle East.
The Mongol Empire emerges from the unification of Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan is proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206.
The empire grows rapidly under his rule and then under the rule of his descendants, who send invasions in every direction.
The vast transcontinental empire, which connects the east with the west with an enforced Pax Mongolica, allows trade, technologies, commodities and ideologies to be disseminated and exchanged across Eurasia.
The empire begins to split as a result of wars over succession, as the grandchildren of Genghis Khan dispute whether the royal line should follow from Genghis's son and initial heir Ögedei, or one of his other sons such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi.
The Toluids prevail after a bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagataid factions, but disputes continue even among the descendants of Tolui.
After Möngke Khan dies, rival kurultai councils simultaneously elect different successors, the brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai, who then not only fight each other in the Toluid Civil War, but also deal with challenges from descendants of other of Genghis's sons.
Kublai successfully takes power, but civil war ensues, as Kublai seeks, unsuccessfully, to regain control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families.The Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 marks the high-water point of Mongol conquests, and is the first time a Mongol advance is ever beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield.
Though the Mongols launch many more invasions into Levant, briefly occupying it and raiding as far as Gaza after a decisive victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299, they withdraw due to various geopolitical factors.By the time of Kublai's death in 1294, the Mongol Empire has fractured into four separate khanates or empires, each pursuing its own separate interests and objectives: the Golden Horde khanate in the northwest, the Chagatai Khanate in the west, the Ilkhanate in the southwest, and the Yuan Dynasty based in modern-day Beijing.
In 1304, the three western khanates briefly accept the nominal suzerainty of the Yuan Dynasty, but when it wis overthrown by the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty in 1368, the Mongol Empire finally dissolves.
