History of Central Asia

The 
Mongol
 epoch 
The creation of the Mongol empire by 
Genghis Khan
 was a great feat of political and 
military skill that left a lasting imprint on the destinies of both Asia and Europe. The 
geographic basis of Genghis’s power, the northwestern parts of which later became 
known as Mongolia, had been the centre of such Turkic empires as those of the Kök 
Türks and Uyghurs. There are no indications of the time and the manner in which the 
Mongols took over this region. 
Creation of the Mongol empire 
It is probable that the Kök Türks were incorporated in the 
nascent
 Mongol empire. In a 
series of tribal wars that led to the defeat of the 
Merkits
 and the Naimans, his most 
dangerous rivals, Genghis gained sufficient strength to assume, in 1206, the title of 
khan. Acting in the tradition of previous nomad empires of the region, Genghis directed 
his aggressive policies primarily against China, then ruled in the north by the 
Jin 
dynasty
. His western campaigns were set in motion quite accidentally by a senseless 
attack on Mongol forces by the fugitive Naiman prince 
Küchlüg
, and they maintained 
their momentum through the pursuit of 
ʿ
Alāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad
 of Khwārezm, who in 
1218 ordered the execution of Mongol envoys seeking to establish trade relations. 
As a result, many of the flourishing cities of Khwārezm, Khorāsān, and Afghanistan were 
destroyed, and, by 1223, Mongol armies had crossed the Caucasus. Although an 
important Russo-Kipchak force was defeated on May 31, 1223, at the battle of the 
Kalka
, 
the Mongols did not make a definite thrust into eastern Europe until the winter of 1236–
37. The fall of 
Kiev
 in December 1240—with incalculable 
consequences
 for 
Russian 
history
—was followed by a Mongol invasion of 
Hungary
 in 1241–42. Although victorious 
against the forces of 
King Béla IV
, the Mongols evacuated Hungary and withdrew to 
southern and central Russia. Ruled by 
Batu
 (died c. 1255), the Mongols of eastern 
Europe (the so-called 
Golden Horde
) became a major factor in that region and exerted a 
decisive influence on the development of the Russian states. 
Simultaneously with these western campaigns, Genghis’s successor 
Ögödei
 (ruled 1229–
41) intensified Mongol pressure in China. Korea was occupied in 1231, and in 1234 the 
Jin dynasty succumbed to Mongol attacks. The establishment of the 
Yuan (Mongol) 
dynasty
 in China (1260–1368) was accomplished by the great khan 
Kublai
 (1260–94), a 
grandson of Genghis.