Great Mongol Leader &  Founder of Yuan Dynasty:

Kublai Khan

Main Life Accomplishments:

He was the fifth and last Khagan (1260–1294). In 1271, he founded the Yuan Dynasty, which ruled over Mongolia, China Proper, and some adjacent areas, and assumed the role of a Chinese Emperor. His temple name is Shizu

 

Basics:

Born September 23, 1215: 

Died: February 18, 1294 (aged 78)

Nationality:  Mongolian

Religion: 

Fields: Politics, Military

Main Accomplishments:  He was a Mongolian leader who made an impact on China, not only through conquest, but also by ruling successfully. 

 

Chronology of Life Events:

1215

September 23, Kublai Khan is born the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan

 

1251

His studies of Chinese culture leads him to a position as governor of the southern territories

 

1253

Kublai Khan is ordered to attack Yunnan and he successfully destroys the Kingdom of Dali

 

1257

Kublai Khan attempts his first invasion of Vietnam, getting as far as Thang Long

 

1258

Kublai Khan is placed in control of the Eastern Army by his brother, Möngke

 

1259

 Möngke is killed in battle

 

1259

Kublai Khan's younger brother, Arik Boke holds a kurultai in Karakorum, becoming the Great Khan

 

1260-1263

The brothers battle each other for the title, Kublai Khan eventually wins

 

1271

Kublai Khan declares the Yuan Dynasty in China

 

1274

Kublai Khan attempts his first invasion of Japan

 

1279

The Mongol Empire is split into four Khanates

 

1281

Kublai Khan attempts his second invasion of Japan, failing mostly due to poor coordination

 

1284

Kublai Khan organizes his second invasion of Vietnam

 

1287

Kublai Khan mounts his final invasion of Vietnam

 

1294

February 18, Kublai Khan dies of gout 

 

Early Life:

Kublai Khan studied Chinese culture and became enamoured of it. In 1251, his elder brother Möngke became Khan of the Mongol Empire, and Kublai became the governor of the southern territories of the Mongol Empire. During his years as governor, Kublai managed his territory well, boosting the agricultural output of Henan and increasing social welfare spendings after receiving Xi'an. These acts received great acclaim from the Chinese warlords and were essential to the building of the Yuan Dynasty.

In 1253, Kublai was ordered to attack Yunnan, and he destroyed the Kingdom of Dali. In 1258, Möngke put Kublai in command of the Eastern Army and summoned him to assist with attacks on Sichuan and, again, Yunnan. Before Kublai could arrive in 1259, word reached him that Möngke had died. Kublai continued to attack Wuhan, but soon received news that his younger brother Ariq Böke had held a kurultai at the Mongolian imperial capital of Karakorum and was pronounced Great Khan. Most of Genghis Khan's descendants favored Ariq Böke as Great Khan; however, his two brothers Kublai and Hulegu were in opposition.

Kublai quickly reached a peace agreement with Song troops and returned north to the Mongolian plains, in order to oppose Ariq Böke's claim to the title of Great Khan.

Upon returning to his own territories, Kublai summoned a kurultai of his own, and was proclaimed Great Khan. Only a small number of the royal family supported Kublai's claims to the title, however the small number of attendees still proclaimed him Great Khan.

This subsequently led to warfare between Kublai and his younger brother Ariq Böke, which resulted in the eventual destruction of the Mongolian capital at Karakorum.

Both his brother and Kublai crowned themselves Khan in 1260, and the two brothers battled for three years before Kublai finally won. However, during this civil war, Yizhou governor Li revolted against Mongol rule. The revolt was swiftly crushed by Kublai, but this incident instilled in him a strong distrust of ethnic Hans. After he became emperor, Kublai instituted several anti-Han laws, such as banning the titles of and tithes to Han Chinese warlords.

 

Wife Background:

List of wives:

 

1st Wife: Tegülün
2nd wife: Chabi
3rd wife: Tarakhan
4th wife: Bayaghuchin

 

Father Background:

Tolui, also rendered Toluy or Tolui Khan was the youngest son of Genghis Khan by Börte. His ulus, or territorial inheritance, at his father's death in 1227 was the homelands in Mongolia, and it was he who served as civil administrator in the time it took to confirm Ögedei as second khan. Before that, he had served with distinction in the campaigns against the Jin Dynasty and the Khwarezmid Empire, where he was instrumental in the capture and massacre at Merv.

When Genghis Khan was deciding who should succeed him he had trouble choosing between Tolui and Ögodei. Tolui had amazing military skills and was very successful as a general, but Genghis Khan chose Ögodei because Ögodei was more capable politically. Genghis Khan felt that Tolui would be too cautious to be an effective leader.

After Genghis Khan's death, Mongol nobles gathered together and elected Tolui as the new Khan, but Tolui rejected their decision and gave the Khanate to his brother, Ögodei, fulfilling his father's wishes. The Mongol nobles' moves were partly influenced by the tradition that the youngest son inherits his father's properties and partly because Tolui had the largest and most powerful army at the time.
According to the Secret History of the Mongols, Tolui sacrificed himself in order to cure Ögödei from a very severe illness during a campaign in China. The shamans had determined that the root of Ögödei's illness were China's spirits of the earth and the water, who were upset that their subjects had been driven away and their land devastated. Offering land, animals and people had only lead to an aggravation of Ögödeis illness, but when they offered to sacrifice a family member, Ögödei got better immediately. Tolui volunteered and died directly after consuming a cursed drink.

Perhaps more important than him was the role his family, the Toluids, had in shaping the destinies of the Mongol Empire. Through his Christian wife Sorghaghtani Beki, Tolui fathered Möngke, Kublai, Ariq Boke, and Hulagu, and thus was the progenitor of the last of the great Khans, the Yuan Dynasty of China, and of the Il Khans.

Rivalry between the Toluids and the sons of Ögedei and Jochi caused stagnation and infighting during the regency periods after the deaths of Ögedei and his son Güyük. However, it was a rivalry from among Tolui's own sons, Kublai and Ariq Boke, that fragmented the power of the empire and set the western khanates against each other in the early 1260s.

 

Mother Background:

Sorghaghtani Beki (c. 1198[1] - 1252), a Kereyid princess of the Nestorian Christian faith and daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan, was one of the most powerful and competent women in the Mongol Empire. Married to Tolui, Genghis' youngest son, she raised her sons to be leaders, and maneuvered the family politics so that all four of her sons, Mongke Khan, Hulagu Khan, Ariq Böke, and most notably Kublai Khan, were to inherit the legacy of their grandfather. As a moving spirit behind the Mongol Empire, Sorghaghtani is responsible for much of the trade openings and intellectual exchange made possible by this, the largest contiguous empire in world history. As such, she may count among the most influential women in world history.

 

Sorghaghtani was the niece (some say daughter) of the powerful Kerait leader Wang Khan "Toghrul". According to The Secret History of the Mongols, around 1203, when Toghrul was a more powerful leader than Temüjin (name at birth of the man later to be known as Genghis Khan), Temüjin proposed to Toghrul that Temujin's eldest son Jochi might marry Toghrul's relative Sorghaghtani, thus binding the two groups. However, Toghrul refused this alliance, and later attempted to kill the increasingly powerful Temüjin through an invitation to discuss this proposal. However, Temüjin discovered this plan and they escaped at the last moment. Eventually, the Kereits were routed in the ensuing war and Toghrul was killed, possibly by the Naimans.

After the Kereit defeat, Genghis himself married one of Toghrul's elder daughters (later handed over to another general), and gave Sorghaghtani to his teenage son Tolui, with whom she eventually had five children, four sons and a daughter.

* Möngke Khan: khan from 1251-1259
* Kublai Khan: khan 1259-1294, Eastern Mongol Empire, Yuan dynasty
* Hulagu Khan: khan 1262-1265, Ilkhanate dynasty, (Central Asia)
* Ariq Böke, her fourth son, was also declared Great Khan (rivalling Kublai) for a short period in 1260; he would eventually be captured by Kublai in 1264

Like most Mongol women of the time, Sorghaghtani wielded great authority at home. Women had far more rights in Mongolia than in China, Europe, or other cultures at the time, especially since the men were often away and they were the ones responsible for the home.  Although she herself was illiterate, she recognized the value of literacy in running such a far-flung empire. Each of her sons learned a different language for different regions. Also, Sorghaghtani, though a Nestorian Christian, respected other religions. Her sons, like Genghis, were all very liberal minded in matters of religion, and the Mongol empire promulgated the notion of state above religion, while supporting all major religions of the time.

After Ogedei became the Khan, the Secret History suggests that he may have consulted Sorghaghtani on various matters, and he always held her in high regard.

Her husband Tolui, whose kingdom included eastern Mongolia and Northern China, died after a drinking binge at the age of 40, and Sorghaghtani became the regent. Ogodei sought to link her realm to his and proposed that she marry his son Güyük (widows often married again within the family among Mongols), but she refused, claiming that her four sons needed her attention. This decision later turned out to be one of the most important ones in the formation of the Mongol Empire, as all four of Sorghatani's sons, grandsons of Genghis, became leaders in their own right.

After Ogedei Khan's death in 1241, his wife Töregene Khatun ruled as regent until 1246, when she managed to get her son Güyük elected as the Great Khan at a small kurultai (Mongol congress). However, he immediately set out to undermine his mother's power, as well as that of Sorghaghtani and Ebuskun (the wife of Chaghatai Khan, regent for the Central Asian Empire).

Meanwhile, these machinations had alienated the rest of the family and Sorghaghtani had secretly teamed up with Guyuk's cousin Batu Khan, the senior male in the family and ruler of the Golden Horde (north of Caspian Sea to Kiev). In 1248, when Güyük was setting out on a campaign to Europe (ostensibly for conquest, but possibly to defeat Batu Khan), he died under somewhat suspicious circumstances; some have speculated that Sorghaghtani may have taken "direct action against Guyuk".

After Güyük's death, Batu and Sorkhokhtani championed the name of Möngke, who had fought along with Batu in the European campaign, Sorkhokhtani's eldest son, as Great Khan. Mongke was named Great Khan at a kurultai organized by Batu in Siberia in 1250, but this was protested as not being in Mongolia proper. However, the ancient Mongol homeland of where Genghis had been born was in her regency, so she organized a kurultai here which was attended by Batu's brother Berke, where Mongke was formally named the Great Khan. The Ogedei and Guyuk families attempted to assassinate him, but failed, and Mongke arrested and drowned Guyuk's widow Oghul Ghaimish, and many other members of Ogedei's family.

Sorkhokhtani died in February 1252 around the Mongol New Year festival, a few months after Mongke's accession ceremony, and was buried in a Christian church in Kan-su.

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