43 Facts About Mongol Empire

1.

Mongol Empire began to split due to wars over succession, as the grandchildren of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from his son and initial heir Ogedei or from one of his other sons, such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi.

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2.

Mongol Empire then enlarged his Mongol state under himself and his kin.

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3.

Mongol Empire proclaimed a new code of law of the empire, Ikh Zasag or Yassa; later he expanded it to cover much of the everyday life and political affairs of the nomads.

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4.

Mongol Empire forbade the selling of women, theft, fighting among the Mongols, and the hunting of animals during the breeding season.

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5.

Mongol Empire appointed his stepbrother Shikhikhutug as supreme judge, ordering him to keep records of the empire.

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6.

Mongol Empire encouraged literacy and the adaptation of the Uyghur script into what would become the Mongolian script of the empire, ordering the Uyghur Tata-tonga, who had previously served the khan of Naimans, to instruct his sons.

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7.

Mongol Empire had to deal with two other powers, Tibet and Qara Khitai.

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8.

Meanwhile, in an offensive action against the Song dynasty, Mongol Empire armies captured Siyang-yang, the Yangtze and Sichuan, but did not secure their control over the conquered areas.

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9.

Mongol Empire then reinforced his kheshig with the Koreans through both diplomacy and military force.

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10.

Mongol Empire's persecuted her husband's Khitan and Muslim officials and gave high positions to her own allies.

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11.

Mongol Empire's built palaces, cathedrals, and social structures on an imperial scale, supporting religion and education.

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12.

Mongol Empire's was able to win over most Mongol aristocrats to support Ogedei's son Guyuk.

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13.

Mongol Empire punished Toregene's supporters, except for governor Arghun the Elder.

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14.

Mongol Empire replaced young Qara Hulegu, the khan of the Chagatai Khanate, with his favorite cousin Yesu Mongke, to assert his newly conferred powers.

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15.

Mongol Empire restored his father's officials to their former positions and was surrounded by Uyghur, Naiman and Central Asian officials, favoring Han Chinese commanders who had helped his father conquer Northern China.

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16.

Mongol Empire continued military operations in Korea, advanced into Song China in the south, and into Iraq in the west, and ordered an empire-wide census.

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17.

Many members of the Mongol Empire elite were found guilty and put to death, with estimates ranging from 77 to 300, though princes of Genghis's royal line were often exiled rather than executed.

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18.

Mongol Empire was tolerant of outside religions and artistic styles, leading to the building of foreign merchants' quarters, Buddhist monasteries, mosques, and Christian churches in the Mongol capital.

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19.

Mongol Empire commuted the contribution system to a fixed poll tax which was collected by imperial agents and forwarded to units in need.

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20.

Mongol Empire's court tried to lighten the tax burden on commoners by reducing tax rates.

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21.

Mongol Empire centralized control of monetary affairs and reinforced the guards at the postal relays.

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22.

The Mongol Empire tried to invade Ðai Viet again in 1285 and 1287 but were defeated both times.

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23.

When Hulagu headed further west, the Armenians from Cilicia, the Seljuks from Rum and the Christian realms of Antioch and Tripoli submitted to Mongol Empire authority, joining them in their assault against the Muslims.

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24.

Mongol Empire's establishment of a capital there was a controversial move to many Mongols who accused him of being too closely tied to Chinese culture.

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25.

The Mongol Empire armies were repeatedly beaten in Ðai Viet and were crushed at the Battle of Bach Ðang.

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26.

Mongol Empire was succeeded by his grandson Temur Khan, who continued Kublai's policies.

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27.

Mongol Empire oversaw an extensive program of cultural and scientific interaction between the Ilkhanate and the Yuan dynasty in the following decades.

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28.

Mongol Empire defeated the Mamluk army at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar in 1299, but he was only briefly able to occupy Syria, due to distracting raids from the Chagatai Khanate under its de facto ruler Kaidu, who was at war with both the Ilkhans and the Yuan dynasty.

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29.

Mongol Empire strengthened ties with the Muslim world as well, building mosques and other elaborate structures such as baths.

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30.

Mongol Empire invaded with a commanding force, and Tugh Temur abdicated.

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31.

Forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were trained, organized, and equipped for mobility and speed.

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32.

Mongol Empire soldiers were more lightly armored than many of the armies they faced but were able to make up for it with maneuverability.

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33.

The success, organization, and mobility of the Mongol Empire armies permitted them to fight on several fronts at once.

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34.

Mongol Empire was governed by a code of law devised by Genghis, called Yassa, meaning "order" or "decree".

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35.

The empire was governed by a non-democratic, parliamentary-style central assembly, called kurultai, in which the Mongol chiefs met with the great khan to discuss domestic and foreign policies.

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36.

Mongol Empire saw some significant developments in science due to the patronage of the Khans.

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37.

Mongol Empire built a Confucian temple for Yelu Chucai in Karakorum around 1236 where Yelu Chucai created and regulated a calendar on the Chinese model.

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38.

The Byzantine-Mongol alliance and the fact that the Empire of Trebizond was an Ilkhanate vassal facilitated Choniades' movements between Constantinople, Trebizond and Tabriz.

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39.

Mongol Empire had an ingenious and efficient mail system for the time, often referred to by scholars as the Yam.

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40.

Mongol Empire constructed some hostels and decreed that only imperial envoys could receive a stipend.

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41.

Mongol Empire decreed that all merchants must pay commercial and property taxes, and he paid off all drafts drawn by high-ranking Mongol elites from the merchants.

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42.

Turkic tribes seized the western end of the route from the Byzantine Mongol Empire, sowing the seeds of a Turkic culture that would later crystallize into the Ottoman Mongol Empire under the Sunni faith.

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43.

Non-military achievements of the Mongol Empire include the introduction of a writing system, a Mongol alphabet based on the characters of the Old Uyghur, which is still used in Mongolia today.

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