In 1206, Temujin held the Kuriletai Assembly at the head of the River, which was no longer a gathering of the clan chiefs of the various tribes that had been equal in the past, but a great gathering of temujin's military generals. At the meeting, Temujin was supported as the co-lord of all Mongolia, honored as "Genghis Khan", and formally established a unified Mongol regime, the Great Mongolian State. Genghis Khan and his descendants then conquered all over Eurasia and North Africa, and their territory expanded rapidly over a hundred years, and its territory was worthy of the largest continuous territory in history. In the more than a hundred years of conquest of the Mongol army, the most important thing was the three western expeditions of the Mongols.
Statue of Genghis Khan
The First Western Expedition was led by Genghis Khan himself, so it is also known as the "Genghis Khan Western Expedition".
The main target of warfare during this period was Khwarazm, which was the murder of a Mongol envoy sent to Khwarazm to seek trade, so Genghis Khan sent an army to Khwarazm in 1219 to seek revenge.
After the Mongol army entered Central Asia, it drove straight in, and Khwarazm was powerless, and its capital, Samarkand, was captured by the Mongol army in 1220, and the king Mahmud fled west. Genghis Khan then ordered the generals Tebetsu and Subutai to cross the Amu Darya River in pursuit of the westward fleeing King Mahmud of Khwarazm.
King Mahamad of Khwarazm later fell ill and died on a small island in the Caspian Sea, and his son Zalandin continued to organize resistance in Khorasan. Genghis Khan personally commanded the various road armies to pursue Zalandin and defeat the rest of the people at the Indus River, zalandin fled alone, and Hua Lazimo perished.
The Mongol army crossed the Caucasus into the Don River valley and sent troops to Europe. In 1223 AD, at the Calgar River, Chincha and the Russian allied forces were defeated, and almost all the Russian princes were killed. After hearing of the changes in the Western Xia, the Mongol army returned to Mongolia in 1225.
The Mongol army defeated the Rus' army at the Calgar River
The second western expedition was led by The eldest son of Shuchi, Batu, and the actual main commander would be Subutai, the eldest son of Wokoutai, Guiyu, Sun Zihaidu, and Meng Ge, the eldest son of Tuolei, who accompanied the army, so it was also called the "Firstborn West Expedition".
In 1229 AD, Wokoutai ascended to the Khan's throne and continued his western expedition. In 1235, the Kuriletai Assembly was held, and it was decided to expedition to the European states of Chincha and Churos, and ordered all branches of the clan to lead the army with the eldest son, and the Nayan at all levels below the level of 10,000 households also conscripted with the eldest son, with a number of about 150,000.
In 1236, the armies marched west to attack Briar, located in the middle reaches of the Volga River, and conquered Briar by the general Subutai. In 1237, the Mongol armies attacked Chincha, and Möngke beheaded his general Bachiman, and the area north of the Caspian Sea was occupied by The Mongol army.
Batu led an army to invade Russia on a large scale, and at the end of 1237 AD captured 14 cities including Ryazan and Moscow. In February 1238, he attacked Vladimir, and the following year he attacked Kiev. In 1240, Mongol armies attacked Borrear (present-day Poland) and Magyar (present-day Hungary).
In April 1241, the Mongol army captured the cities of Krakow and Rignica, and plundered Moravia and other places. The Batu pro-unification three-way army defeated the Mazar army, its king fled, and the Mongol army attacked the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and all parts of southern Europe. At the end of the year, the news of Wokoutai's death reached the army, and Batu led his army to withdraw from the Balkans to the Volga Valley. With Sarai as its capital, Batu established the Khanate of Chincha, also known as the Golden Horde, on the banks of the Volga River.
The Second Western Expedition of the Mongols - "The Western Expedition of the Eldest Son"
The Third Western Expedition was led by Hulegu, the brother of Möngke Khan, and was therefore also known as the "Hulagu Western Expedition".
In 1241, the Great Khan of Wokoutai died, and after fierce debate and change, in 1251 Möngke, the son of Tuoleizi, took the throne as the Great Khan. Möngke ordered his brother Hulagu to lead the lands west of the Amu Darya River in a major military and important matter, and to unite the army in the west. In 1253, Hulagu led the third expedition and the Mongol army marched into West Asia. In October, Hulagu invaded western Iran with his troops, reaching the Two Rivers Valley, targeting the state of Murai (present-day Iran) first.
In 1256, Hulagu commanded a large Mongol army across the Amu Darya River and reached the territory of Mulayi in June. The Mongol vanguard general timidly captured many forts in Mulayi and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. The Mulai chief Ruknadin, under the pressure of the Mongol army, sent his brother Sha Xinsha to ask Hulagu for peace, and Hulagu demanded that Luknadin himself surrender, but Ruknadin hesitated. In November, Hulagu ordered the Mongol army to launch an onslaught, and Rukhnadin was forced to surrender. Mongol armies occupied their capital, Fort Ara (present-day South Of Casana). In early 1257, Ruknadin was killed by the Mongol army, his people were executed, and Mulayi was completely pacified.
In March 1257, when the Azerbaijani garrison of Baizhu came to the army, Hulagu and baiju continued their western expedition, and the army marched directly to Baghdad, the capital of Abbasids. At that time, the Abbasid caliph was Mostasin, who ruled the Abbasid dynasty directly and the entire Islamic world, and was a powerful country in the Two Rivers Valley. In the winter of 1257 AD, Hulagu, Baizhu and others led an army to besiege Baghdad in three ways, and at the beginning of the next year, the three armies surrounded and launched a general attack on Baghdad, and the Mongol army attacked the city of Baghdad with cannon stones, and the city gate was destroyed by artillery fire. In February, caliph Mustasin surrendered, Hulagu attacked Baghdad, the Mongol army plundered the city for seven days, Mustasin was executed, and the Abbasid dynasty collapsed. Hulagu led his army to continue westward, advancing into the Ayyubid dynasty in Syria, and the power penetrated deep into southwest Asia.
When the news of the death of Möngke Khan arrived in 1260, Hulagu decided to be a teacher and stayed in Thebilis to establish the Ilkhanate.
The Third Mongol Expedition to the West – "Hulagu Expedition to the West"
After three western expeditions, the Mongols conquered Chincha and Huarazimo north of the Caspian Sea west of the present-day Aral Sea, and the Western Liao and Wu'er from the Altai Mountains in the east to the Amu Darya River in the east, and established the Chagatai Khanate; The old land of Naiman, west of the upper reaches of the Ob River to Lake Balkhash, established the Wokoutai Khanate; The principalities of Ryazan, Vladimir, Moscow, kiev and other principalities in the Volga River Valley established the Khanate of Chincha; Iran, Afghanistan and Syria in the two river basins established the Ilkhanate, creating a large empire unprecedented in the history of the world - the "Mongol Empire".
The Yuan Dynasty and the Four Great Khanates
Later, in order to compete for the position of the Great Khan, the contradictions between the Mongol groups intensified, and they were alienated from Germany, coupled with the lack of necessary and powerful political and military economic ties between the khanates, and the distance from the center, so that this vast "Mongol Empire" was eventually short-lived and disintegrated.