It was a time of transformation; it was the early 13th century and add this very moment the two tectonic plates of religion and global trade were shifting and capturing new geographies. Genghis Khan proved to be a revolution in the Mongolian history and he conquered without fail with an idea of creating universal harmony through subjugation of all other races. His methods included a lot of slaughter to gain access to other empires and by the time he died is Empire got extended to Russia and China and was also touching the areas that led to Christian Europe.
Man (2006) provided a great detail about the activities of Kublai Khan who was Genghis’s grandson and wanted to fulfill the dreams of his grandfather in order to become the most powerful man in the history by conquering the world in all directions. Kublai had some great achievements attached to his life and his name is also attached with various creations related to stately pleasure which he created, like the one at Xanadu. This is one of the other areas where Kublai made a significant contribution, and he created domes like the one in Beijing, which have an extremely impressive construction.
There was a customized theory which was not only related to the architecture however spread across various cultural and religious rights and procedures including battle, birth, death, agriculture and most of the imaginable events. Rituals, serve to be as one of the most important parts of life and social interaction and the Emperor practiced a great control over the rituals followed by common people. This paper will provide a biographical account of the life of Kublai Khan and his control over Mongolia and China and the story of becoming the man with the greatest power during the 13th century.
Kublai Khan was the second son of Tolui, and Sorghaghtani Beki was another grandson of Genghis Khan started rolling Mongolia after gaining the title of Khagan of the Ikh Mongol Uls in the early years of the decade 1260. After his death, Ariq Boke try to gain the title of the Mongolian capital and this was the time when Kublai came into action suddenly and won a battle against Ariq Boke, and started his Empire by conquering and leading the capital of Mongolia at that time which was Karakorum. At that point of time it was the early 80s of the 13th century and then Kublai Khan started reigning the Yuan dynasty however he kept on increasing his power and reducing the influence of Ariq Boke over the overall throne. Gradually, the hunger to expand the area of his command kept on increasing for Kublai Khan and he did not know about boundaries as without any basic rhyme or reason related to trade or invasion of any area for a profit very soon the boundaries touched the corners like Siberia and the modern day Afghanistan leading to an invasion of almost one fifth part of the world.
Kublai Khan led to the establishment of the Yuan dynasty in the year 1271 and although he started with Mongolia and few parts of China, it was not long before he had a firm control over China by the year 1279. As an Emperor of China Yuan forces became very strong and they had to face a lot of resistance from the Southern Song dynasties however they were successful in overpowering their control and became the first non-Chinese Emperor to gradually control and conquer the entire China.
Kublai Khan had a very strong background of education and he had a great influence and attraction to the contemporary Chinese culture. It was Kublai were invited Haiyun, who was one of the leading Buddhist monks from North China to his board in Mongolia and he was highly impressed with the philosophy of Buddhism and named his son as Haiyun, to give them respect and show his gratitude towards the cultural learning he gained from his meeting with Haiyun. Another important aspect related to the success of the policies and progress of Kublai’s throne is the introduction of Kublai to Liu Bingzhong by Haiyun, and Liu who was a great painter, Caligrapher, poet and mathematician proved as a great asset Kublai and became his advisor during his stay in the modern Beijing.
Khagan's viceroy in North China
It was in the mid of the 13th century that Kublai’s eldest brother Mongke became an Emperor of the Mongolian Empire and Kublai along with Khwaizmain Manmud was sent to China. Kublai was then successful in expanding the horizons in the North China and he finally achieved viceroyalty over North China and as a viceroy he was successful in managing the territory of his ordo very well which gave him a good political start. Kublai also had a great thought process due to which during the early years he was able to receive great acclaim from warlords were present in China at that point of time and this was also the time when he learned various tactics that helped him to enhance the productivity of agriculture and creativity of the Chinese culture. In the early years of 1250 Kublai was attacked by the Kingdom of Dali however they were completely defeated by Kublai and gradually the Mongolians started invasion of the Chinese areas from East, West and South.
Kublai also had a great influence of the Tibetan monks who were learned and had a great source of spiritual healing. With great people that he made during his time that he spent in Mongolia and China, he added all those people in order to ensure that he can use them in future as a part of his own empire. The Taoists had a lot to do with an opposition of, Möngke through Kublai and he was asked by Mongke to look after the Eastern Army and control the attacks that were happening at Sichuan. Kublai had to move to assist with his tactics in order to oppose the Taoists and he was able to destroy all their Scriptures and was also successful in converting almost 237 Taoists temples to Buddhists. By the time he came back in the year 1259 he found that Mongke his elder brother had died however this does not stop him and he continued to attack Wuhan near Yangtze. It was not long when Kublai was successful in taking the control over Wuchang and soon the entire army of Uryankhadai joined him.
The Mongol Empire in 1259–60
Kublai became politically quite successful after the death of his brother and it was not long when the people of Song dynasty including a Minister Jia Sidao contacted Kublai to provide them the access of Yangtze River in exchange of 200,000 tales of silver and boards of silk. Although initially the proposal was rejected by Kublai however later on he accepted the proposal and finally had a peace agreement with them. Soon, Kublai got a message from his wife about the rising troops from Ariq Boke, his younger brother and this led to his and other movement to the North Mongolia. The news proved to be true and it was Ariq Boke who was raising troops and had already created a military and political Council which was called as kurultai at Karakorum which was led by Mongke’s officials.
Kublai's political connections helped him to gain support from the Chinese staff and almost all the royal families and princes of the North China joined him to help him ascend the throne. It was finally in the year 1260 that Kublai Khan was able to manage a form control over the entire Khan, reign. Kublai Khan was successful in getting chosen by most of the royal families of the North China to become the great Khan and there was a ceremony that took place in order to establish the same ad grand Kurultai in the year 1260.
Since Ariq Boke, was the actual heir to lead the throne, there was a war that broke between Kublai and Ariq Boke and there was a lot of destruction that happened at the Mongolian capital Karakoram. In Shankxi in Sichuan, Mongke’s army to the side of Ariq Boke and the diplomatic techniques of Kublai heading to achieve our support of the southern front and he was gradually able to move towards the southern front and he sent Abishqa as a new Khan to handle the proceedings of Chagatai Khanate. Ariq Boke was able to capture Chagatai Khanat and hundred other men of Kublai and Alghu was crowned as the new Khan of the territory, soon after which Kublai was also able to assassinate Alghu and finally Kublai took a step to stop the food supplies to the capital of Karakorum and is large army was able to control the entire capital. During this time there was another attempt from Li Tan to control the Mongolian Empire however on the orders of Kublai Shi Tianze and Shi Shu attacked Li Tan, and was easily able to crush them and is entire army within a short span of time. Kublai became the emperor of the entire territory and he also banned the titles of Han Chinese warlords who were responsible to create a lot of confusion and mistrust between him and Ariq. Ariq Boke surrendered before Kublai at Xanadu on August 21 1264, and the rulers of the Western khanates supported his victory and accepted as an undoubted ruler of Mongolia. Ariq Boke was pardoned by Kublai Khan however most of his chief supporters were killed.
Great Khan of the Mongols
As soon as Kublai Khan took over as the undisputed emperor of the Mongolian throne, he started growing his empire and his army and added almost 30,000 young Mongols to handle any kind of political crisis in future. He attacked Hulegu from Baghdad in order to create political stability in the western region of his boundary and finally managed to kill him on the February 8 1264. Kublai Khan started with a strategy of bringing his own men to control the entire throne and appointed Abagha as the new ilKhan or the obedient khan and had been to control the capital of Golden Horde.
Kublai continued to manage and stabilise his overall control on Korea and ensured that he plans and other Mongolian invasion by appointing Wonjong as the new Goryeo king of Kabghwa in the year 1270. This was also the time when Kublai’s the primary commanders Aju and Liu Zheng heading to plan a campaign against the Song dynasties of China and this being one of his main plans, he concentrated on the same while maintaining his Mongolian influence through regular political control over Mongke Temur. It was under the supervision of Kublai, that the Mongol regime was soon called as China Dai Yuan in the year 1271 and this was the time any started looking at the dream of becoming the emperor of China and controlling the millions of people over there.
Based on his future plans to invade China, he moved his capital from Karakoram to Khanbalic which was also called as Dadu in the modern-day Beijing. There was a lot of criticism that Kublai Khan had to face from the traditional Mongolians regarding the decision that he had taken and he was usually accused of being too tied to the Chinese culture. This was one of the reasons that Kaidu, who was another grandson of Genghis Khan was able to announce himself as a legitimate heir of the Mongol khanates considering the fact that Kublai Khan was diverted too much towards the Chinese culture, and was finally able to achieve a gradual swelling Kublai Khan's Ojedid’s forces.
The Yuan Dynasty, c. 1294 and its client state Goryeo in modern Korea
Kublai Khan Saunders started considering China as his main base, considering the fact that this was a larger area than Mongolia that he was controlling and having his central base in China made it easier for him to control and governed the country without any political or geographical issues. Kublai increased his interest in the Buddhist monks and also achieved success by appointing Phaspa Lama to control the entire empire of Buddhist monks and manage the various interrelated Tibetan affairs. It was finally in the year 1271 that Kublai Khan officially announced the creation of the Yuan dynasty and also mentioned that Dadu will be the primary capital of China.
The political system of China change majorly after the control of Yuan and all the provinces were converted to branch Secretariat where the vice governor and a governor were placed in order to create an overall control. There was a sudden rise in economic growth of China due to the various steps like rebuilding of the grand Canal, repairing of buildings and extension of highways. There is no doubt in the fact that Kublai also introduced a few Mongolian traditions as a part of his domestic policies in China and at the same time the Chinese social economy culture was also transitioned to Mongolia. From the 1274 there was a major increase in the trade happening between the domestic locations of China due to the introduction of various policies by Kublai Khan and he also introduced a common currency in silver and gold which could be accepted as a tax on a similar note from various locations.
Invasion Attempts and related success
Kublai Khan also attempted to invade Japan and tried to do the same twice however due to bad weather and the geographic conditions he was defeated and his troops of 900 ships containing almost 40,000 soldiers from Mongolia and China were either killed or had to come back without any positive outcome. There was also an attempt to invade Vietnam and the Mongols started this operation in the 1284 and so on they were able to cross the border and started by occupying Thang Long in the year January 1285. Vietnam subdivided into many small kingdoms and he was successful in overpowering Sogetu in Chuong Duong and reaching up to the central Vietnam however he was not able to invade Hunan and this was majorly due to the lack of supply base over there. The Mongols were also successful in invading Burma and Java and they were able to easily capture these areas and control them, however these invasions were during the last period of Kublai’s rule and also marked the success of various South Eastern Asian cultural transformations that took place during those times.
The End of a Great Emperor and a Mongolian superpower
Kublai Khan finally ensured that Gammala who was his grandson is sent to Burkhan Khaldun in 1291. And it was his goal during that period to ensure that he was able to provide a strong base after his death to the khanates and also ensured that there was a political support of Kublaids for all the people that he appointed . Byan was given the control of Karakorum and he also ensured that Kaidu who was his main rival is pushed out of the Central Siberian Plateau through his army so that no future control can take place. His main success as was his son Zhenjin who finally became the head of Zhongshusheng, and controlled the overall government of China however he was killed in 1286, leaving behind Kublai with only the remaining options of successors who were divided various positions and locations in both China and Mongolia. It was around the year 1291 that Kublai's wife Bairam died and after this period his control and involvement in the political advisory reduced and he became increasingly despondent after the deaths of his son and his wife. Before his death, Kublai passed on his crown to Zhenjin’s son Temir who reined the entire Mongol Empire and became the second ruler of the Yuan dynasty.
Works Cited
Budge, E.A. Wallis. The Monks of Kublai Khan Emperor of China. London: Harrison & Sons, Ltd, 1928.
Man, John. Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade China. HB: Bantam Press, 2006.
