Mongolia country information

In the late twelfth century, a chieftain named Temujin succeeded in uniting the Mongol tribes. Hailed Genghis Khan by Mongols, Temujin founded the Mongol Empire in 1206. Forging a powerful army from the nomads, he waged a series of military campaigns sweeping through much of Asia, and forming the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Under his successors it stretched from present-day Poland in the west to Korea in the east, and from Siberia in the north to the Gulf of Oman and Vietnam in the south, covering some 33,000,000 km² or 12,741,000 sq miles (22% of Earth's total land area) and having a population of over 100 million people. Genghis Khan bequeathed to his sons portion of his empire and armies to support them. The Mongol Empire subsequently ruled by Ogodei Khan, Khuyak Khan, Mongke Khan. By Kublai’s time these lands were four autonomous khanates ruled by Genghis’ s grandsons, the Khanate of the house of Chagadai, the Ilkhanate of Hulagu, Berke’s Golden Horde and Kublai’s own eastern kingdom, ruled under the auspices of his Yuan dynasty, which lasted until peasants uprising spawned the native Ming Dynasty in 1368. The Yuan was replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368, with the Mongol court fleeing to the north. As the Ming armies pursued the Mongols into their homeland, they totally destroyed the Mongol capital Karakorum among other cities, wiping out the cultural progress that was achieved during the imperial period and thus throwing Mongolia back to anarchy.