Why Did the Mongols Turn Back?
Pressing play loads the video from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode). Or watch on YouTube.
The story in brief
In 1242, Mongol armies pulled back out of central Europe, and historians still debate why. This Short runs through the empire's rise and fall in under a minute.
In 1206, Temujin was proclaimed Genghis Khan. By 1221 his armies had sacked Bukhara and Samarkand. He died in 1227, but his heirs kept expanding, and in 1241 they crushed Polish and Hungarian forces. They took Baghdad in 1258, and in 1260 the Mamluks stopped them at Ain Jalut.
At its peak, the empire covered more than 23 million square kilometres, making it the largest contiguous land empire. Kublai Khan's invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 failed because of storms and stiff Japanese resistance, not storms alone. By then the empire had split into rival khanates, and in 1368 the Yuan dynasty was driven out of China.
Sources
- Britannica, "Mongol empire": https://www.britannica.com/place/Mongol-empire
- Britannica, "Battle of ʿAyn Jālūt": https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Battle-of-%CA%BFAyn-J%C4%81l%C5%ABt/11508
- Britannica, "Kamikaze of 1274 and 1281": https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/kamikaze-of-1274-and-1281/438670
- Britannica, "Yuan dynasty": https://kids.britannica.com/scholars/article/Yuan-dynasty/78108
- Britannica, "Kublai Khan"
- Büntgen & Di Cosmo 2016, Scientific Reports 6: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep25606
- Pinke et al. 2017, Scientific Reports 7: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12128-6
- Turchin, Adams & Hall 2006, Journal of World-Systems Research 12(2): https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2006.369
- Conlan, Bowdoin College, Mongol Invasions of Japan site: https://learn.bowdoin.edu/mongol-invasions/
Maps
- Karl Spruner von Merz & Heinrich Th. Menke, Hand-Atlas für die Geschichte des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit, 3rd ed. (Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1880), map 87
- Gustav Droysen, Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas (Bielefeld & Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing / R. Andrée, 1886), scan via Internet Archive item DroysensHistoricalAtlas1886 (Public Domain Mark), map 28
- Map 1227: Ink Before Dust, after Foncin, Géographie historique (1888). Base map: Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain.
- "Empire de Gengis-Khan en 1227", Pierre Foncin, Géographie historique. Leçons en regard des cartes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1888), p. 79. Scan: British Library (Flickr Commons), no known copyright restrictions.
- Maps 1221, 1241, 1242 (arrows): Ink Before Dust (approximate). Base map: Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain.
Borders on the maps in this Short are approximate.
Full image and music credits are in the video description on YouTube.
Narration is AI-generated. Scripts are AI-assisted and fact-checked against the sources listed.
Card artwork: Ink Before Dust (own work).
