Partition of the Mongol Empire
The division of the Mongol Empire describes the events leading to the division of the of Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire led in four successor states. The so-called Four Great Mongol Khanates were: the Chagatai Khanate (1229–1571), the Ilchanate (1256–1335), the Khanate of the Golden Horde (1236–1502) and the Empire of the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368).
prehistory
With the expansion of the Mongol Empire, the tensions between a central unitary state and the decentralized sub-empires also grew. The distribution of areas to branches of the Genghisids at the time of Ögedei (around 1240) had particularly affected the pastures:
- Jötschi : in the west the steppes from Western Siberia to Kazakhstan to Eastern Europe
- Chagatai : The steppes of Turkestan and the Tarim Basin
- Ögedei : The areas of the Khagan, Altai area and Djungary
- Tolui : Mongolia
Often other rights were transferred to the other branches of the family at the same time. Agricultural land was managed jointly. Important tasks were carried out by several representatives from different branches of the family ('collegial administration'). Ögedei set up regional secretariats for the first time - one for the western regions and one for China. Under Möngke the Mongol Empire reached its greatest extent and the central administration was most pronounced.
The first three khagans
As early as 1218, after a quarrel between the princes, Genghis Khan had chosen not his eldest son Jötschi, but the middle-born Ögedei as his successor, who was elected Grand Khan in 1229. His unexpected death in 1241 led to the surprising termination of Batu Khan's campaign of conquest in Europe . The rivalries between the sons of Toluis and Dschötschis on the one hand and those of Ögedeis and Güyüks on the other led to a period of stagnation in the Mongol Empire in the 1240s.
Ögedei's successor was - after a difficult agreement and the interim reign of his wife Töregene Hatun - five years later (1246) his eldest son Güyük . Güyük Khan died in 1248 on the way to an argument with his rival Batu. The reign was transferred to his widow Ogul Qaimish.
Möngke Khan
After Güyük Khan's death, Batu Khan supported Möngke Khan as a possible Great Khan, but the negotiations and intrigues in this regard dragged on until 1251. Finally he was elected in the absence of some important Genghisid princes and consolidated his power by ousting the heir to the throne of the house of Ögedei after a conspiracy. Princes of the Chagatai family were also affected. Batu, however, was Möngke's co-regent.
Möngke transferred the Caucasus region to the Golden Horde in 1252. With Möngke's consent, Berke succeeded his brother Batu as Khan of the Golden Horde in 1255. Möngke's brother Hülegü took power in the Caucasus and conquered Islamic Baghdad in 1258 - much to the displeasure of Berke, who had converted to Islam.
When Möngke Khan died in 1259 during the campaign against the Song dynasty during the siege of the Diaoyu fortress , no successor was determined. With his death the unified Mongolian Empire ended. The territorial order at this time:
- The Tolui branch dominated: The Khagan ruled Mongolia and the adjacent steppe areas, plus most of the Ögedeis areas such as the Altai region and Djungary . His brother Kubilai ruled in China and his brother Hulegü in Iran.
- The Ögedei branch only dominated smaller areas.
- The Tschagatei branch existed (weakened) in the western areas of Central Asia.
- The Djodji branch ruled in Eastern Europe and the Kipchak steppe, with additional rights in Khwarazm, Bukhara and Samarkand that had been withdrawn from the Chagatei branch.
Two khagans at the same time
Möngke might have had Arigkbugha in mind for the successor and made him commander of Karakorum , the capital, in 1258 . Large parts of the family supported him: Berke (Golden Horde) and Alghu (Tschagatai), the Jödschi branch and parts of the Ögedei branch. Kublai Khan stood for the growing autonomy of the partial empires and was elected Khagan on a Kurultai that he convened himself in 1260 . He was supported by Hülegü and Kadan (also Qadan, from the Ögedei clan). Arigkbugha was elected Khagan on a second Kurultai a month after Kublai. At this time the Mameluks attacked the Ilkhanate under Hülegü and Berke tried to take advantage of this and also attacked the Ilkhanate. Neither of them were able to intervene in the following disputes because they were preoccupied with their conflict over the Caucasus.
Civil war
In Karakoram, Arigkbugha was dependent on supplies from China. Kublai used his position in northern China and cut Karakoram from its supplies, while at the same time in southern China, against the Song dynasty , he had to accept setbacks. The branches of the Ögedei and the Tschagatei tried to regain their previous rights, which the Ögedei branch - with a part of the kingdom in Talas - only managed to do temporarily. The war was still undecided at the end of 1261 when Algui (also Alghu), the khan of the Chagatai khanate, defected from Arigkbugha's party over tribute issues. A campaign of revenge against Algui had no lasting success. So weakened, Arigkbugha finally had to capitulate in 1263. He was accused and acquitted in an imperial assembly, but remained Kublai's prisoner afterwards and died in 1266.
consequences
From 1256 to 1274, Kublai Khan gradually moved his capital to Beijing and adopted the administrative practices and culture of the Chinese, and in 1260 he became Emperor of Northern China. He was well aware of the risks of a Sinization of the Mongols in China. His politics earned him the disapproval of a significant part of the Mongolian nobility, as they preferred a leader living in the steppe to a "son of heaven" living in Beijing.
The relations of the Kublai Khan to his Jödschi cousins of the Golden Horde remained aloof, those with the Chagatai Khanate were repeatedly hostile. Despite these quarrels, the Mongols were still able to maintain the formal unity of the empire.
In the years 1268 to 1301 Kublai and his successor Timur Khan fought against Qaidu Khan from the Ögedei branch, who had allied themselves with the House of Tschagatei, for supremacy in the Mongol Empire. Qaidu's son and successor, Chapar, was defeated and deposed by Du'a in a military conflict with the allies Tschagatei and Yuan in 1305/6. After an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow, he and his brothers fled to China in 1309/10, whereby the Tschagatei Khanate was able to re-establish itself and the Ögedai Khanate finally disappeared.
These developments weakened the position of the Great Khan and led to a division of the already loose Reichsverband into four parts. Smaller rulers - like that of the Kartiden in Herat - are not considered here.
After Kublai's death, the following khagans were only chosen from among his descendants, other princes were excluded from the line of succession. These rulers continued Kublai's policies and largely focused on the administration of China. There were always conflicts of interest between pro-Chinese and pro-Mongolian parties at court, but mostly the representatives of China prevailed. Attempts to renew the Mongolian concept of empire, for example at the time of Külüq Khan or Qoschila , were therefore unsuccessful.
literature
- Marion Linska, Andrea Handl and Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: Introduction to the ethnology of Central Asia , script. Vienna, 2003, accessed on January 18, 2020.
- Jürgen Paul : Central Asia . Frankfurt am Main 2012 ( New Fischer World History , Volume 10).