Empire1206 – 1368 · 162 years
Mongol Empire
The largest contiguous land empire in human history, built by horse archers in a single century.
What it was
Founded by Genghis Khan around 1206, the Mongol Empire conquered most of Eurasia in two generations, from Korea to Hungary. It opened the Silk Road, transmitted gunpowder, paper, and the Black Death between China and Europe, and broke into successor khanates by the late 1200s.
Why it mattered
The Mongol "Pax Mongolica" enabled the first regular contact between East Asia and Europe — Marco Polo's journey was only possible because of it.
From Wikipedia
The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the medieval empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to Eastern Europe, extending northward into Siberia and east and southward into the Indian subcontinent, mounting invasions of Southeast Asia, and conquering the Iranian Plateau; and reaching westward as far as the Levant and the Carpathian Mountains.
Wikipedia: Mongol Empire·CC BY-SA 4.0
Borders & accuracy
Solid borders are reconstructed from canonical historical-basemap data or hand-crafted from scholarly atlases.
- SOURCEaourednik / historical-basemaps
- DETAILhistorical-basemaps-union
- SNAPSHOT1279
- POLITY TYPEstate
Wars of this empire68
Conflicts whose belligerents name this polity, best-documented first.
- Mongol Conquests1206–1368World-changing · 40M dead
- Mongol Conquest of China1205–79World-changing · 20M dead
- World-changing · 15M dead
- World-changing
- Major conflict · 2.0M dead
- Mongol Conquest of Khorasan1219–21Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 1.0M dead
- Major conflict · 200K dead
- Major conflict · 50K dead
- Conquests of Genghis Khan1203–27Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Battle of Mohi1241Major conflict
- Major conflict
- Mongol Invasions of Korea1231–73Significant · 500K dead
- Significant · 200K dead
- Siege of Kiev1240Significant · 100K dead
- Significant · 100K dead
- Siege of Alamut1256Significant · 10K dead
- Significant · 10K dead
- Mongol invasions of India1221–1327Significant
- Rus'–Golden Horde wars1362–1480Significant
- Qubilai's Conquest of Yunnan1253–54Regional · 200K dead
- Regional · 100K dead
+ 44 more in the atlas.
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1206 and fits the map to these borders.
Cite as: Mongol Empire (1206 – 1368). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/e/mongol-empire · Sources & methodology