Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan

Genghis Khan was one of the world's greatest conquerors. The son of a minor chief in what is now eastern Mongolia; he was born in 1167 and originally given the name Temujin. Temujin united the nomadic tribes of Mongolia into a disciplined military state. His followers called him Genghis Khan, which means "Universal Ruler." In 1207, Genghis Khan led the Mongols on the first of many destructive, bloody invasions. Nobody knows exactly how many people were slaughtered by his destructive raids, but even the most conservative estimates suggest that the armies of Genghis Khan killed several million people. Ganghis Khan never learned how to read, but his success as a ruler resulted from his superior military mobility, strategy and organization. Genghis Kahn's grandson, Kublai Khan, conquered China and moved his capital to the city now known as Beijing in 1271. Kublai Khan probably did not know how to speak Chinese, but he took the Chinese name Yuan for his dynasty. The Yuan was the only foreign dynasty that ever ruled all of China. At its height, the Mongol empire stretched from Korea in the east to Hungary in the west and as far south as Vietnam. It was the largest empire the world has ever known. The Mongols are remembered mostly for their ferocious military force, but they improved the road system and promoted trade throughout their empire. After Kublai Khan died in 1294, the Mongols became less warlike, but many Chinese people resented their rulers. The Chinese saw the Mongols as an elite, privileged class exempt from taxation. Several natural disasters and a peasant rebellion caused the Mandate of Heaven to shift to a Buddhist peasant, Hung-wu. Hung-wu expelled over 60,000 Mongols, ending almost a century of Mongol rule and beginning the Ming Dynasty.

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