Kublai Khan is arguably the second-most famous name in the history of the Mongol Empire, just behind that of his grandfather, Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan’s reign oversaw huge changes in the structure and running of the Mongol Empire, and arguably the biggest change of all was the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty, which Kublai himself was a part of—transforming not just Mongol, but Chinese history forever. This article will discuss the biggest achievements throughout the terrifyingly excellent reign of Kublai Khan.
Early Life
Kublai Khan was born on September 23, 1215, to Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki. Tolui was the youngest son of Genghis Khan and Börte, and Kublai was Tolui’s fourth son, and his second with Sorghaghtani Beki. As a result, Genghis Khan was his paternal grandfather.
The young Kublai was raised by a Buddhist nurse upon the recommendation of his grandfather, and Kublai later honored his nurse with high regard later in his life.
When he was nine years old, in 1224, along with an older brother and Genghis himself, he undertook his first hunt, successfully killing a rabbit and an antelope. Genghis Khan then took this opportunity to perform a traditional Mongol ceremony on both Kublai and his older brother, smearing the fat of the animals that they had killed on their middle fingers, before saying (allegedly) to Kublai, “The words of this boy Kublai are full of wisdom, heed them well—heed them all of you.”
Genghis Khan died three years after this, in 1227, when Kublai was aged 12. Kublai’s uncle Ogodei was installed as Khagan in 1229.
The Effects of the Mongol-Jin War
The Mongol-Jin War, sometimes referred to as the Mongol Conquest of the Jin Dynasty, which had been going on since 1211, came to an end in 1234, and by 1236, Ogodei gave the Chinese province of Hebei to the family of Tolui, who had died in 1232. Kublai was given his own estate within the 80,000-household province, which included 10,000 households.
Kublai first mismanaged the estate, leading to many Han Chinese leaving (and tax revenues at an all-time high). He then came looking for help from his advisors and family, the issues were rectified, and many of the people who had fled returned.
Another after-effect of the Mongol-Jin War was the Han culture that Kublai Khan had become exposed to. This, combined with his management of ethnically Chinese people, piqued his interest in Chinese culture and history and led him to ask Haiyun, the leading Buddhist monk in northern China, to educate him about the philosophy of Buddhism in 1242.
Kublai was years ahead of his contemporaries in his sense of multicultural identity and inclusion. He was conscious not to fill his court with other Mongols, so he employed numerous Han Chinese, as well as Turkic peoples from beyond Mongolia and China’s western borders, creating a multi-cultural court setup that was incredibly rare in the Middle Ages.
Northern China Victories
Despite his interest in the Han Chinese, Kublai Khan spent most of his adult life attempting to oppress them, and this began to take shape from the early 1250s onward.
In 1251, his older brother, Möngke, became Khan of the Mongol Empire, and Kublai was sent to China proper, receiving the viceroyalty over northern China. Being more experienced thanks to his years in Hebei, Kublai managed his territory excellently. The agricultural output of Henan was boosted greatly, which was another achievement of Kublai Khan’s.
By 1258, Möngke had put Kublai in charge of the eastern army and ordered him to go to war in Sichuan. However, before he arrived, in 1259, word reached Kublai that Möngke had died. Kublai kept his brother’s death a secret and continued his successful attack on Wuhan.
It was after this battle that Kublai received word that his younger brother, Ariq Böke, had been raising troops, so he returned north to the Mongolian plateau. Upon his arrival, he learned that Ariq had been proclaimed Great Khan and that most of Genghis Khan’s descendants supported his claim.
Kublai returned to northern China, and the majority of the northern Chinese population and those in Manchuria supported his claim to the throne. Kublai returned, and civil war ensued.
The Toluid Civil War and Kublai’s Ascendance
The war itself raged on from 1260 to 1264, with advantages going back and forth between the two brothers and their warring factions.
Eventually, on August 21, 1264, Ariq Böke surrendered to Kublai Khan at Xanadu, and Kublai’s victory was acknowledged in Mongolia. Kublai pardoned Ariq but had his chief supporters executed as punishment for defying him.
Kublai’s reign had just begun, and he planned on taking his warring nature with him wherever he went, and the power of the Mongol hordes was soon being felt throughout Asia and Europe.
Kublai sent envoys as far afield as the Balkans in the west to attempt to take territory there, and to the Korean peninsula in the east. This was a huge distance to cover and showed the prowess not just of the Mongol hordes, but of Kublai Khan himself. It would be hard enough to control an empire that size in today’s digital age, let alone 800 years ago with incredibly limited technology.
This again highlights Kublai’s power and the resources at his disposal, with some historians claiming that, at the time, he was the richest emperor in the world thanks to the vast empire that he controlled.
However, Kublai Khan’s primary aim was, unsurprisingly, reflected in his passion for all things Chinese: he wanted to unify China.
The Mongol “Unification” of China and the Early Yuan Dynasty
In 1271, Kublai Khan had achieved his goal. He moved the capital of the Mongol Empire to Beijing, in north-eastern China. This was when Kublai Khan formally proclaimed the Mandate of Heaven—which was notably a traditional way for Imperial Chinese rulers to establish and legitimize their rule, once again showing the influence that Chinese customs and traditions had on Kublai’s life.
He then proclaimed himself a “Son of Heaven,” promising to usher in a period of peace, prosperity, and expansion. The following year, 1272, Kublai declared to be “the year of the Great Yuan”—hence the name of his new dynasty: the Yuan Dynasty, ending over 300 years of rule under the Song Dynasty.
Kublai was by now a well-experienced statesman and knew how to win over both Chinese and Mongol citizens. As discussed earlier, he used Chinese customs when naming the year, but also Mongol traditions in his leadership style, such as the integration of the Mongol postal system into the Yuan Dynasty.
Technological Advancements in Kublai Khan’s Reign
Yet, it was not just the introduction of the Mongol postal system that made Kublai Khan’s reign such an important turning point in both Mongol and Chinese history.
Kublai was an experienced statesman, and he put great effort into the Silk Road, ensuring that trade between the Yuan Empire and Europe thrived, and helping to boost the Yuan and Mongol economies.
In fact, Kublai Khan was so successful in his rule of the Yuan Dynasty that the early years are sometimes referred to as the Pax Mongolica (Mongol Peace) because there was rarely another period in Chinese history where so much peace and prosperity reigned between China and Mongolia.
Another interesting development was that Kublai Khan did something that neither his Mongol predecessors nor his Song Dynasty predecessors had been very good at: he openly welcomed foreign visitors to his court. Of course, the most notable of these was the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, who spent an incredible 17 years in the Yuan court, immersing himself in the culture of the Chinese and Mongols, and providing one of the best first-hand accounts of life in medieval China for westerners.
Foreign Policy Failures
However, it was not all sunshine and rainbows during Kublai Khan’s reign. He did experience some serious setbacks in terms of foreign policy, which might seem unusual given his experience.
Firstly, in 1274, he attempted to invade Japan by sea, which was a naval disaster. The Japanese successfully defended their country against the invading Yuan navy, and Kublai again ordered his navy to invade Japan once more in 1281, which also failed.
Perhaps the lesson learned in this instance was that the Japanese—a seafaring people in the Middle Ages—had significantly more naval experience than the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
The second attempted invasion of Japan was even worse than the first. An estimated 140,000 Mongol and Yuan soldiers set out to take on the invasion but their ships were hit by a mighty typhoon. Approximately 70,000 of the men died in the wreckage off the coast or drowned at sea. The Japanese took this as a divine sign of their godly-given right to rule over their own lands.
Kublai Khan was also keen to take territory further south, this time in Indonesia. In 1293, he ordered an invasion of Java, which again ended in failure. This time it was not due to storms at sea, but rather his Yuan troops’ inability to deal with tropical diseases, conditions, and terrain.
Kublai Khan’s Final Years
The aging Kublai Khan began to prepare for his death long before it happened. In 1291, he sent his grandson, Gammala, to Burkhan Khaldun to ensure his claim to Ikh Khorig, which was the same place where Genghis Khan was buried.
The death of his wife was another turning point in Kublai Khan’s later years, as well as the death of his chosen heir, Zhenjin, in 1286. Kublai grieved greatly for these personal losses and turned to food and alcohol for comfort.
He ballooned in size, becoming extremely obese and dependent on alcohol, eventually suffering from both diabetes and gout as a result of his declining health conditions.
He succumbed to his illnesses, but not before trying every available remedy, from Korean shamans to Vietnamese doctors, and eventually, he could not even take part in the New Year celebrations of 1293 because he was so ill.
He named Temür, Zhenjin’s son, as his heir before he died, and Temür would go on to rule as the second Yuan Emperor.
Kublai Khan died on February 18, 1294, aged 78. On February 20, his body was taken to the traditional burial place of the Khans in Mongolia, the exact location of which is still unknown to this day.
Kublai Khan’s Legacy
Without a shadow of a doubt, Kublai Khan was one of the greatest Mongol leaders of all time.
While his early years were dominated by service to his older brothers and the Mongol Golden Horde, he really came into his element when it came to his leadership characteristics and nature, and the influence of Chinese culture and customs was clear to see throughout his reign.
The Yuan Dynasty would go on to rule China until 1368, and this was largely thanks to Kublai’s introduction of new technologies which helped the empire thrive.
Kublai Khan was one of the greatest Mongol and medieval leaders of all time.
