AP World History: Modern

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain how Mongol succession worked and why it often caused conflict
- Identify the role of the **kurultai** in choosing a Great Khan
- Understand how **appanage** and **ulus** divisions weakened central control
- Recall the key succession crises from **1206** to the **1260s**
- Distinguish between political fragmentation and continued exchange under the **Pax Mongolica**
- Compare the **Yuan dynasty**, **Ilkhanate**, **Chagatai Khanate**, and **Golden Horde**
- Use this topic in causation, comparison, and continuity-and-change arguments on the AP exam

## AP World History: Modern Syllabus

For the AP World History: Modern, you are expected to understand Mongol imperial succession and the rise of successor khanates, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **Temujin** was proclaimed **Genghis Khan** in **1206** and died in **1227**
- Identify that Mongol succession did not follow strict primogeniture and required elite recognition, often through a **kurultai**
- Explain how the deaths of **Ögedei** in **1241**, **Güyük** in **1248**, and **Möngke** in **1259** created succession struggles
- Understand that the **Toluid Civil War** of **1260–1264** was a major turning point in Mongol fragmentation
- Identify the four major successor khanates: **Yuan dynasty**, **Ilkhanate**, **Chagatai Khanate**, and **Golden Horde**
- Explain how **appanage** grants and **ulus** divisions gave regional rulers their own power bases
- Understand that the Mongol Empire fragmented politically while Eurasian trade often continued under the **Pax Mongolica**
- Distinguish how different khanates adapted to local cultures, especially in China, Persia, Central Asia, and Russia

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did Mongol succession often lead to conflict instead of smooth inheritance?
2. What was a **kurultai**, and why did it matter for legitimacy?
3. Name the four major Mongol khanates.
4. How did **Möngke’s** death in **1259** change the history of the empire?
5. How could the Mongol Empire fragment politically while still supporting long-distance trade?

## Introduction

The Mongol Empire was one of the largest land empires in world history. For AP World Unit 2, it matters not only because of conquest, but because it connected Eurasia more closely than before. Its rulers promoted safer movement across much of the Silk Road, encouraged exchange of goods and ideas, and helped create what historians call the **Pax Mongolica**.

At the same time, the empire was unstable at the top. Mongol rulers did not follow a simple eldest-son inheritance pattern. Succession depended on family politics, military support, and elite recognition. That system helped the empire expand quickly under strong leaders, but it also made fragmentation likely after those leaders died.

> **Key Term: imperial succession**
> The process by which a new ruler takes power after the death of a previous ruler.

### How Mongol succession worked

The Mongol Empire began when **Temujin** united steppe tribes and was proclaimed **Genghis Khan** in **1206**. His success depended on personal authority, military skill, and loyalty networks. But after such a ruler died, the question became: who had the right to rule the whole empire?

The answer was not simple inheritance by the eldest son. The Mongols expected a new supreme ruler to be accepted by leading princes and nobles. This usually happened through a political assembly.

> **Key Term: kurultai**
> An assembly of Mongol elites that chose or recognized a new khan.

A kurultai gave legitimacy, but it also encouraged rivalry. Different branches of the ruling family could support different candidates. Because the empire was so large, each branch also had troops, followers, and territory of its own. That meant succession disputes were never just debates. They could become wars.

Genghis Khan died in **1227**. His son **Ögedei** became Great Khan in **1229**, and under him the empire continued major expansion. This period shows that Mongol unity was possible when a successor gained broad acceptance.

After Ögedei died in **1241**, the system became much less stable. His widow, **Töregene Khatun**, ruled as regent while succession was unsettled. She worked to secure the throne for her son **Güyük**, who was finally elected Great Khan in **1246**. This delay already showed a key weakness: regency politics and factional struggle could interrupt central authority.

Güyük then died in **1248**, producing another crisis. After more struggle, **Möngke**, from the line of Tolui, became Great Khan in **1251**. His victory mattered because it shifted power toward the **Toluid** branch of the family.

> **Key Term: regency**
> Temporary rule by a person acting on behalf of a ruler or before a new ruler is chosen.
>
> **Test Tip:** For AP causation questions, do not say “the empire split because a ruler died” and stop there. Go one step further: explain that death created a disputed succession, and disputed succession exposed the weakness of the imperial structure.

### Why appanages and ulus made fragmentation more likely

The Mongol Empire was ruled by one dynasty, but it was never a tightly centralized modern state. Genghis Khan and his successors divided lands, peoples, and revenues among family branches. This helped govern a huge empire, but it also gave princes their own bases of power.

> **Key Term: appanage**
> A grant of land, revenue, or resources given to members of a ruling family.
>
> **Key Term: ulus**
> The domain, territory, or polity controlled by a particular branch of the Chinggisid ruling family.

These arrangements made sense in a steppe empire built through conquest. Relatives of the ruling house expected rewards, and the empire was too large to manage from one place alone. But the same system encouraged decentralization. A prince with his own appanage and ulus had money, followers, armies, and local interests. He was not simply an obedient provincial official.

This is why AP students should connect political structure to succession conflict. The kurultai made succession negotiated, not automatic. Appanages and ulus gave rival claimants real strength. Together, these features made civil war more likely.

The role of women in this system also mattered. Powerful regents such as **Töregene Khatun** and **Oghul Qaimish**, and political figures such as **Sorghaghtani Beki**, shaped outcomes through alliances, patronage, and household control. This is an important reminder that Mongol politics did not exclude elite women.

A good AP argument is that fragmentation was not caused by one event alone. Distance mattered. Family rivalry mattered. Local adaptation mattered. But succession institutions made these problems harder to contain.

### The turning point: Möngke’s death and the Toluid Civil War

The single most important succession crisis came after **Möngke** died in **1259** while campaigning against the Song in China. His death created an open contest between his brothers **Kublai Khan** and **Ariq Böke**.

In **1260**, rival kurultais supported rival claimants. Ariq Böke controlled **Karakorum**, the old Mongol heartland, and had stronger support from more traditional steppe factions. Kublai had a power base in North China and support from elites tied to the Chinese frontier.

> **Key Term: Toluid Civil War**
> The succession war of **1260–1264** between **Kublai Khan** and **Ariq Böke** after the death of **Möngke Khan**.

This war mattered for several reasons.

First, it shattered the idea that one universally accepted Great Khan would always emerge. Two rival rulers claimed supreme authority at the same time. Even though Kublai eventually won in **1264**, the office of Great Khan never fully recovered its earlier power.

Second, the war encouraged regional rulers to act more independently. If the center itself was divided, why obey it fully? The regional branches increasingly pursued their own interests.

Third, other Mongol conflicts overlapped with the succession struggle. The most famous was the conflict between **Berke** of the **Golden Horde** and **Hülegü** of the **Ilkhanate** in the **1260s**. Their war showed that regional rivalry could outweigh wider Mongol unity.

Kublai remained Great Khan in theory, but in practice the major khanates acted with growing independence. This is a distinction AP students should use carefully. Do not write that the empire instantly broke into four fully separate states in one moment. The change was gradual. Shared ancestry and some diplomatic recognition remained. But real political unity weakened sharply after **1259–1264**.

> **Test Tip:** If a prompt asks for a turning point, use **1259–1264**. Explain what changed before and after: before, one Great Khan still had stronger practical authority; after, unity became increasingly symbolic.

### The four major khanates

By the later thirteenth century, four major successor khanates stood out. All claimed descent from Genghis Khan, but each adapted to a different region.

#### Yuan dynasty in China

**Kublai Khan** established the **Yuan dynasty** in **1271**. He ruled as a Mongol conqueror but also as a Chinese emperor. This was the most direct form of Mongol rule over a major sedentary civilization.

The Yuan recentralized China after the conquest of the Song. Mongol rulers kept their own privileges, but they also used Chinese governing practices, supported bureaucracy, repaired infrastructure, and promoted trade. This combination helps explain why AP questions often treat the Yuan as both foreign and deeply shaped by Chinese custom.

The Yuan was overthrown by the **Ming** in **1368**.

#### Ilkhanate in Persia and Iraq

**Hülegü**, another grandson of Genghis Khan, founded the **Ilkhanate**. Its most famous early act was the **sack of Baghdad in 1258**, which ended Abbasid political dominance there.

Over time, the Ilkhanate became increasingly Persianized in administration and later Islamic in religion. This is a key AP point: Mongol conquerors often adapted to local traditions rather than replacing them entirely.

#### Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia

The **Chagatai Khanate** developed in Central Asia under the descendants of **Chagatai**, one of Genghis Khan’s sons. It controlled important sections of inland trade routes and retained stronger steppe features than some other khanates.

Later, it too became more Islamic. Central Asia remained an important link in Eurasian exchange, even after full imperial unity faded.

#### Golden Horde in the western steppes and Rus’

The **Golden Horde**, linked to the line of **Jochi** and figures such as **Batu** and later **Berke**, ruled the western steppes and extracted tribute from Russian principalities.

This is a useful comparison point with the Yuan. In China, Mongols ruled more directly. In Rus’, they often ruled indirectly through tribute extraction and vassal princes.

> **Key Term: Golden Horde**
> The Mongol successor state in the western steppes that dominated Russian principalities through tribute and military pressure.

### Fragmentation and the Pax Mongolica

Students often think political breakup meant the end of Mongol importance. That is too simple. The empire fragmented politically, but exchange often continued.

The Mongols had already made long-distance movement easier by protecting routes, policing trade zones, and maintaining relay communications such as the **yam** system. Even after the rise of separate khanates, those links did not vanish overnight.

> **Key Term: Pax Mongolica**
> A period of relative stability under Mongol rule that encouraged trade, travel, and exchange across much of Eurasia.

This matters for AP themes, especially **ECN** and **TEC**. The Mongol world helped the movement of technologies, ideas, merchants, and disease. The Black Death later spread across these same connected routes.

But this “Mongol peace” should not be overstated. It depended on stability. Inter-khanate conflict weakened it. The Berke-Hülegü struggle is the clearest example. So a strong AP answer will qualify the claim: the Mongols linked Eurasia, but the strength of those links declined when dynastic rivalry intensified.

In continuity-and-change terms, one major continuity was **Chinggisid legitimacy**. All the khanates still claimed descent from Genghis Khan. One major change was the loss of effective centralized rule.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- **Genghis Khan** was proclaimed ruler in **1206**, creating the basis of the Mongol Empire
- Mongol succession did not follow strict primogeniture
- A **kurultai** was used to choose or recognize a new khan
- **Ögedei** became Great Khan in **1229**
- Succession crises followed the deaths of **Ögedei** in **1241**, **Güyük** in **1248**, and **Möngke** in **1259**
- **Appanage** grants and **ulus** divisions gave Mongol princes regional power bases
- **Möngke’s** death triggered the **Toluid Civil War** between **Kublai** and **Ariq Böke**
- The four major successor states were the **Yuan dynasty**, **Ilkhanate**, **Chagatai Khanate**, and **Golden Horde**
- The **Yuan** ruled China more directly, while the **Golden Horde** often ruled Rus’ through tribute extraction
- The **Ilkhanate** became increasingly Persianized and Islamic
- Political fragmentation did not immediately end exchange across Eurasia
- The **Pax Mongolica** helps explain continued trade and cultural transfer even after imperial unity weakened

## Key Terms and Concepts

- imperial succession
- kurultai
- regency
- appanage
- ulus
- Toluid Civil War
- Golden Horde
- Pax Mongolica


The Mongol Empire and the Making of the Modern World - Mongol khanates and imperial succession