Mongol Conquest of China
The Mongol conquest of China proceeded in two phases separated by fifty years: Genghis Khan began campaigns against the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China in 1211, capturing Zhongdu (modern Beijing) in 1215 but not completing the conquest before his death in 1227. The conquest of the Jin was completed by Ögedei Khan in 1234. The Southern Song, protected by the Yangtze River and a sophisticated naval defence, resisted until Kublai Khan's campaigns of the 1270s finally overwhelmed it; Hangzhou fell in 1276 and the last Song emperor died in 1279. The Mongol Yuan dynasty that Kublai established administered the largest state China had ever been — reunifying the northern and southern halves that had been divided since 1127 — but the conquest's demographic cost, particularly in northern China where perhaps 30–40 million people died through war, famine, and epidemic, was catastrophic.
- Year: 1211 CE
- Category: Conquest
