162 Years of MONGOL History in 16 Minutes

Twice, the most feared army on Earth stopped mid-campaign and went home, because a great Khan had just died. This is the Mongol Empire, 1206 to 1368, in 16 minutes. From a hungry boy named Temujin to the fall of the Yuan dynasty, this animated documentary follows 162 years of Mongol history through the one question the empire never solved: who is next? You will see how Genghis Khan rebuilt the steppe into a new kind of army, how his sons and grandsons conquered from Korea to Hungary, and how four succession crises split the largest connected land empire in history into four khanates. We also look honestly at the cost of the conquests, the myths, and how the Ming dynasty ended Mongol rule in China in 1368. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Army That Went Home 00:40 The Span: 1206 to 1368 01:00 The Thread: Who Is Next? 01:34 The Steppe Before the Mongols 01:53 Temujin, a Hungry Boy 02:35 Borte, the Merkits and Jochi 03:02 Jamukha and the Rise to Power 03:25 1206: Genghis Khan and a New Army 04:15 Walls: Western Xia and the Jin 05:16 Khwarezm and the Otrar Caravan 05:43 Who Is Next? The Sons Argue 06:22 Bukhara, Samarkand and the Shah 06:57 The Cost of Conquest 07:46 The Death of Genghis Khan 08:18 Succession Check One: Ögedei 08:50 Into Europe: Rus, Poland, Hungary 09:19 Why They Turned Back 09:36 Regents, Güyük and the Purge 09:58 Life on the Steppe and the Five Arrows 10:44 Möngke, Baghdad and Syria 11:25 Ain Jalut: The Check That Broke the Empire 12:12 Two Great Khans, One Civil War 12:33 The Four Khanates 12:59 Kublai Khan and the Yuan Dynasty 13:31 After Kublai: The Revolving Door 14:06 Floods, Red Turbans and the Ming 14:40 What Survived 14:52 Myth Check 15:27 The Final Tally 16:03 Your Turn SOURCES AND FURTHER READING The Secret History of the Mongols, translated by Igor de Rachewiltz (Brill) Timothy May, The Mongol Conquests in World History (Reaktion Books) David Morgan, The Mongols (Blackwell) Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410 (Longman / Routledge) Michal Biran, Chinggis Khan (Oneworld) Morris Rossabi, Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times (University of California Press) Reuven Amitai-Preiss, Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281 (Cambridge University Press) Thomas T. Allsen, Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia (Cambridge University Press) Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Mongol empire" Correction: the narration says the double election of Kublai and Ariq Böke happened in 1262. It took place in 1260. ABOUT PREVIOUSLY Previously tells the big stories of history in minutes: animated, sourced, and honest about what historians still argue about. Subscribe for the next story, and tell us in the comments which one you want told next. #MongolEmpire #GenghisKhan #History #KublaiKhan #Documentary #Animation