Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty and conquers Song China
- Date
- 1271 CE (conquest completed 1279)
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- China (East Asia)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
In 1271 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, proclaimed the Yuan dynasty, adopting a Chinese dynastic name and claiming the Mandate of Heaven and orthodox succession from earlier Chinese dynasties.
Ruling from Dadu (modern Beijing), he pressed the long war against the Southern Song, whose resistance crumbled after the fall of the fortress of Xiangyang and the campaigns of the general Bayan. Most Song territory fell by 1276, and the dynasty was extinguished at the naval Battle of Yamen in 1279, making Kublai the first non-Han ruler to govern all of China. The Yuan reunified China after centuries of division and bound it into the Mongol world-empire, opening the country to unprecedented overland and maritime exchange of goods, people and ideas. Kublai patronised diverse religions and employed foreign administrators, while maintaining ethnic hierarchies that privileged Mongols and Central Asians over the Chinese majority.
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Empires active in 1271 CE (conquest completed 1279)
- Mongol Empire1206 CE – 1368 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Kilwa Sultanate957 CE – 1505 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Temüjin proclaimed Genghis Khan, uniting the Mongols1206 CE
- Founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica1325 CE
- Magna Carta limits the English crown15 June 1215
- Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Great Law of Peacec. 1450 (scholarly estimate; oral tradition as early as 1142)
- Foundation of the Vijayanagara Empire1336 CE
- Founding of the Delhi Sultanate under Qutb al-Din Aibak1206 CE
Further reading
The wider story
The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China
Accessible survey of Song China (Harvard History of Imperial China).
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