Temüjin proclaimed Genghis Khan, uniting the Mongols
- Date
- 1206 CE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Mongolian steppe (Central Asia)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
At a great kurultai (assembly) on the Onon River in 1206, the steppe chieftain Temüjin was proclaimed Genghis Khan, supreme ruler of a newly unified Mongol nation (the Yeke Mongghol Ulus).
Having spent decades defeating rival confederations such as the Tatars, Keraites, Naimans and Merkits, he dissolved old tribal loyalties and reorganised the nomads into a decimal military structure of units of ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand (the tumen), binding warriors directly to him and his appointed commanders. He promulgated a body of law, the Yassa, and established a loyal imperial guard. This act of unification welded the fractious steppe peoples into a single, highly mobile, disciplined fighting force and laid the institutional foundation for the largest contiguous land empire in history. Within a single generation the Mongol state launched campaigns that would reshape Eurasia, from China to the gates of Europe.
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Empires active in 1206 CE
- Jurchen Jin Dynasty1115 CE – 1234 CE
- Mongol Empire1206 CE – 1368 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE – 1279 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty and conquers Song China1271 CE (conquest completed 1279)
- Founding of the Delhi Sultanate under Qutb al-Din Aibak1206 CE
- Magna Carta limits the English crown15 June 1215
- Founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica1325 CE
- 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
Further reading
The wider story
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
The popular bestseller that reframed the Mongol legacy.
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