Kublai Khan was the first significant non-Chinese to rule over the entire Chinese empire. He also had a goal to rule the entire world.
Like his grandfather, Genghis Khan, he defeated and crushed his enemies with brutal force.
However, after the conquest, he ruled his empire peacefully setting up governments and creating systems of taxation while promoting culture and commerce.
He also made Beijing the capital of the biggest empire the world has ever seen.
Kublai Khan’s empire stretched from the East China Sea to the Danube River in Europe – more than five thousand miles or eight thousand kilometers from east to west.
His military career started late in his life but his skills as a conqueror were the best.
In addition, throughout his reign, he courted the most sophisticated, intellectual, scientific and artistic minds of the day.
The Mongols were a nomadic people and Kublai Khan’s skills as a military leader would eventually lead to the conquest of the Song Dynasty of Southern China.
One of greatest influences over Kublai Khan while he was a child was his mother. Mongol women often fought beside their men and ruled tribes and territories. She insisted that he be educated in Chinese culture.
Continued in the Yuan Dynasty – Part 2
______________
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.
iLook China 
[…] Beijing wouldn’t become the capital of China until 1279 AD during the Yuan Dynasty when Kublai Khan was emperor. […]
[…] China was conquered and ruled by minorities. The first time was by the Mongols led by Kublai Khan. His Yuan Dynasty was short lived, lasting 89 years from 1279 to 1368 AD. After Kublai Khan’s wife died, he isolated himself from […]