The Mongols Conquer China and Found the Yuan Dynasty
Kublai Khan completes the conquest his grandfather Genghis Khan began
Quick facts
- Conquest completed
- 19 March 1279, Battle of Yaishan
- Ruler
- Kublai Khan
- Dynasty span
- 1271-1368
- Succeeded by
- Ming dynasty, 1368
What happened
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, continued the Mongol conquest of China begun decades earlier, benefiting from Song generals who defected and from infighting within the Song imperial court over its child emperor. Mongol forces took the Southern Song capital in 1276, and though loyalists fought on for three more years installing two more boy emperors, a decisive naval battle at Yaishan near modern Macao on 19 March 1279 ended organized Song resistance, unifying China under foreign rule for the first time since the 9th century. Kublai's Yuan dynasty officially ranked Mongols above Chinese subjects in status, even as it promoted international trade and brought a measure of stability and prosperity within its borders. Mongol rule ended in the mid-14th century after infighting, corrupt administration, and repeated floods and famines fed peasant uprisings, culminating in the Red Turban Movement that toppled the Yuan and installed the Ming dynasty in 1368.
Why it matters
The Yuan dynasty marked the only time before the modern era that all of China was ruled by a foreign conquest dynasty from Inner Asia, embedding Mongol administrative practices and reopening long-distance Eurasian trade routes under the wider Mongol Empire's protection. Its collapse under the weight of factional fighting and natural disaster became a textbook case, cited by the following Ming founders, of a dynasty losing the Mandate of Heaven through misgovernment.
How we know
The final Yuan conquest and the Battle of Yaishan are recorded in Yuan and later Ming dynastic histories; Kublai Khan's court itself is also documented by foreign visitors' accounts from the period.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Yuan Dynasty · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Yuan Dynasty · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Mongol Empire → · See the wider Mongol Empire timeline for Genghis Khan's earlier campaigns and the empire's other khanates.