| 1206 | Mongol Empire | Having unified most of the Mongol peoples under his leadership, the Mongol conqueror Temüjin adopts the title Genghis (or Chingis) Khan (‘Universal Khan’) at the quriltai (Mongol assembly) in the spring, founding the Mongol Empire. |
| 1208 | Mongol Empire | At the Battle of the Irtysh, the Mongol leader Genghis Khan defeats Gushluk, leader of the Naiman tribe, completing his unification of the Mongol peoples. |
| 1215 | Mongol Empire, Jin Empire, China | The Mongol leader Genghis Khan captures and sacks Beijing, the former capital of the Jin Empire (the Jin have recently moved their capital to Kaifeng to escape Mongol attacks); its population is massacred. |
| 24 November 1221 | Khwarizm, Mongol Empire, India, Delhi Sultanate | The shah of the central Asian province of Khwarizm, Jalal-ad-Din, defeats the Mongols under Kutikonian at Parvan (near modern Kabul, Afghanistan). The Mongol leader Genghis Khan quickly avenges the defeat, destroying Jalal-ad-Din's army at Bamian (in present-day Afghanistan); Jalal-ad-Din flees to India with the Mongols in pursuit. After defeating Jalal-ad-Din again on the River Indus, Genghis Khan withdraws his forces to avoid war with the Sultanate of Delhi. |
| 6 June 1222 | Mongol Empire, Khwarizm | The Mongol leader Genghis Khan takes the city of Herat and massacres its population, completing his conquest of the Khwarizm shahdom (modern Iran, Afghanistan, and part of Central Asia). |
| 1226 | China, Mongol Empire | The Mongol leader Genghis Khan conquers the Tangut state of Xixia (now in northwest China), destroying the Tangut army in a battle on the frozen Huang He River (or Yellow River). |
| 15 August 1231 | Khwarizm, Mongol Empire, Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, Georgia | Jalal-ad-Din, Shah of Khwarizm, is murdered while fleeing a new Mongol invasion. Kay-Qubadh, Sultan of Rum, now occupies Ahlat and Queen Rusudan of Georgia reoccupies the Georgian capital Tbilisi (modern Tbilisi); the Mongols conquer the rest of his shahdom. |
| 1234 | Jin Empire, Mongol Empire, China | Jin resistance to the Mongol invasions is finally crushed. |
| 1236 | Mongol Empire | A Mongol army led by Batu, a grandson of the Mongol leader Genghis Khan, conquers the Volga Bulgars. |
| 1236 | Georgia, Mongol Empire | The kingdom of Georgia is conquered by the Mongols and reduced to tributary status. |
| 4 March 1238 | Mongol Empire, Russia | Juri (Yury) II, Great Prince of Vladimir–Suzdal, is defeated and killed by the Mongols under Batu on the Sita, near Yaroslavl (which is subsequently sacked). The spring thaw begins shortly afterwards, making the terrain impassable and halting the Mongol advance on Novgorod. Batu then withdraws to the Don basin. |
| 6 December 1240 | Mongol Empire, Kiev | The Mongol leader Batu takes and sacks the Russian principality of Kiev, then ravages the principality of Galicia, also called Red Ruthenia. |
| 9 April 1241 | Mongol Empire, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Holy Roman Empire | After sacking Kraków, a Mongol army led by Khaidu defeats the Poles, Silesians, and Teutonic Knights at Legnica in Poland. Grand Prince Henry II the Pious of Poland is killed. The Mongols next ravage Silesia and, when repulsed by the Bohemians, they go through Moravia into Hungary. |
| 11 April 1241 | Mongol Empire, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, Holy Roman Empire | The main Mongol army, under Batu, defeats the Hungarians at Mohi on the River Sajo: they ravage the Danube plain, but are repulsed at Grobnok by the Croatians. A crusade is proclaimed against them in Germany. |
| 1242 | Mongol Empire, Russia | Batu withdraws the Mongol army from central Europe in the spring in order to return to the Mongol capital, Karakorum, to elect the late Great Khan Ogedai's successor: a four-year interregnum follows. Batu now organizes the Mongol territories in Russia as a semi-autonomous state, known as The Khanate of the Golden Horde (supposedly named after the colour of the khan's tent). |
| 26 June 1243 | Mongol Empire, Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, Georgia | The Mongols defeat Kay-Khusraw II, Sultan of Rum, and his Byzantine allies at Köse Dagh, near Erzinjan; he becomes their tributary, as does Queen Rusadan of Georgia. |
| 1253 | Central Asia | Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan and younger brother of Great Khan Mongka, begins his conquest of the Islamic empire. His army is larger than that of Genghis Khan and contains contingents from all the Mongol princes. |
| 1253 | China, Dai Viet | The Mongol leader Kublai Khan conquers the kingdom of Nanchao in Yunnan, south China. Its Thai people migrate to Thailand. He also attacks Dai Viet (modern northern Vietnam, also known as Annam). |
| 19 December 1256 | Persia | A Mongol army under Hulagu, recently appointed ilkhan of Persia, besieges the stronghold of the Assassins (militant branch of the Islamic Ismaili sect) at Alamut in the Elburz Mountains. Their grand master, Rukn-ad-Din Kurshah, surrenders and is put to death. The Mongols now annihilate the Assassins in Persia. |
| 1257 | Dai Viet | The Mongols sack the city of Hanoi but Tran Thai-tong forces them to leave Dai Viet (modern northern Vietnam). |
| 20 February 1258 | Persia | The last Abbasid caliph (Islamic ruler of Persia) al-Musta'sim and his family are put to death on the Mongol leader Hulagu's orders. |
| 1 March 1260 | Syria, Ayyubid Sultanate, Mongol Empire | The city of Damascus surrenders to the Mongols, who now occupy all Syria, extinguishing the Ayyubid Sultanate. The Mongol leader Hulagu is soon forced to withdraw most of his forces because of a succession dispute. |
| 1261 | Mongol Empire, China | The Mongol leader Kublai Khan establishes his supremacy as great khan. He continues the conquest of China, where Beijing is rebuilt as his winter capital. |
| 1273 | China | The Mongols take the Chinese twin cities of Xiangyang after a five-year siege. This is an important set-back for the Chinese Song dynasty. |
| 1274 | China, Japan | A fleet sent by Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, to conquer Japan is repulsed at Hakata Bay and subsequently destroyed by a storm. |
| 1276 | China | Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, takes Hangzhou, the Song dynasty capital, after a failed attempt by the empress dowager to achieve an accommodation with the Mongols. |
| 1279 | China | Kublai Khan completes the Mongol conquest of China with a naval victory near Macau. The southern Chinese Song dynasty is extinguished. |
| 15 August 1281 | China, Japan | A second fleet sent by Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, to conquer Japan is destroyed by a typhoon in Hakata Bay. The grateful Japanese call it kamikaze (divine wind). |
| 1287 | Dai Viet, Burma, Pagan | The army of Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, is repelled during its attempted invasion of Dai Viet (modern northern Vietnam), but then invades Burma (now Myanmar) and destroys the kingdom of Pagan. The fall of Pagan allows the emergence of several principalities of the Thais, who have recently been moving southwards into Burma and Cambodia, while Burma itself is divided into three states. |
| 1293 | Serbia | The Mongols, under Nogay, Khan of the ‘Nogay Horde’ (between the Dnieper and Danube rivers), invade Serbia. King Stephen Uroš becomes Nogay's vassal. |
| 1300 | Burma | The Shans in Burma defeat a punitive Mongol expedition from China, following Burmese rebellion after the death of Kublai Khan in 1294. |
| 1326 | Champa | With Mongol support, Che A-nan defeats the kingdom of Dai Viet (modern northern Vietnam) and rules the kingdom of Champa (southern Vietnam) independently. |
| 1359 | Russia | Berdibeg, Khan of the ‘Golden Horde’, is murdered and is succeeded by his brother Kulpa. This initiates the ‘great troubles’, a period of turmoil within the ‘Horde’. |
| 1360 | Central Asia | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), the great khan, begins his conquest of Transoxiana (modern Uzbekistan), the region in which he was born, with the seizure of Kesh, near Samarkand, from Ilyas Khoja, the governor of the region for the khanate of Kashgar. |
| 1361 | Russia | Nevruz, Khan of the ‘Golden Horde’, is murdered and succeeded by Khidyr. The ‘Horde’ is now disintegrating, with its court tied up with succession disputes. |
| 1363 | Lithuania, Mongol Empire | King Olgierd of Lithuania defeats Mongol forces near the mouth of the River Bug and progresses to the Black Sea. |
| 8 September 1380 | Russia | Dmitri III of Moscow, Russia, Grand Duke of Vladimir, leads the Russians to victory over the ‘Golden Horde’ at Kulikovo Pole, on the upper River Don, Russia. The supremacy of Moscow in Russia is thus confirmed. |
| 1382 | China | Hung-wu, Ming emperor of China, completes the conquest of China and finally expels the Mongols. |
| 26 August 1382 | Russia, Khanate of the Golden Horde | Tokhtamysh, Khan of the ‘Golden Horde’, sacks Moscow, Russia, and then withdraws after having restored his suzerainty over Russia. |
| 1393 | Mongol Empire, Russia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Khanate of the Golden Horde | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), Grand Amir of the Mongols, campaigns against the ‘Golden Horde’ in Russia, reaching Moscow. He also completes his conquest of Persia and Mesopotamia, extinguishing the last independent Mongol dynasties. |
| 26 August 1395 | Mongol Empire, Russia, Khanate of the Golden Horde | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), Grand Amir of the Mongols, abandons his campaign against Moscow, Russia, having destroyed the economy of the ‘Golden Horde’. |
| January–March 1399 | Mongol Empire, India | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), Grand Amir of the Mongols, continues his massacres and ravages in India, causing a famine. |
| 1400 | Mongol Empire, Mameluke Sultanate, Syria | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), Grand Amir of the Mongols, defeats the Mameluke Egyptians at Aleppo and Damascus and sacks the cities of Syria. |
| 1404 | Mongol Empire, Ottoman Empire | Timur Leng (Tamerlane), Grand Amir of the Mongols, leaves Anatolia, having reinstated the Turkish princes and thus dismembered the Ottoman Empire. |
