Kublai Khan, founder of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

, led several campaigns during the

Mongol invasions and conquests The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

. These included the

Mongol invasions of Japan Major military efforts were taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty in 1274 and 1281 to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of m ...

First Mongol invasion of Burma The first Mongol invasions of Burma (Myanmar) (Burmese: မွန်ဂို–မြန်မာ စစ် (၁၂၇၇–၁၂၈၇); Chinese: 元緬戰爭) were a series of military conflicts between Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty, a divi ...

Mongol invasion of Java The Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan attempted in 1292 to invade Java, an island in modern Indonesia, with 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. This was intended as a punitive expedition against Kertanegara of Singhasari, who had refused to pay tribute to ...

, second and third Mongol invasions of Vietnam, and Mongol invasion of Champa.

Campaigns against Song dynasty

The campaign for Kublai Khan to conquer southern China under the Southern Song dynasty were specified under the years between 1266 and 1276. This included the declaration of Kublai Khan as the new

emperor of China ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heav ...

in the year 1271 This was the start of the Yuan dynasty that was a rule incorporated with elements of both

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

and

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

influences. After successfully eliminating all resistance to the new Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khan wanted to expand his empire by attacking Japan and built around 300-600 vessels in preparation for the assault on Japan.

Campaign against Korea

Campaigns against Japan

Kublai Khan's armada in 1274 made a tactical mistake by sailing into open seas that became targets for the Japanese cannons. Suffering heavy losses, the remaining fleet retreated and prepared for next assault again on 1281. Again on 1281, the Japanese samurais were more than prepared to hold off an invasion attempt by the Kublai Khan's fleet, and which they did so with great success.Winters, Harold ''et al.'' (2001). Even though the campaign failed in the end due to stiff Japanese resistance, Kublai Khan's campaigns saw the development of gunpowder as a form of weaponry.

Campaigns against Burma, Java and Vietnam

Besides the Song dynasty and Japan, Kublai Khan also launched campaigns against

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. A series of military conflicts between the Yuan dynasty and the Pagan Empire took place between 1277 and 1287, collectively known as the

. The invasion toppled the 250-year-old Pagan Empire and the Yuan dynasty annexed

Upper Burma Upper Myanmar ( my, အထက်မြန်မာပြည်, also called Upper Burma) is a geographic region of Myanmar, traditionally encompassing Mandalay and its periphery (modern Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway Regions), or more broadly speak ...

. However, Yuan invasions of both Java and Vietnam resulted in failure. Nevertheless, both the

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty, ( Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳）also known as the House of Trần, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thá ...

(

Đại Việt Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), often known as Annam ( vi, An Nam, Chữ Hán: 安南), was a monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day H ...

) and Champa decided to accept the nominal supremacy of the Yuan dynasty in order to avoid further conflicts.

References

{{Yuan dynasty topics 13th century in China 13th century in Japan 13th-century conflicts Invasions of China Invasions of Japan Invasions of Myanmar Invasions of Vietnam Military campaigns involving China Wars involving Imperial China Wars involving Japan Wars involving Myanmar Wars involving Vietnam Song dynasty Wars involving the Yuan dynasty History of Java Invasions by the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan