The Mongol tribes were united in 1206, when Temüjin, the son of the Kiyat chieftain Yesugei, was proclaimed as Genghis Khan at a great kurultai on the banks of the Onon River. The date 1206 is conventionally used to mark the beginning of the Mongol Empire, and it is one of the most important dates in the history of the medieval world.
The unification of 1206 was the result of a long process, not a single event. Temüjin had been building his power for more than two decades, from the late 1180s, when he was a young man in his twenties, to the spring of 1206, when he was the unquestioned master of the Mongolian plateau. The process involved a series of wars against the various Mongol tribes and the larger non-Mongol powers of the steppe, a series of political alliances, and a series of institutional reforms that transformed the structure of Mongol society.
The Process of Unification
The first stage of the unification was the defeat of the smaller Mongol tribes that had previously been part of the Khamag confederation. Temüjin defeated the Tayichiud, the Kerey, the Onggirat, and other small tribes in the late 1180s and early 1190s, either by military conquest or by diplomatic pressure.
The second stage was the defeat of the larger non-Mongol powers of the steppe. The Tartar (Tatar) confederation was broken in a series of campaigns in 1196, 1200, and 1202. The Keraite state, ruled by Toghrul, was defeated in 1203. The Naiman, the western steppe confederation, was defeated in 1204. The Merkit, the persistent western enemy, was finally broken in 1205.
The third stage was the kurultai of 1206, which was the formal proclamation of the unified Mongol state. The kurultai was held in the spring of 1206, on the banks of the Onon River in the Khentii Mountains. The assembly was attended by the leaders of all the major Mongol tribes, and the choice of Temüjin as Genghis Khan was unanimous.
The Significance of 1206
The date 1206 is one of the most important dates in the history of the medieval world. Within a single generation of the proclamation, the Mongols had conquered most of Eurasia, from the Pacific to the Carpathians. The empire that was founded in 1206 was the largest contiguous land empire in the history of the world, and it dominated the political life of Eurasia for the next century and a half.
The year 1206 is also significant because it marked the beginning of a new kind of state. The Mongol Empire was not merely a tribal confederation or a federation of steppe peoples; it was a centralized state with a decimal army, a written legal code, and an imperial administration. The institutions that were created in 1206 — the Yassa, the keshig, the imperial administration, the postal relays — survived the death of Genghis Khan and continued to define the Mongol state for the next century and a half.
The Mongol Calendar and 1206
The year 1206 is the Year of the Tiger in the traditional Mongol twelve-year calendar, a cycle that begins with the Year of the Mouse and proceeds through the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. The Year of the Tiger is traditionally associated with courage, ambition, and the willingness to take risks, and the founding of the Mongol Empire in a Year of the Tiger was considered by the Mongols to be of great significance.
The traditional Mongol calendar, also known as the “twelve animal cycle,” is still used in Mongolia and in parts of Central Asia. The cycle is a feature of many Inner Asian cultures, including the Turkic, Tibetan, and Chinese cultures, and it is one of the cultural legacies of the Mongol Empire that has survived to the present day.
Sources
- David Morgan, The Mongols (2nd ed., Oxford, 2007).
- Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410 (London, 2005).
- Timothy May, The Mongol Conquests in World History (London, 2012).