Ancient Temple
The Confucius Temple in Beijing was built under Mongol rule in 1306.
Even before he had complete control of China, Khubilai looked to further conquests in East Asia. His first concern was Korea, which Chinggis had invaded in 1218. The first Great Khan forced the Koreans to pay tribute to him, but they stopped making this payment a few years later. The Mongols invaded Korea again in 1231, but the country did not come under firm Mongol control until the end of Mongke’s reign, in 1258. Khubilai formed good relations with Wonjong (r. 1259-1274), the Korean king who ruled with the Mongols’ permission, so when several Korean military leaders rebelled, Khubilai sent troops to aid the king.
In 1273, as the war with the Song went on, Khubilai ordered some of his forces to Japan. For years, he had been sending ambassadors there, demanding that the Japanese pay him tribute as both the emperor of China and the Great Khan of the Mongols. The Japanese, however, always refused his demands.
In 1274 a Mongol fleet of about 800 boats sailed for Japan, carrying an invasion force of more than 30,000 Mongol, Chinese, and Korean soldiers and sailors. In the first battle on the island of Kyushu the Mongols scored a decisive victory, but a severe storm forced their soldiers to return to their ships. The vessels sailed into opens seas to escape damage from the fierce winds, but the plan backfired. The storm battered the ships at sea, resulting in heavy Mongol losses. The surviving forces returned to China.
Khubilai was not ready to forget the Japanese, and he sent an even larger army to Japan in 1281. This time, the Japanese fought well and another damaging storm forced the Mongol forces to retreat. Japan never faced another Mongol threat.
Fish Fit for a King
As part of their tribute to Khubilai Khan, the Koreans sent fish. The Great Khan did not eat them— he used their skin to make his shoes. (Most Mongols wore shoes made of pressed felt.) The Mongols believed animal skins and organs could have curative properties, especially if they were fresh.
Khubilai and his forces were more successful in Southeast Asia. In 1277, Mongol forces invaded the kingdom of Pagan, in what is now Myanmar (Burma). The Burmese rode elephants into battle, and the Mongol general ordered his archers to shoot at the animals, not the riders. Marco Polo described the scene in The Description of the World, writing that the elephants “were wounded on every side of the body. . . and were frightened by the great noise of the shouting.” The frenzied animals ran toward the Burmese troops, “putting the army of the king. . . into the greatest confusion.” The Mongol victory led to only limited control over Pagan, and Khubilai sent more troops there during the 1280s, forcing the kingdom to pay tribute.
Mongol influence also reached into what is now Vietnam and part of Indonesia. The Mongol army fought a series of battles with two Vietnamese kingdoms, Annam and Champa, and invaded the Indonesian island of Java in 1292. For a time, the kings of the two Vietnamese kingdoms paid tribute, but Khubilai never had direct control over their lands. The invasion of Java, like the earlier attacks on Japan, ended in failure.
World History
