Khubilai focused most of his attention and military might on East Asia, but he did not overlook the western part of his empire. He had no choice, as rebellion and outside threats threatened his rule. The region of Tibet, which includes modern Tibet and parts of Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces in China, had been under Mongol influence since the late 1240s. During the 1280s, a group of Tibetans rebelled against the leader Khubilai had chosen for the region. The Great Khan sent in soldiers, who killed about 10,000 Tibetans while squashing the rebellion.
One of Khubilai’s concerns about the Tibetan rebels was their tie to an old enemy, his cousin Khaidu (1236-1301), a grandson of the Great Khan Ogedei. Khaidu was based in the region around Lake Balkhash, east of Transoxiana, in part of the Chaghatai Khanate. Khaidu eventually made a deal with the Mongols of the Golden Horde and Barak (d. 1271), a great-grandson of Chaghatai who ruled the family’s ulus. The arrangement gave
Khaidu control of large parts of the Chaghatai ulus. Eventually, Khaidu was powerful enough to choose the khan who ruled that ulus, though he had the supreme authority. With his growing power, Khaidu repeatedly challenged Khubilai in the western part of his khanate.
For several years, Khaidu let Chaghatai princes under his control do most of the fighting. These Central Asian Mongols fought skirmishes against troops led by Nomukhan (d. c. 1292), Khubilai’s son. In 1276 some of the commanders under Nomukhan plotted against him. They kidnapped the Mongol prince, his brother, and cousin, bringing Nomukhan and his brother to the khan of the Golden Horde and the third captive to Khaidu. Although he welcomed the action, Khaidu did not take an active part in the plot. The kidnapping added to Khubilai’s troubles in the region; rebels in Mongolia then perceived him as being weak in that part of his realm. In 1277, the rebels looted Karakorum, the old Mongol capital, and Khubilai had to send troops to end the rebellion. Some of the escaping rebels later joined forces with Khaidu.
The major conflict between Khaidu and Khubilai began in 1286. Khaidu seized the city of Besh-baliq, south of the Altai Mountains. The next year, a Mongol prince named Nayan (d. 1287) led a rebellion in Manchuria, a region in northern China. He and Khaidu were working together, and Khaidu took advantage of the revolt to invade western Mongolia. Khubilai personally led the campaign against Nayan, which ended with the rebel’s capture and execution. Marco Polo observed the battle and wrote in The Travels of Marco Polo that “from this and from that such cries arose from the crowds of the wounded and the dying that had God thundered, you would not have heard Him!”
Nayan’s death did not end Khaidu’s efforts against Khubilai. Khaidu continued advancing into Mongolia for several years, until his death in 1301. By that time, Khubilai was already dead and the title of Great Khan had passed on to his grandson, Temur Oljeitu. For a time under his rule, the conflicts between the various khanates ended, and Mongol China began a peaceful period that lasted several decades.
World History
