Editing Mongolia (section)

===Mongol empire to early 20th century===
{{Main|Mongol Empire|Mongolia under Yuan rule|Northern Yuan dynasty|Dzungar Khanate|Mongolia under Qing rule}}
{{See also|List of medieval Mongol tribes and clans|List of Mongol states|List of Mongol rulers}}
[[File:Mongol_Empire_map.gif|thumb|right|[[Mongol Empire]] expansion (1206–1294)]]

In the chaos of the late 12th century, a chieftain named Temüjin finally succeeded in uniting the Mongol tribes between [[Manchuria]] and the [[Altai Mountains]]. In 1206, he took the title [[Genghis Khan#Name and title|Genghis Khan]], and waged a series of military campaigns – renowned for their brutality and ferocity – sweeping through much of Asia, and forming the [[Mongol Empire]], the largest contiguous land empire in world history. Under his successors it stretched from present-day [[Poland]] in the west to [[Korea]] in the east, and from parts of [[Siberia]] in the north to the [[Gulf of Oman]] and [[Vietnam]] in the south, covering some {{convert|33000000|km2}},<ref name="EarthRule">{{Cite web |last=Bruce R. Gordon |title=To Rule the Earth… |url=http://www.hostkingdom.net/earthrul.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701103611/http://www.hostkingdom.net/earthrul.html |archive-date=July 1, 2007 |access-date=2013-06-28}}</ref> (22% of Earth's total land area) and had a population of over 100 million people (about a quarter of Earth's total population at the time). The emergence of [[Pax Mongolica]] also significantly eased trade and commerce across Asia during its height.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guzman |first=Gregory G. |year=1988 |title=Were the barbarians a negative or positive factor in ancient and medieval history? |journal=The Historian |issue=50 |pages=568–570}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas T. Allsen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0StLNcKQNUoC&pg=PA211 |title=Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia |date=March 25, 2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-60270-9 |page=211 |author-link=Thomas T. Allsen |access-date=2013-06-28 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

After Genghis Khan's death, the empire was subdivided into four kingdoms or [[Khanate]]s. These eventually became quasi-independent after the [[Toluid Civil War]] (1260–1264), which broke out in a battle for power following [[Möngke Khan]]'s death in 1259. One of the khanates, the "Great Khaanate", consisting of the Mongol homeland and most of modern-day China, became known as the Yuan dynasty under [[Kublai Khan]], the grandson of Genghis Khan. He set up his capital in present-day Beijing. After more than a century of power, the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Ming dynasty in 1368, and the Yuan court fled to the north, thus becoming the [[Northern Yuan|Northern Yuan dynasty]]. As the Ming armies pursued the Mongols into their homeland, they successfully sacked and destroyed the Mongol capital [[Karakorum]] and other cities. Some of these attacks were repelled by the Mongols under [[Biligtü Khan Ayushiridara|Ayushridar]] and his general [[Köke Temür]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=《扩廓帖木儿传》[biography of Köke Temür] |publisher=[[History of Yuan]] |edition=卷一四一，列传第二八}}</ref>

After the expulsion of the Yuan rulers from [[China proper]], the Mongols continued to rule their homeland, known in historiography as the Northern Yuan dynasty. With the division of the Mongol tribes, it was subsequently also known as "The Forty and the Four" (Döčin dörben) among them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Junko |first1=Miyawaki |title=The Birth of the Oyirad Khanship |journal=Central Asiatic Journal |date=1997 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=38–75 |jstor=41928088 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41928088 |access-date=15 February 2023 |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116050322/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41928088 |url-status=live}}</ref> The next centuries were marked by violent power struggles among various factions, notably the Genghisids and the non-Genghisid [[Oirats]], as well as by several Ming invasions (such as the [[Yongle Emperor's campaigns against the Mongols|five expeditions led by the Yongle Emperor]]).

[[File:Genghis khan.jpg|left|thumb|273x273px|Genghis Khan, the first Mongol Emperor]]
In the early 16th century, [[Dayan Khan]] and his [[khatun]] [[Mandukhai]] reunited all Mongol groups under the Genghisids. In the mid-16th century, [[Altan Khan]] of the Tümed, a grandson of Dayan Khan – but not a hereditary or legitimate Khan – became powerful. He founded [[Hohhot]] in 1557. After he met with the [[3rd Dalai Lama|Dalai Lama]] in 1578, he ordered the introduction of [[Tibetan Buddhism]] to Mongolia. (It was the second time this had occurred.) Abtai Khan of the [[Khalkha Mongols|Khalkha]] converted to Buddhism and founded the [[Erdene Zuu Monastery|Erdene Zuu]] monastery in 1585. His grandson [[Zanabazar]] became the first [[Jebtsundamba Khutuktu|Jebtsundamba Khutughtu]] in 1640. Following the leaders, the entire Mongolian population embraced Buddhism. Each family kept scriptures and Buddha statues on an altar at the north side of their [[yurt]]. Mongolian nobles donated land, money and herders to the monasteries. As was typical in states with established religions, the top religious institutions, the monasteries, wielded significant temporal power in addition to spiritual power.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alexander |first1=Berzin |title=History of Buddhism in Mongolia |url=https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/buddhism-in-mongolia/history-of-buddhism-in-mongolia |website=Study Buddhism |access-date=15 February 2023 |archive-date=15 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215024500/https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/history-culture/buddhism-in-mongolia/history-of-buddhism-in-mongolia |url-status=live}}</ref>

The last Khagan of Mongols was [[Ligden Khan]] in the early 17th century. He came into conflicts with the [[Manchu people|Manchus]] over the looting of Chinese cities, and also alienated most Mongol tribes.<!--Why? --> He died in 1634. By 1636, most of the [[Inner Mongolia]]n tribes had submitted to the Manchus, who founded the [[Qing dynasty]]. The Khalkha eventually submitted to Qing rule in 1691, thus bringing all of today's Mongolia under Manchu rule. After several [[Dzungar–Qing Wars]], the [[Dzungars]] (western Mongols or Oirats) were virtually annihilated during the Qing conquest of Dzungaria in 1757 and 1758.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Kazakhstan to c. 1700 ce |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/313790/Kazakhstan/214566/History#ref=ref598970 |access-date=2013-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212010855/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/313790/Kazakhstan/214566/History#ref=ref598970 |archive-date=December 12, 2013 |author=Edward Allworth |url-status=live |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

[[File:Altan Khan.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Altan Khan]] (1507–1582) founded the city of Hohhot, helped introduce Buddhism and originated the title of [[Dalai Lama]].]]
Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the 600,000 or more [[Dzungar genocide|Dzungar were killed]] by a combination of disease and warfare.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Michael Edmund Clarke |title=In the Eye of Power: China and Xinjiang from the Qing Conquest to the "New Great Game" for Central Asia, 1759 – 2004 |publisher=Griffith University |url=http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adt-QGU20061121.163131/public/02Whole.pdf |type=PhD |location=Brisbane |year=2004 |page=37 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410040826/http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adt-QGU20061121.163131/public/02Whole.pdf |archive-date=2008-04-10}}</ref> Outer Mongolia was given relative autonomy, being administered by the hereditary Genghisid khanates of Tusheet Khan, Setsen Khan, Zasagt Khan and Sain Noyon Khan. The [[Jebtsundamba Khutuktu]] of Mongolia had immense ''de facto'' authority. The Manchu forbade mass Chinese immigration into the area, which allowed the Mongols to keep their culture. The Oirats who migrated to the [[Pontic–Caspian steppe|Volga steppes]] in Russia became known as [[Kalmyks]].

The main trade route during this period was the [[Siberian Route|Tea Road]] through Siberia; it had permanent stations located every {{convert|25|to|30|km|mi}}, each of which was staffed by 5–30 chosen families.

Until 1911, the Qing dynasty maintained control of Mongolia with a series of alliances and intermarriages, as well as military and economic measures. [[Amban]]s, Manchu "high officials", were installed in [[Ulaanbaatar|Khüree]], [[Uliastai]], and [[Khovd (city)|Khovd]], and the country was divided into numerous feudal and ecclesiastical fiefdoms (which also placed people in power with loyalty to the Qing). Over the course of the 19th century, the feudal lords attached more importance to representation and less importance to the responsibilities towards their subjects. The behavior of Mongolia's nobility, together with [[usury|usurious]] practices by Chinese traders and the collection of imperial taxes in silver instead of animals, resulted in widespread poverty among the nomads. By 1911 there were 700 large and small monasteries in Outer Mongolia; their 115,000 monks made up 21% of the population. Apart from the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, there were 13 other reincarnating high lamas, called 'seal-holding saints' (''tamgatai khutuktu''), in Outer Mongolia.