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Nov 13, 1162
Death of Genghis Khan
Before Genghis Khan died, he assigned Ögedei Khan as his successor and split his empire into khanates among his sons and grandsons. He died in 1227 after defeating the Tanguts. He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia at a location unknown. His descendants went on to stretch the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia by conquering and/or creating vassal states out of all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asian countries, and substantial portions of modern Eastern Eu -
Nov 12, 1192
Tokugawa shogunate gains control of Japan
In 1185 the Minamoto, a powerful military family from east Japan, had defeated the Taira, their rivals for control of the Japanese emperor. The Minamoto leader, Yoritomo, set up a feudal government in Kamakura, near present-day Tokyo. The Yamato imperial government was left to carry on, but it no longer had any power. In 1192 Yoritomo obtained from the abdicated Yomoto emperor the title of Sei-i-tai-shogun. This was the beginning of the shogunate system which was to rule Japan until 1868, and in -
Nov 12, 1271
Marco Polo
In 1271, when Marco Polo was seventeen years old, he accompanied his father and uncle on a journey through the Holy Land, Persia and Tartary, and at length to the Empire of China, then called Cathay. It took the travellers three years to reach Cathay. -
Nov 12, 1274
Japanese defeat Mongols in Japan with the help of a typhoon
1274 and 1281 were major military invasions and conquests undertaken by Kublai Khan to take the Japanese islands after the capitulation of Goryeo (Korea). Despite their ultimate failure, the invasion attempts are of macrohistorical importance, because they set a limit on Mongol expansion, and rank as nation-defining events in Japanese history. The Japanese were successful, which was helped by the Mongols losing up to 75% of their invading troops and supplies both times on the oceans because of h -
Nov 13, 1392
Choson dynasty begins in Korea
The Choson Dynasty, otherwise known as the Yi Dynasty, was Korea's last dynasty. Founded by Yi Songgye in 1392, the Choson Dynasty lasted for over five hundred years. In 1910, the dynasty officially ended with the annexation of Korea by Japan. The Chosôn Dynasty is commonly regarded as the last traditional kingdom before the onslaught of modern culture.
The Chosôn Dynasty had a varied and complex social fabric that kept centuries of Korean tradition intact. At the very top of this social hierar -
Nov 13, 1405
Chinese admiral Zheng He begins his first overseas voyage
In 1405, Zheng was chosen to lead the biggest naval expedition in history up to that time. Over the next 28 years (1405-1433), he commanded seven fleets that visited 37 countries, through Southeast Asia to faraway Africa and Arabia. In those years, China had by far the biggest ships of the time. In 1420 the Ming navy dwarfed the combined navies of Europe. Ma He, as he was originally known, was born in 1371 to a poor ethnic Hui (Chinese Muslims) family inYunnan Province, Southwest China. The bo -
Ming dynasty begins in China.
Guo Zixing build a empire called the Song dynasty, this is not the Song dynasty which reigned from 927 to 1279, they consisted of peasents who were unhappy with the Mongol's rule and decided to rise against them. Another commander was Liu Futong. After these 2 people died, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, became the commander of these troops and then in 1368 built the Ming Dynasty and successfully chased the Mongols out of the central plains. -
Song dynasty begins in China
In 960 AD, a new power, the Song (960-1279 AD), reunited most of China proper. The Song period divides into two phases, Northern Song (960 to 1127), and Southern Song (1127 to 1279). The division was caused by the forced abandonment of north China in 1127 by the Song court, which could not push back the nomadic invaders. The founders of the Song Dynasty built an effective centralized bureaucracy staffed with civilian scholar-officials. This system of civilian rule led to a greater concentration
