Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty The Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty under Kublai Khan (r. 1260–1294) was the final step for the Mongols to rule the whole of China under the Yuan dynasty. It is also considered the Mongol Empire's last great military achievement. Before the Mongol–Jin War escalated, an envoy from the Song dynasty arrived at the court of the Mongols, perhaps to negotiate a united offensive against the Jin dynasty, who the Song had previously fought during the Jin–Song Wars. Although Genghis Khan refused, on his death in 1227 he bequeathed a plan to attack the
Division of the Mongol Empire Division of the Mongol Empire The division of the Mongol Empire began when Möngke Khan died in 1259 in the siege of Diaoyu castle with no declared successor, precipitating infighting between members of the Tolui family line for the title of Great Khan that escalated to the Toluid Civil War. This civil war, along with the Berke–Hulagu war and the subsequent Kaidu–Kublai war, greatly weakened the authority of the Great Khan over the entirety of the Mongol Empire and the empire fractured into four khanates, including the Golden Horde in the northwest, the Chagatai Khanate in the middle, the Ilkhanate