Key
At the selected date, the colour of each place shows who held it. To learn its story, click or tap a country or marker.
Drag to move · scroll to zoom · click a country or marker
To move the map on a touch screen, drag it. Pinch to zoom, or double-tap to zoom in.
In 1206, Temüjin united Mongolia’s warring tribes. Once a hunted orphan, he now led the people from whom his family would build the largest contiguous land empire there has ever been. This situation map follows that empire through the thirteenth century, ending in 1294, when his grandson ruled China and his cousins ruled lands from Kiev to Baghdad to Korea. In a single working lifetime, the red tide crossed the map from the Pacific to the gates of Vienna. Follow its advance, and consider where and why it stopped.
The twelve chapters begin with the steppe world that made the army, then follow the fall of China’s north, the annihilation of Khwarazm and the winter conquest of the Rus. They turn to Baghdad and the Mamluk check at Ain Jalut, before a family war splits the empire into four. The strange peace left behind carried silk, ideas and plague along the same roads. Battles, arrows and boundaries are drawn where they happened. You can take the guided tour, or move through the timeline and examine the map for yourself.
Keys: ←→ chapters · space play time · +− zoom · ⌘K search · ? all keys.
You can return to the library of twenty-one atlases at any time: select the balloon at the top left.