MAPS OF HISTORY · MONGOL EMPIRE · BATTLES AND EVENTS · Shangdu (Xanadu)Mongol Empire · TURNING POINT · 1256
Shangdu (Xanadu) (1256)
1256 — Khubilai builds his summer capital at Shangdu, on the grassy frontier between the steppe and cultivated land. Its setting reflects a balance central to his reign. Marco Polo will describe the gilded palace, and Coleridge will later dream it into English. In 1260, Khubilai claims the khanate here by Chinese-style acclamation.
When 1256 Type Turning point Chapter Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty (chapter 10 of Mongol Empire)Atlas The Mongol Empire, 1206–1294 TURNING POINT · THE MONGOL EMPIRE, 1206–1294 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — historical political boundaries · Asia for Educators — Expansion under Ögödei · Asia for Educators — Military Successes and Failures · Asia for Educators — Collapse of the Empire and Four Sectors · Natural Earth — physical reference geography · Janet Martin — Medieval Russia 980–1584, chronology · Institute of History of Ukraine — Mongol invasion and its consequences
Source details Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected dated polygons; documented unions, differences and shared edges for event-specific reconstructions; projected for display. Asia for Educators, Columbia University. Text consulted for historical facts; no map or prose copied Asia for Educators, Columbia University. Text consulted for historical facts; no map or prose copied Asia for Educators, Columbia University. Text consulted for historical facts; no map or prose copied Natural Earth. Public domain Janet Martin, Cambridge University Press. Historical facts consulted; no map or prose copied Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine, 2019. Historical facts consulted; thematic geometry independently reconstructed The dashed internal divisions use Cliopatria’s earliest separate successor-khanate polygons (1294), restricted to the dated empire extent. Earlier divisions are reconstructed regional references.
Published polity extents are used at the date resolution available in their sources. Hatched affected regions and route arrows are educational reconstructions; the source details distinguish them from imported boundaries.
Chapter anchor 1279.3 uses the existing snapshot s1279 (1279.2). The lesson date remains separate from the source reference dates.
proxy: 1206 reference extent · proxy: 1294 successor-polity reference · proxy: Goryeo 1227–1259 territorial reference · reconstruction: 1250–1284 · reconstruction: 1260–1284 · reconstruction: 1260–1313 · reconstruction: 1272–1284 · reconstruction: 1272–1304 · reconstruction: 1279 · reconstruction: 1279; regional outlines from pre-conquest 1206 principalities · reconstruction: 1279–1284 · reconstruction: 1279–1293 · vector: 1072–1325 · vector: 1072–1374 · vector: 1188–1284 · vector: 1188–1304 · vector: 1192–1325 · vector: 1192–1362 · vector: 1202–1374 · vector: 1202–1743 · vector: 1210–1304 · vector: 1220–1313 · vector: 1236–1293 · vector: 1236–1452 · vector: 1241–1293 · vector: 1241–1313 · vector: 1241–1351 · vector: 1250–1284 · vector: 1250–1293 · vector: 1260–1284 · vector: 1260–1293 · vector: 1260–1313 · vector: 1260–1384 · vector: 1260–1394 · vector: 1260–1439 · vector: 1260–1474 · vector: 1272–1284 · vector: 1272–1293 · vector: 1272–1304 · vector: 1272–1313 · vector: 1272–1325 · vector: 1272–1421 · vector: 1279–1284 · vector: 1279–1293 · vector: 1279–1304 · vector: 1279–1401 · vector: 602–1501
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