Final answer:
The question centers on Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, who unified the Mongol tribes and founded the Mongol Empire, and his grandson Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan dynasty in China but struggled to maintain a unified empire. Despite their military prowess and conquests, the empire eventually fragmented after Kublai Khan's death.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Unification and Fragmentation of the Mongol Empire
The subject of this question refers to Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, the unifier of the Mongol nation and founder of the vast Mongol Empire. His conquests and the subsequent reign of his descendants, including Kublai Khan, had profound effects on the course of world history.
Chinggis Khan brought together the Mongol tribes and established a dominion that changed the world's geopolitical landscape. His grandson, Kublai Khan, continued this legacy by conquering China and founding the Yuan dynasty. However, Kublai Khan struggled to maintain a unified Mongol Empire, and after his death, the empire splintered into various khanates. While he transferred his capital to Beijing and cemented his rule over China by invoking the Mandate of Heaven, his failure to keep the wider empire intact led to a decline in Yuan power and the eventual succession crises that made the dynasty vulnerable.
During his reign, Kublai Khan undertook military campaigns against the Song dynasty, eventually defeating them and requiring the last Song emperor, an eight-year-old boy, to commit su icide. The Mongol Empire also faced challenges from within, including divisions due to the rise of Islam and the geographical sprawl of the empire, which made unified governance increasingly difficult. Despite the eventual fragmentation of the Mongol Empire, its establishment under Chinggis Khan and expansion under Kublai Khan had lasting impacts on the regions that they ruled, accelerating cultural exchanges, and opening new channels of trade between East and West.