- — Asia:
Turkish conquest ends Sena rule
The general Bakhtiyar Khalji conquers Bengal, ending the Hindu Sena dynasty and inaugurating centuries of Muslim rule in the delta.
Era: Buddhist and Hindu Bengal: the Pala and Sena Dynasties
Sources: Islam, Bengal · Banglapedia (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh), History of Bangladesh · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Europe:
Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople
Crusaders captured and plundered Constantinople, fragmenting Byzantine territory, including parts of Greece, among Latin and Greek rulers and gravely weakening the empire.
Era: Roman and Byzantine Greece
Sources: Byzantine Empire · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Greece (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Normandy lost; the Channel Islands stay with the Crown
Philip II of France conquered mainland Normandy from King John in 1204, but the Channel Islands remained loyal to the English Crown, which still holds them as Crown Dependencies.
Era: The Norman Conquest and medieval England
Sources: Explained: why do we say 'La Reine, notre Duc'? · Bailiwick Express, Channel Islands · Wikipedia
- — Asia:
Western Xia made a vassal, then destroyed
Mongol campaigns reduce the Tangut kingdom of Western Xia, south of the Gobi, to vassal status by 1209. Chinggis Khan invades again in late 1226, and Western Xia, dated by World History Encyclopedia to 1038-1227, is destroyed as a kingdom in the year of his death.
Era: Chinggis Khan and the Birth of the Mongol Nation
Sources: Battle of Yellow River (Western Xia) · EBSCO Research Starters, Genghis Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Asia:
Mongol invasion of the Jin dynasty
Chinggis Khan attacks the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China and the plain of the Yellow River, after earlier attacks recorded from 1205 and 1209; the conquest is completed under his successor in 1234.
Era: Chinggis Khan and the Birth of the Mongol Nation
Sources: Genghis Khan · World History Encyclopedia, Ögedei Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Africa:
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
A Christian coalition decisively defeats the Almohads in Spain, beginning the dynasty's decline and reopening al-Andalus to the Reconquista.
Era: The Berber Empires: Almoravids and Almohads
Sources: The Art of the Almoravid and Almohad Periods (ca. 1062–1269) · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, North Africa: The Maghrib under the Almoravids and the Almohads · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
- — Europe:
Danish conquest and the founding of Tallinn
Danish crusaders defeated the northern Estonians and built a fortress on Toompea hill, giving rise to Tallinn (Reval); northern Estonia became a Danish duchy within Terra Mariana.
Era: The Ancient Estonians and the Northern Crusades
Sources: Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Estonia: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Mongol invasion of Iran
Genghis Khan's armies invade Iran, devastating its cities; his grandson Hulagu completes the conquest, taking Alamut in 1256 and destroying Baghdad in 1258, and founds the Ilkhanate.
Era: Turkic and Mongol Rule and the Safavids
Sources: Ilkhanate · World History Encyclopedia, Iran — The Mongol invasion · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Mongol conquest of the Syr Darya and Khwarezm
Provoked by the killing of his envoys at Otrar, Genghis Khan storms the Silk Road towns and overruns Khwarezm; Otrar falls after a months-long siege, and the steppe is absorbed into the Mongol empire.
Era: The Mongol Conquest and the Golden Horde
Sources: History of Kazakhstan · Encyclopædia Britannica, Golden Horde · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Asia:
Conquest of the Khwarazmian empire
Mongol armies invade and destroy the powerful Khwarazmian empire of Central Asia, opening the way to Persia and the Russian steppe and demonstrating the reach of the new Mongol military. Bukhara falls in February 1220, Samarkand in March 1220 and Urgench in April 1221; World History Encyclopedia dates the start of the attack to 1218.
Era: Chinggis Khan and the Birth of the Mongol Nation
Sources: Genghis Khan · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Mongol empire · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Facing the Wrath of the Khan · HistoryNet, Mongol Empire · World History Encyclopedia
- — Europe:
The Age of the Sturlungs
Rivalry among a few powerful families, above all the Sturlungs, brought decades of feud, killing and burning, fatally weakening the Commonwealth's institutions of consensus.
Era: Christianity, the Sagas and the Old Covenant
Sources: The Age of the Sturlungs · Medievalists.net, Iceland: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Mongol conquest of Central Asia
The empire of Genghis Khan overran Central Asia, drawing the Kyrgyz lands into the Mongol world and, after the empire's division, into the Chagatai realm and its successor states.
Era: The Silk Road, the Tian Shan and the Mongol Age
Sources: Kyrgyzstan: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kyrgyzstan: A Country Study (in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies) · U.S. Library of Congress, Federal Research Division
- — Asia:
The Mongol conquest of Transoxania
Genghis Khan's armies sweep through Central Asia, sacking Bukhara and Samarkand, ushering in centuries of Mongol and Turko-Mongol rule over the Persian-speaking population.
Era: Turkic, Mongol and Bukharan Rule
Sources: History of Tajikistan · Encyclopædia Britannica, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies · Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
- — Asia:
Genghis Khan sacks Bukhara and Samarkand
The Mongol armies of Genghis Khan storm Transoxiana, destroying Bukhara and Samarkand in a devastation from which the oasis cities took generations to recover.
Era: The Mongol Storm and the Empire of Timur
Sources: Samarkand — Uzbekistan, Map, History & Facts · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Genghis Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Asia:
Mongol invasions begin
Mongol armies invade Goryeo; after prolonged resistance from Ganghwa Island, Korea submits to Yuan overlordship for roughly a century.
Era: Unified Silla and Goryeo
Sources: Koryo (Goryeo) dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Korea (history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
End of the Jin dynasty
The Mongols take the Jin capital Kaifeng in 1233; a final campaign in February 1234 ends in the suicide of the Jin emperor Aizong and the collapse of the Jin state.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Mongol Empire · World History Encyclopedia, Ögedei Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Europe:
Absorption into the Teutonic Order
After heavy defeats the Sword Brothers were merged into the Teutonic Order as the autonomous Livonian Order; by this time the Latvian and Livonian tribal lands had largely been conquered and bound into Terra Mariana.
Era: Baltic Tribes, the Northern Crusades and Terra Mariana
Sources: Latvia: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Latvia · Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia
- — Europe:
Mongol invasion and the fall of Kiev
Batu Khan's Mongol army sacks the Rus' principalities, destroying Ryazan and Vladimir and storming Kiev in December 1240; the Russian lands become tributaries of the Golden Horde.
Era: Kievan Rus' and the Mongol Yoke
Sources: Russia · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Batu Khan · Wikipedia
- — Europe:
The Mongol invasion of Rus
The Mongol onslaught destroyed Kievan Rus and shattered the old federation of principalities; the western Belarusian lands, comparatively sheltered, were soon drawn into the orbit of rising Lithuania.
Era: Polotsk and the Early East Slavs
Sources: History of Belarus · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Grand Duchy of Lithuania · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Mongol sack of Kyiv
The Mongols of the Golden Horde stormed and destroyed Kyiv, ending its dominance and breaking the political unity of the Rus' lands.
Era: Kievan Rus' and the Baptism of 988
Sources: Kyivan Rus · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Ukraine · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Mongol invasion and the Battle of Mohi
The Mongols under Batu Khan destroyed King Béla IV's army at the Sajó River and ravaged Hungary for a year, leaving much of the kingdom in ruins before withdrawing in 1242.
Era: The Magyar Conquest and the Christian Kingdom
Sources: Mongolian invasion (1241-1242) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Béla IV, king of Hungary · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Mongol victories at Legnica and Mohi
Mongol armies defeat a force led by Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia, near Legnica on 9 April 1241, and an army led by Béla IV of Hungary at Mohi on 10-11 April. Ögedei dies on 11 December 1241, and in early 1242 the Mongol armies turn for home.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Golden Horde · World History Encyclopedia, Mongol Empire · World History Encyclopedia, Ögedei Khan · World History Encyclopedia
- — Europe:
Capture of Faro completes the Portuguese Reconquista
Afonso III took Faro, the last Muslim stronghold in the Algarve, after the Order of Santiago's campaign of 1242-1249.
Era: From County to Kingdom: Afonso Henriques and the Reconquista
Sources: O Reino do Algarve de pleno direito faz hoje 750 anos · Barlavento (Algarve newspaper)
- — Asia:
The Mongol sack of Baghdad
The Mongol forces of Hulagu Khan besiege and storm Baghdad, executing the last Abbasid caliph al-Musta'sim and destroying the city; the sack ends the Abbasid Caliphate and devastates the region.
Era: Abbasid Baghdad and the Islamic Golden Age
Sources: Iraq — The later Abbasids (1152–1258) · Encyclopædia Britannica, Iraq — History · Encyclopædia Britannica
- — Asia:
Tran defeat of the Mongol invasions
Under Tran Hung Dao the Tran dynasty repels three invasions by Kublai Khan's Mongols, climaxing in the 1288 victory at the Bach Dang River where the Mongol fleet is destroyed on hidden stakes.
Era: Independent Dynasties: Ly, Tran, and Le
Sources: Tran dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tran Hung Dao · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Africa:
Battle of Ain Jalut
Mamluk forces defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut in Palestine, halting their westward advance and securing Egypt as the bastion of the Islamic world.
Era: Islamic Egypt: Caliphs, Fatimids and Mamluks
Sources: Egypt: The Ayyubid dynasty (1171–1250) · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Asia:
Kublai Khan founds the Mongol Yuan dynasty
Kublai Khan declares the Yuan dynasty in 1271 and completes the conquest of the Song by 1279, ruling China from Dadu (Beijing) as the first foreign-led dynasty to govern all of China.
Era: Empires of Conquest and Restoration: Yuan, Ming, Qing
Sources: Yuan dynasty · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Yuan Dynasty · World History Encyclopedia
- — Asia:
Xiangyang falls after Muslim engineers build counterweight trebuchets
After a siege of almost five years from 1268, Xiangyang and Fancheng fall to the Mongols in early 1273. Kublai's nephew Abaqa, the Ilkhan of Persia, had sent two engineers, Isma'il of Hilla and Ala al-Din of Mosul, who built the first counterweight trebuchets in China.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: The Mongol Siege of Xiangyang and Fan-ch'eng and the Song military · De Re Militari (Chris Hanson)
- — Asia:
Mongol invasions repelled
Kublai Khan's Yuan forces twice attempt to invade Japan; both fleets are wrecked by typhoons later mythologized as the kamikaze, or divine winds.
Era: Kamakura and Muromachi: The Age of the Shogun
Sources: Kamakura period · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Japan · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- — Europe:
Battle of the Marchfeld
Rudolf I of Habsburg defeated and killed the Bohemian king Ottokar II near Dürnkrut on the Marchfeld, seizing the Austrian lands; in 1282 he enfeoffed his sons with them, founding Habsburg rule in Austria.
Era: The Rise of the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Wars
Sources: The Habsburgs take over Austria · Die Welt der Habsburger (The World of the Habsburgs)
- — Asia:
The Song are defeated at Yaishan
A naval battle at Yaishan near modern Macao on 19 March 1279 completes the Mongol conquest of China. Guinness World Records puts the area of the Mongol Empire at about 24 million km2 around this date, the largest contiguous land empire in history.
Era: The Great Empire: Karakorum, Kublai, and the Yuan
Sources: Kublai Khan · World History Encyclopedia, Largest contiguous empire · Guinness World Records
- — Asia:
Mongol invasion and collapse
Armies of Kublai Khan's Mongol empire invade and shatter the kingdom; a further incursion in 1297 ends Bagan as a unifying power.
Era: The Kingdom of Pagan (Bagan)
Sources: Pagan kingdom · Encyclopaedia Britannica, History of Myanmar · Encyclopaedia Britannica
War & Rupture in the 13th century
Every event in the Terralore archive tagged war and rupture — wars, invasions, conquests, battles and armed conflict, narrowed to the 13th century — 33 of them, drawn from 27 nations, running from 1204 to 1287. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.
- Events
- 33
- Nations
- 27
- Earliest
- 1204
- Latest
- 1287
- Asia
- 19
- Europe
- 12
- Africa
- 2
Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.