Abstract

The Yuan Dynasty is unique among Chinese dynasties because it was but part of a larger empire, and because it was the first time that non-Chinese ruled all of China. The hybrid state that the Mongols eventually constructed was not part of Chinggis’s original plan of conquest, and it took the Mongols about sixty years to conquer all of China and make it, at least in theory, the center of their unified world empire. Yuan is often treated as a low point in Chinese imperial history, but the Mongols introduced many new institutions and practices that set the stage for the emergence of later states (Map 14.1).