Middle Ages
Mongol Siege of Kaifeng (1232-1233): Thunder Crash Bombs
Kaifeng surrendered to the Mongols in 1233 after its emperor had fled; the Jin dynasty fell the following year at Caizhou.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Karakorum (1235): The Capital of the Mongol Empire
Karakorum served as the Mongol imperial capital until about 1260, declined after Kublai moved his court to China, and was destroyed by a Ming army in 1388.
Middle Ages
Sundiata Keita and the Battle of Kirina (c. 1235): Mali's Birth
Sundiata's Mande coalition defeated the Sosso kingdom, and Sundiata became the founding ruler of the Mali Empire.
Middle Ages
Tripitaka Koreana: 80,000 Woodblocks Carved in Goryeo
The complete set of 81,258 woodblocks survives at Haeinsa and is a UNESCO Memory of the World register item; its storage halls are a World Heritage Site.
Middle Ages
Razia Sultan (1236-1240): Delhi's Only Woman Sultan
Razia ruled for about three and a half years before being deposed by Turkish nobles; she was killed in October 1240 after a failed attempt to regain the throne.
Middle Ages
Kouroukan Fouga (1236): The Manden Charter of the Mali Empire
According to oral tradition, the assembly organised the new Mali Empire into clans and roles and set rules for society; its memory became a UNESCO-recognised heritage in 2009.
Middle Ages
Mongol Invasion of Kievan Rus (1237-1240) and the Fall of Kyiv
Most Rus principalities were devastated and became tributaries of the Golden Horde, the beginning of more than two centuries of Mongol overlordship.
Middle Ages
Alhambra: The Nasrid Palace-Fortress of Granada
The Nasrid emirs built a walled palace-city that survived the fall of Granada in 1492 and is today the best-preserved palace of medieval Islamic Spain.
Middle Ages
Sukhothai Kingdom: Founding of the First Thai State
A Tai kingdom independent of the Khmer emerged at Sukhothai; it flourished in the late 13th and 14th centuries before falling under Ayutthaya.
Middle Ages
Mongol Invasion of Europe (1241): Legnica, Mohi and Retreat
The Mongols crushed the Polish and Hungarian armies and devastated Hungary, then withdrew east in 1242 without trying to hold central Europe.
Middle Ages
Battle of Legnica (1241): Mongols Defeat Henry II of Silesia
Mongol victory; Henry II was killed and his army destroyed, after which the Mongol force moved south to join the main army in Hungary.
Middle Ages
Battle of Mohi (1241): The Mongols Devastate Hungary
Decisive Mongol victory; the Hungarian royal army was destroyed and Hungary was occupied and ravaged until the Mongols withdrew in spring 1242.