ABSTRACT
During the second half of the 13th century, Mongol military forces attempted on several occasions to expand southward into Mainland and Island Southeast Asia. The Mongol inability to secure any territorial conquests in Southeast Asia was blamed in subsequent court chronicles on the perceived impact of tropical climate and local “miasmas” that weakened and sickened the Mongol armies. Examining the substitution of trade relations for military domination helps us move beyond these general tropes, regarding the limits of Mongol power emanating from the steppe region of Eurasia. This chapter includes several case studies involving Mongol encounters with Southeast Asian states to illustrate the strategy employed by the Yuan court and the difficulties faced in attempting to implement this strategy. John Herman notes that most of the local elite who elected to serve the Mongols had not held positions of authority within the Dali political order.
