ABSTRACT
Khubilai Khan formally established a Chinese-style dynasty, the Yuan, in 1272, as a practical measure designed to make the exploitation of Chinese resources easier and to reinforce his own position as khan. The Mongol empire itself had already fragmented during Khubilai’s struggle with his younger brother Arigh Böke, and Khubilai needed to strengthen his control over the subject populace of his domain. Khubilai was nominally Khaghan, but he would have had to have embarked on a long, costly, and risky war against his Mongol relatives if he wanted to make that title carry real weight. He did not choose that course, though it is intriguing to speculate what would have happened had he succeeded in reuniting the Mongol empire and resuming Chinggis’s goal of world conquest. A rich economic prize was close at hand, however, and though it also entailed enormous military difficulties, the conquest of the Southern Song was a much less risky endeavor. Perhaps the Khaghan believed that he could exploit the enormous resources of southern China to support a later campaign for greater Mongol political power.
