ABSTRACT
In the mid-thirteenth century, the rapidly growing Mongol world-empire and the expansionist Christian West were undoubtedly on a collision course. Whether the Mongols could have advanced as far as the Atlantic coast must remain a matter for speculation. In 1241, they penetrated only to the borders of Germany and Bohemia, perhaps because their principal objective on that occasion was to chastise the Hungarian king. Innocent IV's attempts to remonstrate with the Mongols, through the embassies of 1245–7, achieved little other than the accumulation of valuable information about the newcomers. The Mongol invasion of Poland in 1259 was probably meant to herald the next forward thrust into Europe, and similarly Hülegü's campaign of 1260 – had it not been aborted – could have brought about the elimination of the Latin states in Syria and Palestine as independent entities.
