In 1226, Chinggis Khan led a second attack against the Tanguts of Xixia, because they were resisting Mongol rule. After this successful campaign, Chinggis died in 1227. He was buried in a secret location near Mongolia’s Onon and Kerulen Rivers.
As Chinggis wanted, control of the empire passed to Ogedei, his third son. Ogedei’s brothers and nephews (the sons of his dead brother Jochi) also received territory, called ulus, that they controlled. Tolui received the traditional Mongol homelands; Chaghatai controlled Transoxiana and nearby lands in Central Asia; Jochi’s sons, Orda and Batu, received the steppes of what is now southern Russia, even though the western end of this area was not yet under Mongol control. In Chinggis’s mind, Eternal Heaven had given him and his family all the world to control. It was only a matter of time before they ruled them. Ogedei also had his own ulus, composed of parts of Russia and China, as well as his authority as Great Khan over the rest of the empire. Chinggis’s brothers also received small ulus in the northeast corner of the empire.
A Royal Honor
To honor Chinggis Khan after his death, the Mongols killed 40 slave girls and 40 horses and buried them near his grave. Mongol warriors were often buried with their horses, showing how important the animals were to them. Chinggis had ordered that his burial place be kept secret. A legend says that all the people who saw the funeral were killed, so they could never reveal the site of the Great Khan's grave.
A quriltai in 1229 confirmed Ogedei as the second Great Khan. Within two years, he focused the Mongols’ military might on the Jin. According to The Secret History of the Mongols, the Mongols “assault[ed] their towns and cities in every quarter,” and looted the Jin’s “gold and silver, satins having gold and having patterns, possessions, alasas [horses] and little slaves. . . .” By 1234, the land once controlled by the Jin Dynasty was completely under Mongol rule.
World History
