As the thirteenth century drew to a close, Northeast Asia looked very different than it had for the previous millennium. The Mongols had exploded across the region in shocking fashion, altering the geo-political landscape in a way that sent ripples well ahead of the arrival of any steppe riders. Kingdoms and polities that had survived for hundreds of years fell in quick succession, and the old order – chaotic as it may have seemed at times – lay on the verge of being completely overturned.
Northeast Asia in turmoil
The Jurchen, a semi-nomadic grouping of tribes from the mountainous regions of Manchuria, had raided their neighbors for over a thousand years. The fury of a Jurchen raid sparked fear amongst the civilian population and successive Korean and Chinese dynasties had expended considerable resources to keep those raiding tribes in check. Throughout the eleventh century, however, a confederation of Jurchen tribes fought the Chinese Song to a bloody stalemate, seizing all of northern China and establishing the Great Jin Empire in 1115.
By 1206, the fractious Mongol tribes consolidated under a single ruler, Temujin, who took the name Genghis Khan. That consolidation of Mongol military power changed everything for the peoples of Northeast
