The Family War

CHAPTER 9 · 1259–1266 · The Mongol Empire, 1206–1294

Möngke’s death in 1259 opens the wound no yassa had closed: succession. Two brothers claim the throne — Khubilai, master of the Chinese front, elected by his own officers at Shangdu; Ariq Böke, keeper of the homeland, elected by the old guard at Karakorum. Each kurultai is procedurally defective; both know only armies can appeal the verdict. The Toluid civil war (1260–64) is fought partly with grain — Khubilai embargoes the food Mongolia cannot grow — and ends with Ariq Böke’s surrender and convenient death. Khubilai wins the title of Great Khan and loses what it named: watch the dashed lines

The turn: The Terek, January 1263.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.