Kublai Khan

Khan and Emperor of China
Lived: 1215 - 1294

§ Background:
The grandson of the great Mongol leader Genghis Khan, Kublai oversaw the transformation of the Mongol people from nomadic warriors to sedentary farmers and townsfolk. He also captured the southern half of China, reunifying the country under one rule and taking for himself the title of "Emperor."
§ Ascending to the throne in 1260 at around the age of 45, Kublai was revealed to be a shrewd and skilled political leader. As Emperor of China, he followed his father's precepts of being gentle with the subject peoples in order to keep them happy; he restored many of the Chinese traditions and institutions that his predecessors had banned. Further, Kublai returned much political control back to the native people, and he reinstated numerous Confucian rituals and ceremonies at court. He also commissioned many public works, including the repair of the Grand Canal and extending China's highway system. Through these actions he secured his throne, allowing him to turn his attention to conquering the southern half of China, which was under the control of the Sung dynasty.
§  Southern China was a tough shell to crack. Her terrain was unsuitable for the Mongol light cavalry; the heart of its army, the climate was cold and wet; and its huge cities were quite difficult to take by the Mongol's usual siege tactics and weapons. Kublai considered the problem and eventually came up with an innovative solution, particularly for the leader of nomadic horse warriors; he decided that he would attack the Sung Empire from the sea. As quickly as possible he trained his forces in the ways of naval warfare. He grouped his troops with native Chinese sailors, and he actively recruited deserters from the Sung naval forces. When the time was right he opened a series of campaigns against the coastal cities, and then moved inland to the Sung capital, Lin-an, which fell in 1276. The contest was decided in a sea battle, in which the final Sung emperor drowned as his forces were destroyed.
§ Kublai Khan's later campaigns were rather less successful. Seeking to conquer Japan, in 1281 Kahn assembled two invasion fleets carrying about 140,000 troops to take on the islanders. The ships rendezvoused off of the Japanese coast as planned, but before they could offload the troops they were hit by a major typhoon, causing the loss of about half the men and ships. The expedition ended in failure as the dazed survivors limped home. A similar venture in 1292 to subjugate Java suffered a similar fate; this time the invaders landed safely and managed to capture and hold the island, but the occupiers were prostrated by the heat and ravaged by tropical disease. Many died, and within a year most of the survivors fled for the cooler climes of home.
§ Kublai died in 1294, shortly after the Java campaign came to its dismal end. His record is mixed; he is usually judged to be a fair and able administrator who conquered China and improved the lives of many of his subjects. Militarily, he succeeded in his most important campaign, the conquest of southern China, but failed miserably in others.