Golden Horde

The Golden Horde was a Mongol khanate that ruled much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia for more than two centuries. It emerged from the western part of the Mongol Empire, after Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered the Rus' principalities, and it controlled them by demanding tribute while leaving their princes in place. Its capital was Sarai on the lower Volga. In the fourteenth century its rulers adopted Islam. The Horde weakened through civil wars, the rise of Moscow, which defeated it at Kulikovo and later threw off its rule, and devastating raids by Timur. It broke into the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimea and others, and the last remnant was destroyed in the early sixteenth century.

Open on the timeline