Jochi Khanate: A Visual History

The Golden Horde, or Ulus of Jochi, was the western part of the Mongol Empire, carved out by Batu Khan after his invasion of Russia and Eastern Europe in 1236-1242. From Sarai on the lower Volga it ruled the steppe from the Danube to Siberia and collected tribute from the Russian principalities. It converted to Islam under Uzbek Khan in the 1310s. Plague, civil war, Timur's devastation of its cities and the rise of Moscow broke it up into the Kazan, Crimean, Astrakhan and Siberian khanates in the fifteenth century.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Golden Horde (Jochi Khanate). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Golden Horde territory

Includes tributary Russian lands under effective control.

Timeline of the Golden Horde (Jochi Khanate)

1. 1236
   Batu's invasion beginsVolga Bulgaria destroyed.
2. 1240
   Kiev sacked
3. 1241
   Legnica and MohiPoland and Hungary defeated.
4. 1242
   Batu settles on the VolgaSarai founded.
5. 1313
   Uzbek KhanIslam becomes the state religion; the golden age.
6. 1347
   Plague at KaffaThe Black Death enters Europe.
7. 1380
   Battle of KulikovoMoscow's first major victory.
8. 1395
   Timur destroys Sarai
9. 1480
   Stand on the UgraMuscovy stops paying tribute.
10. 1502
    Great Horde destroyedBy the Crimean Khanate.

Batu's conquest

Genghis Khan gave his eldest son Jochi the lands 'as far as Mongol hooves had trodden' in the west. Jochi's son Batu, with the general Subutai, destroyed Volga Bulgaria, sacked Ryazan, Vladimir and Kiev, and in 1241 defeated the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi. The death of the Great Khan Ogedei called him back; he settled on the Volga and built Sarai.

The Tatar yoke

Russian princes travelled to Sarai to receive the yarlik confirming their rule and paid tribute collected by census. The Horde protected the Orthodox Church, and princes of Moscow grew rich as its tax collectors. Berke Khan converted to Islam and fought his cousin Hulagu of the Ilkhanate; Uzbek Khan (1313-1341) made Islam the state religion and presided over the Horde's golden age of trade through Crimea to Genoa and Venice.

Fragmentation

The Black Death arrived via the Horde in 1346-1347 (spread from the siege of Kaffa). Two decades of civil war followed Berdibek's death in 1359. Dmitry of Moscow beat the Horde at Kulikovo in 1380, though Tokhtamysh burned Moscow two years later. Tokhtamysh then attacked Timur, who devastated Sarai and the Volga cities in 1395. The Kazan (1438), Crimean (1441) and Astrakhan (1466) khanates broke away; the Great Horde remnant failed to bring Moscow to heel at the Ugra in 1480 and was destroyed by the Crimean Tatars in 1502.

The Crimean Khanate survived under Ottoman protection until Russia annexed it in 1783.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Kievan Rus (882 to 1240)
• Ilkhanate (1256 to 1335)
• Chagatai Khanate (1226 to 1347)
• Timurid Empire (1370 to 1507)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)
• Conquests of Timur (1370 to 1405)
• Polish-Ottoman wars (1485 to 1699)

8 surprising things about the Golden Horde (Jochi Khanate)

1. The Golden Horde is said to be named after the golden tent of Batu or Uzbek Khan; the Russians called the period the Tatar yoke.
2. The Black Death reached Europe from the Horde's siege of Kaffa in Crimea, where plague-infected corpses were catapulted over the walls, according to one account.
3. The Russian words for money (dengi), customs (tamozhnya) and treasury (kazna) come from the Horde's Turkic administration.
4. The Horde ruled through the Russian princes rather than settling in Russia; the Mongols mostly stayed on the steppe.
5. Alexander Nevsky, hero of Russian history, was a loyal vassal of the Horde and helped enforce its census.
6. The Great Khan Guyuk's death in 1248 may have been engineered by Batu, who then made his ally Mongke Great Khan.
7. Sarai was one of the largest cities in Europe in the 1330s, with running water and a multi-ethnic population.
8. The last successor state, the Crimean Khanate, only fell in 1783; the Kazan Khanate fell to Ivan the Terrible in 1552.

Sources

• Golden Horde Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Golden Horde Wikipedia
• Golden Horde World History Encyclopedia
• Marie Favereau, The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World (2021) Harvard University Press

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