History of Yunnan - Yunnan Under The Mongol Empire and The Yuan Dynasty

Yunnan Under The Mongol Empire and The Yuan Dynasty

The Mongols established regular and tight administrative control over Yunnan. In 1253 Möngke Khan of the Mongol Empire dispatched the prince Kublai to take Yunnan. The Mongols swept away numerous native regimes, including the leading Dali kingdom. Later Yunnan became one of the ten provinces set up by Kubilai Khan. Kublai Khan appointed Turkmen Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar governor in Yunnan in 1273. Before that, the area had been ruled by a local king and a Mongol prince under the Great Khan. The Yuan provincial authorities conferred various titles on many native chieftains, who were obliged to pay taxes. When the Mongols were expelled from China in 1368, Yunnan was thrown into chaos and anarchy for a number of years. The Ming Dynasty defeated the last of the Yuan loyalists in 1381.