The Mongol conquest wars under Chinggis Khan lead into several directions and comprised campaigns against the Inner Asian Uighur and Turkish communities as well as attacks against the Western Xia empire 西夏 of the Tanguts and the Jurchen empire of Jin 金 in northern China. While the Inner Asian polities soon crumbled under the assaults of the Mongols, Western Xia and Jin only surrendered after a long protracted war that was only ended after the death of the founder of the Mongol empire. In 1227 resp. 1232 northern China belonged to the Mongols, and first assaults against Korea were begun. While the Mongol troops and commanders were engaged in the west, in Persia and Russia, there was a phase of almost 20 years of relative peace at the Chinese border. Only in 1252 Khubilai, before becoming Great Khan, was able to conquer the southwestern empire of Dali 大理. It took the Mongols a further 20 years for the conquest of the rest of China that was still reigned by the Southern Song 南宋. The next two decades should be filled with overseas expeditions (Japan 1274 and 1281, Champa [a Khmer state in modern central Vietnam] 1281, Java 1292) during which the Mongols had only partially success and experienced a limit of their abilities. Raids against Bagan (Burma, modern Myanmar, 1277 and 1287) and Vietnam (1285-89) were caused by revolts against the Mongol claims for tribute. Khubilai's wars against his brother Ariq-Böke are not assigned in the map.	Map and Geography Event History Emperors and Rulers Government and Administration Literature and Philosophy Religion Technology and Inventions Economy Arts
	The Yuan administration followed patters that had been created by the Song administration, but imposed also their own structure of improvisational government. On the local level, prefectures (zhou 州; in the map abbreviated with the sign ~; only these prefectures are indicated that are not supersided by a route lu 路) and superior prefectures (fu 府) were the mid-level administration units. There were no industrial prefectures (jian 監; a very rare designation) as during Song, but a few military prefectures (jun 軍) on the island of Hainan. Capital of the Yuan empire was Dadu 大都 "Great Capital", known as Khanbalik (Qanbaliq "City of the Khan") and today as Beijing, secondary capital was the Shangdu 上都 "Upper Capital" (Kaiping 開平; known as Xanadu in the western accounts), located near Dolonnur 多倫/Inner Mongolia. The old capital of the Mongols, Karakhorum (Qaraqorum, "Helin 和林"), was located in modern Mongolia. Khubilai Khan and his advisors adopted the traditional imperial secretariat (zhongshusheng 中書省 "central scribe department") as the core of their central government over China, and in the course of the conquest of Jin and Song China, such an en-route secretariat (xing zhongshusheng 行中書省; abbreviated as sheng 省, the modern term for "province") was installed in every region. Eleven such branch secretariates were installed throughout the empire and were taken over by the Ming goverment as regular units of provinces. The Yuan period proto-provinces (in the map in Courier type) are: The Branch Secretariats (xingsheng 行省) of the Yuan Empire branch secretariat modern region or province seat of government Zhongshusheng 中書省 Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shandong Dadu 大都 (modern Beijing) Liaoning 遼寧 Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang Liaoyang 遼陽 Lingbei 岭北 Mongolia Hening 和寧 (Karakhorum) Gansu 甘肅 Gansu Ganzhou 甘州 (modern Zhangyi 張掖) Shaanxi 陜西 Shaanxi Chang'an 長安 (modern Xi'an 西安) Henan-Jiangbei 河南江北 Henan, northern Jiangsu, Hubei Kaifeng 開封 Sichuan 四川 western Sichuan, Chongqing Chengdu 成都 Jiang-Zhe 江浙 southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian Hangzhou 杭州 Jiangxi 江西 Jiangxi, Guangdong Longxing 龍興 (Nanchang 南昌) Huguang 湖廣 Hunan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan Wuchang 無昌 (modern Wuhan 武漢) Yunnan 雲南 Yunnan and parts of Myanmar and Thailand Zhongqing 中慶 (modern Kunming 昆明) Chŏngdong (Zhengdong) 征東 Korea Wanggyŏng 王京 (modern Kaesŏng 開城) Subunits of these proto-provinces were pacification offices (xuanweisi 宣慰司, xuanwei shisi 宣慰使司 or xuanfusi 宣撫司; in the map in CAPITAL letters) that were located in circuits (dao 道). Most, but not all, prefectures were bundled in routes (lu 路). The map gives (in black) the names of the routes. If a sub-prefecture (zhou) is seat of a route, the "zhou" is abbreviated with a "z" (Shaz=Shazhoulu 沙州路). In some cases, superior prefectures (fu) were seat of a route (in the map, "fu" is always indicated). Some sub-prefectures were not superseded by a route, they are indicated by the sign ~ (De~=Dezhou 德州) in the map. Mountaineous regions and border regions were critical points that were not administered by this regular system. Some of these prefectures or regions were administered as (military) pacification commission (anfusi 安撫司 or junmin anfusi 軍民安撫司), military command (yuanshuaifu 元帥府), route command (zongguanfu 總管府 or zongshuaifu 總帥府), surveillance commission (suzheng lianfang si 肅政廉訪司), brigades (junmin (or guanjun) wanhufu 軍民萬戶府, 管軍萬戶府, or junminfu 軍民府), in one case by a branch censorate xing yushitai 行御史臺, and in Korea by a bandit suppression commission (zhaotaosi 招討司). For a short time in the 14th century, there were even two such routes in modern Myanmar and Laos (Bangya 邦牙, Laogao 老告). The Uighur polities in Turkestan (modern Xinjiang) were not headed by a branch secretariate but were administered independently. The highest nobility of the Mongols, i.e. the princes, were given princedoms (wangguo 王國) in the grassland region of Mongolia, but whose names were taken from traditional Chinese names: Guangning 廣寧, Jinan 濟南, Qi 齊 (in the map in violet letters). The relations the the southeast Asian countries were that of a tribute system. As long as Bagan, Pegu (Myanmar), Sukhotai (Thailand), Chanla, Champa and Vietnam ("Annam" 安南) payed tributes, they were left unchallenged. Vietnam was still ruled by the Trần Dynasty 陳 and was not administered by a branch secretariate. Korea (Koryŏ 高麗) only became an own state again after the downfall of the Mongols. Tibet was ruled by the Yuan Dynasty through the Commission for Buddhist and Tibetian affairs (Xuanzhengyuan 宣政院). In the west, in Central Asia, is the khanate ("Ulus") of the Chagataiids, descendants of Chinggis Khan's son Chagatai.