Mongol invasions of Korea

Overview

A series of campaigns were conducted between 1231 and 1270 by the Mongol Empire against the Korean kingdom of Goryeo. The last campaign concluded with a peace treaty with Goryeo becoming a vassal state of the Yuan dynasty, a relationship that lasted for approximately 80 years. Korea and the Song Dynasty of China put up a greater amount of "stubborn resistance" towards the Mongol invasions than many others in Eurasia who were swiftly crushed by the Mongols at a lightning pace.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Mongol invasions of Korea comprised a series of campaigns conducted between 1231 and 1270 by the Mongol Empire against the Korean kingdom of Goryeo. The campaigns concluded with a peace treaty that made Goryeo a vassal state of the Yuan dynasty, a relationship that endured for approximately 80 years. Within the broader arc of Mongol invasions and conquests, the Korean theater was notable for the duration and difficulty of resistance: Goryeo, alongside the Song Dynasty of China, mounted a degree of stubborn resistance that stood in contrast to the swift collapse of many other polities across Eurasia that fell rapidly to Mongol forces. The eventual incorporation of Goryeo as a vassal rather than its outright destruction reflected the attrition of a prolonged conflict, and the vassal relationship that followed placed the Korean peninsula within the Yuan imperial orbit for the better part of a century, shaping the political configuration of East Asia during that period.

Commanders (9)