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Mongol Ordo Mobile Capital

Type Object Region Mongolian Steppe Time 1206–1368

The Mongol ordo was the mobile court and administrative center of Genghis Khan and his successors, migrating seasonally across the steppe as a hub of…

Timeline

  1. 1206Near the source of the Onon River · Mongolian SteppeIn 1206 Genghis Khan took the title of khagan at the kurultai, founding the Great Mongol State and using the movable ordo felt-tent encampment as the empire's political and military command center.
  2. 1209–1210Steppe on the Western Xia frontier · Northwest China frontierDuring Genghis Khan's campaign against Western Xia, the ordo moved west with the great army, maintaining administrative operations on the steppe north of the Hexi Corridor, demonstrating the mobile court's wartime mobility.
  3. c. 1227–1260Mongolian Plateau and Central Asian steppe · Central AsiaBefore and after the empire's division, the great khans and various khans each maintained their own ordo camps on the steppe, forming the multi-center mobile political pattern characteristic of nomadic empires.
  4. 1260–1368Shangdu and Dadu · Inner MongoliaAfter Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty he established fixed capitals such as Shangdu and Dadu, but the steppe ordo tradition was retained, forming a dual polity space in which a mobile felt-tent court and a Chinese-style capital ran in parallel.

Sources