Establishment of Goryeo's Vassal Relationship with the Yuan Dynasty

Timeline

1. 1259Mongol great khan's court (near Karakorum) · Mongolian PlateauWang Chŏk, son and crown prince of Goryeo's King Gojong, was ordered to go to the Mongols to sue for peace. En route, Möngke Khan died, and Wang Chŏk instead had an audience with Kublai, acknowledging Goryeo as a Mongol vassal, and the two sides ceased hostilities. Wang Chŏk returned home and ascended the throne as Wonjong, and Goryeo formally entered the framework of the vassal relationship.
2. 1270Ganghwa Island to Kaegyŏng · Korean PeninsulaIn 1270, with Kublai's diplomatic pressure, Goryeo's Wonjong overthrew the military regime (the Choe and Im regimes) that had controlled court politics for nearly a century, and ordered the court to return from Ganghwa Island to Kaegyŏng. This marked Goryeo's formal abandonment of its anti-Mongol stance and its substantive acceptance of Yuan suzerainty, fully implementing the vassal relationship.
3. 1270–1273Jindo and Tamna Island (Jeju Island) · Southern Korean Peninsula watersGoryeo's imperial guard, the Sambyeolcho, refused to accept the surrender order, enthroned Prince Chŏnghwa of the royal clan as king, and successively retreated to Jindo and Tamna Island (Jeju) to hold out against the Yuan. In 1273, a Yuan-Goryeo allied force captured Tamna Island, and the Sambyeolcho rebellion was completely suppressed. Thereafter the Goryeo vassal system faced no large-scale armed resistance, and Yuan suzerainty over Goryeo was fully established.