High Middle Ages · Central Asia · Politics

1143

Mongol tribes contest the eastern steppe

1143

On the windswept grasslands of Mongolia, rival clans of the Khamag Mongol confederation fought one another for control of pastures, trade routes, and marriage alliances. The fractured political landscape - dozens of chieftains raiding each other across the steppe from the Onon River to the Altai - was slowly forging the conditions that would produce a unifier. Temujin's grandfather Khabul Khan led the confederation during these restless years.