September 3, 1259 – Mongke Khan Recovers

After over a month of illness, the leader of the Mongol Empire, Mongke Khan, had recovered enough to leave his tents and review his troops. Most Khans moved northward during the summer heat, but Mongke had decided to stay and see out the siege of Hechuan in southern China. He had been wounded by shrapnel in August, which had hardly fazed the Khan. However, while injured, his nurses had given him tainted water that produced a “blood plague” of diarrhea (what modern scholars believed was cholera).

When he had regained himself, Mongke called for doctors and priests to determine what had caused the plagues. “Bad water” was the final decision, and Mongke demanded better organization for all Mongol camps. He later went on to start a medical school in China to determine what had been “bad” about the water, and it was there in 1325 that germ theory was developed, which gave the Horde a powerful upper-hand in its later conquests.

Mongke spent much of his illness pondering the future of his empire that had already seen its share of internal warring. He had kept up good feelings with Batu in the west, but it was not difficult to imagine the Mongol forces being split. Electors needed to be better defined, leading Mongke to create an addition to Genghis's Yassa defining whose influence was significant and rules in case of a split vote. Later in his career, Mongke would use this law as a basis for a stronger support system among the princes to create something of a parliament for internal rule while the Khan worked to further the ancestors' goal of world conquest.

Mongke died in 1287, seeing his empire grow by the decade. His brother Hulagu Khan had defeated a combined force of the Mamluks and Franks at Ain Jalut and conquered Egypt, opening the gateway to Africa. Kublai had moved into Southeast Asia and dominated the islands of Japan on his third invasion attempt. Further Mongols had marched into Central Europe, where they had turned back in 1248 at the death of Güyük Khan. The battles there had been bloody as the Mongols struggled to adapt to the wetter weather and denser populations, but the Horde had always excelled at adaptation. They soon traded their bows for Arabic midfa (small cannons), eventually creating the precursor to the musket. By Mongke's death, the Mongols were approaching the Pyrenees Mountains.

His brother Kublai was elected after Mongke's death for a short reign that ended in 1298 with the Khan's death after a long illness. He had vouched for his son Temur to become Khan, but the elective princes distrusted his gluttony and drunkenness and chose a distant relation, Gentu. Conquests continued, wrapping up the whole of the Eastern Hemisphere in a Mongol Empire that stretched from the Forest Kingdoms of Ghana to the Scottish Highlands to the ice-block villages of the Arctic to the islands of Oceania. Strict organization kept the empire in line with severe penalties such as death for allowing a traveler to starve. In exchange for obedience, the people were marginally free to worship and seek employment as they chose.

Upon the discovery of the Western Hemisphere in the seventeenth century by explorers crossing the Bering Sea, Mongols launched a new wave of conquests (aided by the spread of smallpox) that filled their coffers with gold. Much of the wealth went into art, which in turn furthered scientific development that revolutionized the empire with networks of first telegraph lines, then radio waves, then satellite links. While much the same, society came under its own revolutions in the Empire with election of princes and an end to slavery.

The Mongol's next invasion would be of nearby planets, setting foot on the Moon on the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's birth. Using it as a light gravity-field launching ground for missions to Mars and Jupiter, research and mining facilities spread out through the Solar System. With the Terrestrial Planet Finder probe, the Empire's next step of conquest is soon to be found among the stars.


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In reality, Mongke Khan died of his illness on August 11, 1259. As with all deaths of a Khan, the Mongol princes returned to elect the next, causing Hulagu Khan to leave the Middle East with the majority of his army. On September 3, 1260, the Mongol army under the Turkish general Kitbuqa would suffer defeat in an ambush by the Mamluk Egyptians at Ain Jalut in Palestine. While the defeat was on the outskirts of the empire and not influential to the Mongols, it gave the West great hope in proving that the Horde could be defeated. After Kublai Khan's reign (won from his brother Ariq Boke in civil war), the empire would begin to splinter into its many conquered lands, which were forever changed by their Mongol overlords.

August 12, 1281 – Mongol Fleet Begins Conquest of Japan

After his first attempt for a naval invasion of Japan ended with a freak storm (the “kamikaze”), Kublai Khan, ruler of China under the Yuan Dynasty and Korea by means of the Goryeo, made a second invasion in 1281. Two combined fleets made the journey, the first of 900 ships in June and the second of more than 3,500 ships later in the summer. The initial invaders of June had struggled to make landfall at Hakata Bay, constantly being beaten back by waves of Japanese samurai warriors. At night, the samurai would sneak out in small boats to the fleet and raid, killing as many as they could and setting fires before escaping back into the darkness.

Under such assault, the first fleet retreated to Tsushima Island between Korea and Japan, there meeting with the larger fleet in July and preparing for a full-scale invasion. Clouds seemed to build in the east, and sailors feared another kamikaze, but generals pressed and Mongol-led armies made landfall before a storm could strike. Another vicious battle began for the beach with massive casualties on both sides. Out of sheer numbers, the Mongol force was able to gain control, and Japan became broken. After weathering two days of storms on the safety of land while watching their ships be destroyed, the Mongols continued military conquest.

Over the next three years, the Mongols worked to establish control of the Japanese islands. Forces were continually supplied anew, crushing any rebellion and gradually wearing away the image of the brave samurai. A puppet emperor was installed, giving credence to the new cultural edicts put into motion by the Mongols to strip Japan of its national identity. Over the next century, Japan would become another arm of the Khanate.

In the 1360s, the House of Yuan crumbled from within over intrigue, and Japan, Korea, and conquests in the south won their freedom. Civil war would haunt Japan for the next several centuries, made worse by manipulative Dutch traders selling firearms to any and all sides. The weakened nation would eventually fall to Dutch warships and be declared a colony in 1641, ruling out of Deshima. Colonial wars would divide Europe, and Japan would be handed between the Dutch and British twice, first in 1781 and then again in 1811. After altercations because of trade routes, the powers finally settled with the Dutch holding Java (excluding the British in Singapore) and the British in Japan (excluding the Dutch at Deshima).

During the Victorian era, the Japanese grew attached to British culture and, most importantly, technology. Canals, railroads, and factories grew up throughout Japan, and Kyoto was often joked as being “more English than London.” Japan would serve as an important ally in World War One and again in World War Two against Germany, supplying exceptionally dedicated troops that helped achieve victory in Operation Sledgehammer over the course of 1942-43.

After the war, Britain's empire began to evolve into the looser Commonwealth, and Japan won its independence. Seeing the bloodshed in China with the Communist uprising, Japan remained staunchly capitalist and served as one of the key players in the Korean Conflict, offering up even more troops than the United States. The remainder of the twentieth century would see Japan as one of the most significant economic and military forces in the East, often causing harsh diplomatic difficulties with neighboring communist China. Though there have been international efforts continuously to keep the two apart, it is generally accepted that war will break out between the two with millions of casualties.


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In reality, the kamikaze did strike before the Mongols could establish a beachhead. Mimicking the first invasion, samurai kept the Mongols and allies from making successful landings, then the storm struck. Contemporaries estimate 9% survival rates for the ships and 80% loss of life, meaning more than 120,000 invaders met their ends either by samurai blade or Divine Wind. Japan remained anti-foreigner for centuries until the coming of Admiral Perry in 1853.