The Mongol Empire, which existed during the 13th and 14th centuries, was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Beginning in the Central Asian steppes, it eventually stretched from Central Europe to the Sea of Japan, extending northwards into Siberia, eastwards and southwards into the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, and the Iranian plateau, and westwards as far as the Levant and Arabia.
The empire unified Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan,
who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew
rapidly under his rule and then under his descendants, who sent invasions in every direction. The vast transcontinental empire connected the east with the west with an enforced Pax Mongolica allowing trade, technologies, commodities, and ideologies to be disseminated and exchanged across Eurasia.
