The Mongol Invasions Of Japan 1274 And 1281

From his seat in Xanadu, the great Mongol Emperor of China, Kubla Khan, had long plotted an invasion of Japan. However, it was only with the acquisition of Korea, that the Khan gained the maritime resources necessary for such a major amphibious operation. Written by expert Stephen Turnbull, this book tells the story of the two Mongol invasions of Japan against the noble Samurai. Using detailed maps, illustrations, and newly commissioned artwork, Turnbull charts the history of these great campaigns, which included numerous bloody raids on the Japanese islands, and ended with the famous kami kaze, the divine wind, that destroyed the Mongol fleet and would live in the Japanese consciousness and shape their military thinking for centuries to come.

A gripping account of the seafaring adventures of the Mongol Empire under Khubilai Khan. In 1279, off China's southeast coast, Khubilai Khan routed the Song navy and completed the grand dream of his grandfather, Genghis Khan -- the conquest of China. The Grand Khan now ruled the largest empire the world had ever seen, stretching from the China Sea to the plains of Hungary. Having also inadvertently inherited the world's largest navy -- more than seven hundred ships -- the Mongols began audacious attacks on Japan, Vietnam and Java. Yet within fifteen years, Khubilai had squandered his massive fleet, and the Mongols were a spent maritime force. Considered for centuries to be little more than legend, the story of the Mongols' fleet has finally been confirmed. Renowned archaeologist and historian James P. Delgado has dived with the Japanese team studying the remains of the Khan's lost fleet at Takashima. Using original sources as diverse as actual sunken ships, land excavations, temple inscriptions, hand-painted scrolls and historical and literary records from China, Japan and Vietnam, Delgado takes the reader on an exciting history of Khubilai Khan's great Mongol navy, whose rise and fall presaged the great fleets of the fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty, made famous in the best-seller 1421. A long and bitter struggle to conquer Japan led to two massive naval invasions, in 1274 and 1281. The struggle entered the realm of legend when the Khan's fleet was supposedly destroyed by a "divine wind" or kamikaze. Delgado has dived with the Japanese archaeologists studying the remains of the lost fleet at Takashima, and explains how hasty preparations, a poorly led force, and inferior tactics led the Khan to squander his massive numerical and technological advantages. Retreating from Japan, Kublai Khan turned his attention to Southeast Asia. Again, the Khan lost his advantage when the Vietnamese lured his navy into the delta of the Mekong River. As the water fell with the tide, large wooden stakes impaled the Mongol ships and the Vietnamese emerged from the shadows to destroy the soldiers in a rain of arrows and fire. The Mongol dream of ruling the waves was over.

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The Mongol invasions of Japan, which took place in 1274 and 1281, were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer Japan after the submission of Korea to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of historical importance because they set a limit on Mongol expansion and rank as nation-defining events in the history of Japan. With illustrations and maps

Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International Relations courses, and by explicitly focusing on non-European cases, debates and issues. The volume is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the international systems that traditionally existed in Europe, East Asia, pre-Columbian Central and South America, Africa and Polynesia. The second part discusses the ways in which these international systems were brought into contact with each other through the agency of Mongols in Central Asia, Arabs in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, Indic and Sinic societies in South East Asia, and the Europeans through their travels and colonial expansion. The concluding section concerns contemporary issues: the processes of decolonization, neo-colonialism and globalization – and their consequences on contemporary society. History of International Relations provides a unique textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of international relations, and anybody interested in international relations theory, history, and contemporary politics.