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Möngke is noted as participating in the European campaign of 1236- 1242, participating in the campaign against the steppe peoples to the southeast of the Russian principalities, the destruction of Kiev, and the assault of Hungary. In the summer of 1241, before the premature end of the campaign, Möngke returned home.

After the death of the third khan, Güyük, Möngke found himself the champion of the factions of Genghis' descendants who aimed to supplant the branch of Ögedei. Batu, the senior male of the family, had almost come to open warfare with Güyük in 1248, the khan's early death precluding this. Batu joined forces with Tolui's widow to outmaneuver the regent, Ögedei's widow Oghul Ghaimish . Batu called a kuriltaiMongol term, also khuriltai signifying a tribal assembly, convened to determine military campaigns and problems of leadership. Genghis Khan was declared supreme khan at perhaps the most famous kuriltai in 1206, and most of the major military campaigns wer in Siberia in 1250Events December 13 Death of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Louis IX of France is captured by Muslims and has to ransom himself Mabinogion appears Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic Vincent of Beauvais writes proto-encyclopedic The Greater Mirr, which was protested as not being in MongoliaAlternative meaning: Mongolia (region Mongolia ( Khalkha Mongolian: is a landlocked country in Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south. After the conquest of China by the Mongol Empire, much of Mongolia was ru proper. However, Batu ignored the opposition, had his brother Berke call a kuriltai within Mongolia, and elected Möngke khan in 1251.

Realizing they had been outmaneuvered, the Ögedeiid faction attempted to overthrow Möngke under the pretext of paying him homage, but their conspiracy was clumsy and easily avoided. Oghul Ghaimish was sewn up into a sack and drowned.

Möngke, as khan, seemed to take much more seriously the legacy of world conquest he had inherited than did Güyük. He concerned himself more with the war in China, outflanking the Song Dynasty through the conquest of YunnanDali is a city in Yunnan province in the south of the People's Republic of China. Dali is a popular tourist destination, and is famous for being the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Dali. It is also famous for the many types of marble it produces mined f in 1254Events December 2 Manfred of Sicily defeats army of Pope Innocent IV at Foggia. Theodore II Lascaris succeeds John III Ducas Vatatzes as Byzantine emperor. Byzantines defeat Bulgarians at Adrianople. Alkmaar granted city rights. Births Marco Polo, Venetia and an invasion of IndochinaIndochina or French Indochina was a federation of French colonies and protectorates in south-east Asia, part of the French colonial empire. It consisted of Cochin China, Tonkin, Annam (all of which now form Vietnam), Laos and the Khmer Republic (now Cambo, which allowed the Mongols to invade from north, west, and south. Taking command personally late in the decade, he captured many of the fortified cities along the northern front. These actions ultimately rendered the conquest a matter of time. He dispatched his brother Hülegü to the southwest, and act which was to expand the Mongol Empire to the gates of Egypt. European conquest was neglected due to the primacy of the other two theaters, but Möngke's friendliness with Batu ensured the unity of empire.

However, while conducting the war in China, Möngke fell ill of dysentery and died (in 1259), which aborted Hülegü's campaign, staved off defeat for the Song, and caused a civil war that destroyed the unity, and invincibility, of the Mongol Empire.