Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and the Caucasus were ruled by a group of Mongols who settled in the region from the 1240s to 1502. They were known as the Golden Horde. The Golden Horde was established by Batu Khan, who was one of the grandsons of Genghis Khan, as a part of the Mongol Empire before its ultimate fall.
When Genghis Khan was about to die in 1227, he divided his Empire into four fiefdoms, each to be ruled by his four sons and their families. However, his first son Jochi died six months earlier, so the western – most of the four khanates, in Russia and Kazakhstan, came under Jochi’s eldest son, Batu. In 1240, Batu conquered the principalities of Kievan Rus, which is now northern Ukraine and western Russia. In the lands of the Golden Horde, all the senior princes of the Rus swore their allegiance to Batu.
Batu died in 1256, and the new Great Khan Mongke appointed his son Sartaq as the successor to lead the Golden Horde. Sartaq also died soon after and was replaced by Batu’s younger brother Berke. The Kievans took this chance to rebel as the Mongols were in the turmoil of succession issues. Timur (Tamerlane) fought the shaken Golden Horde in 1395 through 1396, when he demolished their army, looted their cities and appointed his own khan. The Golden Horde survived until 1480, but it was never the great power it had been after Timur’s invasion. In the same year, Ivan III drove the Golden Horde from Moscow and established the nation of Russia.
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