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Originally Posted by troung
Those were still powerful states.
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However they had a relatively shallow base, and had assimilated substantially.
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Crimea was a successor state to the Golden Horde. It was a Turko-Mongol state, led by a successor of GK. The majority Golden Horde's Turko-Mongol population did remain steppe based, but they ruled over/extorted settled peoples and taxed trade routes. Maintaining themselves on the steppe had numerous advantages.
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If I recall correctly (I'm at Ft Sill right now and have limited time to verify facts) the Crimea broke away from the Golden Horde, however it wasn't really a successor state in the sense that I would use the term (it filled the gap created by the Golden Horde's collapse, I don't think it was
of the Golden Horde though).
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And BTW the Golden Horde was set up by around four thousand Mongol officers leading over one hundred thousand Kipchak Turks. Steppe empires operated in a similar form, bringing in different tribal groups.
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I stand corrected, however Mongol rule over the Mediterranian would run into terrain problems and suffer from a severe lack of manpower (their being no nomads to co-opt). I think that a situation somewhat similar to what happened to the Mongols in China would have developed.
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As a whole the empire lasted until 1260 and had four more Great Khans - Ogodei, Guyuk, Mangu and Kubalia/Arik Boke (their dispute was the final break). Mongol expansion picked up pace with GK's death - he was operating a traditional "outer frontier policy" (extortion) on his death they really pushed towards empire and invaded Europe, the Middle East, finished off the Jin and took the Song.
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So the Mongol Empire as a unified whole lasted about what? Sixty years? A bit less if you only count it as an empire after they had conquered China?
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The Timurids were finally kicked out of Central Asia by the Turko-Mongolian Uzbeks - led by Mohammad Shaybani - descendant of GK through Shayban the fifth son of Jochi - who in part used the political claim of the Timurids not being proper descendants of GK.
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I think they had serious internal problems in addition to the Uzbeks as well that contributed to their fall. The turkic tribes on their western border scented weakness and began launching increasingly effective attacks.