Chagatai Khanate
After Genghis Khan died, he left his 4 sons with territory from his empire. Chagatai Khan was allotted Turkestan, the Tarim Basin, and the western Tian Shan region. Most of the land he received was steppe land inhabited by Turkic nomads. The Chagatai Khanate's citizens were seminomodic, had shifting boundaries, and several tribal populations with weak political systems.
In the 1290s, Chagatai Khan conquered eastern Afghanistan and from there, conquered northwestern India in 1303. However, when their army returned to India in 1304 and 1305, 9,000 of the khanate's soldiers were trampled to death by elephants. Because of their inability to expand, the citizens of the Chagatai Khanate were constantly fighting with one another and with the three other khanates. Although this khanate was poor in natural resources, their region included a part of the Silk Road, enabling them to trade and collect taxes. The Chagatai Khanate was also split into two separate, contrasting regions: the east and west. The western region was more Islamized and advanced than the eastern region which was much more pastoral and animistic. In the 14th century, the amount of civil wars in the Chagatai Khanate increased. There was also a lot of political disunity in the region. Local leaders became more favorable which lead to a weaker central government. All of these factors greatly contributed to the disintegration of the Chagatai Khanate. |